Convenor: Rick Castaneda Scribe: Liza Q. Wirtz
Dave’s Taverna 10:30 a.m.
Attendees:
1. Rick Castaneda, Hispanic Council, session convener
2. Pam Mason, H’burg City Public Schools
3. Stacie Jackson, Smart Beginnings
4. Laura McCall, JMU IIHHS (Head Start)
5. Lyn Wright, Social Services
6. Elizabeth Phelps, Cornell University
7. Sarah Frick
8. Chelsea Thurman, Faces for Change
9. Tonya Osinkosky, Strong Families Great Youth Coalition & RMH Community Health
10. Mary Golden Hughes, Massanutten Regional Library
11. Ann Graber Hershberger, EMU
12. Trevor Chase, JMU
13. Martha Garibay Alvarez de Metzler
14. Emma Sheehy, Justice Studies/AI
15. Rachel Aeschliman, H’burg/R’ham Co Public Health Dept
16. Rebekah Good Charles, H’burg/R’ham Co Public Health Dept
17. Mary Colleen Knapp, March of Dimes
18. Daniel Chavez
19. Gene Hart
20. Liza Q. Wirtz, BRLS
One root cause of rising (and already high) rates of teen pregnancy and attempted suicide among Latinas: increase in separation & reunification, whether for financial reasons or for legal ones. Most immigrant families would rather be in home country, with families & culture & home. Since they can’t, for a variety of economic & political reasons, they come here any way they can & then start trying to build these things here.
Often parents come alone or with one child and then bring over other members of the family one at a time. One result: young Latina/o adult in high school who has lived here all their lives is joined suddenly by another young adult in the same family who’s been here for a month or a year. Brand new to country, language, school, even their own family—and adolescence is hard enough! Bonds between family members in adolescence are grounded in bonds formed in childhood; when family members are separated for years and then abruptly reunited, those bonds may be absent, damaged, difficult.
Harrisonburg has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates among Latinas in VA—hovering at 14%.
Rick’s organization, Men of Character, works in local schools to give Latino males new ideas about dealing with women. For those curious about some of the principles grounding the group, Rick highly recommends reading Iron John by Robert Bly.
In June, Rick called together all the most active Latina women he knew, and they all came. Result: Latina Summit at Harrisonburg High School. Convened again in August at Crossroads. One of several goals for this session: interest more in attending the next one. Crossroads’ director has invited the Latina Summit to continue meeting there—he will even provide refreshments. Rick invites any attendee at this breakout to join Latina Summit on ongoing basis. Some projects are already under discussion/under way.
Can’t work with Latina/o youth as effectively if you don’t work with their families—especially regarding issues of and caused by separation/reunification. Those already working with Latina/o youth wd like to run groups for parents, but both Rick/his wife Ana and his co-worker have young children & so can’t do that. Another goal of this session: continue the active search for people who can do this kind of work.
A third goal: working towards writing grants collaboratively and effectively by pooling skills—divvying up chores, who’s doing what & how/when, addressing grant requirements specifically & in detailed ways.
Sharp rise in suicide attempts by Latinas. Research reviewed at 1st Latina Summit. As teen Latina’s acculturation level rises, and as mother’s acculturation level stays low, this exponentially raises suicide attempts. Mother/daughter relationship key; also nuances around preparing young people to live in two cultures, or even to adapt & create their own new third culture, which is in some ways kind of the American dream. There is no one culture in US—Boston does not equal Oklahoma. How do we help kids adjust to pressures on them from their home culture AND their new one? Rick quotes Selena’s father in “Selena”: “I’m not Mexican enough for the Mexicans and I’m not American enough for the Americans.” Goal: helping kids celebrate this 3d culture where you take best from both. Not going to make kids be what they’re not.
Projects already in progress include (although they are not limited to):
–>Men of Character
–>Chicas Project (high-school program for Latinas in which Tonya is involved)
–>Catholic church has been a player independently of this. Rick’s wife put together curriculum to help Catholic church work with Latina mothers & daughters.
Greatest clash between Latina & US culture = marianismo: (1) long-suffering mother who does all for others before, or even at the expense of, herself; (2) protect your daughters at all costs—not too much info about Big Wide World (and definitely a minimum about sex). Result: Latina girls born and/or raised here see “antiquated” values of their parents, compare to the values they see among their non-Latina peers—individualism/empowerment, materialism/stuff/gadgets—and look for a way to get the latter. First most available way to do this: young Latina hooks up with older guy. Tension between US rules/laws/customs (e.g., Rick must report over-18 hooking up with younger-than-15) and what Latinas see at home, where mother might have been 14 & father 19 when they met & they’re still together. Parents are also conflicted about this—culturally they allow it, then they find out school/laws say no and they forbid. Confusion, alienation, lack of connection. Rick argues this is one of the major cultural factors that plays into high suicide-attempt rate among Latinas.
Rick: We need people with various developed skills so that we’re not addressing the problems in a vacuum, without specific knowledge, based on rumor or what we’ve heard. Therapists to do therapy; health dept to provide info on STDs. Best practices, collaboration, shared strengths, grant-writing together using details and narratives from a variety of fields & experiences. One goal of grantwriting would be to get money to write a curriculum that could be shared with other groups/organizations. Ana, Elizabeth, other experts could do this.
Tonya: same link between acculturation & teenage pregnancy/suicide shows up in substance abuse among Latina/o youth.
Mary: new Latina sorority at JMU wants to work with March of Dimes; trying to identify how to make what March of Dimes does work with Latina culture, values.
Gene: what are schools doing already?
–>Rick: 3 groups at high school; afterschool programs at middle schools. Focus on relationship building to effectively work with Latina/o youth. Reason gangs may appeal to Latino young men: collectivism, another group, another bond. (Note: very small percentage of Latina/o young people have affiliation of any kind with gangs.)
–>Pam (who coordinates Family Life): way city schools are dealing: Family Life tries to address sexuality, suicide, sexting, substance abuse. However, she doesn’t think the schools are meeting the needs of Latina/o youth. Scare tactics aren’t working.
–>Rick: under Pam’s leadership, middle schools now offer Family Life in Spanish, which is great.
Trevor: how about support groups?
–>Rick: we’ve got some good things going there already—Catholic church, schools, an organization that works to push children into higher ed. Definitely necessary to have such groups.
Stacie: from perspective of professionals working with young kids, birth to 5, what more can be done to address the needs of those kids?
–>Laura: Head Start works with family needs, not just kids. She’s talked to 20+ Hispanic families, acting as translator, and she sees various issues: loneliness, lack of connection, homeboundedness, worry over illegal status (and contrast between that status and the relative legal safety, English skills, etc. of their small children) & fear of leaving the house as a result even to get food or take classes in English at JMU or Dayton Learning Center.
–>Emma: volunteering at DLC made her both appreciate the classes and the people attending them AND believe that there needs to be more community awareness of DLC & other resources.
–>Laura: issues with babysitting, transportation, lack of driver’s license.
–>Tonya: dreams of Latina/Women Outing Day: bring the kids, learn Harrisonburg’s transportation system. Mom’s Day Out. Maybe on Mothers’ Day. Newspapers? Radio? Star names on attendee list if interested.
–>Rick: Latino families miss being outside, miss gathering outdoors. Car dependency, poor public transportation.
Rick: celebrating Hispanic community—being present on their terms—is key. Overall strong health & wellbeing of our community, for ourselves and our children; connectedness on an ongoing basis, because always new people in the society. Need to meet them on their terms, keep in mind what they value—soccer, church, family, parks, events—rather than planning an event and expecting them to show up. International Festival is good, but it’s a periodic event. How to make that kind of cultural awareness/openness ongoing?
–>Laura: we need not just to be presenting as “teachers,” but also available—and making sure the Hispanic community knows we’re available—for true connection, family support.
–>Martha: lots of things families need to be participating in, lots of things they need to know, lots of skills they need to acquire—not just health information. And families need to be involved AS families. Isolation is a real issue.
Liza: a number of the people in attendance here are, or at least appear to be, white, and we’re talking about cultural awareness of, providing services and support for Latina/o community & members. How to address this dynamic?
–>Rick: white privilege is only problematic if the white people in the group are not willing to talk about it. Once this elephant in the room has been acknowledged, we can then acknowledge both our similarities and our differences. With regard to race issues, people who are power-up need to step up and talk about it—challenge old systems that privilege on the basis of race—just as, with regard to gender issues, men need to step up and talk about/challenge. MLK Jr said best way to combat racial prejudice: not go march against it, but form groups comprised of people who are drastically different but can coalesce, come together around a common goal.
We hope to work ourselves out of a job—empower people so much that we don’t need to work any more, don’t need to organize any more because the community is doing that for itself. We are human bridges—and bridges get walked on: we have to be prepared to get walked on for the benefit of the greater community. A bridge, not to what we want them to do, but to what they want to do.
–>Martha: how can I share what I haven’t accomplished myself? Once I have accomplished it, though, I can share it, and then more can learn—and learning is for the whole human race, not just one group.
Conclusion: our theme is COLLABORATION. Contents of session:
–>Latina Summit invite
–>Brief recap of on what’s done so far
–>Discussion of issues
–>Please think about ways we can collaborate together, look for grants, rope in good grantwriters.
Contact:
Rick Castaneda rcastaneda [at] hispaniccouncil.org
