Conference
helps students find a voice
Community:
High school Latinas were encouraged at La
Raza’s 11th Annual Latina/Chicana
Conference to pursue a higher education
rather than pursuing a traditional homemaker
role.
By
Janina Quintana
On-line Forty-Niner
“Find
your voice. Find your strength. Find yourself,”
was the general theme of the La Raza’a
11th Annual Latina/Chicana Conference attended
by many underprivileged high school students
April 30th at Cal State Long Beach.
Keynote
speaker Stella Pope Duarte, a successful
Chicana writer dedicated to reaching young
Latinas nationwide, along through various
workshops, La Raza Student Association aimed
to show these children that there is life
after high school and that college is a
possibility, said Lupita Reyes, the chairwoman
of La Raza.
Ruiz
Lopes, a teacher at Cabrillo High School
in Long Beach, said that she brought her
students to the conference not only to give
them hope of life beyond high school, but
to let them know that they can break the
typical tradition of the Latina woman staying
at home and raising a family.
Duarte
also challenged the children to break these
traditions by working to become the first
doctor in their family or the first person
to graduate from college, or to do whatever
they dreamed. She uses her own life as an
example for these children, as she was born
and raised in the La Sonorita barrio and
has become a successful, award-winning writer
published worldwide.
Lisette
Camacho and Karina Borja, students of Cabrillo
High School, were among the more than 60
students at the conference.
When
asked why they wanted to attend the conference,
Camacho and Borja said, “We are Latinas.
We just wanted to see what [La Raza] had
for us.”
Along
with drink and snacks, a speaker, La Raza
provided the students with empowering workshops.
A Rape Culture workshop, given by Evelyn
Barigon and Brenda Quintero from the Sexual
Assault Crisis Agency discussed rape culture
and prevention with the children. The workshop
“No Te Dejes” introduced the
children to non-aggressive self-defense
techniques. Racism, sexism and gender roles
were the topics discussed by Sauceda in
the “Mujer de hoy, Fuerza soy”
workshop. The fourth workshop, “Speak
Up Mujer” was facilitated by the CSULB
debate team and focused on the importance
of speaking and voicing opinions.
This
daylong conference was the fruitful result
of a lot of planning since early October
2003, Reyes said.
Reyes,
who was in charge of planning the event,
said that she wanted to do this because
she “wanted to be the person I wish
I had when I was growing up. I wanted to
do something for [the students]. High school
education doesn’t cover self-empowerment.
Academics are important, but so is this.”
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