I came in on the tail end of HBO’s “The Latino List” and had
the pleasure of hearing Marta Moreno Vega share a story from her childhood. To
keep it short and simple, she saw her drug addicted brother in the street one
day and did not respond when he spoke to her. She “kept it pushin” as they say.
And like any true sibling he ran to their mother and tattled on her! When Vega’s
mother questioned her about it, and Vega admitted that she didn’t speak to him
because he was dirty and so on, her mother said “…that could be you, that could
be your brother, that could be your sister, that could be me. Don’t you ever…
don’t you EVER not recognize yourself in somebody else.” Vega ended her story
with “that’s being spiritual. My mamá taught me that.”
Of course this story gets added to the list of things that
made me want to cry this week because I thought of two things – how powerful that
statement is and how many things our parents teach us that we go on to share
with the world.
Could you imagine if we all took the time to see ourselves
in someone else? In the homeless, in those addicted to drugs, in the
brown-skinned innocents that US sanctioned drone attacks kill, in the young
black men being profiled (and stopped and frisked and harassed and violated
and, eventually, killed) in our streets every day? Would we stop and help them?
Could you imagine if every single child saw him or herself
in not only those people, but in our business owners, our president, our
politicians? If our politicians saw themselves in the poor, in women, in we “voiceless”
marginalized folk, in those brown-skinned innocents that they voted to kill? What
a world that would create - politicians that actually begin to care about
people rather than their own agenda, their own beliefs, their own hatreds and
bigotry. We’d have children that would grow into adults who see themselves in
every single person. Those adults would run our country and I’d like to believe
they’d run it better. But, I digress.
Of the things that I learned from my parents, and still
learn every day – never take any shit off anyone. They probably didn’t say it
in exactly that way, but that’s how I’m taking it.
Never stop writing.
Never stop caring.
Never let anyone silence you.
Always treat others with the respect and dignity that you
yourself deserve.
And, now, I add to their list – always see yourself in
others; always recognize yourself in others. I’d like to believe this will make
me a better person, someone that has greater drive to help others inside the
classroom and out. I’ve made a real stink over women’s issues and minority
issues (in television) lately and I just know that it is my singular goal in
life to bring multicultural literature, film and television to students. I want
them to see themselves in those people – in those actors, actresses, directors
and writers. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll
leave my classroom and enter the world thinking about more than themselves.
When someone says “this is a race/racial issue” they’ll be more inclined to not
only listen, but understand. When
someone says, “this is a women’s rights issue” they’ll be more inclined to not
only listen, but understand. When
they enter the workforce and go on their paths to run our country, be
businessmen, police officers, etc, they’ll see a brown face and see their own.
They’ll see the poor and see themselves. They’ll see brown-skinned children
gunned down in the streets and they will see their own.
Think of the world we could create if something as simple as
“recognize yourself in others” was taught alongside the golden rule. It’s
unfortunate, but it’s true, people don’t want to care about an issue until it
affects them personally. Looking at the world this way, it does, doesn’t it?
Awwwwwww. Now I'm teary eyed. This is beautiful. Not only because you are a living tribute to your parents, but because you DO see yourself in others and you are gonna change the world. As my favorite rock 'n roll granny, Tina Turner, sang: With one small voice, it all began; then there were millions more. MILLIONS MORE!
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