Politics/Community Involvement

Creo que como una mujer latina, una persona de color, yo veo que hay diferencia en la manera que uno me trata a mí. Los servicios que me prueba, me provea (sic) a mí y a mi comunidad y mi familia que le provea (sic) a la gente blanca, la gente con más dinero. So, desde el principio yo vi la diferencia y en vez de decir “ay, así son la cosas,” yo siempre tenía la energía para querer cambiarlo (sic).  Yo siempre quería justicia. Y me voy a morir con queriendo (sic) justicia social.

In those days, the woman didn’t have a charge account in their name. But I got it, I got it. They say, “Well, it’s a woman --give me your husband’s name,” and I said, “No I’m not going to give you my husband’s name. The business is mine; the business hairdressing is not my husband’s, it’s mine. I’m the boss so why I can’t have it?” Well, they think about it and I got it. And when I tell my friends, “I got a charge account,” they asked, “How did you do it?” And I said “I just tell them-- it’s not my husband’s, it’s mine. I work, I built it, and why can’t I have a charge account?” My husband said, “You have a charge account?!!” [exclaims] And I said, “Big deal, I said, I’ll pay for it from my own money.”

I have a huge value for family and, for me, I think my college education prepared me to be ...  an educated woman who hopefully impacts society. I have skills that I can offer in various settings [laughs].  And so those things are very important, but just because of my degree I don’t necessarily think I have to be in the work force.  I think my value of family right now for this season trumps the education that I received.  Do I believe that it was all for not?  Absolutely not. I learned how to be a good learner and I, I just, I learned so much that I am able to apply in various settings, but I think family is of the utmost importance and I think being there for children is also extraordinarily meaningful and fulfilling, but also important because as a parent I’m helping to shape two little pieces of the next generation and to teach them to be responsible, and honest, and hardworking, and loving, and caring, and kind, and considerate, and compassionate. Those things don’t necessarily get developed unless you’re intentional about it. And so, I’m very intentional as a mom.

I wrote a proposal and got a grant to run a writing workshop for women at the Women’s Center at Abby’s House, the center for homeless women. And I did that for a year and put together a chapbook for one of the women there who wrote lots of poetry and I got that printed with part of the grant I got that, that paid for having that printed, which made her day! I mean it, it’s so awesome to see this woman who is ill, and mentally disturbed, and diabetic, came from this horrific, horrific background, and I thought mine was bad! [Her's] was so much worse and what she went through and the abuse she went through in her life, and here she is, y’know, living in a little studio apartment that she’s able to do with, what do ya call it, funding, and she’s on disability, and I was able to make a book for her. And she had a reading at Abby’s House, and a lot of people came, and she sold books, and, I mean just miraculous what this did to this woman.

The first time I saw Worcester was from the window of a train. I had left California to go to Boston University graduate school. I had never been to the East. Coming in to Worcester I looked around, all this smoke coming out of stacks, houses on top of houses, I had never seen anything like that before. I literally sat in my seat and thought to my self, “I feel sorry for anyone who has to live in a place like this.” It just to me was the worst environment I had ever seen. I found out I was very wrong. You can’t tell a book by its cover.