Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?
As a child, I began to see myself as an individual with a compelling need to explore the deepest recesses of society and the fine distinctions and subtleties that define different people. I noticed the huge divide that existed between the opportunities available to the privileged and the oppression of the disenfranchised. I sought to understand the boundaries and limitations imposed by society.
I observed, questioned, and absorbed every experience from the perspective of an active bystander. One day, a particular, otherwise ordinary train ride transformed from a regular mode of communication to a gold mine of questions. I remember sitting down when a woman let out a high-pitched disgruntled squeal. Heads turned and eyebrows rose as she made her way into the train, flustered and agonized. She began pleading and expressing concern for her safety, although most of her sentences were largely incoherent. An overwhelming fear emanated through her disoriented speech.
Should I intervene? Should I Speak up? I looked around for some subtle mode of reassurance from other passengers, and realized that they had pointedly navigated their attention to other corners of the train. The woman was blatantly silenced. The passengers who dismissed her presence served as a cloud of authority, hovering above my head, hindering my instinctive response. I wondered what extra strength I would need to approach that woman and ask her her story and acknowledge it, regardless of the dismissive disinterest of others.
I realized I needed to act. As a volunteer with an ESL program, I help people willing to share their experiences in a world that limits the extent of their dreams. I met Humberto and developed a relationship with him on the basis of my need to question, know and internalize, and his need to narrate. After moving to the US from Guatemala in pursuit of a better life, Humberto looked forward to opportunities that aligned with the highly coveted American Dream. His prospects turned out to be grim. Despite a Biochemical Engineering degree, Humberto was condemned for his lack of fluency in the English language and left to languish in ignominy. I work to help people like Humberto develop adequate English speaking skills to enable them to be heard, and work their way into mainstream society to receive the opportunities they deserve.
My interactions with these people and sociology studies have further fueled a determination and desire to empower the marginalized and the discriminated. This resolve, to provide a platform to hopes that have been cast into the twilight zone, remains unwavering and firm. In the end, what I seek is a narrative that will structure the prose of those who have had, until now, no societal representation.