RESOURCES AND RECAP
Led by:
Brenda V. Perez Amador and Renata Lara Arizpe
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In what ways do some Latinx feel about belonging? Is the Latinx community perceived as part of American society?
Some of the Latinx community feel they need to forget and erase the culture of their country of origin or their parents’ culture to really become “American.”
There is a societal pressure to speak only English in this country. Often, Latinx people have been made to feel wrong about speaking two languages or even speaking Spanish while living in the USA. And what about all the indigenous languages that many immigrants speak as a native tongue?
What is the relationship between America and undocumented Latinx immigrants? Are they embraced, or are they are just used as cheap labor or as a source of votes when needed by a politician?
To what extent has the Latinx community been a fundamental part the USA — since the establishment of this country up to today?
We will discuss this and more on immigration and belonging as we kick off the series of with Brenda and Renata. We are delighted they will be co-facilitating our first webinar!
Brenda Perez (she/her/ella) is an award-winning community activist who is passionate about the environment and immigration. She has been awarded both the Empowering the Future Award from the Washington Peace Center, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, was a recent Green Fellow at the DC Department of Energy & Environment, and is currently earning a master’s degree in water resources management. Perez, who is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, came to the United States at age 10, and has been deeply involved in community advocacy. Perez was featured in the Smithsonian documentary “Risers,” a film about how two young students navigated the challenges they faced being young undocumented immigrants. When asked in a 2015 Latinitas Interview, what the difference between dreamers and risers are, she responded: “We’re not dreaming anymore. We’re rising. We’re stepping up to the plate.”
Brenda is planning to share the connection of immigration and sustainability, personal stories and experiences, and stories from the movement.
Resources shared by Brenda:
30 min Documentary about DACA / Dreamers in DC
1 min video that gives a summary of my work and how it's tied to the environmental movement
Smithsonian Article "Exhibit examines explosive growth of Latino communities in four U.S. cities"
Renata Lara Arizpe is Mexican and graduated from NYU last may with a degree ind Sociocultural Anthropology and French with a minor in Public Policy and Management. She is passionate about looking deeper into the evolution of our world’s societies, particularly how humans are agents in our forever-changing environment. One of the questions that interests her the most is how we perceive belonging, particularly in the context of Mexican and Latin American migrants in the US. Renata tries to think of the key characteristics that mark when someone belongs and when someone does not, and what are the systems and orders that dictate these ideals. These questions of belonging are forever changing, and in order to get a better grasp of them we must continue to question how we have been socialized to assume certain ideals and what are important barriers that must be considered to understand formal and social divisions.
Renata will cover the following in this webinar:
- The importance and nuance of language that we use and how it influences belonging
- What are parts of one's identity that remain strong or become stronger as a result of migration
- How there are certain formal entities in society that affect belonging more than others
Resources shared by Renata:
Cities and Citizenship, by James Holston and Arjun Appadurai
Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making
Email our speakers:
Renata: rla321@nyu.edu
Brenda: brendaperez42@gmail.com