Jose Lopez, LULAC of IL State Director, myself and Jesus Payan chatting about improving community outreach via social media and unified webpage for LULAC of IL.

Narratives and storytelling has been a long standing tradition in the Latina/o community. It is often in that way in which we learn; by hearing stories from the elders in our families or communities telling us of our long standing traditions from our ancestors before us, events that have occurred when the thought of us was not even conceived, still in our mother’s womb or too young to remember. I grew up with story telling and learned the importance of narratives. To my family and to our community, narratives gave a platform to the unheard. But throughout the existence of our community, we have been shamed and conditioned into believing that we should not speak up for what we believe in due to fear or retaliation of what the majority in the United States could do to us. I’ve slowly seen this fear stripped away by the courageous acts of many in the Latin@ community in the U.S. From Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta forming the United Farm Workers in California to protest the working conditions of the fruit and vegetable pickers in the fields, to young immigrants proclaiming that they are undocumented and unafraid and recently, to the undocumented trans activist Jennicet Gutierrez interrupting President Obama during a pride event at the White House, crying out: “President Obama, release all LGBTQ immigrants from detention and stop all deportations”, the Latin@ community has had enough. Even in the most difficult of times, I don’t believe we have ever been quiet. We simply have never been heard. And now, finally, people are listening.

Having the opportunity to attend the 86th Annual LULAC National Convention in Salt Lake City in early July, reminds me of the several facets of racism, discrimination, prejudice and systematic inequality my community has faced and continues to face to this day. It is always empowering for me to go into a room full of Latin@s that are fighting everyday, across the country, to help dispel the injustices that are occurring. It is in these spaces that we are allowed to come together, meet new people, formulate new strategies and ideas for the betterment of community at a local or national level.

Often times, in social justice work, it can feel lonely or that no matter what you do or how hard you work, it’s never going to end and it’s never going to be enough. During these times, I am reminded of a saying my mom always tells me: todo tiene solucion, menos la muerte. Everything has a solution, except for death. While at times, the work I am doing may seem insignificant to some or not enough, I know that I, along with so many other’s, are doing what we can with what we have. Attending the LULAC National Convention was a thrilling reminder for me that the work that I am doing in my community does matter. Although some days are not easy, better days will come. There’s a long road ahead and so much work to be done. It’s scary to think of what lays ahead, but I am ready to do whatever it takes to create a more just community for my people and our future generations.

I got this at the Eastern Market at the beginning of the summer. Everything did turn out to be amazing!

My roommates and I keep commenting on how quickly this summer has gone by. Two months seems like a lot at first, but now it feels like hardly any time at all. I’m entering my final week at Lutheran Services in America, which means I’m working on finishing up the projects that were assigned to me. A few of the projects I have been working on won’t be done by the time I leave, so I will be preparing those to be handed off to future LSA interns.

Outside of various smaller tasks, my two main projects at LSA have been donor analysis for the 2015 fiscal year and managing their social media platforms. The first project has involved a lot of compiling and organizing numbers in order to understand where the donations are coming from, evaluate donor trends, and formulate a new development strategy for the 2016 fiscal year. While sometimes spending hours on end working in Excel can be tedious, I’ve found myself to be quite interested by the results. This Thursday I will be giving a presentation to the entire LSA staff that will summarize the findings and help them understand a little more about where LSA’s funding is coming from.

Managing the LSA social media platforms is a different sort of project. I try to make sure that our postings are spread out evenly, so that we are maintaining a regular presence on social media. Sometimes these posts regard projects or events LSA is involved with, and sometimes they are highlighting one of our 300+ member organizations. I love posting about our member organizations because it means I get to spend time going through their Facebook pages and learning about all of the amazing projects and services they’re all providing. It fascinates me how vastly different our member organizations can be, yet they are all connected in their mission to serve others and by their Lutheran roots.

The LSA staff went to a Washington National’s game this week!

As a Lutheran, the network that LSA has created fascinates me. When I was growing up, I was always told that we are all one through Christ and that we are all connected.  That’s something I think about every day here at LSA. The work done by any one of our members is excellent and necessary, but when you take more than 300 of these organizations and find ways to connect them, that’s when truly incredible work can happen. And every single person involved in these organizations is doing service work – whether they are doing hands on work or office work. This is one of the best examples I’ve seen of the body of Christ in action. Romans 12:4-5 says, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” The members of LSA provide a variety of tasks, and LSA helps bring them together. We are all the body of Christ, serving in a multiplicity of ways, and touching the lives of millions of people every year. Every kind of service is a necessary part of the body of Christ and serving with LSA this summer has provided me with a unique example of the body of Christ serving God’s people.

My work at the Federation is all about details. From the exact responses to survey results and their connotations, to document formats, to the placement of questions in each email, each project forces attention to every miniscule detail. And every single detail has been important and critical to the success or outcome of each project. Working with an immense group of 56 councils around the country and in partnerships with organizations like the NEH and Pulitzer, the Federation’s effectiveness in these relationships relies on having each fact or detail correct.

However, our effectiveness is also measured in the work each council puts in to provide humanities programming to everyone in their state or territory. As the national branch, we are the promoters, advocators, and cheerleaders for the individual councils. For all of the work the Federation completes in Washington, DC, negotiating and advocating on Capital Hill, communities around the United States receive more chances to grow in the humanities. Knowing our national impact inspires me to continue to promote humanities education, to push for more literacy and reading discussion groups, and to always advocate for the value of history and literature.

I was lucky enough to experience firsthand the Board of Directors meeting last weekend in Chicago. A little bit awestruck, and a whole lot a bit nervous, I found myself in room with influential humanities scholars and nonprofit workers from both humanities councils and other humanities backgrounds. Sitting in the room during the meeting, I gained valuable insight into the underground workings of a nonprofit. Board members and Federation staff discussed items such as budget allocations, development issues, and strategic plans. Each topic was important to the inner workings of the council system, and again, all of the details were highlighted and reviewed. While the board members debated and discussed, I sat at my intern table, frantically taking notes and excitedly grasping at the pieces of information that hinted towards the Federation’s future.

As I begin the last week of my fellowship, I am filled with such a bizarre combination of sadness and excitement. The last nine weeks have been transformative, not only to my sense of self, but to my future and the place I see myself in this world. Working at the Federation has been more fulfilling and informative than I could have ever foreseen when I first learned of my placement all the way back in April. And now, I am so happy to be given the chance to continue my work here and stay I the amazing city of Washington DC. I will be working at the Federation full-time starting in the middle of August as I switch from CAPS fellow to a member of the nonprofit workforce. I am thrilled to have found a calling to promote the importance of the humanities during my time as a CAPS fellow, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunities it has provided me. Now, I get to sit and look out at this beautiful view for the indeterminate future, as I continue to discover my purpose in this world.