Last month, on the second night of a two-evening empowerment training for the Latino community in West Marin, about three dozen participants drew pictures of themselves and scribbled painful, belittling comments or ideas they felt others might have about them around the contours of the image. Then everyone picked out stickers with words describing strong leaders and placed them onto their actual bodies. They walked silently around the Point Reyes Library, looking into each other’s eyes.
“It was to see ourselves in this [positive] light,” said Socorro Romo, one of the event’s organizers.
The empowerment training grew out of the realization that many in the Latino community are barraged by messages—from the media, co-workers, bosses, schools, even their own families—that they are not quite fit to take on the leadership roles that are widely filled by Anglos despite West Marin’s significant Latino population.
The training, comprised of both power-building exercises and a space to discuss oppression in an all-Latino setting, is one of the latest steps to provide the tools for underrepresented individuals to seek prominent roles in organizations like schools and nonprofits.
Maria Niggle, a social worker in the Point Reyes office of the county’s Health and Human Services department, said she began to see the need for empowerment in a previous job in which she was asked to organize a group of Latino volunteers to promote healthy habits.
“What started to become clear is that people wanted to participate in community work, but we were forgetting the initial beginnings of how you see yourself as a leader and a community worker. So for me, that’s how it all started,” she said.
Ms. Romo, the manager at West Marin Community Resource Center, said she started to better understand the problem after an event in January called La Mesa de las Abuelas (The Grandmothers’ Table), in which both Anglos and Latinos brought family dishes, hoping to build connections between their communities.
She said that while literacy trainings were key, many people she tried to encourage to take English classes demurred, lacking the confidence that they would succeed.
“There’s a huge need for Latino leaders, but many of us are not ready to be leaders,” Ms. Romo said.
The reasons for disempowerment in the Latino community are complex, Ms. Romo and Ms. Niggle said. Struggles to speak English, education levels, socioeconomic status and even understanding the complexities of how so many small agencies and groups even work in unincorporated West Marin are major parts of the equation.
But a sense of inadequacy can also come from within the Latino community itself.
“A lot of [the reasons] come from our countries of origin. There is classism that happens there that comes with us, and we can recreate it without realizing it,” Ms. Niggle said. Some feel intimidated, struggling to feel they have as important a voice as other leaders in West Marin who may have masters or doctorate degrees, even as their children comprise more than half of Shoreline Unified School District’s student population.
But the time also seems ripe for progress in Latino leadership. When Ms. Romo moved here in 1980, she hardly ever saw Latinos downtown, and many who lived on ranches didn’t have phones because they weren’t installed in worker housing. It’s a sharp contrast to today, she went on; many Latinos felt pride during last month’s Mexican Independence Day celebration in downtown Point Reyes, for example. Holding an event that attracted a crowd of both Anglos and Latinos, and displaying their heritage, provided a sense of strength and gratification.
The recent empowerment training filled up before the organizers even had a chance to hang flyers. One man came all the way from Hicks Valley straight after a day of work on the ranch without even knowing whether there would be food to eat. (Dinner was served.)
During the first evening of training last September, the event leader, Ana Cecilia Perez, organized a short scene between a student who asks to sign up for the S.A.T. so he can attend a four-year college, and a teacher whose response sends a subtle but discouraging message.
“[The student] was asked first if he is sure [that he wants to take the test], and when he says yes, the teacher says, ‘Go home and ask your parents if they want to pay for this,’ because she wanted to make sure the student wasn’t wasting money for the test,” Ms. Romo said. “This is a real case. This came out of conversations we have with our community. This is a real scenario. And the student left feeling discouraged.”
The student, Ms. Romo went on, is “never told he couldn’t take it or wasn’t prepared… But it makes you think twice.”
One participant explained that the discussion of oppression was a revelation. “One person said, ‘I never thought about being oppressed by my coworker, and he’s constantly doing it,’” Ms. Romo recalled.
Afterwards, participants stood up and proclaimed what they liked about themselves—a way of developing confidence and practicing speaking with conviction, but also an opportunity to hear and accept constructive criticism. Many had never spoken in front of a crowd.
On the second night, participants opened up about feeling devalued or oppressed. “The second night was very intense,” Ms. Romo said.
One participant, Juanita Romo, a teacher at Papermill Creek Children’s Corner in Point Reyes, said it was cathartic to discuss feelings of inadequacy, which she said arise even during something as simple as a trip to the grocery store. “They talk [about] how they feel when they go into the store and they don’t know how to speak English. The people [who] work there make faces,” she said.
But many in attendance were also moved by the fact that Anglo volunteers provided the dinners for the event. One man, with tears in his eyes, asked, “When has an Anglo ever cooked for you?” Ms. Niggle remembered.
At the conclusion of the second night, the participants were instructed to organize cherished objects—rosaries, pictures of loved ones—to place on a makeshift altar. One by one, participants approached the table. Arrange and rearrange the objects in a thoughtful way, each was told, even the objects you didn’t bring. The exercise pushed them to embrace the belief that they all have the power, with care and intention, to make change.
Some participants expressed interest in continuing the inner exploration the training spurred, leading Health and Human Services to organize monthly, self-directed discussions on topics that will promote greater empowerment.
Bullying and power dynamics were topics covered a few weeks ago, at the request of numerous attendees.
The empowerment training also inspired Juanita to enroll once again in English classes. She used to attend classes at the College of Marin, but it was difficult to work, care for her family and commute over the hill, too. Now, English classes are offered at West Marin School on Monday evenings. (They were scheduled to study past tense last Monday, and regular and irregular verbs.) “We need to take English class to be more present for kids, for community,” she said.