A Global Vision of Transformation

I have a vision to be involved with social issues on a global level. The work that I have been doing on a local level in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the past three years has laid a framework of inner-strength and organizational connection to move this knowledge to a global context not only for myself but also for my family: my husband from Venezuela, a daughter of thirteen and a son of nine. I have spent the last fifteen years focusing on career building and child rearing and now I feel that it is important for the evolution for myself and my family to shift that focus to the beauty and disparities of the global family.

One of the most important legacies I believe I can impart to my children is a deep respect and connection to the global family by living for an extended period in another culture and understanding the depth and intricacy of fully immersing themselves in another way of being outside of the culture of the United States. I believe that to be a parent raising my children to be open-minded, loving and compassionate is in itself an expression of leadership in relation to the social context as well within the family system- modeling how parenting is, in fact, an act of leadership. To take this leadership to the global context feels very important and valuable for us as a family.

Another piece of my vision is to translate the concepts I learned in a leadership training (Leading By Being) that I finished this past September. The concepts I hope to incorporate are the power of the slowing--slowing down enough to reflect on my own life and my affect on others, the power of forgiveness- not only towards other people but also for myself, the biggest judge, and the importance of reflection on experience to create concrete and lasting learning.

I also want to incorporate the concepts I have learned in my career path into my vision of continuing to bring voices out of the shadows and into a community of practice and sharing. I began this process about fourteen years ago when working on transcriptions for a book based on two boys growing up on the South Side of Chicago (Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago, Isay, Newman, Jones, Scribner, 1997). I believe this process is growing in me as I enter a new phase of my life, as a woman of forty, with a deeper, grounded sense of my purpose in the world and my views of my own direction in life.

I hope become a Voices of Our Future correspondent for two reasons:

1) To share my ample experience as an advocate for social justice through a variety of experiences I have had throughout the US and abroad: working as a radio assistant in NYC (Sound Portraits Productions), working in Quito, Ecuador as a teacher & social advocate, working as a program assistant at UC Berkeley at the Center for Latin American Studies, as an advocate for children’s environmental health for low-income communities of color throughout the United States (Community Toolbox), running a non-profit organization for sustainable living in five centers throughout Latin America (Permacultura America Latina) and as a manager at a transformative learning center (The Academy for the Love of Learning) .

2) To bring together the transformation I have personally experienced as a believer/activist in social causes to be used toward a forum for empowerment through creativity for women and children both in the local community where I currently live and also the communities where I hope to go and spend the next year or two.

These personal reasons give me both the background and the motivation within the field of empowerment to bring women out of the shadows and into the light to share their delicate and strong stories of survival, strength, love, trauma, motivations and healing through the large net of Web2.0.

As a Voices of the Future correspondent I hope to be a part of the change I long to see in the world. Thank you for this amazing opportunity for personal reflection on my own life and others.