By: Latina Bloggers Weekly Round-up Jan 19 : LatinaBloggersConnect

Latina Bloggers Weekly Round-up Jan 19 : LatinaBloggersConnect — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:27:36 +0000

[...] • The Wise Latina Club’s Blogger-in-Chief Viviana Hurtado, a regular contributor to NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin, participated in a round table with civil rights leaders on Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy. [...]

By: Lucy

Lucy — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:31:58 +0000

Personally, I think The Dream speech is one of the most moving and powerful pieces of prose ever written. If we all took his words to heart, the world would be an infinitely better place. I agree, Viviana, when you urge us to nurture, protect, and fight to keep The Dream alive. Seeing Martin Luther King, his words, his actions, and his accomplishments as a history lesson is paramount to condemning his ideas to die. When need to keep the movement alive, keep striving toward true equality and democracy. And I know we can achieve the dream because I’ve witnessed it. I live a beautiful little bubble, you see, which is not to say that I live in a world without prejudice and inequality. I do, however, work in a very lovely school, just north of Toronto, which I strongly believe is as close to Dr. King’s dream as we can achieve on earth. Unlike many neighborhoods, no one ethnic group or economic status dominates the school. We have children from Africa, Haiti, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Venezuela, Equador, China, Korea, Vietnam, Greece, Italy, Romania, Poland, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey…well, you get the picture (we even, somehow, ended up with a kid from Texas?!). Almost everyone speaks 2 or more languages, some have accents, some don’t. Some can afford trendy clothes, others can’t. But none of this stops them from intermixing, and getting along, and focusing on their similarities instead of their differences, and genuinely caring about one another. They are the dream. They exist in a world that judges them by the strength of their character, and nothing else. It gives me hope for the future, knowing these children will go forward with this perspective ingrained during childhood, this knowledge that we are all equal in our humanity. It is teeny, tiny little step, from a teeny tiny little place that’s not even on the radar, but I know Martin Luther King is here with us, and he’s really proud.

Comments on: “The Dream”: TWLC’s Viviana Hurtado Talks About Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy on NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin

By: Latina Bloggers Weekly Round-up Jan 19 : LatinaBloggersConnect

By: Lucy