Since the start of the program I have been thinking a lot about the reasons behind me actually spending a whole semester in the city of Tucson. However, soon enough I realized that, even though I am going to have to leave pretty soon, it is very important for me just to live my experience and learn as much as I can. In the end, being human and realizing that our lives are made up of all the small, intertwined butterflies is what makes this life, and this particular place so beautiful. Honoring our lives and living them with dignity is what really matters, and nobody can take that away from us.
Just as it is important to be able to find a niche in a certain place, it is also necessary to find space for this city inside ourselves. Our lives are what we make out of them. I have been very lucky to have a chance to live in this city and do all the small things that make me a Tucsonan, even it is only for few months. Here is my story.
I live in South Tucson. My family, like many of the families in this area of Tucson, immigrated to the United States from Latin America. It is a very quiet neighborhood filled with one-story houses. I really enjoy the fact that I live outside the city, where I get my peace and comfort.
My host mom is an awesome cook, and a wonderful human being, regardless of how fast she talks and how much time she spends on the phone with her family. I speak Spanish to her all the time, as she speaks only some English. We go shopping, wash her car, chat while she cooks about her family, about my family and my country, and she buys me chocolate.
My host dad works landscaping, roof specialist. He is just soooo chill. We watch a lot of TV together, and talk a lot about politics, history, sports, food, language, law, you name it. Sometimes we make fun of Americans. I speak English to him all the time.
My host bro is a thirteen year-old teenager. He is a very smart, unique kid. He wears skinny pants and Vans. He has long hair, and loves to play with his Nintendo and iPod touch. He is wiser than most of the kids of his age, and has pretty high self-confidence. I enjoy watching movies and getting McDonald's with him. It also happens that very often we’ll be in his room and I will be reading while he will be playing on internet.
The next big part of my life in Tucson is taking a bus every day. I bike around 10 minutes from my home to the transit center, and then I get on the bus that takes me North on 6th Ave. I have done this so many times that I already know most of the route by heart. The fun part of it is the fact that I have had a chance to see so many different people. I have always believed that the best way to get to know the place and the people who live there is by simply using public transportation. The buses are pretty good, cheap, and I have not encountered a single problem since arriving in Tucson. I think some of the oddest people I have seen on buses were the bus drivers themselves.
Every bus ride takes me either to my class or to my field study placement. I have three classes that I have to attend in The Historic Y offices, close to downtown. I really enjoy my classes, regardless how intense they can be. We do have a lot of work, and no matter how unhappy you are about it, it still is a part of the learning process. I guess, the biggest reason I enjoy my classes is because of the impact those classes have on me and my previous knowledge. It often happens that while sitting in my class, my thought process will be challenged so much that I will feel like I just discovered the bloody continent of America all over again. Sometimes my only reaction will be either WOW or WTF! Just blows your mind away.
But then, as much as I enjoy my classes, I enjoy my field study even more. I love working at the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos. I am usually the only male in the office, except when we have abuse clinics, when one or two more show up to help us out. I am just there to learn and experience having a chance to help or feel helpless where there is nothing you can do to better someone’s situation. Besides living with my host family, this is the most real part of the program. It is a real world job, and we deal with human issues of major importance on a daily basis. You can re-write your essay, but you cannot re-write someone’s life. What I really love about this internship is the fact that I have been given a responsibility and the only way I am judged is how I use that responsibility. I am learning how to help myself by helping others. I am learning that being an ally and an agent of change means sacrifice, trust and a conscious mind. If you are fake in the environment of change, then you are going to suck at what you do.
I have not really answered the question about my position in Tucson. At this point, I am more concerned about telling my story as a building block of the change and lucha I strongly stand for. I like this city a lot, and I hope I will have a chance to come back. I enjoy having to take a 25 minute bus ride every day to get to my work, and then another 25 minutes to get back home. It is simple things like these that make us human. It is simple things that make us understand other humans. And all those simple things make me a Tucsonan; they make me a part of the system. And we are all together in this thing. We are all Arizona.
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