The Pathway to Latino Success

When Elba Aranda-Suh, Executive Director of the National Latino Education Institute (NLEI) honored me with an invitation to be the Keynote Speaker for the NLEI graduation, she gave me a great theme for the address.  A Pathway to Latino Success is the title she offered.

For more than a week before the presentation, I pondered the title.  What is Latino Success or African-American Success or any specific group’s success as compared to just general success?  As I thought about my own path to success, I recall the challenges of poverty, violence, addiction, barriers to health and education that friends, family and I have had to overcome.  The mainstream concept of success has often been used as a tool for assimilation and conformity.  The specifics of success require compliance and competition.  Those that venture beyond the well traveled path, often find themselves shut out and marginalized.  We are taught to eliminate the competition.  Harmful gossip and rumors are maneuvers of the threatened.  Yet, the lessons of our ancestors teach that true success can only be obtained when the individual becomes fully aware of his/her connection to others.

Often, in the process of achieving we lose sight of what makes us most human and we can fall victims to the small minded tricks of the politics of division and discord.  Yet, the age of greed and manipulation is quickly coming to an end.  A new consciousness is emerging which recognizes the ONE and common threat that weaves our human experience.  Latino Success exists and it is as real and as inevitable as the rising of a new sun ushering a new day.  Latino Success refers to the belief that we can achieve beyond our dreams and that to do so, we do not have to conform.  We do not have to be ashamed and trade our identity, culture and traditions for success.  Pride in our heritage allows us to have a sense of ourselves and to recognize the contributions and sacrifice of our ancestors.  We respect and appreciate all diversity, because we are able to have compassion for the struggle others have made to be free.  This is our country and it is rich and prosperous precisely because it recognizes the unique experiences of the many immigrant groups that have contributed to our rich heritage.  There is a place at the table for all because we all contribute to the abundance of our collective harvest.  In the end, the only truth is that we are all members of the ONE family.  Latino success cannot be celebrated or embraced without sensitivity and awareness of all the individualized expressions our collective yearning to be free.

Let us celebrate our rich heritage while honoring the web that connects us all as one.