For Latine heritage month, we handed the mics over to three generations of Latina organizers in Milwaukee for our monthly series Group Chat, which gets Milwaukeeans in conversation with each other, letting them ask their own questions while we provide the gear and get out of the way.
Listen in as they talk about why they started doing the work they do, the role mentorship has played and why it's so important to center youth voices in liberation work.
Today's guests are Drea Rodriguez, Tammy Rivera and Isabelle Smith.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Drea Rodriguez: I wouldn't be here without mentors like you, Tammy. Of course, we learn so much from our youth so it was imperative to have a youth organizer here as well. I’m hoping to talk about our three generations and the importance of mentorship.
Isabelle Smith: With mentorship, I know that oftentimes youth my age misinterpret the meaning of "assisting the community" while also taking accountability of the the actions that are being made or done. However, like working civic engagement allows kids to have a say in what, when, how. I know it's hard to feel heard from an adult. There's competition between what you have to say and sometimes there's no solution but having an idea on what to push for can lead you to succeed.
Rodriguez: There are so many things in our world where our personal lives are political against our will. And if we don't learn the systems we're in, if we don't learn our history, we're stuck here. Especially after COVID, it's becoming more imperative that we're activating our young people and letting them know not only are they responsible for certain things, but they have certain rights as well. And that’s one thing I’m so thankful for with organizations like SOC [Southside Organizing Center] because they make that so clear for so many residents.
Tammy Rivera: When I think of the youth and mentorship, what we have seen or observed in the program is mentorship even among them. So, Bella is a lead youth in our youth program. We serve kids 14 to 18 years old, and you can see the transformation in many of them from the time they arrive. It's beautiful to see Bella lead, nurture, and mentor her peers. Bella, why did you want to be part of the youth organizer program? And how does that fit into what you want to happen in this season of your life and where you're going?
Smith: So, I'd like to start off by saying that I was always the kid in elementary school that everybody would go to with their problems, knowing that I could relate. I feel like my voice has power, especially being a child. When I found that I had a job opportunity to feel heard, I thought maybe that could escalate the idea of it to other generations, other kids. I think that just made my leadership increase by a lot.
Rivera: The root of why I do what I do is twofold. First and foremost, it comes out of my Christian faith beliefs, which is love is an action. And if I love my fellow neighbors, I'm going to address their suffering, which includes oppression. And then I think about my earliest experience of being aware of and acting in a liberation mode. I was about eight, and my mom took me to the welfare office with her. We were very poor. For those of you who don’t remember, they used to be able to turn off your heat in Milwaukee, and we just thought that was normal. My mom was a very beautiful woman on the outside, and she was very gregarious, happy-go-lucky. I’m a little spicier than my mom. And what I witnessed is when we got there, her whole demeanor changed. I didn’t have the words for it then, but I saw her look ashamed and afraid, and I really hadn’t seen that combination in my mom. It was so drastic that I felt really disoriented, like what's going to happen? There was a social worker, a white older woman, who was really cruel and ugly with my mom. And I was shocked because I didn't know where to put that. And I remember standing up and telling her, “You don’t talk to my mom like that!” I was livid as a little girl and was feeling protective of her and offended. And of course, my mom hushed me. And what really hits me is not ten years later, my mom died very young; she was 39. And I think about the opportunity that woman had to make a difference in my mom's life. My mom was very hopeless, and she used her power to attack someone in a vulnerable position. As I got older, I kept processing that situation. And I remember thinking, if my mom wasn't on welfare, that lady wouldn't have a job. So, who's the welfare recipient? You start processing it differently, and maybe if she had been helpful, that could have helped my mom, and she'd still be alive because she left us as teenagers, orphans. And that's really the two reasons I do what I do.
Rodriguez: For my story, I feel like it has been a lot of reinvention over and over again, so many times. Being born a first-generation American on the north side of Milwaukee, there were a lot of times where I found myself in situations where I had questions like, why is this happening? My mother is a factory worker; my dad owns a business. I would see chaos in my neighborhood, and I had questions. I was not a quiet child, and while I was told to be quiet more than I wanted, you know, being a lifelong learner, eventually becoming an educator. I’m thankful I graduated from Alverno — barely — because I didn’t have any resources. Neither of my parents graduated high school. They didn’t know exactly how to help guide me into a college situation, so I depended a lot on so many people. And along the way, I learned a lot about not only the systems and the red tape but how the goal here is liberation. I don’t want equity anymore. I don’t want just equality. I want liberation. I want the fence gone. And being an educator, feeling stuck, there were so many times where I was there at 7 o'clock at night with a baby on my hip tutoring other parents so they could help their own child with homework. And I could bang myself on the head doing that. And I realized I could be more effective as a change agent if I worked with the community directly. There was a time in my life where I had a daughter who was eight months old when my mother died. In that same year, my life changed drastically, where I realized that if I continued to do these things, I would pass away just like my mother did, just like her mother did, and I don’t want that for my daughter. So really taking what I had and applying it to what I could be doing with community work. Adding to that, I was always raised with the idea to "leave it better than how you found it." I feel if we can simplify around those things in Milwaukee, we can be in so many different places. But again, it's making sure that the stakeholders, the residents, are heard first.
Smith: I would like to say when joining SOC I felt like I already knew everybody. My brother was a worker here before and I felt that there was a little bit of competition there. You can do all this stuff around the house, but I can get out there and do it myself, too. So I'd say knowing that I'm doing better than him. I think that that kind of pushed me to communicate more. I'm a sheltered kid. I know that there are opportunities for me out there. I just have a hesitant take on it. For example, on my birthday, July 10th, I was speaking in front of the Alderman with confidence. I had to say a speech so I'd say having opportunities like that really pushed me.
I have a question for either one who wants to answer: what are some things that adults look for in children? I know that with today's generation, it's hard to find someone who's actually willing to strive in civic engagement. But what, what exactly do adults look for?
Rivera: First and foremost is for a young person to feel loved, to feel safe and to be treasured. My number one for everyone, especially our youth, is for you to feel safe. When you feel safe you're able to see your potential and your growth.
Rodriguez: So many of us, Tammy and I alike, we had young lives that we were not told about the resources out there. We were not told what we were capable of doing. The narrative was quite different, be at home, stay out of trouble, be seen and not heard and now we want so much different for our youth. Now we want you safe so you can thrive and have your own power and realize your power.
Rivera: When we're talking about Latino organizing, I want to give a shout out to the generations before us. Of course, all the way back to our ancestors. We're here as a testimony to how resilient our people are despite the attacks and very intentional genocide and oppression that has occurred. But in particular, I want to thank Carmen Cabrera who's been my mentor. I consider her the most knowledgeable and experienced person in civic organizing. In addition to being involved in activism and organizing, she was a teenager when the Chapman Hall of UWM was taken over by Latinos to ensure that Spanish speaking and Latinos are represented at the university. A great amount of credit goes to people like Carmen who were present during the civil rights movement and they paid some bigger prices than we did and had a lot more on the line. Also, organizing wasn't a profession. And so I just want to extend my love and appreciation and respect for Carmen and the rest of our leaders who paved the way for us and then continued to mentor us as we became professional Latino organizers.
And speaking to the importance of Latino organizing, I often give testimony that the color brown is invisible in this city, which is not wise. Even if you're not going to do it for liberation, for equity, people need to understand the impact Latinos have in this local community, the state, and the nation. It's critical that we expand Latino organizing because we're not seen, we're not honored at the levels that we need to be. Also, we're the number one minority in the state and have a huge impact on the nation economically and culturally. We're just now creeping our numbers up in representation, formal representation elected, but it's really past due.
Rodriguez: Just the oxymoron, though, "number one minority," and also the division amongst Latinos and the way race, which is a human concept, not our humans, but we know that was put upon us. And if we keep a global perspective, we are stronger, and there is natural division amongst our people. And this election right now is proving that the divisions are happening. So I just think the importance of us is making sure that we're united sooner because the systems are made to keep us separate, keep us down, not for us to realize that we are our own best resource.
