5 minute read
Latino Community Coalition: Community Collaboration
Latino Community Coalition believes that community change happens through strong, honest, respectful relationships. LCC’s volunteer steering committee works with Latinx communities and its membership to advocate for their collective priorities, serve as accountability partners for organizations and institutions and advance Latinx voices and experiences in our community.
In 2020 Grand Rapids Community Foundation, LCC and six other community organizations together created La Lucha Fund. This temporary emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic provided financial resources directly to Kent County families who were undocumented or had mixed immigration status making them ineligible for government assistance. More recently, the Community Foundation partnered with LCC on Nuestra HERencia a project of Women’s Way GR, an alley activation initiative started by Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc., Women’s Way features alley murals of local women trailblazers. We interviewed three LCC steering committee members: Javier Cervantes, Eleanor Moreno and Veronica Quintino-Aranda.
What do you love about LCC?
Javier Cervantes: I like being a part of this because so many of us are from different places and backgrounds. We’re able to share and learn from each other in a space where it’s okay to be ourselves and ask questions. It’s a judgment free zone with people who look like you and have some shared life experiences.
The Community Foundation has been excited to collaborate with LCC on projects like the alley activation and La Lucha Fund. What discoveries, accomplishments or collaborative lessons can you share?
Veronica Quintino-Aranda: The discoveries related to La Lucha are our community needs, disparities and inequities. The demand and the stories collected from community members who applied for La Lucha amplified the reality of our neighbors. The alley activation accomplishment was to make our community at large aware of the history of Latinos in Grand Rapids. We are a growing and thriving community. This project allowed us to share our narrative.
JC: It is very important to collaborate not just solely based on one person or one organization. That’s not what it is about. Collaboration is about tapping into your networks, your resources, the knowledge that each of us has within ourselves and the places that we represent.
Eleanor Moreno: Both of these collaborations created opportunity on laying out a foundation on How. How can our BIPOC communities glean and learn from these experiences and lean into spaces to also build relationship with partners like Grand Rapids Community Foundation?
The Nuestra HERencia project shifted after you heard community feedback about featuring only one woman in alley murals. How does the project embody true collaboration and adaptability?
EM: At one point I felt like we got chewed out by the community. Not in a bad way—it just gave us time to pause and reflect. That’s the beautiful and hard part. We have to be willing to be uncomfortable, lay out what is possible and be transparent on all the who’s, what’s and how’s. Those moments of vulnerability are always a good time to pause, reflect, listen and learn. For HERencia we came in wanting this grand gesture for one person, and it turned into powerful heartfelt stories of all these beautiful women who I admire.
What’s next for Nuestra HERencia?
VQA: I am super excited for the second phase of Nuestra HERencia! We’ll work with families to imagine how the alley will be activated for future generations to know our history. We’ll create opportunities for schools or tour groups to learn about the history of Latinos in Grand Rapids, our accomplishments in the city. [Past and future projects] embody true collaboration as we work with many different community partners.
Why is collaboration so critical for our community?
VQA: Our community has lived experiences. They are the experts in knowing what services and resources are needed in our neighborhoods. Working together with organizations, volunteers, community members and activists allows the voice of our community to be heard and moves the work forward. If we put the needs of our community first, we are able to gain the trust of our community.
EM: Collaboration feels so ingrained in the Latinx community. It always starts with our own family, but specifically thinking of Grand Rapids or West Michigan as a whole, we are seeking to support one another. The complexity of West Michigan is tough. We talk a lot about partnerships or collaboration, but there is so much lack of trust due to historical issues. This is why it’s so important to build a foundation of right relationship with partners like the Community Foundation. Is it perfect? No, but that’s the beauty in a good collaboration, in being in right relationship. We can sit and listen and be authentic without being defensive. We need collaboration to do the work, to care for our people.
What’s next for LLC?
VQA: HERencia has allowed us to learn about our history in Grand Rapids and share our narrative. I believe you cannot be called a leader until you create other leaders. For our LCC future, I imagine myself walking alongside and providing opportunities for Latinx young professionals through various LCC projects—creating the next generation of leaders in our community!
EM: During an LCC monthly meeting, we were talking about liberation. What does it look like for us, for LCC, for the Latinx community? Freedom to run, walk, participate in camping, not be harassed or deported. Delivering access to essential services like public internet, an excellent educational experience, healthcare and quality food choices, to name a few, regardless of where they live or the color of their skin. The LCC can help bridge this. It is my hope we continue to build collaborations where we do this and get to this goal.
