4 minute read
Finding My Alianza
Finding My
ALIANZA
The 2021-22 members of Alianza Latina affinity group at SAAS.
Written by: Wendy Amador, Class of 2022
If I were to write a piece about the ignorance I’ve encountered, I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised. Perhaps you’d be concerned at how unbothered I am at this point, but the reality of someone with caramel skin is that naive minds are inevitable.
Freshmen year, I blamed the distance between my classmates and me on the fact that we were all strangers. But that wasn’t true. You see, my first day of school, someone asked me if I knew El Chapo. The day of the anticipated Winter Ball, at a post-dance reunion, my classmates spread the rumor that I had called the cops, all because someone heard me speaking Spanish on the phone. What they didn’t bother to know was that I had called my mom to pick me up because I could feel the way people looked at me, being the only person of color in the room.
I’d be lying if I said things got better after that. One thing you should know is that through all these instances, I was never quiet. But a single person, no matter how powerful, is powerless in a system of oppression. I felt alone.
That same year, I met Angela Zapata ’20, a junior at that time. She was three years older than me and almost instantly became the friend I needed. She was the first person who saw me and understood my pain when I told her my stories. Years after she graduated, I found a letter she wrote me for my 15th birthday. She said I inspired her to be unapologetically herself and that meeting me made school worth something. I never told her but it was her friendship that lifted me up when I was most defeated. It was because she was my friend that we built something that changed the SAAS community.
Affinity groups came into the picture halfway through sophomore year, but if you were to ask the leaders, we like to say they really began last year, and most of all, this year. What you would learn walking the halls through our lens is the survival instinct that is triggered the moment we walk through the doors. We
Alianza Latina affinity group is a space for students who identify as Hispanic or Latin@. Latin@ is a gender-inclusive term for Latino or Latina.
were afraid to talk to each other. Sometimes I could see in the
Wendy was a freshmen when she met Angela, a junior; the two became close friends and members of Alianza Latina affinity group.
eyes of other Latin@ students how desperately they wanted to say hi, but never did. Instead, we kept walking, keeping our stories to ourselves. Angela, Josephine Silva ’21, and I fought more than we should have needed to make a space where Latin@s could finally see each other and realize they were not alone. Then it happened: AAPI, BSU, Alianza Latina; we were finally heard.
At our first meeting, five people showed up. And then four. Sometimes seven. That first year, eight was the most people we had in the room. We blamed ourselves for not making the space fun enough, or interesting enough. Or maybe we were wrong; maybe it was only us who felt the need for a group like Alianza. But when Covid-19 changed the world, everyone felt the isolation. Even if it was just for a second, we all felt lonely and yearned for human interaction. It was through Zoom that our group found its strength and grew in numbers we had only imagined. At the beginning of this year, we were able to host a community event for the families of members. As the night came to an end, we opened the room up for any questions from the parents. A father asked the leaders what our experience had been like identifying as Hispanic and Latin@ at SAAS. I was the last of the current three leaders to answer, and as I started speaking, I felt my throat struggle to say the words in my mind, and teardrops starting to form around my eyes. There I was, in front of a room of families who would have never met, being seen, being heard, and being accepted. I felt silly crying. My truth is that high school has been difficult as a person of color, in more ways than one. But, feeling the support from everyone in the room that night, I realized how meaningful the founding of Alianza has been in this community. We found power in our pain, and built a community of empowerment. As I get closer to my graduation this year, I’m getting ready to say goodbye to a group of friends and chosen family. The past four years we learned from each other and grew together, and Seattle Academy took this journey with us to put in the work that was needed. I will be graduating proud of the affinity group’s success and knowing that future generations of Latin@ students will find a home in Alianza the way I did. ■
