I just found this, wrote it a while back

I thought this an interesting bit of thinking. So, I am posting it in the knowledge that I can very well be the only person who reads this blog as it is so rarely updated...

What does your accent say about you?

I attended one of the nights of the Justice preaching series. The preacher for that night was Hector Cortez. I cannot do justice to the sermon here but I'll just paraphrase the beginnning of the sermon, which I then quoted during one of mine. I should also add that this could be one of my own conversations when meeting new people.

When I meet people the conversation often moves to, so where are you from?
when I answer, Chicago there's a puzzled face and they then say, where are you REALLY from?
my accent, in spite of my best efforts, betrays my Latino origin.

This particular sermon has tremendous relevance to what our country is going through with regards to the immigration issue. This past Sat. I was at an immigration information session. It was supposed to be an informational session but in the back there were two women who always go to any immigration forum around this area and heckle panelists with gross generalizations about the "illegal immigrants" who are ruining our country. I mention this here because it is related to the issue of one's accent. To these women the majority of the evils in our society are because of these illegal immigrants. Now, these people do not have the means to check on the indentification of those they are accusing. So, how do they know who these "illegal immigrants" are then? "my accent, in spite of my best efforts, betrays my Latino origin".

Living it

So, my previous blog pointed towards the importance of living multiculturalism. I believe that a living experience is the most effective way of experience multiculturalism in a truer form. Of course this does not mean a short trip during which we simply adjust to the current condition and perhaps even enjoy it, safe in the knowledge that it is not permanent. I would count most experiences abroad in this category, missions trips, NGO years or things of that nature. I should add that we should not let the brush get too broad as within experiences abroad there does exist an actual experience of my intended result. However, it seems to be that there is a difference between agreeing to a situation for a limited span of time in a place that is not home and having a similar situation happen at home without end in sight. My church is engaged in the latter, we are seeking to live multiculturalism at home and with no end in sight.

In my process of thinking of ways to explain this to my church I found myself looking inwards. I live different worlds within me as a by-cultural person with parents from different countries and cultures. My world flows easily between universes that seem so very foreign to each side. To many people I encounter my world seems to be exciting, broad, full of interesting adventures. The essence of the positive aspects of a multicultural world right? However, in my life at my church I have found that my experience in encountering and living with different cultures is such a part of who I am that I too have a lot to learn with regards to encountering the other. It takes effort for me to get close enough to the "new world" to live it in the way that I may be asking my church to do, and I have been living it all my life!