El cinco de mayo
Tonight when my Spanish professor arrived for class he suggested we all go to an event downtown. There was a poetry reading by one of the Nicaraguan delegates visiting from Santo Tomás, a sister community in Central America that has a longstanding relationship with an organization representing Thurston County. The poet presenting was a man named Wilfredo Espinoza Lazo and José Gomez from The Evergreen State College faculty provided interpretation in English. My Spanish class met Wilfredo a couple of weeks ago when he first arrived from Nicaragua, and he recited a fantastic poem filled with onomatopoeias in Spanish. It was brilliant!
Next week is the Immigration and Border Dialogues Conference 2008 hosted at The Evergreen State College. It is May 15-18 and I am really looking forward to participating in some of the program events. The event tonight was hosted by Bridges Not Walls, an organization that is committed to addressing the human rights aspect of immigration reform. The slogan "Nobody is illegal" is poignant and true, and I think it's exciting that this organization has such a strong presence in Olympia. Their website http://oly-wa.us/bridges has all the necessary information about the conference next week.
Never a dull moment...