How Worcester's Latino Community (Continues) Pushing for Equity with Hilda Ramirez

Part 1 of 3 of our mini-season: Establishing the Latino Advisory Commission in Worcester.

We are back with another mini-series! In this three-part series, we will be discussing the formation of a Latino Advisory Commission in Worcester to better understand the history, the motivation, and hopes for the future. In this episode, we sit down with our first guest Hilda Ramirez who is a member of the Latino Empowerment and Organizing Network (also known as LEON) to talk about the history that has led to the advocacy for a Latino Advisory Commission in Worcester and some of the ongoing efforts of the Latino community working towards creating more equitable spaces and how this work can continue in the future.

Public Hearing is a podcast from Action! by Design about our home city of Worcester, Massachusetts and the people we should be listening to—residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. Our mission is to cultivate community through equity, inclusion, and design, and that work starts at home.

Want to be the first to listen to new episodes? Tune in Wednesdays at 6pm on WICN 90.5FM, Worcester's only NPR affiliate station. Not in the Worcester area? No worries, you can listen live at WICN.org

Transcript for this episode

Joshua Croke (00:01):

Hello Worcester and the world. This is Public Hearing, a podcast and radio show from Action! by Design about our home city of Worcester, Massachusetts, and the people we should be listening to as we participate in change work, residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. On Public Hearing, we engage community members addressing social problems in a way that centers, equity, justice and the pursuit of joy-filled futures for everyone. I am your host, Joshua Croke, and this is the Public Hearing podcast. In our last mini-season, we spoke with Diana Mc’Callum and Doug Abbetor about the structure of our local government. The year in Worcester, including the role boards and commissions play in affecting decisions that are made and priorities that are set in our city today, we're starting a three-part mini-season to talk about the formation of a Latino Advisory Commission in Worcester, and to better understand the history, the motivation and hopes for the future.

Joshua Croke (00:58):

We're starting our conversation today with Hilda Ramirez. Hilda has been an active voice for equity and justice in Worcester for a long time with specific care for youth in our city and has for many years led the Latino Education Institute LEI at Worcester State University. And prior to that, the Worcester Youth Center. Hilda is also a member of the Latino Empowerment and Organizing Network. Also known as LEON. A founder of Alane Worcester is a former Worcester school committee member and sits on multiple boards in the city. I always like to let guests introduce themselves since we're much more complex as humans than what one can read on LinkedIn. So Hilda welcome. And I'll invite you to share any part of your social location, background, and affiliations that you'd like to bring into this space today. And thanks so much for coming on to the show.

Hilda Ramirez (01:44):

Sure. Thank you, Josh, for having me in the show. It's so important, I think to get to have a conversation right about what's going on in Worcester. It's a great city. There's so much going on and from my perspective as a Latina, you know,  I was born in the Dominican Republic went to New York when I was 10 and then came to Massachusetts to get an education in Boston and ended up in Worcester and have loved living in the city for a long time. And so I've been around for quite some time doing a lot of work. And a lot of it, you know, is work where I feel that there are gaps in the city in terms of leadership for Latinos or where there may be like Adelante Worcester or where there may be a gap in understanding who we are as Latinos, which is sometimes the case with youth who don't have a, a big voice in this city.

Hilda Ramirez (02:35):

And so really being able to stand up, help them have a voice, right, and be a, an instrument for them to be able to express what their needs are. And so that's has been my trajectory here in through organizations, really learning about how everyone lives in this city and not everyone has you know, that those opportunities that we so love and wor right, some youth don't have it. They come from backgrounds where they don't have the resources that they need to be successful to thrive. So my time in Worcester has been about how can we make this a vibrant city for everyone to thrive. And so I'm ha I'm glad to be here to talk a little bit about Worcester general, but Worcester through the lens of a Latina, a, you know, a, a bilingual Latina I'm Dominican. And I love this city. And I think that we have grown so much especially in the last five years, I think that there has been a boom in Worcester but that boom isn't there for everyone. And so I, you know, the work continues.

Joshua Croke (03:38):

Absolutely. And so before we talk about the commission formation specifically, could you give us a bit of like an additional history and context that led to the advocacy for the formation of a Latino Advisory Commission?

Hilda Ramirez (03:51):

Yeah. So there has been so much work prior to that, like you know, I've been at this for a long time advocating at the education level. So we had a mayor's commission with Joe O'Brien and we published reports talking about the needs of the Latino community as it stands for, you know, the education of Latinos through Lei, even when I was at the youth center, I sat on that mayor's commission representing youth. And then after that work, we just continued to who work with the city and partner to be able to make sure that the education of our kids improves it is not where it needs to be. And so all of that work, I know that I advocated for that a long time ago, we did a lot of reports on the suspension of Latino students. And that started a lot of the tension, right?

Hilda Ramirez (04:41):

Because we don't wanna talk about the bad things. We only wanna talk about the great things in this city. And I think that that's important for us to have a vibrant city, but we can't overlook the challenges that exist. And so our Latino students were being suspended in much greater numbers than any other student. And the interesting thing is that at the Latino Education Institute, we get the phone calls from the parents, you know, here's, what's going on. We don't think it's fair. Can you help us? And so I would get involved with a lot of these phone calls, and that led me to run for a school committee because I felt frustrated that I couldn't see that the students were winning, that it was always, it didn't matter how much advocacy we did. The student would always get the worst consequence they would go from having no challenges whatsoever with discipline before to being expelled out of that school into an alternative setting and for a student that obviously leads to sometimes disconnecting from education.

Hilda Ramirez (05:46):

So the consequences are too great for the family, for us to just sit and do nothing about it. And so a lot of the work that we did at the LEON was point to that data and really challenge the district to have conversations about that the data is not good and that that's not what we wanna be projecting in this city. And so we aligned with the new mayor Joe Petty, after Joe O'Brien. And so we've been at this so long. I mean, this, this gives you a context of how, how long these conversations have been going. And I think with Joe, we, we amplified the commission Louis Bera, and Mary Jo Marion chair, the commission. We did another report where we focused on the suspensions again, but other equity issues, like the diversity of teachers, we focused on, you know, how having more advanced opportunities for Latino students.

Hilda Ramirez (06:39):

Let's not just talk about Latino students at the bottom of the barrel. What about the ones that are doing really good? What about opening up advanced opportunities like enrollment into wor tech? I mean, when we look at the data and we looked at the numbers, there, weren't a lot of Latinos there, but yet you have a district with 42% Latinos, I think it's higher enough. And so how could it be that we have such a high representation of Latinos in the district, but they're not seen in the advanced opportunities. Right? And so again, this is when it gets to equity and you look at data and you're able to say, why is it that we don't have? What is it about it? I mean, do we have to of work with them to get them to that level? We're here, we're willing to help, we're willing to do that work.

Hilda Ramirez (07:25):

But you uncover a lot of challenges in access, right? Who does the, who are the guidance counselors recommending they're not Latino students? You know, how are parents finding out about these opportunities? Latino are not being told or informed. They're not even meeting with guidance, counselors, let alone you know, and learning about opportunities. And so there are challenges in our schools. You can call it lack of resources, but sometimes it isn't, you know, it is just about the way that the schools are struck. They're structured in a very old fashioned system that doesn't take into consideration, who are the kids in front of you today? And those kids look differently. They learn differently. They're global kids, they're not local kids, and we have to change the way that we educate those kids. And so I think that that's been, that has been the advocacy till today. I'm happy to say that I'm the on the search committee for a new superintendent, and that I have a lot of hopes that that's gonna lead to an innovator, somebody with passion, somebody that can move this district, because I think the city there, right, are those schools there. And that to is, is my what I am hopeful for that we can get the schools to the level of the city.

Joshua Croke (08:47):

And it's, it's so important, like naming the challenges and how, what the data exposes that people who are being impacted most closely to these things, aren't just numbers in those data sets, right? They're individuals, they're young students that are not able to access opportunities in an equitable or fair way because of structural and systemic barriers that have been put up for, for them to not be successful. And one of the things that I always appreciate that you bring to so many of the spaces that we occupy together and from following your work is bringing the youth voice into this work and listening to young people and listening to what they're asking for, what they're saying, what their ideas are for change. And I know you talk about closing the opportunity gap, and that's kind of some of what we're talking about here. And in our mini season on early childhood education and care, we had Eve Gilmore on the show from Edward street who also talked about like the importance of this. And so do you have hopes for this commission or for the work, as it continues to really center the voices of young people in the conversations that are being had and the decisions that are being made?

Hilda Ramirez (10:04):

Well, yes, I do. Because you know, the commission is one body that can keep an eye on what's going on in the city and, you know, make sure that the decisions that are being made are, you know, have a lens on what matters to Latinos, right? So that's one way. But other ways is ensuring that, like, for example, there is a a group of youth that advise the superintendent, do we have Latinos on that group? Are we represented? You know, so it's, and it's interesting because cuz the Latino community has moved from wanting representation to really building a table for ourselves and saying, you know, this is it. We need to have this because of the numbers because of the data. Right? So it's not about, I wanna have a member on the school committee. That's Latino. It's about you are sitting there, your responsible for the wellbeing of 42,000 or 25,000 kids out of that 42 are Latino.

Hilda Ramirez (11:04):

Let's make sure you have a, a, a lens on that and that we're all able to celebrate success and that if we are able to allow you and work with you to celebr achievements, then the community moves forward. And so it's no longer about how we represented. It's about, you know, we have the numbers, the data shows it, you know, our census shows it and we really need to work with that. And I think that youth have so many solutions that are bold, innovative, simple, right? And if you don't listen to them, they are the future. They're the ones that are gonna take care of us. And if you're not listening to them, then you're not really doing this city justice because this city as especially the Latino community is very young and that's the gen, that's the community that's really growing.

Hilda Ramirez (11:58):

If we don't pay attention to that, we're gonna be in trouble as a city very soon. And so to, to, I think that, you know, I have seen you know, people take conversations more seriously now than B than ever. I, so I think that this is why the timing of the commission is so important. Because I think the leadership in the city is understanding the demographic changes that are in front of them. And that, that implies a different way of decision making. And so this commission along with many people working in the community, because it's just not a small group of people it it's it's just gonna improve the overall community, right? Like it's, we're not a small group of people. We're consumers, we're, you know, we're, we're, we're small business owners. We are educated. We're, we're every where like, when people think about, well, what's a Latino neighborhood, we're everywhere.

Hilda Ramirez (12:57):

We're not just in a neighborhood we're everywhere. And so you need to pay attention to that. And I think that, you know, it's better to work with a community in a way of that. You're thinking about what are the assets of that community and how do you leverage those assets to accelerate that community then to be, oh, I don't understand them. I don't get them. They they're always arguing. They're always fighting. Well, there's a reason why people are fighting. You just stop to listen. And so I think that we're almost there. We're not there yet. But we're on our way to at least listening to each other. And I think that's important because we should never have a we and they, it it's our city, too. Many of our kids were born here. They owned this city in ways that, you know, we all do that. We all love it and they're part of it. And so I think we have to reconcile with that and try to think about how do we change systems and in a way that makes it possible for this diversity that we have, because it's not just Latinos, it's just so many other people that, that come here. And that, I think finally in success for all groups is so critical.

Joshua Croke (14:11):

And I appreciate that you used the word reconcile and I want to highlight some of the context there as well. And the, a lot of the work that, that I do is gathering people, right? Ha facilitating dialogue and conversations that lead to action that lead to change that lead to addressing complex issues facing our communities. And we have a foundational belief that the people most impacted by issues, whether it's the juvenile detention system or if it is educational equity, the people that are experiencing the greatest harm from those FA those systemic failures are the people that hold the solutions for how to make these changes in ways that are equitable. And just, and in, in a lot of this work, oftentimes when folx who are, who are part of or participate in the systems that are causing that harm, they, when they're awakened to the harms or the oppression that might be unwillingly participating in or unknowingly participating in, wanna just jump right into action and say, okay, how do we solve this as people who have, who are not as proximate or not as close to the, the harm being experienced, how do we solve this?

Joshua Croke (15:27):

How do we, how do we address this? And oftentimes communities I, and want space to address that harm and work towards healing as part of the change, the change work. And so I think that that's a really important piece in this as well. Like when you talk about the statistics of the Latino students that are being suspended at much higher rates from our schools, that isn't dissimilar from other districts across the state of Massachusetts and from work that I do in the juvenile justice space and the youth justice space, that disproportionate number of Latino students that are being expelled or suspended from school, we're seeing that disproportionate number of students almost very similarly show up in our criminal justice system in the court system, in the, the juvenile legal system. And so to really address these issues, there needs to be a community involved, you know, at all different levels of, of community. So I appreciate you talking about, like, there is work across this commission as a, maybe a new entity that's being formed, but also other groups and other conversations that have been being had for a, a really long time.

Hilda Ramirez (16:39):

Yeah. And you know, just to speak to the justice juvenile system at the youth center, I mean, that's where I was at the heart of that. And looking at systems changed there because there's, you know, it's interesting that school to per is a pipeline is exactly what happens. Not only, you know, the research that Lori Ross does. And a lot of people is speaks to the fact that a lot of these students start with having challenges in school in fourth grade or even earlier, and then you see their pattern and that they're the ones that end up in the justice juvenile system, but they themselves, they have a lot to say. I had a group of young people from the youth center that I took to a meeting with judges and you know policy people in Washington DC. And what they said was, well, you lock us up in these facilities and they're probably better than our rooms at home with games and TVs and all of that, but you never, never take the time to listen to why we are here and what we need to heal in order to be a productive citizen.

Hilda Ramirez (17:43):

We agree that we need to be punished because we did something wrong. However, you've never allowed us to really reflect on what is it that we did wrong, how we did it and how we might do it differently in the future. And so this is coming right from the young people, right, in those lockup facilities saying this, but you, you know, you give us this space with all these things and you think that that's what we need our hard and soul needs something different, not that. And so, again, that speaks to what you're talking about when you really talk to the people that are, you know, if, and I actually, I've actually gone to prisons to speak to groups of Latino men that have been locked up for 20, 30 years for something that it it's, I can't tell you that. I mean, I get emotional when I hear that.

Hilda Ramirez (18:33):

I'm like, you gotta be kidding me when you were 17. And, and, and so you've been locked up for all your life and nobody has forgiven you, like, that's really traumatic for our community to hear that, to hear those stories. And, and you don't see any reform because in it's all about that, that's an industry. Connecticut is an industry, right? Like that's a huge industry that we seem to favor the, in the, the business aspect of it, rather than the human lives that we're wasting. Right. And so I think these are complex issues and I'm very emotional about them because I've had to live to advocate for those spaces. Right. And when you go in there and you hear the story and you hear the families and how it impacts an entire community, not just a person, not just the family, but the whole community, right?

Hilda Ramirez (19:28):

How many single moms are out the raising kids, right. And they're raising kids with two jobs, three jobs, why the, the, the partner is locked up, you know, so we are creating so many challenges in society by the actions that we take, because maybe we had a bad day and maybe this kid is acting out, but we don't stop to say what is going on with this child? You know, we, we're very quick to remove because we want everybody else to learn, right. I have no problem with everybody else learning and that everybody goes to school to learn, but we all have bad days as humans. Absolutely. And we have to have spaces in which we can and be real and have a bad day.

Joshua Croke (20:13):

And I think the, the, the process of learning and how we address what is valuable to learn, I participated in a training a few months back that was talking about like transformative justice approaches in the classroom. And it was looking at how teachers can take conflict and use it as a learning op opportunity. Right. For there was a specific instance of a one student who had kept acting out in the class was very disruptive to class over the course of many weeks and the teacher, because they fundamentally believe like we are, I'm not throwing kids out of my classroom. I know what the harm in that could be. I know like what, like activation of the school to prison pipeline could be made in that moment. And so I'm going to shift the conversation of our classroom and our students. And we're gonna sit in, you know, a circle.

Joshua Croke (21:05):

I approached this young person first and said, you've, I know you've been having a difficult time and that's manifesting in some really kind of negative and undesired behavior in the classroom. That's disruptive to your classmates. Would you be open to all of us sitting down and talking about how we can best support you and how best support others in the class so that we can go forward in learning together and the students, and this was, you know, fourth or fifth grade students sat down and co-created a plan for how they were gonna hold each other accountable and how they could support that other student that was in the classroom, who was struggling and created a space where that young person was able to express some of their fears, some of the challenges that they've been having that have been leading to some of the behaviors that have been manifesting in the classroom and some of the work that I'm involved in right now that is inclusive of our work with the wor education equity round table.

Joshua Croke (22:03):

And really looking at achieving equitable outcomes for youth on a state level is eliminating the school to prison pipeline and recognizing how that manifests in different spaces from our classrooms to the, you know involvement with police. And you mentioned Lori Ross and for, for listeners we had Lori on the show a handful of episodes back. So if you're interested in learning more about the Worcester youth violence prevention in a initiative, and some of the considerations that we're talking about here, please go back and listen to that episode. And remarkably, we have about five minutes left and I could talk to you forever Hilda. So I wanna just name and bring the attention to our listeners that the Latino Advisory Commission was supported by city counselors toward the end of 2021. And the commission as dictated, or as stated in an article from the telegram following that city council meeting will be responsible for encouraging, promoting and monitoring policies in the city that impact Latinos and hopes to ensure Latinos in the city have equal access to public services and the full enjoyment and exercise of their civil rights.

Joshua Croke (23:15):

And so we've talked about youth we've talked about some of the history and the context that have kind of brought forward the desire to build and develop this, this commission. What are some of the ways that this commission can hold our elected and non-elected leaders as discussed in our most recent mini season? We talked about how the city manager is essentially the CEO of the city. Who's an unelected leader which we talked about some of the implications of that in our democratic process. So our elected and non-elected leaders, how can this commission hold the city accountable and how can our residents and our listeners hold the city and this new commission accountable to prioritizing this work and taking real action to drive change.

Hilda Ramirez (24:01):

So the first thing is, and it's already happening with lots of come conversations directly with the city manager around, like, for example, right now the, the extra federal funds that are coming in and how are those funds being allocated? How are we, you know, really making sure that there is public input. And, and even there, you know, there's been a lot of conversations about the process and and right, so right now the city is looking for commissioners to sit on deciding on those funds, right? So they've come to us to identify people. So our job as a, you know, as a commission, as a group of Leon, is identifying people to sit there and make sure that those funds are going, especially, you know, to some of the areas of greatest need for us. I mean, we're down at the bottom for health equity education, you know, every sector, our small businesses, aren't doing well, every sector that you can think of, we need to really make sure that it they're being supported.

Hilda Ramirez (25:00):

And so that is one way by, you know, making sure that we have representation at the table, that's deciding the other way. And my passion, again, I keep on thinking about this commission is under the city side, but I keep on telling and reminding everyone the school side, right? So it's both, it's really keeping an eye and we have an education committee. We have an economic development committee and a civic engagement. So it's making sure that we're all on the same page on both sides, not just one, because you're so equally important and the stakes are so high right now. So it's educating ourselves first and foremost, right on the, on what's happening and what are the decisions that are being made. And then secondly you know, finding people to sit on these commissions that can represent the collective community. So there are voices there and then doing some advocacy.

Hilda Ramirez (25:56):

I mean, there's some, you know, pieces right now on education that hearing directly from parents and students is the best thing. And that's how we're gonna go about it, right? It's not just a token leader speak. No, we wanna make sure that the community is, you know, calling that it's, it's connecting to their schools, to their, you know, to the different levels. We do a lot of that work at the Lei. And a lot of, you know, people don't see me speaking, but I have students in those meetings and in those different places and parents that are advocating for what they need we've done like for the student opportunity act. We did a lot of sessions with parents, youth. This is what we need. And so we're U we use those tools to make sure that we're advocating and we're really getting the voices of those families not held this voice.

Hilda Ramirez (26:44):

Their voices is what matters to me because they're the ones that are living the, the systems that are perhaps not working for them. And they're the ones that can navigate for improving them. And so that's kind of how we're working. So maybe at the lay meeting, we talk about what, what are hot areas we learn about it. And then we make sure that we activate and that we're also available to coach anyone that might not know how to get onto a commission, or that wants to get onto a commission or a board, and doesn't know how to do it. And then our role becomes, you know, let's help you get there. Great. That's yeah.

Joshua Croke (27:21):

Great. Well, thank you Hilda so much for coming on the show. I wish we had more time. You've been listening to Public Hearing our podcast and radio show that airs Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station. We are continuing our conversation about the Latino Advisory Commission and the work to support our Latino community here in Worcester. I'm still your host, Joshua Croke. If you have ideas for the reach out to our team @publichearing.co, our audio producer is Giuliano D’Orazio, who also made our music thank you to Molly Gammon and Anh Dao, who also support the production of the show. And as always, thanks for listening.