The Importance of Latinx Representation in Worcester with Luis Pedraja

Part 2/3 from our mini-season: Establishing the Latino Advisory Commission in Worcester.

This week’s guest is Luis Padraja, President of Quinsigamond Community College and a member of the Latino Empowerment Organizing Network (LEON). In this Public Hearing conversation, Josh and Luis talk about how the creation of a Latino Advisory Commission in our city will allow for more Latinx folk to be represented with a seat at decision-making tables to further advocacy and support for the unique and intersecting needs of Worcester’s Latinx communities

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.

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 in 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. We are continuing our mini-season on the formation of a Latino Advisory Commission in the city of Worcester today with the president of Quinsigamond Community College, Dr. Luis Padraja. If you missed episode one, we spoke with Hilda Ramirez from the Latino Education Institute, LEI, as well as a member of the Latino Empowerment and Organizing Network, LEON, which Luis is also involved in. Luis is a passionate advocate for increased access to higher education for all people, especially those who have been underserved historically by the American higher education system throughout his career.

Joshua Croke (01:08):

Dr. Padraja has focused on Latina perspectives and has published many books and articles exploring how understanding language and culture can promote intercultural, dialogue and tolerance. As a child, president Padraja immigrated from Cuba and been a low-income neighborhood in Miami. He became the first in his family to attend college, receiving his BA from Stetson University and earning a Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from the University of Virginia. There is a long list of other affiliations and things that you are involved with. Dr. Padraja. So thank you so much for coming on the show. I always like to guests introduce themselves as well. So recognizing we are much more complex human beings than what we can find in a bio. So I'll invite you to share any parts of your background or social location and other affiliations. You'd like to bring into this space today and thank you so much for coming on the show.

Luis Pedraja (01:59):

Well, thank you, Josh. And thank you for having me it's an honor to be here. I think you touched on all the basic pieces of my story. I think one of the important things for me to also acknowledge is that although I am in a position of authority and power, I also am a Latino and an immigrant l learned English as a second language, grew up in impoverished neighborhoods. And a lot of what drives me is a desire to pay it forward. Because now I have a voice. I go in and people listen there was a time that wasn't the case and there is still times that people would judge me by my name would judge me by the color of my skin just by the person that I am, which is important. And I think we need to get beyond that in our society.

Joshua Croke (02:53):

Absolutely. And so, as a recap for listeners in November of 2021 city council supported the creation of the Latino Advisory Commission. And it was stated in an article in The Telegram that the Latino Advisory Commission 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. So, to just get started, Luis, what does that mean for you and what are some of your hopes for this commission?

Luis Pedraja (03:27):

Well, the idea behind this came when I was a co-chair of the commission, the majority commission on Latino education and advancement, and now there was a lot of fruitful dialogue that occurred through that commission. I then want that to be lost. So for me, one of my hopes which was also presented in the report to the commission was that it would continue looking at some of the issues that were brought up about the Worcester public schools about the disproportionate discipline of Latino students and to address the broader needs of the Latino community. Often the boys of many of our community are silent. There's a few of us who are in leadership roles that people might listen to. And I want to be able to amplify the voices of those who are not able to be heard.

Luis Pedraja (04:21):

We're a diverse community. We need all the voices to make a stronger city and I think the commission is the first step I advocated for it was there the, at the city council speaking to it. And I think it's gonna make a difference it’s the first of that type here, but this type of commission exists in other big cities, including Boston. And I hope that the issues that are affecting the Latinos here will be heard and addressed that it won't just be a perfunctory committee that people just push things there as a parking lot, but rather a place that will have some voice and advocacy for the Latino community in the city.

Joshua Croke (05:05):

Great. One of the things that we talked about with Hilda was a lot of the work that has been done historically in the community to uplift those voices and, you know, folx kind of taking action and advocacy efforts to center the priorities needs of the Latino community, how that intersects and is SEP is different from other, you know, overarching things that are going on in the city. And so she talked about the hope for this to be kind of one part of that, you know, mentioning LEON and Adelante Worcester and other organizing efforts from folx in the community. So from those conversations and things that you've participated in, what are some of the hopes and kind of any tangible goals that folx in the community have right now that the commission might be able to help amplify?

Luis Pedraja (05:57):

Well, I don't have the rich history that people like Hilda and others who've been advocating for the Latino community in Worcester. I'm a newcomer, but I've always been an advocate for Latino issues when LEON, the Latino Empowerment Organizing Network was created. I convened the group with some Latino leaders and with the thought that if we sat on the table and found common ground issues, that we all felt were important and prioritized them, we could move forward. And just like we did with the majority commission, the idea was not to think about the things that weren't done. You have have a lot of people say, well, we tried that it didn't work, or people don't listen, or they tried to blame. My hope is that we are able to look at issues, look at the problems, look at the data, look at the issues that are being raised and then try to work on the solution and move them forward.

Luis Pedraja (06:57):

We don't get anywhere well conversation and the Latino Empowerment Organizing Network did recognize a couple areas, education being one of them community engagement because often the Latino community doesn't have a seat at the table when decisions are being made when things are being done and often, and things that go are going to affect the Latino community, but they're not consulted even with when it's well, meaning it's done to them. They're not the agents of their own destiny. They're not the subjects of history. They become the objects. And I think that that needs to be changed. So we try to look more community to engagement and also economic empowerment work with organizations like Laos to help the Latino chamber basically business association to help them also move things forward. For small businesses are often not recognized or given sufficient economic resources to succeed. So the idea is to take issues that are a priority to the Latino community and to find solutions and to have a voice in city hall that will allow the community to be heard.

Joshua Croke (08:15):

One of the things that comes forward with what you just said, that, I wanna underscore for our listeners and members of the community, the Latino community, having decisions made for them and not having been invited to the table. Right. And we Action! by Design had been doing some work with the Worcester Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, facilitating some sessions with, you know, community members. And one of the things that came forward there, that's always really resonated me, is the wrong voices at the right tables, right? And really looking at how do we create the table, like the community as the table, where the decisions are made, and then our leadership becomes stewards of supporting those decisions. And so how might with the commission being a formal body underneath, you know, our, our city governance structure, how might that really kind of help support pushing the decision-making ability back into the community?

Luis Pedraja (09:10):

Well, part of the idea of the community engagement piece is that when economic decisions are being made, when, like for instance, the recent distribution of the ARPA funds are being made, typically others are making those decisions. And it's the usual suspects that people that are in power, the economic drivers and leaders in the community, and they're made for the community in general, well they aren’t necessarily listening. They might have the best of intention, but it's that lack of listening to what the problems are. I come from a background in religious studies and philosophy. So liberation theology was one of the things that I studied. I even spent I even spent time with Gustavo Gutierrez, the founder of liberation theology. And one of the things I always recognize is that whether you're conservative or liberal, whatever side of the spectrum, you are, progressive, is that often when you look at the poor, when you look at the minoritized communities you might see it as well.

Luis Pedraja (10:12):

There's something wrong with them and it's their fault. There's violent, drinking, whatever. And that's one approach. The other approach might be, oh, they just really need a hands up and help, but what's coming in those two things is that in both cases, whether it is one that sees them as, as disturbing of what they've done, because of moral character in the, the poor, the minority tax community, or whether they look at it as well, they've just been oppressed, but we need to, and we need to help them. They're both still making the decision for that community. Instead of the model that I would advocate for is ask them, what do you need? What do you want, help them come to a solution together and sit at the table. And that's gonna make us stronger as a community, but it is something that we often fail to do. We might mean well, but we don't wanna let go of our own power. We want to be able to make those decisions we know best. And I think that's a challenge that sometimes even well, meaning people have in a community, they want to do it for you and do it to you, but they don't want to necessarily do it with you.

Joshua Croke (11:24):

And especially when the you, you're talking about, you know, the redistribution of power in, in some capacities, right. And in a lot of the work that I do, I like to set, you know, shared definit before engaging in work, especially around equity, right? And looking at equity as, as an outcome is, you know, people's people's ability to thrive is not predetermined based on social characteristics of their identity, gender, race, ethnicity, et cetera. And, but as a process, equity is really about redistributing power and assessing where power lives and getting it into the, helping people to tap into their own innate power and make those, and drive those decisions. And I reflect on a conversation that we had a few years ago in our earlier podcast, the experience this podcast, we spoke with major Carter, who's a real estate developer and social justice advocate in the south Bronx, in New York.

Joshua Croke (12:22):

And we got into the conversation about like people based reform versus place based reform, also recognizing to, you know, to your point about folx who are marginalized in their communities. And because of that reason are in low economic positions, right related to, to the ability to generate wealth. And some of the challenges that come with being marginalized by society and looking at the individual based that I think are often championed of like, look at this one person that we were able to take out of this place and get them connected to these resources and get them this job and completely disregard the fact that there is hundreds and if not thousands or millions of other people behind them that are in need of support, but again, should be leading that change in their own communities. And the communities need to be given those resources and allowed to make those, make those decisions.

Joshua Croke (13:27):

Cause I think the other thing that's challenging is when the community does say what they want, and then they're not just not listen you because of a variety of reasons that people say like, well, you don't understand community development or you don't understand economic growth strategy, et cetera, et cetera, the things that we say to, to folx. And so there, I know I went around in a lot of different kind of areas for that, but addressing, listening to the community and like really engaging in community engagement, how do we hold our city and this commission accountable to really listening to the folx, you know, in our, in our community?

Luis Pedraja (14:08):

Well, my hope is that first of all, when they find the composition of the committee and determine who's gonna be part of it, that they look at voices that will be heard that have some history with the community, but also some new voices, younger people that are advocating for change, that they will grow some leaders. And then that the commission will be available rather than becoming just an another arm of the city that serves more a perfunctory function where people can say, well, we have a commission. So we address the issues that, that commission will actually be one that will engage the public, that will hold forums, that will allow the voices of people to take issues to the commission. A lot of people sometimes don't think that Latinos and other minority groups in our community are active politically, but often they're not given the space to be active.

Luis Pedraja (15:03):

And, and there are many times that they're also struggling to survive. They're holding two or three jobs. They there are single parent are trying to keep things together. They don't have the time to go to a lot of public meetings. They don't have a lot of time to do things that others that, that often when they do go, their voices are quickly dismissed or they're said, oh, we know better. And it's that attitude of paternalism that always gets to me, we know better. We can do it for you. Don't worry about it. And, and I, I think that's where we need to start shifting the dialogues that we have to make sure that the power differential doesn't affect the dialogue. If I'm in a position of power and you have less power, you're gonna be your ready in a unequal situation when we sit at the table. So we need to make it more equitable. And we need to be able to actually listen, clarify the issues, a system to do what needs to be done, but to let them be the ones who make the decisions, let them and be the ones who are empowering their community and help them grow leaders in the community.

Joshua Croke (16:18):

I think one of the reasons we started this show Public Hearing was because I really have like a fund, a core belief that public participation and how we engage members of the community from our structures or structural levels like our local government is, is broken in a lot of ways. And to exactly your point to walk into a Tuesday night council meeting, to speak for your two minutes on an agenda item, and then literally be met with just thank you, sit down. It already creates this negative relationship between an individual and I, and that the city counselor, that, that body, because it isn't dialogue based. And so I think we need to reach into and really become part of, or join the conversations that are happening within communities to see how we can amplify and support the voices that are already already have solutions. Whether it reaches the city, I believe is often showcased as like a failure of the communities. If the city doesn't hear the ideas or the solutions that people are coming up with, but I think that's a failure of the city to not be in the right places to hear what the community is saying.

Luis Pedraja (17:33):

And I think at times people don't want to hear the community saying there are people who are so used to making the decision holding power and Worcester is a wonderful city, a city of immigrants, a city that has so much potential. And I think that we need to tap into the potential, but it is very hard when we're used to doing things to allow others to come in and do something different or to have other voices at the table, because then you feel your voices diminish. It's just part of human nature. And we need to recognize that when we work together, we lift everybody up. We help each each other, and that often these community members know what the problems are. And they might need some help resolving the problem. They might need some this resources, but they know what the issues are and know what they want to do for themselves. They just don't have the power to do it. They don't have the resources to do it. And I think the any kind of, any city needs to think of the wellbeing of entire citizens. You can't just look at the, at those who have power, those who are the leads to our in positions that make it more recognizable. You need to open yourself to other voices. That's the only way that we're gonna be stronger and solve a lot of the problems that we face.

Joshua Croke (19:01):

And as, as a designer, you know, looking at like the concept of universal design is like building with and not for, but with folx who are most marginalized in our society, only benefits everybody. When we create systems that are intentionally designed for folx that have some of the higher needs within any group related to whatever we're addressing, whether it's housing or transportation and mobility access, et cetera. If we build for full folx that use wheelchairs, if we build our downtowns for folx that use wheelchairs, it is only going to benefit people of all types of, you know mobility, The, you know, these spaces. And so I think that's another piece that is so important in this as well is like, how are we designing with, and for the everybody in our community.

Luis Pedraja (19:55):

And we need to build better systems. I think we know that our system's broken. We know that it was built on centuries of violence and oppression and not treating everybody equally that it was a system built to advantage those in power and disadvantage, those who do not, and in some ways to keep it in place. So then when we try to use the same system to enact change, it's not gonna work. We need to redesign the system. We need to reinvent the system and to bring more people at the table and thinking through it. But that means that we have to be willing to work with others, to empower others rather than to hold our power over others. Sometimes we have to let go, and it's scary to let go. It's scary to be confronted with something new, something different, but we become so much more richer for it. And our society becomes more richer and stronger, and I think that's what needs to happen. It's the not easy, it's hard work, but it has to happen

Joshua Croke (21:10):

In our talking about broken systems in our conversation with Hilda. And you mentioned this statistic earlier about the higher and disproportionate rates of Latino students that are suspended or, or disciplined differently in our, in our public schools. I am closely connected with and involved with a lot of work to eliminate the school, to prison pipeline, looking at the racial and ethnic disparities that we see in our school discipline and how those, that population of, of students show up in our juvenile detention system. What are the impacts of statistics like that, that you see in the HigherEd world?

Luis Pedraja (21:48):

Well, I think you see it throughout because the first thing is right now at QCC, we're seeing a drop in men in attendance in general, and particularly men of colors, black and Latinos part of is the pandemic and the effect of it. But I think part of, of it is the way that the culture has treated men of color and looks at them as dangerous, as different as threatening. And we, and we often don't recognize that culture makes us who we are and the way that we function is different. In many ways, you know, as a Latino, I always thought don't look people in the eye at a sign of respect, but in Anglo culture, not looking somebody in a, in the eye seen as disrespectful, maybe you're shifty. And there's so many ways that that affects society as we grow up.

Luis Pedraja (22:50):

If you're told for instance as a kid, you really don't belong in school. You talk too much with Latinos. We talk too much, we talk loud, we use our hands. Others might see that as strengthening, as interrupting as disruptive. So we discipline them. And when we discipline there starts feeling like school's now welcoming and accepting place for them. So they're not as motivated to go to school when they're gonna be treated in ways that are demeaning or different whether on purpose or just by lack of understanding. And as those kids grow up through the system the, like that they're gonna find alternative expressions for their, their feelings can affect their discipline. If you're told you're bad, eventually you start believing you're bad and you start acting bad. If you're told you don't belong in school, when you get to to making a decision about whether you wanna go to college or not, they say, yeah, I'm not gonna go to college. I've been told all my life that education is not for me, that I'm a troublemaker. And that's the problem because there's so much potential, we should not look at children. And as at risk, we should see them as full potential.

Joshua Croke (24:08):

Absolutely. I, I love to, to you talk about like, at opportunity, right? Like there is in some of the work that I'm doing related to school, to prison and addressing those like systemic harms that we're, we're seeing and how that in you know, the racial and ethnic disparities in that, in other forms of marginalization that young people experience within our education system that pushes them out, including LGBTQ plus students you know, students with disabilities, you know, or another very high percentage of young people that we see showing up in our little detention. And what that really shows is that there's a disbelief in specific students ability to achieve within the structures that we've built and, and defined. And we've had to create adopt this belief structure that we bring into every meeting as, as a way to reaffirm a core and fundamental is there are no bad kids, right? How our systems are set up, allow and permit certain types of kids to do well and others to fail. And that is the failure of the system and not the students. So how do we look at trauma informed practices? How do we look at transformative and restorative justice approaches to we repair harms address behaviors in a, in like an asset based way?

Luis Pedraja (25:31):

Well, one of the interesting things I'll start off with, on the language piece in, if you, you know, for, in the Anglo culture, English speaking culture, a child MIS is misbehaving, you know, they're behaving in, in a bad manner, it, on them in Spanish culture. We don't say that. We say Mardo Butman that they're badly raised. The results is on the structure of society. That's raising them. That's why they're acting bad. So that's one of the first things to recognize that it's not the kid, who's the problem is us. Who's the problem. And we need to shift that. We need to look at, you know, the traumas that led to them to be that way the way that our systems that have excluded them that told them that they don't belong because they're different how we can make that more inclusive to recognize the sameness.

Luis Pedraja (26:25):

Shouldn't be the norm, the sameness, as it's pretty bland. It doesn't move to growth. It's differences that make us richer that allows to see things from different perspectives. That allows us to be more creative, that allow us to work problems from different angles. I can only see you in one way if, but you are seeing me. So when we look at each other, I can see a perspective that you, it's not there for you. And you can see a perspective about me that is not there for me. And I think in society, we need to recognize that the different perspective, the different voices, that's what makes us richer as a society, as human beings, not sameness sameness basically leads to a stagnation,

Joshua Croke (27:19):

The beauty and value of diversity. And thank you so much. These our, our time has flown by. We are wrapping up. So thank you for 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, and can be heard wherever you listen to podcast. I'm your host. Joshua Croke. Our audio producer is Giuliano D’Orazio, who also made our show music. Thank you to Molly Gammon, who also support the production of the show and special. Thanks to Dr. Luis Padraja for joining us today. Public Hearing is created by Action! by Design. Learn more about our work@actionbydesign.co. And thanks for listening.