Familia has been at Evergreen for less than a decade. Originally created to financially support undocumented students on campus, it disbanded during 2020 when the pandemic started and has been absent on campus for about 3 years. Beginning fall of 2022, a group of students joined together to reimagine and create a support network for Latine students and the Latine community that we felt particularly strong about; a seed planted during The Mural Project earlier that year.
We had a hand in organizing an immense number of on-campus and off-campus events. Some events were held/co-organized through the First Peoples Office – now known as BLISS – due to having an employee who was Mexicana. Other events were put together by students with previous connections and experiences in activism specific to Farm Worker Justice. During the 2022-2023 school year, the determination was set to restart Familia and begin working towards events, goals and spaces that Latine students felt pride working with and enjoy being in.
As a group of students who are passionate about being activists, we also wanted to create a group that was meant for us. We wanted a space curated by people who could understand us and help us navigate the different spaces on campus.
To express this now, it seems obvious, but as we continued to work towards our goals there were many difficulties and barriers that we reached and continue to reach and boundaries that had to be set.
We hope that as you read this, you gain a better understanding, courage and determination to find your place here, make a statement and find or create spaces to rest and have fun as well!
1 – Finding the right faculty and staff to support you.
The El Camino: Latinx, Latin American Studies, and ELL Education Pathway Faculty are superstars. Everyone who founded Familia met in an El Camino program. Although you can take a class and be friends, Catalina Ocampo Lodoño was the faculty who pushed us to bring action to our theories; to dream together and bring those dreams to fruition. Many of the faculty in this pathway come and support our events in either the behind the scenes planning or with participation – either personal or with their class! They are great people to have in your corner and are all about students.
The BLISS pro-staff are another example of great staff on campus – supporting you in looking, finding and/or reaching out for resources. As Familia, they’ve helped us navigate conversations with faculty, requesting spaces on campus, and sharing their resources with us as a club. Those in the office this year are Michael, Juanita and Sam.
Student Activities is a resource hub for all clubs. Here you have access to staff and archival club material if your club has history on campus. The staff working in student activities have vast knowledge and can be very helpful when navigating this space. Familia’s current advisor is Greg Porter (shout out DJ Porter!). Prior to Greg, Familias advisor was Kayla Mahnke Hargett who has been really helpful with giving us access to previous Familia budgets, and also helped us submit our budget for this current academic year. As first gen students, navigating being club coordinators hasn’t been easy, but having access to staff, our cubicle, and the office does ease some of the stress that comes with coordinating at times.
The Center for Community Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) also played a role in the success of our first year back. One of our coordinators was employed at the Center last year and we were greatly supported in many ways by the CCBLA. We would often hold meetings there and they helped us out immensely with Farmworker Justice Day. A huge shout out to Ellen Shortt-Sanchez, the director of the Center!
2 – Understanding who will support you and how
Those who are going to come and support you will be your friends, and other students of color. Being one of the only BIPOC clubs on campus, there is no denying that white students rarely show up to our events and that any activism or support they spew in person or online is just performative. We can’t completely say there has been no support from white peers, but the number is small.
For the white student body, we want to touch on the difference between supporting the spaces we create for the public and occupying spaces that are meant for latine students. Understanding these differences is key to navigating your support in any BIPOC sphere. The frustration lies when there is no turnout for events that you see flyered and advertised on our social media. We encourage you to participate and be active allies in our causes, these events are meant to challenge your ideas, make you uncomfortable and face the reality that we have been living in – to educate and expand or deepen the wider community’s understanding. For those who have supported us in those spaces and are committed to more, it can look like and be as simple as helping us set-up events, having those hard conversations and reality checks with their white peers. A great example is Grace Selvig. Grace is a member and very trusted ally of Familia, who in the fall of 2022 wrote an article piece for the CPJ documenting the involvement of Familia alongside Familias Unidas por la Justicia during their Farm Worker Solidarity Tour in Washington state.
We also need to emphasize the importance of the spaces for latine students to self organize. We cannot deliver our needs to you, the wider community, if we are denied the spaces where latine students are centered. We cannot tell you how to ally with us if we do not have an opportunity to share our experiences with one another, offer tips and advice in confidence. These spaces are not to teach the white person to be a better ally through their discomfort, this is a space where we, the latine students, can focus on truly supporting each other. If you’re not happy with not having your own space here, guess what? The entire campus is your space, so shut up.
We create events we organizers are passionate about and that we want to see. If you are a Latine student and want to do something specific you HAVE to speak up! More often than not, student workers and clubs that create those spaces want to hear from students who are looking for something new to do. We host weekly meetings, Wednesdays at 4:30 in El Barrio (Sem 2 E third floor), as an opportunity for us Latine students to brainstorm and be in community. We cannot read your minds. We want to be community-run, not us running our community. As cheesy as it sounds, your voice matters and we always love to hear what others have to say. But also, you gotta stick through with your vision – we cannot execute it on our own! We are here to support you and your ideas, not do it for you.
3 – Rest and Boundaries
As a relatively ‘new’ student group, it was very easy getting swept in wanting to do everything possible before the year ended. As much as it is fun to work on things that we’re passionate about, it’s easy to get roped in on an idea that ‘sounds’ good by faculty and being left to do a lot of the work for it with no support from that same group.
Setting boundaries for what you can and can’t do is important. We are not just random people who are running a club, we are students who also have jobs, volunteering and other work that we are doing. We want our name to be out there, but not at the expense of our rest and self-care days.
Saying “no” is important.
The work going into creating a space, a group, etc., is difficult and full of hurdles placed by the institution, so take care of yourselves. Make sure you watch a movie with your friends, go to the beach, read a book, carve out time for your hobby! All that is important when balancing everything that is being a student and more.
Join Familia Wednesdays at 4:30 in El Barrio (SemII E third floor). Follow us on our instagram @tescfamilia to get updates on events for Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) happening on November 1st and 2nd!
