Author: lalamilk

Starting of the day with great exercise from Hector Pacheco and John. We practiced the strikes and blocks from the day before and implemented them into a game. We also practiced different formations and strategies that will be used tomorrow. I led half of the group on a four minute run and ran a few more times with the rest of the group. It was a very useful exercise because, I practiced along with my brothers, to form a single being/ entity.

Then, working on my common application essay was a very fun and idea following session. I was separated from the rest of my class with my peers who had attended the program a year before. I began to brainstorming my essay on my family ancestry and my identity. Once I finished brainstorming about that idea, I started to compare the loss of culture and identity of the native tribes of the entire continent. It really allowed me to express how I feel about the loss of identity and culture my family suffers.

Learning about Aztec Math and working with the Nepoatzintzin is always amazing. Elder Vicente taught the group and I to multiply and divide with 3-digit numbers with using just the Nepoatzintzin. It is such an amazing tool and I am humbled and honored to be able to use such a sacred device from my ancestors. Elder Vicente was very clear in his directions and made it fun for the whole group. He is such a great teacher and has so much knowledge that any one of us can benefit from. At the end of the day, I made baskets with Elder Lori Sisquoc. The basket weaving does require a a large amount of patience. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish a a large basket, but was still a good day.

I woke up in such a good mood. I was able to get more sleep which made me feel rejuvenated.  After breakfast, we had a danza circle that I was really excited for. Elder Vicente taught me different steps of doing danzas I thought I already knew. It was a really fun and interesting time that I spent with the group. After that, we had lunch that was delicious. Then, boys and girls were separated into their own talking circles at different locations in the Pitzer Campus. The talking circle was very informative and really opened my eyes about my surroundings when it comes to how men or I treat females. I felt very happy and relieved to have had that conversation with my brothers of the program.

Finally, a group of us went to the village near Pitzer Campus. I went to the comic book store with some of my new friends and I was very excited to see so many comics. I purchased the newest comic of The Flash that looked very interesting and action-packed. Then, we went to Yogurt land that was nearby and joined up with the larger portion of the group. We had laughs, but we had to leave to check out the rest of the village because of the shortage of time. We passed by a record store that I had to go into. I felt like a kid in a candy store and found so many CD’s that I wanted. I eventually decided on about six that were some of my favorite albums. On our way back to the campus, our driver, Violet, allowed me to put on a RATM CD. It was a very relaxing and joyful day.

The day started very well with Hector Pacheco teaching us his cultural games. Learning how to properly strike an opponent and block their strikes were very important. The game implemented these actions along with the rule of having each opponents toes touching while turning in a circle. The objective of the game was to touch the others head and that would be a point. The first one to three points won that leg, but there are two. Later on in the day, we carved soap stones of different animals, with Elder Julia,  to create necklaces. I carved my soap stone of a bear.  It was a really relaxing atmosphere and I enjoyed spending time on this activity.

Towards the evening, we did the blanket exercise with Elder Garry and Elder Silvia that was based on the taking of land from tribes in Canada.  It was a saddening and heartbreaking experience to be involved in this activity. Their was so death and misery that was mentioned. I could only imagine what the native peoples of Canada had to through. Once we finished, we had a talking circle about what our thoughts, connected experiences or opinions about the activity. What was shared in the circle was so powerful but very emotional and numbing. At that moment, I felt so close and trusted by my peers which made me very happy. TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY.

I wanted to thank Scott and all of the mentors for such a great experience in Pitzer. Also I have learned a lot form them and they have made me reboot my view on the world and see the world in different perspectives and even changed the way how I look at myself and the things I need to improve about myself. I also wanted to thank Mati and Lahui for inviting the group and I to Wishtoyo and teaching us such great values and making us wiser and bringing us a step closer to being great elders in the future. I hope to visit Wishtoyo very soon. Oh how can I forget my favorite mentor Edgar. Edgar was such a great help academically, mentally and emotionally. He has opened my eyes to such a different perspective about different variety of things all over the world. Thank you so much Edgar for everything and I hope to keep in touch with you. Thank everyone for making this trip such a great experience and I will miss everyone very dearly. 😥

I enjoyed my stay at Wishtoyo. I loved being around such wise and experienced and understanding elders. The highlight of my stay at Wishtoyo was having a men’s circle. I am going to be very honest and say that I thought that it was going to be very boring and uninteresting. But when it all finished I walked out of the circle a new person and many of my perspectives were changed about a variety of different things. It brought a lot of joy to stay at Wishtoyo and I hope to visit again soon.

1. The object is black, has letters on it, used to block the sun and is not from the United States. My uncle is from the same place the certain object is from. My uncle is from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. My uncle was always proud of where he was from. At parties, once music that came from Culiacan was played, there wasn’t anything to stop him from going ahead and grabbing someone and dancing with them. He was never disappointed from where he came from.
2. Every Christmas since 2014, it has been held at my new house. But before I moved, every Christmas was held at my father’s parent’s house. But every year my grandmother and my mother would make tamales with arroz and frijoles. Also everyone would be there every year and every year I always look forward to seeing my family come together and bringing happiness to the households.
3. Every birthday for my uncle I would want to have an altar with a picture of him and bless his soul so that the his body will once again be one with the earth. I would want to used natural plants so I might want to use sage.

Today I had many highlights. For starters I touched a couple of organs from humans like the heart, lungs and a kidney at Western University. They smelled a bit weird, like a shoe store or like glue in a bottle. After touching dissected body parts, my group and I went to a different part of the university and we seen a virtual reality body on one of the biggest touch screens ever. I had such a fun and interesting day.

Today in the class of theater, I have a lot of fun learning two new dances. But towards the end of the class, something memorable happen. Ms. Rose asked us to get in a circle and she called out 4 people to grab anything in the room and try to build an alter with them. The Ms. Rose took out pieces of cloths that were made from her grandmother and she talked about her grandmother’s story about where she was from and her story of coming to the United States. Then she asked another 4 people to organize the cloths on the alter. Then she asked people to volunteer to talk about an object she asked to bring the day before that was important to them or reminded them about someone important to them. I even volunteered. It was an emotional moment to see people let out their emotions when they talked about their certain object. But it was also a moment of trust when the people speaking were willing to tell everyone else something that was so personal. It was such powerful moment.