Today was truly sad, simply for the fact that we ended writing and aztec math classes today :(. I started of my morning doing danza, which reminded me of the morning ceremonies that I did growing up in Anahuacalmecac. Sooo we finished write class today along with my Common App. and I had a hard time today when writing about my Abuelita Flora’s passing , but she wouldn’t want me sad. Finally we ended our atzec math class today and the one thing I learned today was that my people didnt sacrife other people and that it was a lie made up the Vatican and Cortez. I knew it all along.
Victor: too fun but Too Short :(
Woke up today and ran straight to breakfast, I don’t know why but I was starving. After a satisfying breakfast, I had my 2nd last writing class, common app. still in the works. Then we had a workshop with Joshua Hathaway about colonialism and about how the school system tries to indoctrinate us into what they want us to believe in, Population control. Then we had an awesome writing class, where we listened to music and wrote either story or how the song made us feel, I wrote one on an oldies song that made me feel that I was chillin with someone special.
Victor: New things…
The highlight of my day was going to WesternU to get to view and Examine a human heart and a corpse (that donated itself to educational purposes before death). It was definitely something new to me, it wasnt all that horrifying though, knowing that the person donated their corpse willingly. I learned a lot about the heart and the respiratory system today and i am thankful that I got to do that today.
Victor: 4 Days left?!?!
Felt pretty tired this morning… But I started the day with Indigenous Games which boosted me up for the day. I went to work on my common applications and fabricating the foundation of the essay, which i’m going to start writing tonight. After that I went to Aztec Math which was awesome as always but i’m a little sad that that’s going to end in a couple of days 😦 . Then we had a class on Social Movements which was AWESOME!!!! We talked about the Zapatistas and the Idle No More movements and I received lots of new information on those movements.
Victor: Back to life, Back to reality
Indigenous Games was the best way to start this morning. We finally got to play the Flowers of War game and it was a fun, strategical and challenging game to play. After that, we had breakfast then proceeded to our Common Application class. Today in class, I was able to finish my body paragraphs for my Common App. Then we had Aztec Math, which is a class im always looking forward to go to because im always learning something new and the material taught in the class is interesting. We had dinner then we gathered up with all the men and we talked about death and how different peoples of this land address or feel about it and we also sang the Honoring Women song before being dismissed into Blogging.
Victor: Wishtoyo
We arrived to Wishtoyo and were welcomed by the Wishtoyo family. We all gave each other hugs and greeted each other. We then all had lunch together and talked to each other and enjoying the food. After that we had some free time, I decided to just gaze off into the sunset and write some things in my journal.we then had dinner which was delicious and after that, Mati talked about the Chumash culture all the way through until bedtime, which I enjoyed and took in every moment of it. Woke up the next morning, we went to the beach, didn’t do much but chill out and catch some California sun. After that I did 2 different activities before dinner which were Sacred Geometry, Which i was really into and I also made a traditional abalone necalce. We had burritos for dinner, which made me feel at home again, I was starting to grow a connection to Wishtoyo. Unfortunately I did not go to the sweat lodge due to not hydrating enough prior to it, so I just watched the stars and thought about people in my life for a bit and went to bed.I felt somewhat emotional the next morning because we were leaving Wishtoyo, but before we left, we got to surf at the beach, which for me resulted in getting a bad sunburn on my back and neck and also before we left, we had one final lunch in Wishtoyo… We said our goodbyes to everyone there and has we were going out the gate of Wishtoyo, the people we had met there sung a song and prayed for us, It made me emotional in the inside. We got back to Pitzer College and we were late for dinner… Soooo while we were in Music Scoring class, our mentors got us all In-N-Out!!! So right after an hour spent in an awesome music class, we had our food and went to bed.
Victor M. : 5 Days…
Woke really tired this morning. First thing I did this morning was run to the indigenous games as I was soon going to be late to it. I made it 2 minutes before it started and today I was excited because we do a new thing every time we do indigenous games. Today we were practicing ancient strategies used by my people, the Mexica. We did runs with a group of 8 people, which we also practiced formations used against the Spanish when they came, one of my highlights of the day. Another highlight of my day was, of course going to Aztec Math class, that class never disappoints and in fact makes my day knowing that I’m re-connecting. And the final thing that made my day was weaving up a basket. My basket ended up being a vase, but i think when I go back, I’m going to give it to someone special. Last thing I want to say is that I’m so excited to go to Wishtoyo tomorrow.
Victor: 4th Day, feel very close to everyone
Last Night, We all did an activity consisting of standing on blankets and the blankets represented parts of Canada and we represented the native population of Canada. We held sheets of paper that were “Scrolls”, Which either had a quote or had a text that said an event that took place and had a negative or positive impact on the people. I felt stressed out, Heavy, sadden and anxious at tons of points of this exercise due to all my peers (representing the native population) disappearing due to losing their land, women in the native community disappearing, children being snatched from their parents to go to boarding schools, suicide rates death by starvation or death by TB, Smallpox, etc. It was a moving exercise, we then all sat down in our chairs and started sharing how that experience was for us. It became rather moving and a safe space for people to share thing that they normally would just tell people they met 3 days earlier. The more people shared the more I realized that in some ways, I could related to everyone. It was a very Emotional but supportive night, what I mean by that was that everyone was there for each other that night. On to today, I started off my morning waking up at 7:50 to go get breakfast. Our trip the springs in West Hollywood was cancelled, so the schedule for today was alternated. Instead for 2 hours, we did Danza Azteca, which i’m happy that i got to today because its been a year and a half now since i’ve done Danza with a group of people, It really felt good and I felt connected. and we talked about how Danza is connected to everything that surrounds us, I was absolutely amazed and mind blown because I had never thought of Danza Azteca at that complex level. I then attend a ceremony that all the boys were in, It was great we got to smudge ourselves and sung songs. After that, a few us went to the town area and went to Yogurtland and got some yogurt and we also went to the record store, which was awesome even though I spent most of the time at the Hip Hop section looking at my favorite albums such as J. Dilla’s ‘Donuts’ and MF DOOM’s ‘Mmm… Food’.
Victor Munoz: Feelin’ Good on Second Day
Woke up this morning, Though I was tired, we started off this morning by learning doing some Indigenous martial arts before breakfast. After breakfast, we went to Pomona College for most of the day. We got a tour of the campus, had lunch there, took writing classes and for me, I was being retaught a different way of using the Nepowantzinzin. We then headed back to campus and after dinner we were fortunate to see Spirit Game: The Pride of A Nation. I loved the film for it’s topic focused on the sport of Lacrosse and it’s approach to The culture and story behind the sacred game. I was rather moved by the film because of the ignorance and undereducatedness of some of the peoples ideas on the Iroquois and their game, for an example, how one of the medicine man of the tribe was denied access to the Pope’s speech due ton his headdress which contained deer horns which the secret services viewed as a threat because it was “Pointed”. I loved the film for what it is and I will share film with friends and family to bring attention to this film.
Victor Munoz: No Longer Isolated
First moment i walked in Pitzer, I was unsure. Was new to this program, didn’t know lots of people except some old friends I knew from my old school, Anahuacalmecac. I loved the orientation that was held for us, we were introduced to our mentors and speakers we would have later this week and we danced to bird songs at the end of it as a blessed welcoming. After that we went to a theater workshop that was fun, I was familiar with some of the activities we did because I attend a performing arts school and its was very correlated to dance. Then we made our own Clappersticks, which was challenging but fun. After dinner we got in a circle and we all shared about our name, tribal affiliation and someone that is important to us, and for that I shared that my mom played a big role in my life because she birthed me and raised me through all the hell that was going on throughout my time and i love and appreciate her for putting up with me and teaching me much about my culture. And now I’m here, blogging, in a computer lab. I didn’t think for my first day here I would be talking to many people that I know and didn’t know, they all kept me all day in an optimistic mode. In the words of The Stylistics, “People Make the World Go ‘Round”.
nativeyouth2college.org 