On February 17th, I attended a presentation discussing Professor Dorsey and Professor Diaz’s new book concerning the border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. They’re lecture focused on how recent immigration reform is designed to create suspect citizens and how its physical existence affects land, families, and culture. I have an intimate relationship with immigration, being born and raised in an immigrant community, and have stayed up to date with news on immigration. However, I was unaware of its interference in nature preserves and the fact that at some points, it is 2 miles NORTH of the Rio Grande, the actual borderline. Media presents the border as a dangerous, desolate landscape rather than the home of diverse ecosystems and communities. They don’t show the reality of “raja”, which translates to the act of splitting, tearing and scarring.

Our country’s southern border has become the site of a political power struggle between local and federal governments. The professor’s book is compiled of case studies regarding how the region has become affected by the wall. This includes testimonies from citizens who do not have the right to challenge the militarization of the border. One story Professor Dorsey shared was about her taking worldwide visitors to a part of the wall with a gate (this was a region two miles away from the actual border). These visitors were fearful of crossing the gate, because they didn’t want to enter Mexico. They were intimidated by the border patrol hovering with a machine gun and had a silent understanding that the wall was a sign of oppression. By the end of the lecture, it was evident that the border region is a constitution-free zone and learned of a common phrase legislators had begun telling civilians affected by wall construction “If you don’t like the wall, we’ll build it North of you.” At the conclusion of the event, the audience left with a new perspective of the border wall, its representation of raja on all levels, and how our government is allowed to test the elasticity of the US Constitution.

On February 5^th, I attended the One Book, One Richmond lecture where Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician responsible for leading the fight against lead in the water of Flint, Michigan presented on her work. In conversation with Dr. Karen Remley, Dr. Hanna-Attisha discussed her book, “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resilience, and Hope” and explained her choice of including her history as an immigrant family. I appreciate how she chose to immediately honor her roots and that she chose to highlight that it was “impossible to tell the story without saying where [she] came from”. Her family immigrated to the United States for the American dream, the idea of freedom and the power of democracy. As someone who grew up surrounded by the Latinx community, I could share in that pride and felt even more invested into her story.

The most important part of the event was learning how what they are implementing in Flint, Michigan is beginning to gain national attention. Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s office is located on the second floor of a farmer’s market, so she began to issue “nutrition prescriptions”. This $15 coupon could be used for fruits and veggies to help encourage children to improve their nutrition. This program will soon be replicated across the U.S. They also started the Flint Kids Read program, funded by the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, to overcome their previous statistic of 1 book per 300 children. In many ways, Flint is working to lift each other up and invest in their future through health, education and social justice. In the end, I was grateful to hear the words of wisdom Dr. Hanna-Attisha shared and resonated with her push for [college students] to pursue our own passions. She stated the best way to help Flint would be to find a social justice issue we are passionate about and open our eyes to the problems around us.

On January 27th, I attended Pure Performance by George Mumford, a mindfulness and performance expert. Despite the event beginning with a video montage of Mumford giving televised interviews, speeches and other professional settings, his entire lecture was unplanned. He repeatedly stated that he doesn’t plan his speeches and lets “the moment” dictate where the conversation will go. He started the night guiding the full Ukrop auditorium through breathing exercises and then spoke in a storytelling manner for about forty-five minutes. His overall message was to be loving to one another and several of his mantras were rooted in religion such as, “Be still, and know…” and seeing “self in other, other in self”. 

He did not use a presentation, which at times made it difficult to follow along, but my favorite part of the event was the Q&A. This is where his wisdom and expertise shined, and where I learned to think of the world around me in different ways. For example, a student asked for advice on how college students can be kinder to themselves and Mumford responded by saying, “Treat yourself the way you treat others…realize you’re a masterpiece…believe who you want to be (i.e. generous, patient) is who you already are.” In the end, I felt it was a refreshing message given the state of the campus community and appreciated his emphasis on how we should treat others.