Spanish National Honor Society Students Welcome Guest Speaker

By: Andre Salkin
Guest Speaker: Frances Bustos O’Connell
André’s abuela, visited Spanish Honors Society to speak on her experiences growing up in an immigrant family in San Antonio, Texas, in the Great Depression-era. She talked of her experiences witnessing segregation, and institutional racism in her community. She also touched on the toll of assimilation, discussing what it was like to be an outsider in her community even though Hispanics were the majority. She also spoke on the unique cultural practices to the Latin community like traditional medicine usage and the food they ate, even generously making and bringing delicious guacamole for the club. 😊 If we wish to think globally, her experiences growing up in such a culturally different context than Old Lyme can offer us a unique cultural perspective into Latin culture, and the strange intersection of the Tejano identity: to be too white for Mexico, but too brown for the United States.