Cynthia A.’s Graduation Speech

“ El conocimiento nos hace responsible” (Ernesto “Che” Guevera).  Ernesto “Che” Guevera once said, “ being aware makes us responsible.” My name is Cynthia Anguiano I am a 19 year-old Latina who became aware of the issues in my community early on. I grew up in the Southside of Santa Rosa California. The Southside community is 92% Latinos and for that my community has faced prejudice remarks. For example “ Cynthia are you going to graduate from that school” or “ I hope you don’t become pregnant or join a gang? Those are questions and comments I have received within the past 4 years. At first I didn’t understand why everyone questioned my capacity to be successful. However, I realized it wasn’t my capacity they were questioning. My community was questioning my entire school population. The Southside of my community is known to have a high level of gang violence and many believe that my school “ Elsie Allen High School” happens to have the students that are at risk. And, yes statistically as Latinos we are at a high risk to not graduate. However, my school has happen to have those Latino students who don’t want to be part of the failing percent. These students happen to have hunger for education.

I remember going through the Youth Ambassadors page during the end of December in 2011. I had been in a huge search for a traveling opportunity to service in another country. However, when I first read about the Youth Ambassador Program I was in disbelieve that so much was being offered. On the other hand, the thing that drew me to the Youth Ambassadors Program was the fact that it would help me develop the necessary skills to develop a community based initiative, while learning about the difference between the U.S and another country.

This was the exactly what I needed in order to help the student’s in my community find support to continue on to a post- secondary education, while not having our community members targeting their ability.

Right away I started brainstorming on different ideas of how I could make a difference. “Let It Be Known” was the name I picked when I applied and the name that I stuck with. However, once I was in Paraguay I came up with different ideas of what kind of project I was going to lead on.

In Paraguay I completed my mission and vision. The mission of “Let It Be Known” is to rebuild the reputation of Elsie Allen High School by creating a club of strong leaders and a school newspaper. The vision of “Let It Be Known” is to have students working together to create a positive school community that values motivation, education and a strong sense of community. Upon my return I was able to lead a group of 6 students willing to work through our newspaper. With hard work and dedication we managed to work together to accomplish our first school newspaper. The thing that makes me feel completely accomplished about this project even if it’s  had some down falls was that I had community members involved as well. Mr. Tamayo who is a owner of “ La Tortilla Factory “ and staff at my school supported the newspaper financially. However, the thing that made me really proud was knowing that Mr. Tamayo, a very wealthy man in community, become a supporter of Elsie Allen. He has now helped create a program at Elsie Allen that supports our students getting into college. Students are slowly but surely receiving support from community members.

Many things were accomplished in Paraguay. I experienced many things that if you hear them all you still wouldn’t be able to understand how it deeply changed my life.

I became aware of things that affect my community making me completely responsible to change it. The success of my project however, hasn’t been what I entirely wanted. But, the experience of leading this project has been everything I needed to continue on different projects and to better myself. Because of this experience, I will continue to take initiative to take action on anything that needs change in my community.

Lastly I would like thank a few people on being responsible for my accomplishments.
Thank you to the U.S Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Thank you Funadacion  Paraguaya.

Thank you to staff of Amigos de las Americas Ana, Leslie, Emma and of course to a very patient mentora Miss Lauren.

You have all been the great supporters of our work. Thank you.