As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, culture plays a central role in Voces y Manos. This year, we decided to embark on a new adventure: helping students to develop videos about their culture, identify, and community.
Over the weekend students travelled to their communities, where they recorded interviews with elders. They asked their grandparents and neighbors to talk about the history of their community: How did the community get its name? What are the most important events in the community’s recent history?
Students uncovered a wealth of information, which they incorporated into short videos. In addition to interviewing elders, students also shared about themselves in their videos. They talked about their cultural identify, and why it is important to them. They discussed their vision, or the change they hope to see in their communities. And they articulated how they plan to work as community leaders to make that change come to fruition.
As always, hard week was broken up with various dinámicas (games). We started the week with a very powerful dinámica in which students stood in a circle, and one by one, shared a strength that they appreciate about one of their classmates.
On a more lighthearted note, we also played a game of telephone, an international classic.
At the end of the week, students presented their videos to a packed audience of students and teachers at Fundación Nueva Esperanza, the students’ middle school. Teachers and fellow students congratulated the presenters on their work. The youth presenters left not only having learned new skills–such as how to use video editing programs–but also with newfound confidence in their communities, and their own abilities to create change. (We are currently working on final edits and sub-titles for these videos, and look forward to sharing them as soon as they are ready to go!) Next week, the youth will harness this confidence to take on their next challenge: developing a community project.
