Latino Leadership Alliance of the Lehigh Valley

I have been a member of the Latino Leadership Alliance of the Lehigh Valley for ten years. I enjoy the meetings - I get energy from them, meet interesting people and learn more about my community.

A member of the organization hosted a wonderful dinner meeting in July. I got to see old friends and make new ones, and enjoy some delicious homemade Latino dishes. We discussed the coordination of publicity about various projects of the committees, such as education and health.

At our gatherings I meet people from many different countries and cultures. After the meeting, some of us reminisced about our childhoods, and how the culture and geography of our families influenced our outlooks on life. We recalled sad times and happy times, but the stories were always interesting.

As far as my family history, most of my ancestors came mostly from Germany. I'm sad about the fact that I didn't get the opportunity to learn German from them - all I heard was English when I was growing up. I'm now starting to study German and to learn more about my family's history.

In this country, there has always been pressure on immigrants to learn English, be "American" and forego use of our ancestral languages. I believe that you can learn English just as well, or better, if you continue speaking your family's original language and appreciating the cultural traditions.

When I was a child, I found a little book that had Spanish words in it, with little cartoon pictures showing the meanings. I was fascinated with the book... I didn't know anything about Spanish. I probably had never been exposed to any languages other than English. Somehow this little book seemed magical to me - like a secret code.

When I got to high school, I studied Spanish, loved my teachers and the classes. I studied it in college, and went to Spain to study at the College of Political Science and Economics at the University of Madrid for two semesters.

This was a long time ago, but over the years I've gotten to know people from all over Latin America, as well as Latinos who grew up in the US. These friends have told me such wonderful stories, always with such deep feeling... I enjoy speaking Spanish, and I've grown to love the food, music and culture.

The study of geography is very interesting, and I've learned a lot about world culture and languages from people who have brought stories from other places and times. I have some other blogs that tell stories about these topics.

The Latino Leadership Alliance of the Lehigh Valley has a special place in my heart. Meetings and membership are open to anyone. Monthly meetings usually take place at the Lehigh County Government Center at 8:30 a.m. on the third Tuesday of every month, except July and August. The Government Center is located at 17 S. 7th Street in Allentown.

For further information, see the organizations web site at www.llalv.org. Meetings are conducted in English, and there is no charge to attend. The organization also holds meetings and activities of various committees, and several special events each year.