Carmen Colon-Brown was our featured morning speaker for Thursday, June 27. Hailing from Puerto Rico, she spoke with amazing parallels to Esmeralda experiences chronicled in "When I Was From Puerto Rican." She was affable, interesting and entertaining with her stories, experiences and travels.
As the eldest of a large family, she talked of having very little childhood as she cooked, cleaned and looked over younger siblings.

She shared personal stories that were often laced with rejection as she described not fitting in with various groups. She also rejected the expectations placed upon her as a Puerto Rican woman - get married young, have babies and take orders from your husband. This very independent and strong woman went a different path - marrying an African-American man with Native American and Jamaican roots, getting a college degree and becoming a pastor in a Lutheran Church!

She is passionately and devoutly attending to the needs of her flock of Latino parishioners and their families. Her Lutheran Church has many outreach programs to help those in need. Those needs might be reading and writing English classes, Citizenship Exam prep courses, and summer programs for children.  A Girl Talk program was discussed and how this helps senoritas dealing with their particular issues and concerns.

A really inspiring lecture from a great lady doing wonderful things in the name of serving others.