Pastora Carmen Colon-Brown

Pastora Carmen Colon-Brown brought us a colorfully told session on her life and culture growing up Puerto Rican.  She began by telling about her experiences growing up and one particular incident came up about being shot with a b-b gun because her family wasn't wanted in their suburban neighborhood.  She shared other instances regarding the family structure and the possibility of dual families being shared by her father - which brought the room to silence as she reiterated that this was common practice in the Puerto Rican culture.  She went on with a heartbreaking story where she compared her life to that of Negi in Esmeralda Santiago's novel, When I Was Puerto Rican where she was expected to care for her brothers and sisters versus enjoying a child hood that many of us took for granted.  With a perfectly un-accented voice, she declared her disdain at having lost her accent due to her school's insistence that she stop speaking spanish in the home in the hopes that her english speaking abilities would grow.  Lastly, she spoke about her being "called" and her walk towards God and back to her Latino roots as Pastora of Vida Eterna-Iglesia Luterana where she oversees many programs that enrich the education of children, adults, and girls in particular through mentoring, tutoring, and worship services.  To quote Maya Angelou, Pastora Carmen is truly a "phenomenal woman" of whom we hope to help in the near future.