Editor’s Note: This article is based on reporting by Julianna Brown of Capital News Service, a student-powered newsroom at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Communication. RVA Magazine has edited and expanded the reporting for our audience. For...
I was only 12 years old when I moved from Guatemala to Virginia with my mom and siblings to reunite with my dad after 10 years. Everything was new to me. I remember coming out of the plane and even noticing that the air smelled different. I felt so far away from home, a stranger in a new land. As strangers, we have to learn so much about so...
Growing up in Miami Florida as a Latina, I never really considered myself a “minority” because of the high population of Latinos and Spanish-speakers living there. Every sign you read and every space you enter is bilingual; that is the norm. So, when I moved to Richmond, I experienced culture shock as I noticed the lack of language diversity and...
Through my work in the Richmond area for the last twenty years, I have dedicated my career to welcoming immigrant families, starting at Refugee and Immigration Services, then through the City of Richmond Office of Multicultural Affairs, and for the last five years, through Sacred Heart Center, where we connect Latino families with tools to thrive...
As an Afro Latina and community leader, I have witnessed massive power inequities and disproportionate access to social, economic, and cultural resources. First, the lack of representation of Latino and Afro Latinos in professional roles within government, nonprofit and private institutions is terrifying. Second, Latinos and Afro Latinos are...
My vision of a racially equitable Richmond is one in which resourced institutions, such as higher education, invest in reparative and equitable practices that respect lived expertise and are built on partnerships. As a society, we value expertise. Expertise is the skill or knowledge that emerges from experience, training or study, and it is...
A gift has tremendous power. Not only is the power of a gift conveyed in its value, but also through the sentiment with which it was given. A gift can evoke emotions of compassion and gratitude shared by the giver and the recipient. A gift is given without an expectation of reciprocity, compensation, or commendation. The giver is compelled to...
A conversation between a Black woman and a white woman on Shifting Power and the need for Radical Imagination in the nonprofit sector. An equitable Richmond would be a place where leaders of color have access to the resources we need to protect the people we love and build thriving communities according to our own vision -- without...
Our nation is experiencing a movement. Another awakening like other times in our checkered history. As Americans, we have not lived up to our ideals that all men and women are created equal and would by design enjoy equitable opportunities. The ideal or vision for a nation built on the ideals of freedom and liberty are honorable ideals. However,...
“Cash rules everything around me C.R.E.A.M., get the money Dollar dollar bill, y'all” -Wu Tang Clan The hook to the popular song "C.R.E.A.M" by hip-hop group Wu-Tang has been widely referenced in American culture and music since its release in 1994. You don’t have to be a Wu-Tang Clan fan to identify how these lyrics may illuminate some of our...