In Montgomery, Latino Teens Also Challenge Stereotypes
By Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 28, 2007
There was the loud count -- "Uno! Dos! Tres!" -- then 23 teenagers lifted the gigantic, soggy, mossy, rotting log and began to haul it out of the brush and toward the pile of to-be-mulched branches and limbs.
"Vamos!" shouted Daniel Lopez, 17, instructing the line of his peers forward.
Despite the drizzly weather, more than 60 Latino students in Montgomery County awoke early yesterday and made their way to Wheaton Regional Park, where they had signed up to clear brush, weed out invasive plants, collect trash and plant trees.
The students' work was part of the county's 21st annual community service day, which attracted more than 1,000 volunteers for more than 50 projects.
Volunteers across the county painted a church, cleaned nature trails, made sandwiches for homeless shelters and assembled care packages for college students who grew up in the foster care system. But the mission of the Latino volunteers, assembled by the nonprofit organization Identity Inc., was larger than just a pile of sticks and trash.
As they put it, the students were slowly working to change the stereotypes that surround their culture -- stereotypes that characterize them as litterbugs, gang members, a drain on resources, outsiders without a role in the community.
"It's our home, too," said Lorenzo Palomo, 16, a junior at Gaithersburg High School who competed with his friends to see who could haul the heaviest branches.
"We want to show we care about stuff like this," added Milagro Aguilar, 14, a freshman at Albert Einstein High School.
Those messages are the kind that Identity staff members repeat over and over. The organization targets at-risk Latino youths in Montgomery, brings them together so they are not culturally isolated and helps them navigate a country that often rejects them. By reaching out to the students, advocates also reach parents, who often rely on their children as linguistic and cultural interpreters.
The debates about immigration can become "an excuse to bash the Latino population" and further confuse teenagers who are torn between cultures, said Enid Gonz¿lez Alem¿n, a former immigration lawyer who is Identity's development coordinator.
"They grow up being called 'illegal,' " she said. "You can do things that are illegal; you can come here illegally. But a person can't be legal or illegal. That's what they face. It's probably the most toxic thing to their development."
So events like service day serve two purposes: They show that Latino teens' cultural circles exist outside of gangs and that Latinos are invested in their communities.
Lopez worried that yesterday's weather would hinder that goal. So Friday night, the outgoing teenager, who is Guatemalan and Portuguese, called his Gaithersburg High classmates and reminded them they were participating rain or shine.
"They kept saying, 'Is it going to rain?' " Lopez said. "I told them, 'It doesn't matter. We have to sacrifice. We have to be out there. We have to show people.' "
Lopez's calls, along with similar prodding at other schools, worked, and several dozen rather sleepy middle- and high-schoolers from Gaithersburg, Germantown, Wheaton, Silver Spring and Takoma Park were bused to the park. They were joined by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), County Council member George L. Leventhal (D-At Large), and State's Attorney John McCarthy and his staff.
"I keep telling these kids, 'Look how important you are,' " said Bruce Adams, director of the county's Office of Community Partnerships.
The volunteers didn't seem to really care about being important. They were focused on avoiding a wasp nest, competing in impromptu log-hauling contests and digging holes in the rocky ground for the young trees.
"It keeps us busy," said Jacky Ipina, 15, a sophomore at Gaithersburg High and a first-generation Guatemalan American. "Makes us feel like we are a part of everything."
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