Mestizo project on the move
Community » West-side youth rally around U. research
By Ben Fulton

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 11/23/2008 07:55:22 PM MST


Click photo to enlargeStudents and community members look at the action research projects at the... (Chris Detrick)«1234»Laura Cobián, a 16-year-old sophomore at West High School, noticed something peculiar in her school last January.

During that cold winter month, state lawmakers on Capitol Hill were discussing ways to curb employment and housing opportunities for undocumented workers through Senate Bill 81. Over in the House of Representatives, some lawmakers were looking to end in-state tuition for the children of undocumented workers with House Bill 241.
"All this is happening," thought Cobián, "and no one in my school is talking about it."

Then she launched the Mestizo Arts and Activism Project, an education and leadership program for Salt Lake City west-side youth. There, she not only feels comfortable discussing such issues with her peers, but has a blast doing it. "We're all family, and we all know that we're here for each other," Cobián said. "No matter what their race, they will be here for you."

Judging from the project's open-house last week at the Mestizo Coffeehouse at 631 N. Temple, where youth participants presented research projects that included activist blogs and community art work, her peers agree. The project is a heady mix of youth activism that wraps social research, art, academia and community change around the core of Salt Lake City's west side. While it may have originated in the offices of University of Utah academics and administrators, the project aims to build on west-side community projects of the past while


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allowing young people to direct their research themselves.

The open house began with food and wrapped with a line dance to Miami Sound Machine's "Conga." In the middle, students showed their work. One project draped on a display wall consisted of a drawing of Salt Lake City to highlight spots important to students' lives. "What I like about this is that we've formed a community, even if we don't live in the same place," said Natalie Hollinz, a West High senior and project member.

The project began in January 2007 with the selection of 18 West High School students under the direction of Caitlin Cahill, assistant professor of community studies in the U.'s department of family and consumer studies, and Matt Bradley of the U.'s Honors College. So far, students have created art projects and DVDs documenting the effects of stereotyping in school and the challenges facing undocumented students. An online program informs undocumented students of their rights under state law and opportunities for receiving tuition aid not tied to federal funds, which are available only to U.S. citizens. The documentary about undocumented students was pared down to 5 minutes from its original 20 and distributed to key state lawmakers during the last legislative session.

"This project is a model of reciprocity and exchange. Academics aren't going to ask the same questions as youth in the community," said Cahill. "There's not that many spaces in their lives where they're able to talk about these things.

"What's striking to me is that these young people are concerned about some of the most urgent social issues of our time -- immigration, discrimination and equity."

Alonso Reyna, 18, a freshman at the University of Utah, discovered Mestizo Arts and Activism through the University Neighborhood Partners program, a partner in the project with the Westside Leadership Institute and the Lowell Bennion Public Service Professorship, which funds it.

Reyna was ecstatic to discover a group of youth concerned with issues central to his experiences. Born in Peru, his mother worked to re-educate herself and build a new life in the United States. He said he knows what it's like to have teachers and professors place low expectations on Latino students, then raise those expectations once students prove themselves in the classroom.

"They really appreciate minority needs. Not many people take into consideration what other people feel. I thank this project for that," Reyna said. "I just want to see it grow."

Cahill said she helped oversee a similar youth research project during her years teaching in New York City. Students there rate gentrification and racism as leading issues, she said, while Salt Lake City's west-side youth concern themselves far more with issues of immigration.

"Here the immigration issue is more central, but there's a silence about issues of racism," Cahill said. "Really, though, we're talking about talking about the same thing when we discuss either issue."


http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11058549