A Personal (R)evolution
Czy del Pilar Huaman Vargas joined FIUTS in Seattle for last Fall’s Youth Ambassador Program with Bolivia and Peru. In this blog post, Czy, age 16, writes about her exchange experience and how it prepared her to take action to effect change in her community - and adapting to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She also reflects upon her growing understanding of issues related to racial justice in her own country and around the world, inspired by the U.S. protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
Czy del Pilar Huaman Vargas
My name is Czy del Pilar Huaman Vargas and I am a 16-year old teenager born and raised in Chachapoyas, a small city in northern Peru. I am passionate about social justice, mental health issues and education, and I am thrilled to be part of today's network of young Peruvian leaders. In July of the previous year, I was awarded a scholarship by the United States Embassy in Peru to be part of the 2019 Youth Ambassadors cohort. This was a three-week program that allowed me to travel to the United States for the first time and participate in intensive leadership training, project management, civic activism, and youth empowerment, as well as learn a little more about its culture.
There, thanks to World Learning and the Foundation for International Understanding through Students (FIUTS) of the University of Washington, we developed our skills as entrepreneurs. We were able to take part in talks with workers from the Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs regarding government policies and immigrants’ rights in the US and the round table discussion. We also visited the Museum of Pop Culture, the Space Needle, the Pike Place Market, among other activities that helped us reshape our perspective of the American lifestyle stereotype. And of course, having a closer look at this reality makes you comprehend how important it is to destroy prejudices in such a diverse country.
Youth Ambassadors from Bolivia and Peru in Seattle, Fall 2019
As a young girl with big dreams, this opportunity came at the perfect time to make me realize that we are all capable of doing great things, we only need to believe it is possible and not feel afraid to fail. I understood that failure is good as it helps you strengthen your roots, which leads to personal growth. With the Youth Ambassadors program, I could rediscover myself and find the connection between who I am, who I would like to become and my purpose in life. They gave me the tools needed to start my personal (r)evolution, encouraged me to translate my dreams into set-goals, those goals into actions, and work on that until they get fulfilled. Yet most importantly, gathering people from different backgrounds showed us that, on the opposite of what we have been taught, there are more similarities than differences between us, one of which is our burning desire to make this world a better place for everyone.
Upon returning from the trip, I decided not to be fearful of taking action and step up for what needs to be done to fight inequalities. That is how I started working on a community service project that I named "Education for the Future", which aims to improve the quality of education for children who live in rural areas. However, the journey I went through to execute it was not easy at all. Due to the complexity of the project, I had to resort to methods that involved greater responsibility: contacting governors, education professionals, among others, in order to receive their approval as I was assuming the role of a teacher.
As expected, many difficulties began to come from the very first day. It was not just logistically but also mental. There were days I felt the pressure and insecurities of not being the right fit for what those children needed to improve their education, or just not liking them. But this is when I reminded myself of the importance of these little things, that everything will work out the way it is meant to be, and that I will learn something new from this experience—so I moved onto the next stage. Nonetheless, it turns out that when everything seemed to be exactly where I planned, I had to face the biggest challenge of the whole process: the COVID 19 pandemic.
To everyone who might not have received counseling, this situation would have been their worst struggle. For me, it certainly was. But it also was the best way to test me and know my potential to that extent. So, instead of giving up on this project, I made the choice to stop it for a while and start another one, this time something greater. One thing I keep from the exchange and I strongly believe in is the power of storytelling as a tool of transformation and impact. For this reason, I felt the calling to use my experiences to motivate the youth in my community to tell their stories and create a support network in which teenagers can empower each other while discovering and building their path to a successful future. Now, I am the CEO and founder of Experiencias, an NGO associated with the Girl Up movement of the United Nations Foundation that promotes gender equality in political, economic and social fields for women and young girls through leadership programs all around the world.
Czy and her teammates meeting virtually
Currently, we have a pool of over 50 girls in my community who want to join our cause, so my teammates and I are working on preparing the best agenda to receive them. As we continue to combine efforts to launch the upcoming activities, we do not lose the notion of what is going on outside. We know the function that the media, today more than ever, plays in raising awareness and spreading the word regarding topics of huge importance. Thus, we use our platform to speak up and share digital illustrations we make, as a way to express what we think and feel about it. You can find more by clicking here.
Thence, taking into account the atmosphere we have been involved in lately, I would like to take a few lines to talk and reflect on racism and discrimination. These past days have finally awakened us from sleep and brought us to real life. They have exhibited the big lie that we have chosen to believe for years, that racial prejudices were gone, despite having records that told us, in the worst way ever possible, that this was not the case. Over George Floyd's death, many movements and protests have emerged, and it is quite sad and ironic to see that we needed someone to be dead to really open up our eyes towards the system of the society we live in.
All of us have –at some point in our lives– received this famous speech that says that to solve a problem, it is necessary to educate ourselves in the first place. It is true. But, have we ever wondered what happens when someone refuses to accept this is actually a problem? Here is the thing about this erroneous belief. Mandela said one day that “no one is born hating another because of the color of their skin, their background or their religion. People learn to hate”, and what a truth. We have learned not to respect black, brown, native, indigenous and different types of bodies since our frontline organizations have introduced racial discrimination behind public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and so on, that favor a group over others. Then, with that floating in our society like it is normal, of course people tend to think this is not an issue we must care about. Guess what, it is. And it is taking away from us hundreds of lives. Drastically.
For instance, we get surprised at African-Americans/people from minorities placing themselves in any remarkable position, and this happens given that we have normalized the fact that they are less likely to achieve it; not because they are not capable, but because there is an opportunity gap that prevents them from trying. Just like this, there are many other examples that I could mention now, but we all know them. What we need to understand is how unfair it sounds to hear that they are running from fear to seeking freedom, when freedom is something we should all have just for the fact of being humans. They are getting used to surviving something that should not require survival, and someone seeing them as a threat, can definitely become a threat to their lives.
To put you in context with how racism plays out in the place where I come from, I can say that being Peruvian is something that I always feel lucky and proud of. Nevertheless, living in a country that brings together so many distinct cultures, reinforces the idea of popular hierarchy. This reminds me of that video of a woman engineer having discriminatory behavior towards a lookout in Arequipa. After going viral, she said she was sorry and terrified. She probably was. But if so, I am sure she was terrified because she was being racist. Terrified of the message that our civilization has programmed us to believe, hold and transmit. Terrified of her inability to see beyond herself and recognize that her words were the product of her personal prejudice, that skin color and economic status are indicators of social difference
I have heard people saying that they prefer not to watch the news or do their own research on social bias because it "lessens their vibrations", because it "disconnects them from their comfort zone" or that they feel scared of not being right. Unluckily, we cannot speak of well-being without talking about racism, discrimination, exclusion. We cannot talk about raising awareness if we avoid the things that are slowly ruining the concept of humanity. On the contrary, learning about the injustices of the world helps you develop as a person, because it allows you to move from an unstable point to the place of your choice. By educating yourself, you are able to take responsibility for your words and actions, and explain to your surroundings why you support or are against something.
Therefore, the fact of not belonging to any minority in a vulnerable situation, does not make us less responsible for fighting in the ranks for an egalitarian society. That means that when we have the opportunity to witness a situation of injustice, we decide to get involved and do something about it. Changing the action changes the system. Changing the system allows us to write a better story, and writing a better story allows us to provide a better tomorrow for those behind us. Ending all kinds of segregation is a responsibility that stretches far beyond the black screens on Instagram feeds and the BLM Movement. We must continue to advocate and fight to build the community we always dreamed of. Do your part. One headline at a time.
And for the youth who read me: If you want to start something, whether you have the means or not, just go for it. Find the ways, and if there are not, create them! You never know what is waiting for you on the other side.
Dream, but do not fall asleep.
The Youth Ambassador Program with Bolivia and Peru is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government, administered by FIUTS (Foundation for International Understanding Through Students) through a partnership with World Learning.
Guest posts on the FIUTS blog represent the experiences and views of individual writers. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FIUTS or any organizations or institutions affiliated with our programs.