Salsa, Soul, and Spirit (p.117-134)

My favorite part of the reading was a quote by Antonia Pantoja. "I felt I was called to do something about the situation of the people I belonged to. That is wasn't an option. I had a responsibility to contribute to my people" (Bordas, 119). You do not here many people today saying its their responsiblitity to give back to their community. Yes, there are some out there but in today's society it seems all about who is going to take the leap of faith. Not at the same extreme but look at today's classroom setting; a teacher asks for volunteers and everyone peers around them room looking at each other and see who is going to speak up first and when you have that one person finally speak then you have others that will fall in behind. A part of the reading that reminded me of the movie we watched on the election campaign of Cory Booker, was that part on the Latino survey. It said that the survey "found that Latinos wanted a community centered and community serving leaders" (Bordas, 120). I was reminded of the movie because it was funny that everyone was all for Sharpe James because he was always able to put on a good show and did do some good things. But, the community pushed Booker away even though he lived in their community and knew the things that needed to be fixed. You would think that as the Latino community you would be more for someone you knew what exactly you were going through and needed to be fixed.

I feel that America as a whole tries to implicate as the book has it the five things that leaders use to grow their community. I cannot speak exactly for everyone or the entire country because I do not know what goes on all across the world but from my viewpoint is that we elect a leader and as soon as he doesn't do his "job" then he is automatically a bad leader and the speculations as to why did he ever get elected in the first place. Then you have those that stick by their so called president because of their loyalty to a certian party. Out there, there are those that are strickly to republicans or democrats and the presidnet could be doing something terribly wrong and they would still support them. I just feel that America falls short on all five things: "encouraging participation and building consensus, creating a community of leaders, generating a shared vision, using culturally effective communication, and weaving partnerships and connections" (Bordas,121). I know the reading designates this section paticulary to a leader of a community but I feel it applies to the US. We all as citizens need to take on some of the responsibility of why things in the US are failing. We are helping the problem more than we are helping the solution. In Obama's campaign the main slogan was "Yes WE can". It wasn't "Yes I can". All throughout his campaign he would talk about how nothing is going to happen overnight or as soon as we may want it to, but if we can work together we can make it happen. But as Americans if it isn't done on our time and schedule or as fast as we may want it; he hasn't done an effective job as a leader. I feel bad for Obama because everyone was all on the band wagon when he was running for presidency and as soon as he got the job it was like everyone just abandoned him far as helping to be apart of the change. To me in some ways I see it as we got you here so do your job as president and fix the problem. If everyone could colaborate on the five things to make communities grow and stuck with them I feel changes would actually happen faster. We all need to be a community of one.