Reflections on a Parenting Workshop in Spanish at Otisville

Reflections on a Parenting Workshop in Spanish at Otisville

By Louis D. Rodriguez

The weekend of August 14 at Otisville Correctional Facility was very special for me.  It was my first parenting workshop in Spanish and Bonito Burgos urged me to lead facilitate.  It is truly a blessing to have such an encouraging and supportive teammate.  Nonetheless, it was a struggle to immerse my half Nuyo-Rican, half Belizean self into the Spanish language workshop as I grew up in a non-Spanish speaking environment.

The sincere sharing of the facilitators and participants was heartfelt.  The men’s and ladies’ ability to address past hurts and to keep on forgiving stood out the most for me.  Forgiveness is never an easy thing to do.  It is an on-going process for most.  However, we must continually wrestle with it because all of us have been victimized to an extent, and we must keep moving forward, trusting in the process of transforming power.  If we are able to understand and forgive our own parents, then we must be able to understand, forgive and reconcile with our children in order for them to forgive us for abandoning them.  They did not ask us to commit our crimes.  We did that on our own.  We have to break this vicious cycle among us by developing our gifts and talents.

Forgiveness, whether in English or Spanish is healing.  This workshop made me even more aware of the dangers of separating ourselves from one another instead of learning from one another.  We might not be able to communicate effectively together in our different languages right out, but we need to step outside of our comfort zones to learn.  “Building community based on honesty, respect and caring” will take consistent efforts on our part if we truly hope to live our lives in the Beloved Community envisioned by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I give many thanks to the facilitating team: Merciful Mary Ann Burke, AVP Outside Coordinator, Inteligente Isabel Klein, outside Spanish-speaking facilitator, Edgar Bonito Burgos, Magnetico Manuel Torres, Henry Fuzion Fugi Ramirez and Edificacion Edy Castellanos, and to our support team: Louis Wolbert (Looking Lou), Inside Coordinator Yusuf (Serious) Shakoor and Martin (Honorable Hakeem) White.

Louis Rodriguez a.k.a. Lovable Louis and Leal (Loyal) Louis is the AVP Inside Co-coordinator at Otisville.