Written by Twelfth-Grade Students at Mission High School with a Foreword by Nikky Finney Curriculum Guide Inside
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Written by twelfth-grade students at Mission High School with a foreword by Nikky Finney Curriculum guide inside Mission Center Tenderloin Center Mission Bay Center 826 Valencia Street 180 Golden Gate Avenue 1310 4th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 San Francisco, CA 94102 San Francisco, CA 94158 826valencia.org Published May 2020 by 826 Valencia | Copyright © 2020 by 826 Valencia Program Manager | Ryan Young Program Coordinators | Yareli Arreola, Stina Perkins Program Associates | Diego Hernandez, Hannah Johnson Program Interns | Nico Vallone, Tarryn Warn Editorial Board Volunteer Editors | Tess Canfield, Katie Cugno, Maura Kealey, Anne Sloper, Tarryn Warn Student Editors | Virginia Coello, Jackie Hernandez, Ezrealla Laudenorio, Kimberly Hernandez T. Volunteer Tutors | Kanya Abe, Yareli Arreola, Eedit Bareket, Paolo Bicchieri, Skylar Burkhardt, Sara Bursavich, Tess Canfield, Kevin Cranfill, Reginald Cruz, Katie Cugno, Dory Culver, Lila Cutter, Melissa Dittrich, Sarah Duncan, Sharon Elswit, Renata Espinosa, Ana Medrano Fernandez, Darci Flatley, Rebecca Fox, Nina Gannes, Cristina Giner, Paul Glantz, Sophie Goethals, Anne Guaspari, Thomas Hatfield, Diego Hernandez, Hannah Johnson, Maura Kealey, David Kirp, Ellie MacBride, Naomi Marcus, Michael McNamara, Kevin Meehan, Katey Mokelke, Jake Murphy, Molly Parent, Lucie Pereira, Stina Perkins, Bill Poole, Conan Putnam, Karen Rhodes, Johann Schiffer, Michele Sloat, Anne Sloper, Maria Elena Urquico, Nico Vallone, Tarryn Warn, John Weil Partner Teacher | Catherine Reyes Design Director | Brad Amorosino Publications Project Manager | Meghan Ryan Designer | Molly Schellenger Illustrator | Azul Quetzalli Copyeditor | Christopher Keilman ISBN 978-1-948644-47-1 Printed in Canada by Prolific Graphics Distributed by Ingram Publisher Services 826 Valencia and its free programs are fueled by generous contributions from companies, organizations, government agencies, and individuals who provide more than ninety-five percent of our budget. Our Young Authors’ Book Project and this publication are made possible in part by grants from the Dow Jones Foundation, Norman Raab Foundation, Sam Mazza Foundation, San Francisco City & County: Department of Children, Youth & Their Families (DCYF), and The Walther Foundation. FREEDOM TO LIVE WITHOUT FEAR Written by twelfth-grade students at Mission High School with a foreword by Nikky Finney The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826 Valencia. We support student publishing and are thrilled that you picked up this book. Contents 01 Foreword | Nikky Finney 04 La Niña with the Big Dreams | Larissa Chacon 12 The Undefeated Horse | Jasmine Thoelecke 16 Hunters Point, My Home | RJ Loveless 19 Not a Pretty Feeling | Ydalia Morales-Miller 22 Seikatsu | Alexis Maldonado 27 A Home | Eli Calabrese 30 Mission to Dream | Kristina Arroyo 36 Conscious | Edward Humphrey 39 Stereotypes and Assumptions | Elena Rodriguez 43 Discovering the Freedom to Determine My Future | Ebony Blackburn 46 Monochrome Rainbow | Aila Ysabel Alli 54 The Fight of Each Tear | Jackie Hernandez 57 Runaway | Gigi Ouyang 62 Judgment | Jinling Zhao 64 Dream Chasers | Jamariea Burroughs 70 Their hands leave no prints | Minialuce Ruiz-Vetu 76 it’s as cold as an ocean’s water on a cloudy day but yet makes your heart warm | Virginia Coello 82 Unlocking My Inner Freedom | Marrianah Meadors 88 My sueño de libertad / My Dream of Freedom | Anthony Gonzalez 93 Tainted Fruit | Kimberly Hernandez T. 96 Five Bullets of Freedom | Tracy Brenes 102 Hidden In My Shadow | Elsy Morales 105 THROUGH PERSEVERANCE THE DOVE WILL FLY AGAIN | Iva Levine 114 A Yaqui Woman’s Untold Journey | Lorena Martinez 117 Now I Know | Treasure Bender 119 What Defines Me | Aaron Villareal 123 A World Like Mine | Cruz Macay 127 My Struggle Coming to San Francisco | Fikri Mohamed 130 Freedom and Fear of Expressing It | Veronica Ramirez 134 My Opportunity to Grow | Lupe Aceves 138 Holding Up the Sky | Henry Anderson 147 The Fire That Fertilized the World | Will Delaney Jr. 152 Mariquita’s Burden of Freedom | Marlin Navidad 158 4:45 | Jamarion Speed 164 Kujiona | Jamariae Speed 167 Bits and Pieces | Aaliyah Hernandez 172 My Family’s Story of Sacrifices | Alejandro J. Garcia 176 From San Marcos to San Francisco, An Exploration of Freedom | Sheny R. Juarez Mejia 179 Half of My Heart | Alexandra Gonzalez 185 Changes to My Freedom | Walter Garcia Oliva 189 What Happened to Pancho | Miguel Pastreich 193 Sin vida no puedes hacer limonada | Josue Us Cool 200 Running for Something | Tyrek Laurent 204 Safe Haven No More | Abe Feldman 208 Our America Was Never Great | Lajaiyah Watkins 211 Stealing Second | Mikaele Mateo 213 The Acreage of La Ruta | Stephanie Amezcua 219 Freedom in Disguise | Andre Villarino 224 My Reality of Freedom | Ali Ibrahim 228 Dreams to Reality in the Lab | Tommy Harper 231 Did the Caterpillar Ever Dream of Becoming a Butterfly? | Ezrealla Laudenorio 235 Free Is in You and Me | Xochitl Quiroz 237 Fighting for the Freedom of Women | Angelica Villaflor 239 How Deep | Tamiya Fields 246 Our Best Selves Come from Within | Zapriel Wade 249 Getting the Words Out | Betzabe Herrera 252 Feeling Free Behind the Wheel | Diego Almirano Valle 254 The Truth | Jahli Simmons 257 Chained by the Opportunities | Miguel Anguiano 264 Curriculum Guide 280 Other Books from 826 Valencia 284 Acknowledgments 290 About 826 Valencia Foreword NIKKY FINNEY Geography is the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmo- sphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these . I arrived at Mission High School, in San Francisco, in the winter of the new year 2020, to meet a new world of young writers that I had never met before. I didn’t know the terrain but I trusted the map used to get there as well as my newly introduced and passionate guides, the older writers and teachers of our young people who are often the great unsung navigators of our youth across the great flowering deserts of our planet. Even before I met them I knew I wouldn’t have enough time with them and I had no idea how to get to know them as well as I wanted to know them, in only one afternoon of legend and mapmaking. I wondered as I walked to their door if they were feeling what I had been feeling of late about the quality of the hot air coming from so many of the adults standing in the lights of cameras and microphones speaking glibly of what the world was quickly becoming. In their electric presence I talked about the weather and wondered if they might be able to see the tide pools between their own emotions and some evocative weather words. I lost my place because they were so beautiful sitting there in their high-altitude poetry and prose space suits ready for whatever I had to offer them. We spent the afternoon in love with words and ways of saying. We talked about the world and looked directly at each other and said true things and hard to say things in that way people who fall in and out of love often do. And later that day before we left each other for good, like people in love sometimes have to do, we came to a quiet mountain climbing understanding 1 that what we had shared, in that sun-filled space, was something akin to dis- covering a mighty new world, one whose golden fields of grain weren’t just promotional advertising for a world that might one day be. But were instead a kind of real food—that fed each of us sitting and standing there together. The recognition of our kinship made us plump and invincible for the world we knew we would soon have to reenter without the other. There was a grav- itational pull in the room—for any of us who allowed our hearts to listen and lean in. I thought of the other high schools and the other young writers all across the San Francisco city nesting more young wordsmiths I would not get to stand before and listen to. I flew back to the land from which I had come, patiently waiting to see what their great hearts might lay out before the sandy page. Unequivocally. These young writers are riders of the big wave, conquis- tadors and matadors and watchful grandmothers of the ocean of the heart. In their writing they tell what they know of what it means to be alive. They lead us to their magnificent “little circles of families hanging outside their residences” and they allow us to hear how fiercely they hold on to all of who they are. These young writers have worked their air tubes into the seven layers of the Earth’s atmosphere and have found their purest breath. They have dug their pens down deep into the good soil in order to teleport us back to a mag- ical time when they were standing in the plazuela with their “crazy uncles” and everyone was wearing a red jersey and waiting for the moment to ride through the mud together. And how in that moment “they looked like a field of roses all packed in one place.” I am now three thousand miles away from this new human planet of young writers. I swallow easy and hard at what they are writing about their place on this Earth at this time. I turn the pages carefully in order to not to miss one word of what they feel. I hear them say that we do a lot of standing on the Earth and how we need to make more time to listen to what it has to tell us. I hear them say the American dream is over there somewhere. I hear them speak of growing up Jewish and not wanting to be firebombed while in synagogue.