Voices of a Highway

In this episode we hear Delia Mendez-Valdez, We Love Buford Highway’s Program and Communications Coordinator. She shares her dreams and hopes for Buford Highway’s future, especially through the lens of her upbringing along the corridor. We hope you enjoy this final episode of the series Identities and Belonging. Thank you for listening to our stories this 2023. See you in 2024!

Delia grew up along Buford Highway and she became a passionate advocate for community engagement. Starting as a youth program leader, she evolved into a community outreach coordinator, organizing health fairs and providing crucial health education and services to the local Hispanic and Latino population.

In this episode we bring back Jonathan Peraza, who has been a guest in this podcast before! Jonathan discusses his dreams for Buford Highway and how this vision is centered around building spaces that we don’t have yet. It is not only about questioning and advocating for institutions to be equitable and just, it’s also about going beyond and outside of these structures to build something new, powerful, and unapologetically OURS.

Jonathan reminds us that it is good to be critical about the world but we also need to remind ourselves what is beautiful about us, what we should be proud of, what power and beauty already exists in our communities and start there.

Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/él) is a Central American educator and organizer with the Buford Highway People's Hub. He has taught Latinx studies and political education classes for years to youth and adults on Buford Highway and beyond in schools, in movement spaces, and with nonprofit organizations. He supports teachers who want to incorporate Latinx and Central American studies across U.S. classrooms as the program specialist for Teaching Central America at Teaching for Change and an educational consultant.

In this episode Victoria García shares her stories about belonging on Buford Highway through the artistic medium she practices, photography. As a designer, visual artist, and community lover living along Buford Highway, Victoria shares her experiences discovering and deconstructing what art can mean, do, and foster for a community like this one.

You can find Victoria on Instagram

@vlgarcia_

@highwayinmigrante

and find her work by going to vlgarcia.com

In this episode you will hear the voices of Natalia Garzón Martínez, Victoria García, Jonathan Peraza-Campos, and Delia Mendez. They come together to discuss the contradictions that exist with the term "Latinidad" and the importance of nuancing terms to include historically silenced and marginalized voices. When does fitting in become assimilation? How can we break the box instead of trying to fit into it? Listen to this episode to hear organizers and creatives discuss what it means to step into your own autonomy, create collective consciousness, and build power that centers both preservation and change.

Victoria Garcia

Victoria García is a Chicana visual artist and designer from Doraville, Georgia. She got her BFA in Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Atlanta and has been working in the creative industry for the last decade. Her upbringing in Atlanta’s "International Village", or Buford Highway, has led her to focus on the intersection of art and activism as it pertains to immigration policy, diasporas, and gentrification.

Jonathan Peraza

Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/él) is a Central American educator and organizer with the Buford Highway People's Hub. He has taught Latinx studies and political education classes for years to youth and adults on Buford Highway and beyond in schools, in movement spaces, and with nonprofit organizations. He supports teachers who want to incorporate Latinx and Central American studies across U.S. classrooms as the program specialist for Teaching Central America at Teaching for Change and an educational consultant.

Delia Mendez-Valdez

Delia Mendez-Valdez currently serves as We Love Buford Highway’s Program and Communications Coordinator. As she grew up along Buford Highway, she became a passionate advocate for community engagement. Starting as a youth program leader, she evolved into a community outreach coordinator, organizing health fairs and providing crucial health education and services to the local Hispanic and Latino population.

En este episodio Lorena Castro comparte sus experiencias con la superación personal y la salud mental. Además, comparte su visión para las personas y comunidades que viven en el corredor Buford.

En este episodio hablamos con Aceli Zenil, quien comparte su historia de inmigrante con nosotros. Nos habla de la importancia de proteger y creer en los sueños y de cómo su vida en Estados Unidos ha cambiado con el pasar del tiempo.

Join us for this English episode with Lina Vargas, creator and founder of @comadreandoatl, a social club for Latinx "Comadres" of all stripes in ATL. This conversation centers the importance of community building in private and public spaces, and centers words like "friendship," "company," and "gender."

If you are interested in how to celebrate culture and beyond that, the people who create this culture, give this episode a listen and a share!

Lina Vargas lives in Atlanta and enjoys connecting with the latin community through friendship, food, books, and art. Through the group Comadreando in ATL, Lina and her fellow comadres encourage latine amiguis to explore Atlanta in cozy and friendly group outings.

You can find this group @comadreando.atl on Instagram.

En este episodio escucharemos las voces de Lina Vargas, Aceli Zenil, Lorena Castro y Natalia Garzón Martínez. Las cuatro mujeres comparten sus experiencias en Atlanta y hablan sobre cómo el contexto cultural de vivir en el sur de los Estados Unidos ha cambiado sus definiciones de “ser Latinas.” Abordan varios temas dentro de la noción de la cultura, incluyendo la importancia de no separar el objeto cultural del sujeto que lo crea. También hablan de la importancia de nutrir comunidades y redes de apoyo en Estados Unidos y comparten su trayectoria creando grupos para ayudar y unir a las personas. 

Sigan leyendo para aprender más sobre las voces de este episodio y no olviden compartir este episodio con sus familiares y amigos. 

Lina Vargas

Lina Vargas es originaria de Colombia y trabaja en la Universidad de Emory. Durante su tiempo libre y motivada por sus intereses en la cultura y la latinidad, Lina fundó ComadreandoATL, una comunidad y grupo social para todas las personas latinas en Atlanta. 

Aceli Zenil

Aceli Zenil vive en Georgia desde hace 26 años y siempre le ha gustado apoyar e involucrarse en su comunidad y en las escuelas de sus hijos. A través de los años ha aprendido mucho y ha ayudado en diferentes organizaciones. En Enero del 2023 se volvió cofundadora de la organizacion Amigos de la Comunidad en Georgia junto a Lorena Castro y Cristina de la Cruz. Amigos de la Comunidad GA se dedica a ayudar a su comunidad brindando recursos, información y también tienen una bodega donde la comunidad que necesite puede buscar ropa y zapatos completamente gratis.

Lorena Castro

Lorena es originaria de México y ha vivido en Atlanta desde el 2002. Desde el 2018 trabaja con las comunidades del corredor Buford y lo que más aprecia de este trabajo es aprender sobre otras culturas y poder crear espacios para que la gente se conecte. En Enero del 2023 se volvió cofundadora de la organizacion Amigos de la Comunidad en Georgia junto a Cristina de la Cruz y Aceli Zenil. 

We are bringing back one of our former guests on this podcast, Luis Andres Andino! He joined us a few months ago to talk about mental health and machismo, and now he is here to tell us the story of his upbringing on Buford Highway and how his childhood has shaped the work he does today. In this individual story, Luis shares with us what being different vs. feeling left out can look like. He takes us back to his time in school, as he navigated cultural differences in the US, and how people who were comfortable and proud of being Latino helped him heal his feelings of discomfort.

Luis works in the youth empowerment and education space with the Latin American Association, and a lot of his work now is informed by his experiences growing up. We have heard it before and you will hear it here again...representation matters!

En este episodio (¡completamente en español!) hablamos con Ludemar Ball-Mora, quien nos comparte cómo se sintió al llegar a Estados Unidos desde Puerto Rico. Durante nuestra charla, Ludemar también habla de los idiomas, incluyendo el idioma Taíno, una lengua indígena de la familia arawak que se habló en las Antillas por la época de la conquista española. Aquí resalta la importancia de honrar y celebrar nuestras raíces indígenas y cómo su experiencia en Atlanta la ha ayudado a aprender sobre otras culturas indígenas en Latinoamerica. También hablamos del acento boricua, de la comida de la isla y de las ranitas coquí.

Ludemar Ball-Mora nació y creció en la hermosa isla de Puerto Rico. Un mes antes de cumplir 30 años, se mudó a Massachusetts donde empezó a trabajar en una organización sin ánimo de lucro para familias hispanas. Llegó a Gerogia en 2018 y comenzó a trabajar como Administradora de Casos en Ser Familia en 2021. Ludemar disfruta ayudando y abrazando a la comunidad, especialmente a los latinos.