Una Sangre y Un Amor (One Blood, One Love)

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Una Sangre y Un Amor (One Blood, One Love)

Reflective thoughts on the National Compadres Network Gathering of Elders

By Deen Tyler

A few months back I sat in a meeting at The California Endowment whose purpose was to build bridges across the various communities of color. Among those communities represented were the African, Native, and Latino. This was the preliminary conversation that would ultimately result in this past weekend’s two-day retreat at which seven representatives across three generations from the aforementioned communities came together to begin the process of forming a collective agenda and action plan geared towards building unity amongst people of color and acquiring power as a collective. With the vision of Baba Arnold Perkins and Maestro Jerry Tello and the support of The California Endowment, specifically Sandra Davis, Sandra Witt, and Lauren Valverde, what started as an ambitious yet commonly sensible idea came to fruition.

We sat in a circle that enclosed an altar containing items from the various cultures and experiences represented in the room. There was a wooden talking stick, actually a branch that survived a severe fire, being passed around as we each introduced ourselves and described what we felt about the convening as sage smoke sat motionless in mid-air.

 After lunch, each community gave a presentation on its history and culture taking feedback and questions at the end from the others. Though time and flow limited the equity in this process, it did ignite inclusive dialogue around often avoided truths as each community discussed the misconceptions, mis-education, misunderstandings that it held against the other communities. This dynamic was explored through the lens of the incarcerated, which provided a different context. The bonds and disconnections between the various peoples of color, accessorized with historical social and domestic misinformation and trauma were a recurring theme throughout the weekend. The day ended with a powerful drumming circle, a concert of the three sounds and rhythms of the respective communities.

On the second day, there was an obvious air of anxious energy around the next steps filling the room. The sense was that there was more building required internally before this circle could move towards a solid collective action step. There were several partnership and collaborative opportunities that came up including; 1) bridge building between Building Healthy Community sites i.e. Sacramento & Stockton, Oakland & Richmond, etc. 2) one similar retreat per six months with the next one being held in Oakland 3) formation of an advisory committee within the circle and 4) collaborative efforts on the upcoming Boys and Men of Color Summer Camp.

As you can imagine, if I could only scratch the surface of the energy, power, and magnitude of the moment, I would consider myself an extraordinary communicator. I think that successfully creating an environment where men from three different generations and cultural communities who know little to nothing about each other can become almost immediately comfortable enough within themselves and with each other to be completely vulnerable and transparent with their own pain, trauma, faults, and truths represents an immeasurable revolutionary milestone. The moment defied all that the world, including those in attendance was/is being taught to believe about masculinity and willingness to expose injury as it relates to men of color.

In all honesty, there were obviously kinks in this process that can and will be ironed out in the future, as most of the kinks were logistical; time and agenda management to be specific. With as much experience, data, technology, and training that medical professionals have with relation to delivering babies, in the moment of labor there are still things that happen which completely conflict with the plan and process. In these moments, it becomes the responsibility of the doctor to adjust accordingly in a manner that is patient, considerate, compassionate, and respectfully delicate with the nature of the process. This retreat delivered a new life into the world. It may very well be a funny looking baby (whom we cannot determine who it resembles) at birth but with the nurturing and cultivation from this community at large, it can certainly grow and develop into the internally and externally beautiful being that many funny looking babies become.

This retreat represented a shift in thinking, functionality, and understanding across four communities and three generations and the potential of a cultural revolution. The sense was that we witnessed something that was difficult to wrap one’s mind and words around but quite naturally wrap one’s spirit around. I was honored and blessed to be present with “All My Relations”.  "Ashe."

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