Twelve students and staff members went to Belize City during spring break from Feb. 23-March 2 for an Alternative Breaks immersion hosted by the Pam Rector Center for Service and Action, focused on educational justice and its impact on marginalized communities.
Students learned about social justice by working with a Jesuit college in Belize City, where a primary focus is teaching “the whole person.” Through this trip, students cultivated knowledge of education through the Jesuit mission, “advancing faith through the promotion of justice.”
The immersion, hosted by St. John’s College, explored multiculturalism, education, and sustainable community building over six days. From the Creole community Gale’s Point, the Mayan Temples in Lamanai and XuGale’snich, through the Mayan ballgame Pok ta Pok, or engaging in conversations with community leaders, cultural icons, and locals, the AB Belize group witnessed the many definitions of what it means to be Belizean through conversation, cuisine, and immersion.
When Lopez first interviewed, she was working on a senior capstone project focused on language, and it was evolving as all research does. “And then I heard about the Belize AB immersion, and I was already interested in Belize because of the language aspect,” said Lopez. “It’s so interesting that while the country is surrounded on all sides by Spanish-speaking countries, the primary language in the country is English. As a senior, I wanted to have my cultivating moment to immerse myself in service and reflect, absorb it, and take the experience with me.”
While it’s a busy time of year for everyone in the community, an AB immersion really offers a moment for students to pull away from their campus lives between academics, service, and leadership and focus on the immersive experience of visiting another place and learning about its culture and people. Lopez was not prepared for the total weight of the experience. “I was not prepared for how heavy the experience could be, not just physically or mentally, but emotionally,” said Lopez. “It really gave me a moment of having to sit with my thoughts and deal with things I was carrying with me on the trip to write about it and reflect on it. And it was a very emotional experience, but it was also so sweet. It was honestly one of the best experiences I have had, and I don’t think I will ever have an experience like that again. This immersion was an all-girls experience, making it a different, more intimate, safe space.”
“A lot of the things we focused on were education” but also the development of agriculture and a focus on job development, said Lopez. “We got to take some classes at St. John’s College, including classes in philosophy, history, and sociology, and we got to see how students are taught there. As we spoke with students, a recurring theme emerged: few opportunities for them to continue their education after the two-year program at SJC. Not many people go to college in the country, but if someone is studying graphic design, they likely will have to leave the country to pursue that as a career in the future. Many don’t want to leave, but they have to leave because they don’t have a future in certain career paths and can better themselves. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how bittersweet that could be because, yes, you are trying to better yourself and follow your dreams, but for many of them, they have to leave their country to do it.”
The group also visited places like Lamanai, which means “submerged crocodile,” in Yucatec Maya, a Mesoamerican archaeological site was once a major city of the Maya civilization in the north of Belize. “A Mayan family hosted us, and we got to learn about their culture,” Lopez said. “One of the men in the family shared with the group about always being intentional with how he grasps his culture and teaches it to his family. We got to see how this ancient Mayan game, Pok-ta-Pok, is played with the family. We even got to try to play, and some of the rules were that you couldn’t play with your hands or your feet; you couldn’t hit it with your hip, knee, or thigh. And the ball used is very heavy and costs about $1,000 because they make it from a specific tree.”
For Lopez, the most memorable part of the trip was visiting Gales Point Manatee, a very small town near the water, and meeting some very special people. “We got to speak with a farmer and fisherman who lived there,” said Lopez. “He talked about how much love he had for his community. He was passing things down to the children on how to fish more sustainably, how to make the nets, and how proud he was for people who were doing artisan jobs like necklaces and bracelets. Miss Anita was one of the artisans who made woven baskets, and just looking at that, I see how proud they were, how they sustained themselves by creating jobs, and how resourceful they were. This group of people preserves their environment and culture at the same time. At the time, I did not realize that the fisherman had had a family member pass away the day before but still wanted to be with us and teach us about his community. It was very emotional for me, and you could see how much love and passion he has for his community, and he expressed it with so much love and happiness. I once heard a quote that happiness and sadness can co-exist, and this moment was evidence of that. I know those from LMU who have previously gone on AB Belize immersion met this same individual.’”
The group also visited Yo Creek, a village of people of Yucatec Maya descent. Yo Creek comes from the combination of the Maya word yo, which means “top,” and the English word creek. “When we went to Yo Creek, we talked to a man, who was talking about how he grew up with his elders, talking about the language and being very intentional about preserving it,” said Lopez. “He carried around a dictionary to find out how the words translate in Maya, and I connected with that because of where I’m at with my history and talking about cultural maintenance. Especially for people who don’t grow up next to their ethnic country, which mirrored some of the things I was thinking and feeling about maintaining my own culture. It was something I felt like we shared; even with how diverse their culture is, they will do similar things in trying to maintain their culture. He taught us how to say several words in Maya because he used to be a teacher.”
Lopez described her LMU student experience as “enriching because it was about becoming her own person. “I am the oldest daughter from a very proud immigrant family, but growing up as the older sister of four, I didn’t really have the space to figure out my own history until I came to LMU,” said Lopez. “It was not until I started learning about my identity, where I came from in Ohio, there are not many people like me, Mexican-American or Salvadoran-American people and attended an all-white elementary and middle school and then an all-Black high school, so I did not have many Latino friends but when I came to L.A. the community here full of Mexican culture, and there are so many Spanish speakers. Coming to LMU allowed me to learn about my own identity through ethnic studies and my history, which I never really saw myself reflected in. I got to build amazing relationships with my friends and got so much out of my experience here. I would not have been able to gain all my experiences here; it’s been very fulfilling and enriching.”
Founded in 1887 by the Society of Jesus as St. ‘John Berchmans’ College, a high school for boys only, Berchmans’ has grown into what is known as St. John’s College, a private Catholic co-educational St. John’s College and now offers a wide variety of liberal arts and science courses at the secondary, British A-level, and United States junior college levels.
