[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] for healing and Heritage Susan Ravi the director is everybody foreign [Music] this goes back to 2000 when the Ryman Cancer Center at at Van Wheaton and some of the board members were standing outside at the ribbon cutting and they were looking at the woods healing Gardens were kind of the popular thing that was the idea that the Ryman said we should have a healing Garden outside the cancer center for the patients and their families three years later the Conservancy idea was born but the interesting thing is we didn't have any land until 2005 when we acquired the 36 Acres that we now own we built the healing garden over time it took us a couple of years to get that done and that was sponsored by We Energies Foundation once the garden was finished then we moved on to the trails and that timing was actually right at the start of the pandemic and when everything was being shut people still you know needed a place to go so I did put out an emergency Grant request to get dollars just the basic construction just kind of clearing the pathway for the trails and then last year is the year that we completed everything the way we had planned so that's kind of the construction history the history of the land is fascinating in that it's Ice Age land and when the glaciers 10 some thousand years ago carving our land breaking off and more carving our 36 acres is a kettle so it's part of The Kettle Moraine but on the Eastern Edge and then that Glacier melted and created the lake which we call cop Meyer Lake the cop Meyer family bought the land in the 1800s and it was their farmland and they donated that land to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1955 and then the Polish heritage and spot the land built the polar center which is down the road from us adjacent and then we came along in 2003 and acquired that 36 acre parcel so our goal our mission is to maintain that land undeveloped the most it'll be developed is what we've done these piece of land with all these opportunities of that of having a lake in it and having all these Wildlife I would say the majority of our folks are maybe in that retirement age they like to come and walk the trails they like to walk the garden but I have a tremendous relationship with high schools and Franklin High School in particular they come regularly that the Conservancy is their Outdoor Classroom because the garden and the chapel is ADA Compliant you can visit there's no restriction that's what really makes it even more special we don't serve just one particular population how can people get there in our audience the Latino Community how and why they should visit all communities the Latino Community is welcome and I I feel good in saying this our survey results showed that we are reaching different ethnic populations it may be 10 years ago that might have not been the case but I think as word spreads people come for programs they're learning about it the best place to get information is on our website which is the conservancy.org or I keep our Facebook page and that's Conservancy for healing and Heritage on Facebook so the Conservancy is open every day and there's no charge to visit it the chapel is open eight to five Monday through Friday so in other words the door's unlocked otherwise it's sunrise to sunset people can visit anyone who wants to be part of the Conservancy or help support us can contact me directly and my email is Susan at the conservancy.org or my phone number is 414-510-4771 the other thing I want to mention Patricia is we just received the non-profit of the year for Franklin 2022 and we've gotten a number of awards over the years that one's really special so just confirms that we're making a difference people are recognizing what we're doing that just means we're on the right track so that's kind of new news to share with you [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] libertad [Music] Guatemala this is [Music] Bolivia impact [Music] foreign [Music] local [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is for example um no in um [Music] foreign intensamente [Music] solo is possible Nosotros is foreign matria para Senti Como Arbol from those [Music] Latinas is the Wisconsin episode there's more than a woman in Wisconsin who's been a Latina activist [Music] and growing up around my mother who was one of the founders of United migrant Opportunity Services I was pretty young I worked for the Latin American Union for civil rights that is strong I mean I would label myself more of an educator than an activist well I'd have to be my mother she was one of the first women to speak English to read and write in both languages to drive a car I would Define activist someone who has the heart to want to be part of their Community to want to make changes and don't ask for a penny oh [Music] [Music] thank you it's almost Latinas is the starting point of the important recovery and documentation of latinx history in this state I was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin my father's from Guadalajara I don't know Mexico I know Wisconsin the idea of a book was because in addition to creating public awareness we wanted to reach other older Latina Community activists in Wisconsin we left Cuba in 1965 we actually left six years after the revolution at that point there was a strong Soviet influence so that's when my father said we're leaving at that point the freedom flights from Cuba to Miami had been suspended so we ended up going through Spain waiting in Spain to be able to enter the United States and get our Visa so once we came to the United States we went to live on the U.S naval base on Cuba this story as I'm sure you are aware it's not my whole life story I have pieces of my life in the book uh one piece in particular that I'm real proud of was my involvement in the union the labor movement the part that I would like to share with you today was actually when I was Maria Flores at that time in 1982 a new Senate District had been carved out of the south side of Milwaukee the piece I'm going to focus in is on the establishing of the Latina selection so back in around 2000 I joined the women's fund of Greater Milwaukee in a couple of years into working with them Cecilia vallejos and I decided that we wanted to create our own fund it was important for us to be able to elect an Hispanic candidate and there was an opportunity presented after the 1990 census why the women did what they did what they were and how that affected their lives motivation Role Models what risks were involved in taking on the community building efforts and there are phenomenal women and men and Elders whose stories are not part of what Latino history much less Wisconsin history no one uh had ever run for a senate seat a Latino ever a group of us got together and we discussed the matter and we concurred that Latino needed to vote for that seat much to my surprise my friends turned to me and said you ought to be the one I felt it was the time that we needed to increase Latino representation I decided that we needed to get together and we needed to show our strengths and in doing so we needed to become educated about the redistricting process which went on at three different levels at the city at the state and at the county I grew up mostly in the Virgin Islands I spent my teen years living there and then I wanted to go to school in the states I wanted to see what the United States was like so I applied for a high school a boarding school in Massachusetts I spent time in Massachusetts working as a teacher with for a center for pregnant and parenting teens as a teacher they called me Maestra which was a significant title for me and I never realized it how powerful it was and how creative I could be in that job I did many things including my professor Chavez I got our County Executive to issue a proclamation in support of great boycott which was going on at that time and we had worked on social issues and women organizing around different issues we've been able to raise approximately seventy thousand dollars and we've gifted over half of that to Small projects directed at young girls and women perhaps they chose me and because I was at that time a Latina with educational credentials we believed that this type of candidate would appeal to an overall Community overall voters in that region from Massachusetts I ended up accepting a position in Wisconsin as director for Sentry Spano at a time when the Latino Community was exploding and people didn't really understand this explosion didn't understand where people were coming from didn't understand their journey and their challenges so I spent a lot of time in that role trying to educate government officials school districts Etc about what Latino immigrants were facing in coming to Wisconsin we reached out to the African-American community and we shared with them what our plan was and they shared with us what they had so we had to make sure that we weren't in an opposition and we reached a consensus to support each other's position so we provided a united front I still continue as much as I can even though there was no Union there I have always believed that unionism is not just the rank and file unionism is the whole Community as a whole other working people we are all a union so our campaign oh was a quick campaign we did not win but most importantly the coming together of these men and women in this campaign energized and indeed coalesce the Latino vote in the south side one of the most powerful moments in 2006 in Madison was the immigration rally in support of immigrants and there were busloads coming from all over Wisconsin it was powerful to feel that energy and it was great to receive just incredible support from everybody about being an immigrant you know why I think that's as important is is really about you know letting other people know letting the community know who we are what our value is as Latinas and and that we have that value I feel honored that I've been a conduit and I don't see me more than anything but a conduit it's their voice their stories I just give it a channel to be funneled into I don't use the word Empower I don't Empower anyone they've had it all along and they've used it but institutions haven't listened to them and so I see that in some way we open a channel for these voices that have been speaking for many years decades about things that need to be corrected and they've achieved great things and I think I think that we really have contributed to the larger understanding of what community building is foreign honest [Music] foreign [Music]