WORLD UNDERSTANDING, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: MY STORY AND YOURS
by Madelaine Bosma
The speech was given to ADK Mexico Epsilon on December 10, 2020
Good evening my dear sisters. Warm greetings from Alpha Iota Chapter of Pueblo, Colorado.
Thank you, Sister Elizabeth Elmer, for inviting me to share my story, “My Experiences as a Pueblo Native American, Hispanic, Educator and Member of ADK’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee”.
During my talk, I will tell you why I wrestled with joining ADK’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, how discrimination shaped my behaviours and attitudes as a Native American trying to pass for Spanish, and I will share how I reached one of my life’s major goals, working at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC.
My story is not spectacular but it is mine.
Should I Join ADK’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion?
I wrestled with joining ADK’s ad hoc committee on diversity and inclusion. I argued that (1) I’m retired, I’m not working in the trenches with students and seeing how differences are dealt with today, (2) I don’t live in Colorado where my chapter is so I don’t know the population—I zoom from Tucson, Arizona where I live, (3) my academic credentials and experience are very old and (4) I felt that the spot should be open for younger members who are tomorrow’s leaders.
After serious consideration, I decided to join rationalizing that I might be able to share with our younger colleagues what does and doesn’t work. I have lived with issues of diversity, inclusion, discrimination, civil and human rights, gender and income equality, and policy, social change and identity issues my entire life.
I have also been blessed by privilege and opportunities, a large loving family which includes my beloved husband of 47 years- a PhD in Education-, five White children and one Black adopted daughter, and the chance to visit over 134 different countries.
Being a Native American Indian in The United States
As Elizabeth may have told you, I am Native American. There are about five million Native Americans in the US comprising less than 2% of the US population. In 1492 there were approximately 60 million of us.
Those five million people are divided into 574 Indian tribes. Tribes are formed by geography, customs, blood, language. 78% of Indians do not live on reservations. California, Arizona and Oklahoma have the largest population of Native Americans. Fourteen of our 50 States do not have Indian reservations. Most Natives live in rural areas or small-town areas.
Generally speaking, indigenous people are not politically active; however, we in Arizona have a monthly meeting of our political party. Several women ran for state and local level positions and won. The first Native male was elected to our Senate in 1870. It took almost 150 years for Native women to be elected to Congress. Today we have three.
In spite of the atrocities the U.S. Government has imposed on its Native people, we are very patriotic. During World War II, 29 Navajo Indian men joined the U.S. Marines and developed an unbreakable code using their native language that helped the U.S. win the war.
My Spanish Roots
My Spanish roots in America run deep. The first of my ancestors came to Nueva España around 1655 at the age of 25 from Asturias, Spain. He arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which the Spanish colonized in 1598. The Spaniard colonized Mexico City In 1521.
Since Spanish women were few, many Spaniards married Indian women. My Spanish blood grew thinner and thinner as my ancestors married women from 13 different Pueblo Indian Tribes. There are 19 Pueblo tribes located primarily in New Mexico. Each pueblo is a sovereign nation. The last of our known Native ancestors were from the Picuris Pueblo, a small community in mountainous northern New
Mexico where they earned a living by raising sheep and farming.
There was, and still is, a perceived racial hierarchy in The United States. Crossing racial lines was a no-no. People are getting more open now, however.
Each group in the Southwest of The United States - White, Hispanic, and Indians - saw itself at the top of the racial hierarchy. No group had anything to do with the other. But both groups subjugated the Indians. The only relationship either group had with Indians was hiring them as domestics or farmhands. No one cared if Indian children were educated even though this education was made mandatory in 1880. At that time, children were required to attend school until they reached age 10. Today public school education is compulsory and free until age 16 in most states (in some 17 or 18 years of age).
Trying to pass as Spanish wasn’t easy. It did not insulate me from discrimination. Admittedly the discrimination I’ve experienced has not been as blatant or egregious in comparison to what others have experienced. Honestly, I think I have been given opportunities that I might not have received before the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law states that everyone is to be treated equally. Of course, the law is often broken. The entire world saw the marches and riots here in the United States and around the world - during the summer protesting racism.
In the past, discrimination against anyone who was not White was extreme. To illustrate our father was kicked out of a restaurant. The signs read, 'No Mexicans, Indians, Niggers, or Dogs Allowed.'” He argued, “I’m an American."
"I don’t care,“ the owner yelled back. “Get out!”
Thankfully that kind of sign is prohibited now.
Blatant discrimination against our father did not end there. When Gramma got ovarian cancer, Daddy sold all of his possessions and took Grandma from Colorado to a hospital in Dallas, Texas, for treatment. He could not enter through the front door. As Grandma lay dying, he called a Catholic priest to administer the Last Rites to her. The Presbyterian hospital forbade the priest from entering. Imagine my father’s disappointment and the anger he felt against Protestants even though they had an excellent hospital.
Socially-conscientious Indians who wanted to “pass” as Spanish, had to give up Native ways, adopt Spanish mannerisms, learn to speak Spanish, and convert to Christianity. As kids, we were admonished if we acted “Indian”. Examples are walking pigeon-toed; wearing our hair in braids, or wearing hair bands across our foreheads to keep our hair out of our eyes. P.S. In Indian tradition, people cut their hair only when someone dies to show that they are in mourning. Children were punished in school if they spoke Spanish even if it was on the school grounds in a private conversation.
Growing Up as a Good Spanish Girl
In our efforts to act Spanish in my day, we girls were not allowed to drive; we could only be chauffeured. I learned to drive at age 25 because my school was too far from my home. We were not allowed to ride horses for fear of losing our virginity. We could not compete against men, thus I was denied learning to play chess. We were never allowed to debate against men. Their word was “Word”. Juggling what we were taught at home with what was expected of us at school and learning English was so challenging. I was more than 40 years old and I still didn’t know English well.
Even though we women were “pampered and protected”, we were not exempt from working hard. We, women, had to “mud plaster” the house. We had to help with the planting, harvesting and preserving of crops. We had to draw water and carry it to the house. We had to help move cattle from one pasture to another on foot waving a handkerchief to keep the cattle from straying while the men rode the horses. Imagine the burrs on the bottom of our skirts after a cattle drive. The wearing of trousers and shorts was forbidden. We were not allowed to wear sleeveless blouses to church and were required to keep our heads covered. Our father spanked me at age 16 for the first time ever, because I was wearing shorts.
Like your students, children were supposed to be obedient to their elders, especially teachers. I’m about to tell you about the most blatant discriminatory act against me.
Shortly before inductions into the National Honor Society were to be announced, my school counsellor called me into her office. National Honor Society is a prestige organization limited to students who excel in scholarship, leadership, service, and character. She told me very unemotionally that I was eligible for induction into the National Honor Society. I knew that! I was in the top 10% of my class.
What came next stunned me. I was glad I was sitting down. She requested that I give up my space on Honor Society to “Harry”. She told me that she was going to ask another Hispanic girl to give up her slot to “Tom”. I looked at her in disbelief because “Tom” and “Harry” had lower grade point averages than the other girl and me. I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t because she was my school counsellor and I cleaned her house on Saturdays. She rationalized that Spanish girls didn’t need to go to college. Why they were just going to get married, have babies, and change diapers, but “Tom” and “Harry”, who were White, were going to be bread-winners.
She also justified her recommendation because I had not participated in sports. I could not tell her that my family could not afford it. The fee to participate in a sport was $25 plus the cost of a physical exam. Why our father earned $35 a week and that supported our family of eight members. I used the money she paid me for cleaning her house to buy lunch and school supplies.
To this day, I could kick myself. I needed the National Honor Society credential to get good scholarships and to get into a good college. I really wanted to go to college. I had wanted to be a teacher since I was four years old.
Finally A Teacher: From Small Rural Schools to Washington, D.C. and Beyond- A Dream Come True
With the help of a scholarship, I got my undergraduate degree in four years with a double major in English and social science and a minor in Education. My first teaching job was in a small rural school. After two years I got a job in Pueblo. Again, I was assigned to a low income, underachieving school. And again I worked from early morning to late at night to help my students. I joined every professional organization I could. I wanted nothing more than to learn as much as I could to be the best teacher possible.
I was thrilled to be invited and honoured as a member of Alpha Delta Kappa. I also joined every professional organization I could including the Hispanic Educators who were faced with militants at the time. Our non-militant organization worked with the school district at the time and agreed that we should go to colleges and universities in the southwestern United States to hold job fairs to recruit Hispanic graduating seniors majoring in education. I was one of those young teachers selected to recruit new teachers to our district.
My Dream- Getting to Washington, D.C.
By my third year of teaching, I was still penniless and not able to study for my master’s degree. Instead, I taught in a government-funded early childhood program during that summer vacation. During that time, a woman from Washington, D.C. evaluated our program, and she gave us ideas of how to make our program better. Right then and there I knew what I wanted to do “when I grew up”. I wanted to learn as much as possible, to be the best teacher possible, work in Washington, DC. and go around the nation to teach teachers how to teach.
Dreams are not enough to succeed. People need a plan and sometimes they need others to help them to actuate their dream.
How was I going to get to Washington? I had no money. I didn’t anyone there. I didn’t know how to get a job. I was an empty vessel with only an elusive dream.
Unplanned, I met “Mr Right” at a convention. Boyd was on the staff of the National Education Association, a professional organization in the U.S.A. based in D.C. After a short courtship, I married him and moved to Washington, D.C. where he and his five children lived. Lawdy, I had no idea that rearing five children would be more difficult than being an assistant principal at a school of 500 students.
Making a Difference on a National and International Level
One day I heard on the classical radio station a job announcement for a curriculum development specialist for the Overseas Dependent Schools of Europe. As the Army Colonel in charge reviewed my resume in front of me, he almost jumped out of his seat when he read that I was a member of ADK. On the spot, he offered me the job with the provision that I get my husband’s permission. (I got it.) Though I was thrilled to have the job, as it turned out, I only prepared the materials for my (male) boss to travel to Europe.
Alas, I later lost my job because of a reduction in force. Meanwhile, I learned that the U.S. Department of Education had an opening to work with migrant farm laborer education. I applied, and I got the job. Having a small rural school experience and working with my students from Chihuahua came in handy. At last, I was able to travel throughout the United States to train teachers, prepare national programs and work with the various states and their Departments of Education throughout the United States! What an honour and a privilege! I was fulfilling my dream of making a difference on a large scale.
My husband’s job required us to mingle with the world’s elite in Washington, D.C. I was intimidated by all the forks and all the glasses set in front of me at the table, but I was not going to be defeated. I was going to join them, so I enrolled in the prestigious John Robert Powers Modeling and Finishing School to learn social graces. The tuition was higher than tuition for graduate school, but it paid off. I could attend White House receptions, embassy parties, international gatherings, serve on national and international boards and not feel like the “country bumpkin” I used to be.
One of the boards of directors on which I served was The Advancement of Hispanic in America, an association funded by the King of Spain. There I told my dearest friend that I was Native. I had never shared that with anyone in Washington; I was too ashamed to be Indian. Alas, she betrayed a confidence and told our director. It wasn’t all bad. He appointed me to be the “indigenous hostess “ to Cristóbal Colon 18th Duke of Verduga on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus arriving in the new world.
After I had put my Indian “toe-out into the water”, so to speak, several of my cousins from around the nation and several of my colleagues from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education and I got all “tuxed up” and attended The Native American Presidential Inaugural Ball. What fun dancing to country and indigenous music! Our 14-year-old son and his Vietnamese girlfriend also joined us. It was the first of many presidential inaugural balls we were to attend while we lived in Washington.
Coming Full Circle
After years of grappling with my racial identity, I am now good in my own skin even though I am still piqued that to this day I am stopped every time I board a plane since I don’t look American enough - most say they think I look Iranian. All of these experiences have given me understanding and insights and I now have the opportunity in retirement to work as the executive director of a refugee group from Bhutan.
So should I be a member of ADK’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee? I currently interact with diverse groups such as the LBGT community, immigrants and refugees in the U.S., persons from around the world, and persons of all ages and backgrounds. Having been poor, being Indian, Hispanic, and White and having lived through the Civil Rights Movement and still concerned with Human Rights issues, and being proud members of ADK for almost 50 years and committed to education, why not me? And why not all members of ADK? We should all be members, in fact, of the diversity and inclusion committee as we all look inward and outward to reflect upon our practices of accepting diversity and inclusion both inside ADK and in our general lives.
My parting words, be happy with who you are. Respect yourself, respect others. Help Alpha Delta Kappa lead the way as individuals, as educators, and as an international organization dedicated to diversity and inclusion.
People regardless of who they are want to succeed, feel welcomed, dream, and realize those dreams. Let us all be a part of this!
Thank you, dear Sisters, for allowing me to share my life story with you this evening. All best wishes and Happy Holidays to you all!
Madeline Bosma
ADK Colorado Alpha Iota
