Heritage

By: Brenda Nieves

Her-it-age - a special individual possession.

Cultural Heritage - is an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values

Definitions found on google

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So I went to a trip to South Africa because of my wonderful school Shenandoah University. It was a life changing experience for me, especially when I thought about cultural heritage around the world. I was a part of the Global Citizenship Project. This program is open to undergraduate/ graduate students and faculty members.All you have to do is write a one-page paper and then a selected few get picked to go to five different countries around the world during spring break. You are immersed into a different culture with a group of people you may have never met if it wasn’t for this trip. It sounds amazing right?  I know it does.

2014 summer

Anyway… I was chosen to go to South Africa and it was a huge deal for me. See that picture above? This was taken in 2014 when I graduated high school. It was a board that said “Before I Die...” and I wrote, “take a trip to Africa”. I was 18 years old and at the moment so I didn’t know what country in Africa I wanted to visit. All I knew was that I wanted to go.

My host family in Mexico.

In high school I was able to travel to Mexico for Amigos De Las Americas because of my wonderful Summer Search Program. I was there for about 8 weeks doing community service in a small town called Tekom in Yucatan, Mexico. I met so many people that summer and learned so much at such a young age. This created this passion inside me that yearned to travel and meet new people and experience a new culture. Little did I know that in three years I would be given the opportunity to travel to South Africa.

When I got chosen my group got together and we all talked about what we wrote on our papers to get us all here. We all had something in common. We wanted to help people. For example, I want to become a teacher and work with under privilege kids. I wanted to use this trip to tell kids that there is much more to education. You can travel the world and really find your passion and work it into your career somehow. I wanted to be the inspiration that city kids (like I once was) need.

When time got closer for us head on to our journey to South Africa we were given a theme, which was heritage. When I think about my trip I feel like we didn’t really get to fully incorporate our theme into our work. So this made me want to create this post. When I think of heritage the first thing I think of is “well everyone has a cultural heritage”. Before going to South Africa I thought that as a Latina my cultural heritage would be extremely different. This made me slightly nervous and excited for my trip. When I finally got there I realized I was completely wrong about having a different cultural heritage,. I was able to try different types of food from Langa, Johannesburg, Zambia, Morocco, and so much more! It wasn’t that different from Puertorican food.  I was able to eat something that looked like an empanada, but instead of having beef or cheese inside there was bean paste and it was delicious. I also ate this things that look like taquitos (but it clearly wasn’t) and it really made me appreciate fresh food compared to frozen food (don’t get me wrong taquitos are good, but when they’re freshly made it’s better). I even had a chance to play in a drum circle and it reminded me of the time on New Year's Eve where my family and loved ones would get together and celebrate New Year's and play all these different types of instruments. Although my cultural heritage isn’t spot on the same cultural heritage someone from South Africa or another country in Africa has there are some similarities. This made me stop and think about the people around me. Everyone in my group from Shenandoah came from different background and yet there was something that was able to bring us together (it wasn’t just the trip). I was able to open my eyes and see that as humans we have great pride of who we are whether it’s a college program we’re in, a position we hold, a sports team we are in, or if we’re from jersey. And the truth is we like to show it and tell others about it because we are trying to show them the greatness of our cultural heritage.

Shenandoah University GCP South Africa Group (on what I believe may be a Wild Almond Tree) Photo Credit: Scott Spriggs.

In those moments in South Africa it took so much for me to hold back my tears. As a Puertorican girl from the Bronx I was able to see that the heritage in South Africa is similar to my own. The music, the food, the dancing; it made me realize that everyone has a heritage and it may be different, but we should always be proud of where we come from.  By eating these meals and listening to their music these people are sharing a little piece of them with us. This exchange of culture was a extremely emotional moment and I appreciated it (and that’s my excuse for crying).

Therefore, this cultural heritage that we are born into is what makes us who we are. This trip showed me to never be afraid of where you come from. Be proud of your heritage and embrace it with others because there are people out there who will appreciate it and learn from it.