By Esly Reyes, Fellow Class of 2016
Regis University
The last four years have been a roller-coaster. I entered Regis University thinking I wanted to go into law and that nothing could go wrong. I miscalculated.
My first year at university was during the presidential election. When it was announced that President Trump won, I cried. I needed someone to tell me it would be okay. I felt that the world that I knew was breaking by finding out how much people hate Latinos and other minorities. That first semester made me pessimistic. I realized that no matter how much people fought to be equal and to be accepted, nothing has changed. Luckily, to end my first year I got a job at the Center for Service Learning, an office that connects students with the community to do service, and helps students be in solidarity with the community they are serving. This office opened its doors to me and helped me immensely in the following years. This is also the year that two of my mentors who were attending the University of Colorado Law School, had me attend one of their classes each. I enjoyed being able to be in those classes and getting a glimpse of what law school would be like, and even though at that moment I didn’t belong, I felt that when it was my turn to be there I wouldn’t feel out of place.
In my second year, like my first, there were good moments, bad ones, and many new experiences. During my first semester, I was able to go to the School of the Americas Watch in Nogales, Arizona, and I learned more about the US intervention in the Americas, especially in El Salvador. This was the start of my interest in Latin America. Then during the spring semester, I had the privilege to go to Bakersfield California, and spend a week with Mary, an old lawyer for the United Farm Workers. I learned more about UFW, the legal side of UFW, that they are working on recently, and I was able to attend a court hearing between the UFW and one of the agricultural companies. I was able to go through an agreement between them and LSYWC, I am so grateful to have been able to go and learn more about the immigrant and Latino struggle that I knew little to nothing about before this trip.
During my third year, not a lot happened. I became more interested in Latin America through my classes, I was learning more about to work against injustices. The biggest take away from my third year was that maybe law school wouldn’t be for me. There was a lot of conversations with my mentors about my doubt into going into law. They were supportive and full of great advice. Yet, I kept telling myself to go to law school. So much so that I took LSAT classes, that the program paid for. Unfortunately, I never took the LSAT. I kept avoiding signing up for the test, telling myself that I needed more time. It took me my first semester and winter break to realized why I was hesitant to sign up for the LSAT. The reason: law school and being a lawyer is not for me.
This past year I was part of an intentional living community called Romero House, in honor of St. Oscar Romero and six Jesuit Priest who were assassinated in El Salvador during the civil war and became martyrs. During this time, I learned more about liberation theology and how that has part of tools many people in Latin America used to demand social equality, in countries were the church used to use religion to oppress. I also went to the School of the Americas Watch in Ft. Benning, where the school is located to protest the existence of this school, since it was a school that trained Latin American soldiers torture tactics, and man of the graduates proceeded to commit massacres. With Romero House, I went on a pilgrimage to Guatemala and El Salvador and met people who were affected by the civil wars. Some of the people I met suffered so much and the US was part of causing that misery, by either financially backing these wars, or training the soldiers who committed horrific murder to their people. But I also met Americans who were living in solidarity with the communities and helping them be able to keep surviving after so much destruction. The reason I am talking about the Salvadorian and Guatemalan Civil war, the impact and US involvement, is because during that trip I accepted that I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I wanted to be able to learn more about Latin America and US intervention. Which now leads me to want to get a master’s in Public Policy, or Latin American Studies. I think I would have gotten to this point if I wasn’t in LSYWC, but I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities I did, I wouldn’t have had law school as a potential option, nor would I have had the immense support I have gotten for the past four years.
