When Sandra Guzman arrived in New Jersey from Puerto Rico at the age of nine, she was thrown into a fourth-grade classroom without understanding a word of English.
Now, her words have made her an Emmy award-winning journalist and fill the pages of her newly published book, "The Latina's Bible."
Speaking Saturday night to a diverse and packed audience in Collis Commonground, Guzman explained both the challenges and joys of being raised Latina.
While growing up Hispanic and female, Guzman explained that she was discouraged by traditions that dictated her place in society. In her family, she found stark differences between the ways boys and girls are raised.
Coming from a family of three boys and two girls, Guzman recounted a story of a kitchen-cleaning rotation in which the girls had to do the sweeping because, according to her mother, the boys "looked stupid" with brooms.
Guzman said the love and protection given to Hispanic girls "limits dreams and goals" through traditional ideals of family responsibility. In contrast, she said, boys are usually encouraged to venture into the world.
But now, she said, Hispanic women are choosing careers over marriage, choosing to not have kids, living with their boyfriends and deciding to go away to college.
Guzman made her way to Rutgers University in New Jersey in spite of her family ties and the traditional discouragement of independent women. Finding herself separated from family and friends, she recalled how "lonely [and] alienated" she felt at the university.
Despite these feelings, Guzman pushed on, pursuing journalism and eventually working with the Telemundo cable network in New York. Guzman's coverage of the Cuban trade embargo brought the network its first Emmy and brought Guzman recognition as a formidable journalist.
A member of Latinas In Power Sort-of, Guzman challenged the audience to form coalitions with people outside their usual group. LIPS brings together Hispanic women -- mostly journalists -- from companies such as CNN, CBS and the New York Times once a month, where the women discuss their lives and roles in the community. Guzman said that LIPS has brought her a diverse group of "sisters" from all over the Hispanic community.
Many of the women in LIPS are facing similar challenges of balancing work with family life, Guzman said. A mother of two, Guzman recognized that many of the young women in the audience would face these challenges as well. She proposed a compromise of tradition and selfishness, reminding participants to be "true to yourself."
In addition, Guzman spoke on the stereotypes and negative attitudes that often affect Hispanics in their everyday lives, such as the assumption that Latinos only speak Spanish. Guzman remarked that 25 percent of Hispanics only speak English. She said to think of Hispanic heritage as a blessing rather than "a burden."
Guzman admitted that she had felt her heritage "a burden" when she was growing up in New Jersey. At one point in her life, she wanted to change her name to a more Anglo-sounding name. She did not want to be associated with the images of Hispanic women as prostitutes and Hispanic men as drug dealers, and thought that an Anglo name would rid her of her "burden."
However, Guzman soon found her faith in her heritage validated by her elders, Hispanic painters and Hispanic authors such as Gabriel Garca Mrquez. The current Hispanic "renaissance" in business, art and music, also reaffirms her faith in her heritage and her belief that now is a "great time to be Latino."
Guzman expounded on the power of the community at large, noting the "$600 billion buying power" of Hispanics in the United States.
She also said that Hispanic voters have the power to swing elections but that they are the least likely to register to vote.
The evening, sponsored by Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity and the Alianza Latina, was the fifth annual Noche Dorada held at Dartmouth. The event brought together almost 200 members of the Hispanic community to celebrate the Latino's survival of colonialism and the survival of Hispanic tradition with a catered dinner, music and dancing.
