Belonging

Communities.

What does it mean to belong to one?

Race - Ethnicity - social status - pedigree - location - proximity - age - interests,

there are many ways to group and classify a community.

But how does an "outsider" fit into a community? How are they accepted, or not accepted.

Using myself as an example - I am latino, Ecuadorian by decent. My girlfriend is Native American. I have been learning a lot about her culture, and Native culture in general through our time together. She has taken me to many a powwow and I love it! I would go to one without her at this point.

I was helping out a lot during this year's Dartmouth College Powwow. I helped with the t-shirt and poster design, I made them a banner, and helped with set-up and break down.

But I am still very careful of considering myself part of their community. Partially because of my ethnic background - even though my heritage has links to the Indigenous cultures of the Andes. I also do not want to "intrude" for similar reasons. My people have had their own history and experiences just as the Native peoples of North America have. But they are different and occurred independent of each other, and I guess I am just being respectful of that.

And I also have my own community - the Latino community. And we have our own biases and opinions towards "outsiders"

But in the end, we're all people - blessed with a story to share with each other.