{"id":308,"date":"2022-06-01T17:02:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/small-town-big-world\/?p=308"},"modified":"2022-06-01T17:02:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:02:54","slug":"matthew-marroquin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/small-town-big-world\/matthew-marroquin\/","title":{"rendered":"Slamming Spanglish with Matthew Marroqu\u00edn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Profile Text: Hunter Kolbus<\/em>\nEditor: Sam Purkiss<\/em>\nAudio: Joceline Medina<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
One of the first things Matthew Marroqu\u00edn and his family knew about Storm Lake was the local Burger King. Not exactly fine local cuisine, but it would do. His family had come to town in 2000 because of the job opportunities available at IBP for his father, and the company offered them a hotel room while they sought more permanent accommodations. With his dad taking the car to work, Marroqu\u00edn\u2019s mother had to feed the family at restaurants within walking distance. Right next to the hotel was a whopper of fast-food fare, and after four weeks of the BK life, they were sick of flame-grilled haute cuisine. To this day, most of the Marroqu\u00edn family avoids Burger King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew Marroqu\u00edn\u2019s family came to Storm Lake as the town experienced large growth in immigration, especially for the Hispanic community. As a young boy, he didn\u2019t immediately notice the unique diversity in this Iowa small town. He did begin to notice some small oddities, though. \u201cIf I go over to this friend\u2019s house, I have to say hello to their mother in this way,\u201d he said, \u201cand if I go to this [other] house, I have to learn [hello in] Laos or Vietnamese.\u201d With age, he realized that there were differences between him and his classmates beyond just language. He started learning how different cultures celebrated holidays, and how some residents had holidays foreign to him.

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What can I create to empower them [to] be the shakers and movers\u2026not only within the school, but within the community?<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As Marroqu\u00edn matured and appreciated more of the diversity around him, he became involved in community and school organizations. One of the first was the National Hispanic Institute (NHI), an honor society. Through the NHI, he traveled to various events and conferences with other outstanding students of Hispanic descent. These events inspired him to think of ways he could influence other students to continue their education and engage in leadership training, so that they could contribute more to their communities. \u201cBut how do I also empower them, or what can I create to empower them,\u201d Marroqu\u00edn pondered, \u201c[to] be the shakers and movers\u2026not only within the school, but within the community?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018 he graduated and enrolled in Buena Vista University, where his activism grew. He joined Ra\u00edces, the university\u2019s Latino organization. All this involvement helped Marroqu\u00edn not only to raise awareness of issues affecting his community, but to empower those from diverse communities, his ultimate goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Marroquin poses with a published collection of his poetry, titled <\/em>Guanaco Binge.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Marroqu\u00edn has now graduated from BVU and has moved to the greater New York area to pursue his passion for writing. He has developed a love for slam poetry and has been writing and performing some of his own work. One of his poems focuses on the hardships that immigrant families have to endure when coming to America, and contrasts this with an idealistic view of America that many people have. \u201cThey force you to trade your linked fingers for linked chains,” Marroqu\u00edn recently recited. “Your mother\u2019s warmth for foil blankets. Your father\u2019s strength to take care of another child, who is not yours, but simply came to this country just like you. This is America, where surviving was supposed to mean thriving\u2026The place that you do not know. The place that is not your home and they make damn sure that you know that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the challenges that BVU faces is trying to integrate its community with the larger Storm Lake population. Marroqu\u00edn once tried to put on a Latino gathering, but when the community members arrived on campus, they got lost because they had never set foot there before. Some residents claimed there was nothing for them. \u201cSo, there is no community engagement when it comes to, \u2018Let\u2019s bring people here,\u2019 or \u2018Let\u2019s go out with them,\u2019\u201d he said. He did express some hope about this issue, though. \u201cNow they\u2019re starting to try to build that up and they\u2019ve been saying that for years now. Trying to build that connection, but it\u2019s just been hard.\u201d He also remarked that it\u2019s a challenge to work around some of the community members\u2019 schedules, especially those that work at the Tyson plant, because of the strict working hours.

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[T]here is no community engagement when it comes to, \u2018Let\u2019s bring people here,\u2019 or \u2018Let\u2019s go out with them.\u2019 . . Now they\u2019re starting to try to build that up . . . Trying to build that connection, but it\u2019s just been hard.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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BVU\u2019s racial diversity is below the national average with 82.1% of the undergraduate students being white, and for Marroqu\u00edn, this was a shock coming from a high school so nearby, where Hispanic students make up the majority (51%). In one of his first classes at BVU, Marroqu\u00edn walked in and realized he was the only person of color in that class, and that the white students might expect him to talk about his own diversity as well as minority identities that are not even his own. He also learned that some of his habits, like talking in a combination of Spanish and English, were not the norm in this new community. \u201cEven at Storm Lake, the high school, I could talk Spanglish and people would understand me because half of my people are Latinos\u201d Marroqu\u00edn said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been called out before for intermixing my languages until I came to BV.\u201d

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