“My name is Francisco Guajardo, and I’m the Chief Executive Officer of the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg, Texas.”
Five Things I’ve Learned About America
- America is a land that rewards persistence.
“I think, of my family: My father was a goat herder in the State of Nuevo Leon. He was born in 1936, and my mother was a child who was born a US. citizen in Mexico.”
- America is also a country with space for redemption.
“This is a very, very redemptive place. It is a country that, as you know, was founded with an original sin, the sin of enslaving people.”
- The institutions that have long made our shared redemption possible now hang together by a thread.
“This great experience in human history can come crashing down in a moment’s notice.”
- People need a way to connect. We need real connection in our schools.
“We have been in such a rush in schools to be about a certain set of standards that we are losing out on the humanity of teaching and learning and raising children.”
- America can also crush you. To succeed we need the skills to take advantage of the opportunity around us.
“Those of us who don’t think about ourselves in our history and our stories – and who we are as human beings – we tend to not be as happy.”
You and a guest could win two tickets to the class of your choice.