The first time I went to Roxbury was the day before I went home for summer vacation. I remember telling one of my friends that I was going to be working in Roxbury over the summer and him telling me to be careful. I was a bit afraid after he told me this.
I had to take the Orange Line train going towards Forest Hills from Downtown Crossing every morning of my internship, Monday through Friday. It took about 15 minutes for me to reach Roxbury Crossing and then another 8 minutes to walk from the T-station to my worksite at Renewal House, a domestic violence shelter for individuals in crisis and their children. I had my friend’s words in mind the first time I did that commute. I walked the 8 minutes to the shelter and the only thing that truly stood out about the neighborhood was that it reminded me so much of home.
This neighborhood runs along Tremont Street from Columbus Avenue to Huntington Avenue in the Roxbury section of Boston. My brothers would question my eyesight and say that this neighborhood is nothing like the Corona of Queens (a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens) but they didn’t lived in the quiet town of Wellesley. Living in Wellesley made me lump all urban communities together and feel grateful every time I found one that remotely resembled where I grew up.
The diversity of Roxbury is what makes me smile. Sometimes on my way to work, I would hear people conversing in Spanish. I shopped at the local Stop & Shop, located just two blocks from where I worked, so I could find foods from Central and Latin America. The real deal, just like at home. They kept my queso fresco and my Jarritos soda in stock. My eternal quest for a Mexican Deli still continues, but this Stop & Shop made living easier.
I also sensed of feeling of sisterhood and brotherhood in this neighborhood in Roxbury. I think any stranger could see this when they noticed the different community organizations located within a three-block radius. I was surprised to see how close I’d be working to the Tobin Community Center, one of the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, part of Boston’s largest youth and human service agency, on that first morning walk to my internship at Renewal House. It was then that I realized it was not my first time to the area.
During my spring semester at Wellesley, I volunteered at the Mission Hill Afterschool Program. I helped a young boy who lived in the Mission Hill Housing Development, located about three blocks away. Helping that young boy proved to be difficult because of his low self-esteem. He did not want to do his homework because he believed he could not do it. Some days, he would start crying and there was little I could do because I did not have his trust yet. Once we managed to finish his math homework, I had to walk him to one of his basketball games at the Tobin Community Center. I remember that during our walk, the little boy was happy and even told me about his family.
Continuing on my way, I also passed by Sociedad Latina, another community organization working in youth development. They provide support to Latino youths at risk in the areas of education, workforce development, civic engagement, and arts and culture. Outside, on their glass window, they had a poster celebrating the achievements of their youth leaders and announcing to the whole community that they are on their way to college. These are places and things you don’t see in Wellesley.
I did not feel any particular danger walking in this community. In fact, I felt more at home there than I have ever felt walking through the streets of Wellesley. The diversity and solidarity in this small section of Roxbury are some of the things that account for the differences between suburban and urban settings. As we were told at the start of the program, we are only less than an hour away from Wellesley but we might as well be hundreds of miles away. I remember thinking later that I had no difficulty understanding this.
Erica Perez ’14 was a Lumpkin Fellow at Renewal House during Summer 2012. The 2013 Lumpkin Summer Institute for Service Learning applications are due on March 1.