Resilience, Gratitude
If there are two features that characterize Bridging the Distance, surely they are resilience and gratitude.While students entered this oral history course with the expectation of collaborating with community members in their ongoing efforts to document the history of Latinas/os in Lorain, Ohio, they completed the term from scattered places, making sense of an historic moment marked by uncertainty, loss and possibility. Perhaps that is part of what animated students' resilience--their need to remain connected to people and places that have nurtured them, even while many found themselves in the spaces that first nourished them, eventually leading them to Oberlin. As students captured the resilience of their family members, friends, and the power of online communities to provide support and care, they also demonstrated remarkable fortitude by remaining engaged with the work that made this public humanities project possible.
Gratitude also defines our collective experiences this semester. From our first community meeting on a cold February evening at the Lorain Historical Society to our last on a sunny March afternoon at El Centro de Servicios Sociales, students experienced the generosity of people who are admirable in their efforts to preserve histories that need to be told. They enjoyed hearing the stories, ideas, and hope that animated these efforts; and they carried this with them as they refocused their efforts to listen and hear the stories of family and home. All of these moments deepen a profound sense of gratitude that define our experiences this semester.
We offer profound thanks for staff at the Lorain Historical Society, El Centro de Servicios Sociales, and community members who shared their stories with us. We are also grateful to Megan Mitchell, Cecilia Robinson and Heath Patten for all their support as we worked on the Omeka site. And finally we acknowledge our incredible indebtedness to family members who took the time to be present, listen, and share as we make sense of this uncertain time. As the novelist Elizabeth Acevedo reminds us, stories and words can bring us together. They bring us light.