Reverend Luis Cortés Jr. told stories and strategies of empowerment in economically deficient Latino areas for the first of many speakers in the Wolfington Center’s Lenten Lecture Series. He found a desperate need for assistance in the Philadelphia area, and began building a faith-based relief effort. After a fair amount of trail and error they recognized their energy was reactive instead of proactive for the problems that were occurring in their community.
“Where can you find a captivated audience that captivates itself? Church,” Cortés said. Social capital expresses the strength and unity among a community. He stressed that this was the factor that he would use to overcome many of the daily obstacles in the neighborhood. He found that there are only a handful of safe community run places for the family’s to go, which included the local corner stores, the beauty shops and the churches. Focusing on the positivity and bond that surrounds faith, the churches and their congregations would help Cortés build a following to better the community.
Joined together, people of all religions gathered in front of the neighborhood crack house, encouraging them to close their doors and shut down while the group out front connected through song and turned the negative situation into a spiritual rejoice. Cortés uses experiences like this to motivate positive change in neighborhoods where economic strength and the ability to acquire things that they might want or even need is not relevant.
Esperanza has blossomed from the difficulty presenting itself in these poverty ridden parts of the city. Although their efforts target predominately Latino’s, they have built them selves to stand as one of the largest Hispanic faith based networks in the country.
Education, empowerment and assets encompass the approach of Esperanza to become a successful organization. Within their achievements with education is the successful charter school, cyber school and college. A 91 percent on-time graduation rate, in the city of Philadelphia, reflects upon the strong willingness to learn and an inspiring environment for their charter schools student body.
Cabrini College freshman Darianny Gutierrez had the honor of introducing Cortés, who’s endeavors to improve the lives of poverty stricken Latino’s hits close to home as his efforts are impacting areas that contain strong parallels to the New York neighbor in which she is from.
After Cortés had finished speaking, in reflection Gutierrez said, “To know that there are other schools offering activities to keep kids off the streets, like I had, is really inspiring.”
One of the strongest points that could be taken away from Cortés’ information was “when you can, do it on your own.” Stressing the idea of empowerment and independence helps provide the knowledge and confidence people need to achieve a better life for themselves and their families.
