A Community-Building Alternative Break

Eight students and staff members went on an alternative break immersion to Arizona from Feb. 23 to March 2. The Pam Rector Center for Service and Action organized the immersion experience, which aimed to provide an experience focused on life on the land, poverty, and sustainable communities. During the trip, the students served alongside Apache farmers on the White Mountains in Arizona's historic Fort Apache reservation. They also worked with the Highland Support Project on an indigenously led intercultural exchange.

Sophia Rivera '26, a health and human sciences major and Chicano Latino studies minor, originally from L.A., was recommended by LMU's Alternative Breaks program as an opportunity to be in service and take on a student leader role in a place she had never been before in Arizona. When she first heard about the trip, she was intrigued by the work the team would get to do with a Native American tribe and the idea of going to a reservation to learn about sustainability. "I also found it interesting the idea of working with a Native American tribe and being on the reservation, learning about sustainability, poverty, and that kind of stuff, because I feel like you hear stuff about the people who live on reservations," said Rivera. "But many of us only know what the history books taught us about reservations, that it was just like when else am I going to be able to learn directly from people on a reservation, how they live, their community, and what they need help with. The ideas I had going into the immersion experience about what it would be like were not aligned with what I experienced being there. The opportunity to do something that I've never done before and who knows when I'll be able to do it again, I kept asking myself why not?"

As a student leader, Rivera co-led the immersion with Natalie Skaggs. Together, they organized activities and logistics before the trip and met with the community partner who would host the group in Arizona. Since their group had not been on the AB Arizona trip previously, they spent a lot of time trying to figure things out as they went and doing activities for the entire group to get to know each other.

For Rivera, the people and the community-building aspect of this trip were the most memorable part and what made the immersion experience so transformative. "It really made me look at the community and how I surround myself with people," said Rivera. "It made me really contemplate how I can do things for people and how others can do things for me with no expectations, just out of pure love and compassion for others. As a person who wants to serve in health care, I will do my best to take this experience into my future career."

The community-building aspect of this immersion started on our first day when the community partners hosting the group brought food to where the group was staying. Over a meal together, the group shared about their experiences. "All week, they worked with us side-by-side as they worked the land and shared sacred traditions with us, which personally touched me," said Rivera. "Every interaction we had was something like that, where they welcomed us into their homes where they shared food, and on one of the last mornings we were in Arizona, we got to witness a sunrise dance, which is a girl coming-of-age ceremony. It was so beautiful to watch, and they invited us to dance with them to their music and hear their stories. To see their love for one another and how they were all there to support that girl in her coming of age. That night, we had a potluck meal, and most of the people we had met during the trip came over. It was just really beautiful because we all cooked food together and we all cleaned up after the meal. There was so much beauty in these stories and the lessons we have learned, and this last meal together really solidified everything about this trip and all of the connections we could make. This experience made me understand the value of what I do now, even as a student, like going to class and getting in, sitting hard and going to Wellness Wednesday, or showing up for my friends when they want their clubs to have events or when they have a performance. Those things mean a lot not just to me but to the other person, and that is what solidified this immersion for me and what I will carry away as the most significant lesson."

Students engaged in sustainability practices by working on one of the host's homes to clear a field of willows. "Normally, I feel like you would just throw them away, but we were harvesting them for one of our community partners, Shy, because she was going to use those willows to make baskets and beds for others," said Rivera. "Shy needed things like the willows that were no longer needed at Orlando's house. We learned a lot about farming practices, and water is so important to them because not many people practice farming anymore, and it's tough and laborious. And so, the few people still have to be really conscious about water, and they taught us how important it is to clear rocks from their waterways or else their crops can't get the water they need. We learned how to transplant crops and just how things are constantly reused for new purposes for the same purpose, which was cool to learn."

Before the trip, Rivera assumed Arizona would be like many of the images you see in the media when you think of Arizona: dry and flat. "It was interesting to see how much of the land in Arizona changed when they went to the reservation," said Rivera. "We were basically in the woods, in the forest in one part, you're still in the hills and the mountains, but when you get to these valleys, they are lush and have streams. We assumed it would be very sparse in the parts where you have housing close together, and the community there is so strong. One lesson I learned from a man we met named Orlando. He told us to treat people with dignity. He was talking about how the person you see walking on the side of the street who doesn't look like they've taken a shower in a week will probably be one of the most intelligent people you've ever met. And for me, having grown up in L.A. my whole life, I have been around poverty where people don't have housing, and I feel like the attitudes are so different. Here, many people are ignored or avoided, but where we were in Arizona, people are cared for, and they love them very much. It was really interesting to see that. I assumed that part of L.A. culture would translate there too, but it didn't."

Created in 1993, the Highland Support Project (HSP) was created in response to political violence in an indigenous leadership vacuum in the highlands of Guatemala. The dramatic loss of leaders and organizational experience perpetuated a dependent status for Mayan communities. Compounded by cultural stresses, the weakening of individual and community agency was as significant as any since the conquest. According to the HSP, "the word 'highlands' is more than a topographical description. In the Americas, it has great cultural significance as the location for ongoing Indigenous resistance, and it also signifies the largest concentration of First Nations Peoples in the western hemisphere."