Hi, my name is Kjerstin Lewis and I am a second year studying sociology and Spanish at Wartburg. Today was one of the days that many of us have looked forward to because we had the opportunity to meet Helen Thorpe, author of the novel, Just Like Us, and the wife of Colorado’s governor, John Hickenlooper. She answered our questions we had about her book and how she wrote it. Just Like Us was the true story of four Latina girls as they finish high school and go through college and the challenges they faced as two of them were here in the country illegally. We were surprised about how open the girls were with Thorpe about everything that happened in their lives. She said through the girls’ political activism and levels of higher education, that they understood the risks of what they did and understood the necessity of having their stories told in order to promote social change. However, in the communities that we, Wartburg students, have been in, this is not normally the case. While trying to work on projects for the various organizations throughout the Denver area, there has been a call to take the stories of the clients and publish them into a promotional tool. The main problem that we have encountered is that people are afraid to share their stories via video because they are afraid, even if they are here legally, what could happen to themselves, their friends, or their families as a result of being a part of the production. Thorpe’s determination, and ultimate success, represents many stories of the people we encounter on a daily basis at our sites and the various struggles they may encounter. For more information about her book, check out the transcript of her radio interview: http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/an_interview_with_helen_thorpe/C39/L39/

Theory and Practice with the Latino Community course meets with journalist and Colorado First Lady Helen Thorpe about her book Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America