A LATINA’S FIGHT FOR DIVERSE VOICES
College official encourages difficult conversations as a challenge to perceptions
Each week, this series will introduce you to an exceptional American who unites, rather than divides, our communities. To read more about the American profiled here and more average Americans doing exceptional things, visit onenation.usatoday.com. Too tall. Too dark. Too Latina. Growing up in New York City and then Rochester, there were many reasons why Stephanie Paredes, 35, didn’t feel like she belonged.
Now, she highlights excluded voices as manager of multicultural programs at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and cofounder of the Rochester Latino Theatre Company.
“When we build an inclusive environment for everyone to come together and talk to each other, we move from tolerance to acceptance,” said Paredes, whose family roots are in the Dominican Republic.
At RIT, she fosters sometimes uncomfortable conversations between races, sexual orientations and backgrounds.
Those conversations can get messy, but it’s important to have them, she said.
“I’m not afraid to talk about the harder conversations on our campus,” she said, “because that’s what a campus is for.”
Conversations that challenge worldviews and perceptions help students understand their world and the people in it, she said, and as those conversations occur, people will be more comfortable taking action for social justice.
“One of the things we love to do in Rochester is talk a lot about the issues,” she said. “What I think we need a little bit more work on is the action side of things.”
Paredes took action when she saw a need in the Latino community for better theater opportunities. She grew up participating in theater productions, but found herself often cast in stereotypical Latina roles. So she started a company of her own.
“We wanted everyone to understand the Latino story, told by Latinos,” she said. Their first show sold out — “we realized there’s a need for this,” she said.
She stages performances that everyone can relate to, not just Latinos or Spanish speakers. Part of the benefit of inclusion is finding similarities, she said.
“Not losing the humanity amidst all of the messiness is so important,” she said. “At the end