ANDREA SEABROOK, host:
Relations between African-Americans and Latinos have been rocky at times, but there have been efforts to bring the groups together. Martin Luther King, himself, reached out to Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers.
NPR's Enrique Rivera recently stumbled on his own families' connection with Martin Luther King and offers this commentary.
ENRIQUE RIVERA: The other day, my grandmother was showing me these old writers she had dug up from a dusty box hidden away somewhere. She wanted to help inspire me with a writing project I had difficulty completing. Some of these short stories were ancient, typed on cellophanes and paper that had turned brown with time. As I went through these family treasures, one essay caught my attention because it was written in English. What I discovered was an assignment my grandmother receives from an English class she had taken years ago. It was a beautifully written poetic oath to Martin Luther King.
Ms. BEATRIZ CHAVEZ: (Reading) Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968. I have a dream from his head and chest bloomed many red spring lilies. .
RIVERA: From his head and chest bloomed many red spring lilies. My grandmother, Beatriz Chavez, came to the United States from El Salvador 14 years ago. In her homeland, she taught history. Here she's still a poet and an artist. Her murals reflect the struggle for people and Latinos around the world. I asked my grandmother about the red spring lilies metaphor she used for Dr. King's blood.
Ms. CHAVEZ: (Speaking in foreign language)
RIVERA: Because for me his blood was planted as lilies in fertile ground which was the spirit of all those disenfranchised people.
My grandmother told me that when she received the word of Martin Luther King's death nearly 40 years ago, she was filled with sadness. In her essay she wrote: The gun that killed him actually strengthened his hopes, energy, and life and made them more meaningful to others. Although he died, his ideas will live forever.
Before I had read my grandmothers words, I had never really thought about Martin Luther King Jr.'s influence on the Latino community. So I thought I'd go speak to some activist around Washington where King delivered his, I Have a Dream, speech.
Juan Pacheco(ph) works with the young at risk Latinos in Northern Virginia. I asked him how Martin Luther King influenced the way he speaks to an audience.
Mr. JUAN PACHECO: You know, one of my dream is that I want to be a doctor and in terms of the medical world people have the choice of you being a good technician but there's a difference between that technician and healer, you know what I'm saying? So those kinds of mechanisms also can be translated into public speaking.
RIVERA: In my immediate neighborhood, where I grew up in D.C., Kerkira Less is a playwright, activist, actor, author and poet. When we spoke, he was carrying a book with Martin Luther King on the cover. He told me it was a collection of speeches from the Civil Rights era which he said mirrored the struggles of Latino immigrants today.
Mr. KERKIRA LESS (Playwright; Activist; Actor; Author; Poet): And when you look at, you know, what Michael Luther King stood for, you know, he was really questioning the morals of the nation, you know? He was questioning the core values of what this nation is supposed to stand for.
RIVERA: Those questions linger today, whether it's the immigration debate or how Latinos fight our way out of poverty. What we need to learn from Dr. King is to speak up, share, organize, and to make our struggle heard. Yes we belong here. Yes we want to be here. It is an American to speak out against government, it is immoral to stare injustice in the face and not speak out.
This takes me back to the end of my grandmother's essay: All dreams are possible if you want to fight for them. Let the red spring lilies bloom again with strong ideas, they are not impossible dreams.
SEABROOK: Commentator Enrique Rivera is an editorial assistant for NPR's TALK OF THE NATION.