Why Worked in Poor Countries

(1:09:36)Hieu:  How was that Dr. Lykes…..that you involved so many activities…. right here in this country with Human Rights, Social changes, and Woman activities…..How was that shifted for you ….what made you to choose to work far…far away, on the other side of the earth………that was…….

(1:09:46)Brinton: Right….right….right……..when I was in Divinity school, …um….and while I was working there,…I went to school and then I work there coordinating women study program three more years after I got my master degree.  I was introduced to liberation theology and particularly to Latin American theology.  And I was introduce through visiting professors…who came as ….visiting scholars lectured at  …schools.  And…um…I had always …..(P) ….from the time that I lived out side of United Sates been interested in living out of United State again. But I also didn’t…….It wasn’t like I wanted to be  tourist, I didn’t want just travel to see thing.  I wanted to experience people, to get to know it from close up because one of the thing I was really appreciated about living in Paris. Was not only… beginning to understand the French a little more ………. but also beginning to understand my self speaking another language.  And beginning understand (1:10:53) my self as a (French sonic???) …..Beginning to look back to the United State and see how Europeans thought of American at the time.

Hieu:  Yeah…yeah…..yes.

(1:11:02)Brinton:  ….and I was working in Boston in different churches and different organizations in group.  And there were more people who speak Spanish and I always been interested in Latin America.  AND…SO when I …..(cough…again…)  ……the first sort of….introduction to Latin America for me was when I finished….when I left my job at the Divinity school,  and came back to graduate school…..in the summer between the two things……

I went to Mexico, and some…..people that I had …….a .woman that I had gotten to know ….at theology… professor name …(Mary Rut)…had organize a program in Mexico for the summer for six weeks, …um….women and health and social changes.  And it was an opportunity to study Spanish and to ..um…be involved in woman organization that was working for social justice, and…. social change or one that working for health…..

Hieu:  uh..huh….yes!

Brinton: AND…...SO, I spent six weeks in the summer in Cuernavaca, and live in a marginal community and worked with some women who were organizing kind of economic development projects.  And THAT got me even more interested in Latin America and in liberation… theology ….Plus I was very uninterested in the Catholic church, as …it oppressed woman…..So….in Latin America was seem to be involved in more political ...oppressive…and …now

 I didn’t pay to lot of attention to the facts that I was …woman be oppressed there too, but I was sort of saw them more connected to ……THERE were a lot of activism in Boston at the time of…supporting .Niagara…revolution …..it was 19..79.  And there was …interactions was government ……Santa Nita government which .instituted…the sort of…strong support of a new educational system and a new health policies ….AND…UM….I’ve always been interested in  the social as well as psychological …I took a lot of sociology…courses in my doctorate program.  And I had an opportunity …..And I had wanted to go to Cuba, …because Cuba looked to me….. like experiment where the society as whole had tried to make a change on the behalf of general population. 

(1:13:15) And I hadn’t…..haven’t……..…..whatever…..I never had an opportunity to go to Cuba.  When I was in graduate school, and my doctoral study, I was invited to go with this group to Niagara.  And saw …first ten the revolution has been about …tour health system, prison system, education system.    But while I was also there, I met some people from…what was….called the Guatemalan church in exile (unclear!!!)…..who was Mien, men and women whose villages just had been burn down …in what I learned for the first time while I was there was the horrific…mass occur was taking place ….in Guatemala in early 1980.  And …..IT HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON ME.

I think that I was SHOCK that I didn’t know anything about this, didn’t know that our….the U.S government was authority support military that would destroy people surveillance populations…..And also …two things came together for me simultaneously…one….three things may be……One was my own ignorance. And …you know if had learned that was happening, in central Africa, I would never been so shock that I didn’t know it.  But I was happening in Central America…which was very close to United State.  And I have been doing work solitary with Niagara, and I not even know about it.   Secondly, it was a set of practice in policy that had to do with racism, which echoed to my child hood and a lot of mine kind of ROOTS in terms of Black, White tension in the South.  And thirdly, at the time I was in my late twenties. And I spent a lot of my mid-twenties thinking that…… the revolution was around the corner that if we just organized more, we just took to the street more.  We’re going to be able to transform (1:15:19) society.  And I begin to REALIZED that ….that was not in fact the case that the revolution was going to be alive. ..long process….and that change was very slow…..and Guatemala was …a country where it looked like …there were a lot of conflicts and problems, and it was going to be very slow process. 

Hieu:  uh..huh……

Brionton:  And there weren’t many people interested in Guatemala……

Hieu: …… Yes! that‘s why I said it must be very interesting ……a special ….or something about you that …..when you made decision to go to this country to do this……when the society is shifted and changed…….that is very difficult and it is…..dangerous. 

...