A Local Hero

I want to share a story with you of someone I met here as a reminder of the incredible privilege we have as US citizens and also to inspire both of us to trek on ahead despite such massive walls of adversity that stand before us:

I met him on my first week at site. I was giving myself the first tour of the whole town and after about an hour I had just about seen everything of Maraita - a town about 3 blocks long and 2 blocks wide. I stumbled across the library and by chance on a training that was happening just at that moment. That's when I met Dennis Martinez, a short, young 25 year old man with a soft quick voice yet commanding presence. He was giving a talk on self esteem to a group of women. With curiosity, I introduced myself as Lisette the new Peace Corps volunteer in town and we got to chatting. He introduced himself as Dennis, an agent of change, born and raised in Maraita, and currently working to train women in micro business management through a government institute called PRAF. I was curious so he invited me to his next talk in a village 2 hours away by foot. So the next day we walked to a grammar school to talk about Personality and Identity. Nervous as he was, he did a great job. I jumped in with my love of icebreakers and interactive activities. In addition to the material he had, I did ice breaker game and made the shy women come up and present their identities in a pie graph. Many of the women presented themselves as 50% mother, 25% wife, and the rest random things like lover of music, dancer, christian, catholic. It was very interesting to me because it was very different from when I had done this activity in the states.

As I have gotten to know Dennis over the past 7 months, I have become more and more inspired by him. First he is a man working to help women in a Machista/Sexist country that believes women are men's property and are too ignorant to be capable of work outside the home. Second, Dennis is a gay man in a country that kills homosexual men and doesn't even acknowledge the possibility of a lesbian. (Women as just for men, part of the Machismo) He recently was interviewed on National TV and for the first time openly declared that he is gay. That's one way to come out of the closet. And finally what amazes me more than anything is his courage and idealism to front the oppression and injustice in Honduras. He proudly calls himself an agent of change - and he is one by helping women, teaching math classes with children, and working with one of the few gay rights organizations here.

In these talks now he has begun to open up like a book, telling the women that he was a victim of sexual abuse, has come up from thinking of himself as dirt to knowing he is someone (to use his words). Not just anybody, but an important person and an agent of change.

He is an optimist that sees the bright sun rising over the mountains of Maraita. He is nothing short of a hero who dares to dream.