I KNOW MY VOICE MATTERS

“I love the United States and I want it to be a welcoming home for people seeking opportunity and a better life. I also want to make their homeland –  my homeland of Guatemala – a better place as well.”

Alexander Chisholm Guibault and I (Leceta) received the most beautiful and important message from a 22-year-old Guatemalan adoptee who, like so many young people, is searching  for his place in this world – not just in his town, his state, or his country, but in our shared global community. Spencers heart and dedication have already made an impact, and now, with his permission, I am honored to share his words. Our young people are paying attention, and I am so grateful to know this young man and his family. Thank you Spencer for having the courage to speak up.

“Hi Leceta!

I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do. I know that I and a thousand other people have told you ‘thank you’ for everything you guys do but I truly mean it. I appreciate what good you and your team do for my country and the lives you positively impact. I feel myself becoming more and more in tune with who I am everyday especially with everything going on and even living in a red state, I know my voice matters, just as much if not more. We do so much in Guatemala with helping out the locals and rural communities, I just gotta do more though! Especially after seeing Bad Bunny unifying the Latin countries and what’s been going on with ICE around the US. I love the United States and I want it to be a welcoming home for people seeking opportunity and a better life. I also want to make their homeland – my homeland of Guatemala – a better place as well.

A few days before the Super Bowl aired, I really went on a deep dive about our culture and the hardships my people have gone though and continue to go though, I cried multiple times not with sadness, but the beauty I saw in it all. I want to rebuild communities and make them anew, I want to give the people what Bad Bunny gives them. I want to give them hope and a voice. I don’t only want to impact Guatemala, I want to impact all of Latin America so we can move as one, just like how Kendrick Lamar wants to unify his Black community. You see that in movies and music too, they hire and support each other so they can uplift each other. I want that with us and my community. I’m tired of hearing about Mexicans being better than Guatemalans and Guatemalans better than ya ya ya. Why can’t we all move together just like the Black communities? I want to move with everyone all while having the pride of our own countries, but fighting for all of Latin America. IDK when I would be able to change all that, but with this all happening right now, I’m using my voice to educate others and trying to make that dream a reality even if it’s small right now, it can be bigger someday. You and Alex and everyone involved have helped me in this vision and I can never thank you enough.❤️‍🔥

To Alex. I just wanted to say thank you for all you do and I know others say the same thing, but I truly mean it and it means even more to me that you, a Guatemalan adoptee yourself, has laid the stones for the very organization you run. You’re strength is more than admirable, it’s stunning, especially everything you have went through and you STILL choose to show others that there can be light even in dark rooms, and if there’s enough light added then the room becomes less and less dark. You truly inspire me to do so much more  for our country.”