In my 9 years as an educator, I have gathered strategies to create environments where individuals can partake in storytelling.  Instead of using extractive practices to access the stories of my South Texas community, I ask: what is important to you?  As an educator, I am there as a resource leading the way to strengthen their voice.  

​I ask: have you shown it to anyone yet?  They answer: no, I want to wait until it is finished.  Why?  I ask.  I do not know, they answered with their head down looking at the drawing.  They are the first to finish a portrait of their grandfather and now they are moving into the background of their drawing.  What do you want to add as a backdrop?  A flag.  What flag?  The Mexican flag.  Three months later, I asked again.  Have you shown it to anyone?  Yes, ms.  My mom got my phone where I had a picture of it and passed it around during Christmas.  What did they say?  They want me to finish it already.  They say it looks like him. 

During our second one-on-one session, I finally prompted: tell me about your grandmother.  She shrugged her shoulders.  What color did she like?  I do not know,  she answered.  The process of forming these visual stories takes us through a path of curiosity that possibly those that have never heard the story or never been asked to tell it encounter.  Such simple questions that are as beautiful as they are hurtful.  In one of those moments of not knowing where to go, I said: what I remember of my grandmother is that she used to have a table with all her perfumes and lipsticks.  She had a purple one that I loved.  I went on and on as much describing that house and those things until I stopped to take a breath.  There, she used the time to say, my grandmother liked a song.  From a small detail we moved on to search the song online  and found beautiful lyrics on doves.  She said, I think I want to draw doves.  I remember my grandmother signing this song. She gathered the photograph of her grandmother and went to sit to start her portrait.  We saved this picture of doves to remind us of what her grandmother was all about when she was young and carefree.  ​