Dublin Core
Title
Mari Smith-Negron on Edna Negron
Subject
Edna Negron
Description
Mari Smith-Negron speaking about her mother, Edna Negron. Edna Negron is an educator, consultant, and community organizer who created the first family resource center and school-based health clinic in the nation. She began teaching at the Ann St Bilingual Community School and then went on to serve as the coordinator of the Bilingual and Bicultural Education Program for Hartford public schools. In 1989, Negron was elected as President of La Casa de Puerto Rico, and a year later she became the state's 6th House District representative. She has advocated for bilingual education and Puerto Rican history and culture at colleges and universities along with radio and television shows. For this line reference Mari Smith-Negron, her mother, and Anelle Lopes’s interviews recounting Edna’s legacy.
Creator
Frog Hollow Oral History Research Team
Source
Interview
Publisher
Trinity College Liberal Arts Action Lab
Date
November 6, 2021
Contributor
Frog Hollow Oral History Research Team
Format
MP3, JPG
Language
English
Type
Interview
Identifier
Frog Hollow, Heroes of Frog Hollow, Edna Negron, Bilingual Education
Coverage
Heroes of Frog Hollow
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sophie Sczurko, Kristina Kendall
Interviewee
Mari Smith-Negron
Location
The Park Street Library @ the Lyric
Transcription
Mari Smith-Negron (3).MP3
Speaker 1 [00:00:00] Of course, it's a parking lot now, but it was right near the civic center, there's a there's a parking lot there now, but that was the Ann Street Bilingual School.
Speaker 2 [00:00:11] So if you could just say your name just for the recorder.
Speaker 1 [00:00:16] Mhmm. My name is Mari Smith-Negron.
Speaker 2 [00:00:19] And can you tell me what hero or heroes you’re here today to represent?
Speaker 1 [00:00:23] I'm here to represent Edna Negron-Rosario, she's my mother.
Speaker 2 [00:00:30] And can you share how she's impacted you personally?
Speaker 1 [00:00:34] My mother had a huge impact on me. I'm a lifetime language learner. English was my first language, and I'm grateful for that because English is a very difficult language to learn. I have found from teaching children from many other countries through being bilingual in Spanish. I was able to speak with my own maternal grandmother in Spanish. By the time I was in high school, I was fluent. She would send me down to the island and I learned to speak from my family. My grandmother's family would teach me because I was too old for the escualita that my brother and sister went to. And then in high school, I took classes with, I was fluent enough to take classes with other native speakers of Spanish, so that was pretty cool. So by the time I went to college, I was fully native speaker, fluent in both Spanish and English. Then I decided to go to Italy because I'm an art major and because she was so pro language, she told me, you will learn the language before you go. So I learned the language before I went. Mostly self-taught and I went over there and I was fluent in Italian. So now I'm learning two other languages this year. I just want to keep. I have a lifetime love of learning languages because of my mother and my own children are fluent in Spanish as well. And I just think it's very important that children honor their own culture, not just their language, but their own culture and learning about the American culture and the American experience that they have a respect for where they are and what the new place that they are. But with honoring their past and honoring their family and not being ashamed of their roots and understanding how important to maintain that language, connect with their family and their cultural, connect with their family in those types of things, I believe in looking for connections. And like I tell people, I'm multilingual, I’m multiethnic, I’m multiracial. I literally am the banner for multiculturalism because I'm Native American, Spanish and African. My mother's family was Afro-Caribbean. It was an African based family in Puerto Rico, so they were like the only African family in a Spanish community. So I also had the experience of being a woman of color my whole life because my mother was one of those people who could never pass for white. So I have that experience as well, and my father was a white American, but he was a white American who was so pro every other group and really had a lot to deal a lot with the guilt of what white people not that he was responsible for it, but white people in general and through history had done to different groups in this country. Certainly not my family, not my grandparents, who were amazing human beings. My father's parents and my father's family to this day are some of the most loving and open minded. If you look at my dad's side of the family, it's like the United Nations as much as my mother's side of the family. And you go to the Smith family reunions and half the people there are speaking Spanish because they've married Mexicans in other groups. So that is kind of the legacy of my dad's family. So and then also having gone to Europe, I got to get out of the box of the very polar. Hartford was very polar white and black. You knew when you were in a black neighborhood, you knew where you were in a white neighborhood, you knew which group you belong to. And for it being in the North, Connecticut was extremely polarized, extremely racist, and that you grew up with that knowledge. People ask me today, like, when did you know? I said, I knew when I came out the shoot. I don't know about you, but you were born a person of color and that you wear that your whole life. It is from the color of your eyes, to your hair, to your speech patterns. You wear it your whole life. And it's really hard to explain to people who don't come from that. So I really feel like I have many. I've been fortunate because I feel like Black American community, because that's where I grew up, Afro-Caribbean, because that was my heritage from my mom's family, Puerto Rican, even though I wasn't born there, I was born here, so more Puerto Rican from the American point of view, you know, the emmigrant because we're part of the U.S. and then also, you know, inner city going to college with people from the suburbs and who do we hang out with people from the inner city? It's a different again culture. It's a different culture. So it's good. I feel like I can fit into many groups, but I always feel like I'm different. Like I'm there's always a part of me that's a little different no matter what group I go into. Like I can be in a group of women. And I feel connected to women. I can be in a group of black people. I feel very connected to black people. But there's always a part of me that's different because I have so many pieces that come from other places. So for me, it's always been about looking for connections. What do we have in common? When I I'm a religious person and I have no problem asking my Muslim and Jewish friends, please pray for me or pray for my mother, because for me, God is God. Again, I look for connections. What do we have in common? And, that's what's important to me. You know, the inside of the person, the good, the good deeds that they do in their life, what they care about. My parents, my father's not a religious person, but he taught me to be very, very moral. You know, it's not about you did something wrong. You say you're sorry. You have to go back and fix it. You have to go back and make it right. And most religions today are about, OK, we're here in the moment, never mind what's going to happen on the other side, you've got to live in the moment and you've got to fix things while you're here. Make it right. And that's how I've tried to raise my kids. I say, you hold the door for whoever because you don't know if you're the one person that's done done something right by that person all day. That may be the one thing nice that happens to them all day. That may change their day. And we don't know. Everybody carries burdens. Everybody carries baggage. You don't know what their baggage is. They could be dying of cancer. You could be the one smile that they get all day. And I've had many experiences where I've been kind to a person, a stranger and they’ve said that just turned my whole day around. So, you know, we have the power to do that. We have the power to help others, but we have to be cognizant of that. You know, and not assume that every bad deed or a bad thing that happens is is personal. It could just be that person's on a path that day and you just happen to be in their way, you know?
Speaker 2 [00:07:50] Can you tell us a little bit about how your mother impacted the Frog Hollow neighborhood, specifically?
Speaker 1 [00:07:58] When she became the principal of the Betances School that fed from this community, particularly, this was the poorest neighborhood in the city, and she had kids that, there was there was, you know, drugs in the community, there were gangs in the community and that was that one safe place that they could be. I mean, she had the children of drug dealers. She had the children of criminals. But those kids came to school clean. The parents of those children supported that school, whatever their daily activities might have been. They respected her. She could walk in any neighborhood and not worry about anybody doing her any harm because everyone knew who she was. When the Macheteros were on trial in Hartford, she had the kids of the people who were on trial in the Machetero trial. My mother believed in everyone having a fair shake and having a fair chance regardless of where they came from or what their upbringing was. And that school was about respect. And every teacher, or every principal I've ever worked for to this day, I tell them, I said the one thing that I care about is respect. I said I will go out of my way to help people. I'll be part of any team. You ask me to do something, I'll do it, but I will not be disrespected. And it's in the name of my mother and my father and my grandparents, who when they came to this country, were treated like second class citizens. And that's putting it very nicely, had rocks thrown at them, had the N-word thrown at them many times. And I said in their honor, I said no. I will not be disrespected. And it is a lot about cultural awareness and cultural understanding because we do have a different way of handling things. And because I grew up in the black community, I'm very familiar with that cultural awareness and understanding. So like for me, greeting people, letting people know that I see you, that you're part of my day, that you're part of my community is super important. I grew up with that. I grew up with respecting my elders, and we also grew up with very stern discipline. So usually in the school, they’ll call Ms. Negron to go talk to the kids because Ms. Negron doesn't play. And Ms. Negron will call the parent and make sure the parent knows what's going on, but it's done with love. And sometimes people see that and think you're strict you’re this whatever. I said, no, the kids know I love them. They know that they are my heart. They know that I will walk through fire for them. They know they know it in their heart. You don't have to tell a child they know. And my mother was that way. My mother would do anything. Her, her, her custodians, her teachers, her secretaries. They would do anything for my mother because they knew my mom would anything she asked you to do she was not above doing it herself. And she taught me to respect. Didn't matter what if it could be that person that has to pick up that paper and put it in the trash can? Their job is honorable. You respect that person. Everybody's job is honorable, and I have raised my kids that way. And like even if I see a street person, someone on the street, we don't look the other way. I said that's that's a message from God to remind us that we have to have a good heart, that we have to care about people who are less fortunate than us. You know, and I've taught my children that way. You give them money, OK, because you don't know their story either. So that type of thing like, you know. But it was very difficult for her. She eventually had to leave. You know, when you talk about fighting for bilingual education, you are really fighting racism. It is a battle against racism. OK? Most Hispanic children are children of color, and they not only have a bias against people who speak different languages here, but they especially have a bias against children of color. And you know that when you look at Haitian refugees as opposed to Bosnian refugees, they'll let people from Slavic countries in and they won't let Haitians in. And they're saying that the Haitians are not political refugees when Haiti has one of the most corrupt governments in the planet. How can you say that they're not political refugees, what you're really saying is they’re black. We don't want to, got too many black people here, OK, that kind of thing. My mom went through schools here when she she went to West Hartford. She went through Hartford schools and you were not allowed to date white men. You know, white boys, all of her, all of her boyfriends were black. You know, that's how it was. My parents were not allowed to get married. They tried to get married in Maryland. But because my father was white, my mother was black, they would not allow them to get married. That's a true story. They had to do something where they crossed a bridge over here and sign the the license over there to make it legal. And the minute they got married, the church got rid of the pastor. They kicked him out of the church because he married my mother and father. And I had the fortune to meet this man who stayed down there in this little podunk town in Maryland, stayed there fighting the fight, and you walk down those same streets today and every other couple is interracial. So that tells me that those people who stayed and fought that fight like my grandparents who were white, but they stayed there fighting their fight. And that's a lot of things. When I teach my students, I said, look at the people who are marching with Dr. King. There are a lot of white people. There are a lot of people from different backgrounds. I said that I want you to understand that everybody, when there's going to be a change, it has to be everybody. You can't just be that one group that's fighting. It has to be everybody, you know? So and I wanted them to understand that and especially my Hispanic kids, like I really teach them about the civil rights movement I said that if they didn't make all those changes, Hispanics would not have the rights that they have today. They wouldn't, you know, we wouldn’t all be able to go to the same schools because that just wouldn't be a thing. So history it’s so important to know your history, and it's so important to know where you are in history today. And that's why this type of event honoring heroes and such is is so important because young people need to know that those doors were opened by a lot of hard work and like people like Maria Sanchez, who weren't necessarily educated but knew how to fight that fight, you know, and believed in something bigger than themselves. A lot of the reason I don't know a lot about my parents until later in life is because they were very humble. So it was more like I would learn their stories. But I learned from other people like even about my grandparents, I learned about my grandfather at his funeral. People would come up to say, Oh, your grandfather did this, your grandfather in a little town in Pocomoke, Maryland was the first one to integrate. He was a coach and he had a little basketball after school program, you know, like they have. He was first one to integrate little black boys play with little white boys. And I said I know the town didn't like him after that, but that type of thing that he would never go around saying, this is what I did or, you know, I found it out at his funeral. Because I think that, you know, people who do things, they do it because they feel it's the right thing to do, not because they're trying to get their name on a wall somewhere.
Speaker 2 [00:15:21] How do you think the community can best honor the legacy of your mother?
Speaker 1 [00:15:26] I think everything they're doing is wonderful. I think a library is a perfect, you know, opening a library is a perfect commemoration to my mother her love of learning her love of books. Her love of education all ties right back into that. And she was very excited about this. She's very excited to hear about it. She was very she was honored, obviously, about the mural. But just, you know, the fact that she's up there with Maria Sanchez, it was a good combo. So.
Speaker 2 [00:16:06] Do you have any questions for us?
Speaker 1 [00:16:08] No.
Speaker 2 [00:16:10] Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 [00:16:11] Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 [00:00:00] Of course, it's a parking lot now, but it was right near the civic center, there's a there's a parking lot there now, but that was the Ann Street Bilingual School.
Speaker 2 [00:00:11] So if you could just say your name just for the recorder.
Speaker 1 [00:00:16] Mhmm. My name is Mari Smith-Negron.
Speaker 2 [00:00:19] And can you tell me what hero or heroes you’re here today to represent?
Speaker 1 [00:00:23] I'm here to represent Edna Negron-Rosario, she's my mother.
Speaker 2 [00:00:30] And can you share how she's impacted you personally?
Speaker 1 [00:00:34] My mother had a huge impact on me. I'm a lifetime language learner. English was my first language, and I'm grateful for that because English is a very difficult language to learn. I have found from teaching children from many other countries through being bilingual in Spanish. I was able to speak with my own maternal grandmother in Spanish. By the time I was in high school, I was fluent. She would send me down to the island and I learned to speak from my family. My grandmother's family would teach me because I was too old for the escualita that my brother and sister went to. And then in high school, I took classes with, I was fluent enough to take classes with other native speakers of Spanish, so that was pretty cool. So by the time I went to college, I was fully native speaker, fluent in both Spanish and English. Then I decided to go to Italy because I'm an art major and because she was so pro language, she told me, you will learn the language before you go. So I learned the language before I went. Mostly self-taught and I went over there and I was fluent in Italian. So now I'm learning two other languages this year. I just want to keep. I have a lifetime love of learning languages because of my mother and my own children are fluent in Spanish as well. And I just think it's very important that children honor their own culture, not just their language, but their own culture and learning about the American culture and the American experience that they have a respect for where they are and what the new place that they are. But with honoring their past and honoring their family and not being ashamed of their roots and understanding how important to maintain that language, connect with their family and their cultural, connect with their family in those types of things, I believe in looking for connections. And like I tell people, I'm multilingual, I’m multiethnic, I’m multiracial. I literally am the banner for multiculturalism because I'm Native American, Spanish and African. My mother's family was Afro-Caribbean. It was an African based family in Puerto Rico, so they were like the only African family in a Spanish community. So I also had the experience of being a woman of color my whole life because my mother was one of those people who could never pass for white. So I have that experience as well, and my father was a white American, but he was a white American who was so pro every other group and really had a lot to deal a lot with the guilt of what white people not that he was responsible for it, but white people in general and through history had done to different groups in this country. Certainly not my family, not my grandparents, who were amazing human beings. My father's parents and my father's family to this day are some of the most loving and open minded. If you look at my dad's side of the family, it's like the United Nations as much as my mother's side of the family. And you go to the Smith family reunions and half the people there are speaking Spanish because they've married Mexicans in other groups. So that is kind of the legacy of my dad's family. So and then also having gone to Europe, I got to get out of the box of the very polar. Hartford was very polar white and black. You knew when you were in a black neighborhood, you knew where you were in a white neighborhood, you knew which group you belong to. And for it being in the North, Connecticut was extremely polarized, extremely racist, and that you grew up with that knowledge. People ask me today, like, when did you know? I said, I knew when I came out the shoot. I don't know about you, but you were born a person of color and that you wear that your whole life. It is from the color of your eyes, to your hair, to your speech patterns. You wear it your whole life. And it's really hard to explain to people who don't come from that. So I really feel like I have many. I've been fortunate because I feel like Black American community, because that's where I grew up, Afro-Caribbean, because that was my heritage from my mom's family, Puerto Rican, even though I wasn't born there, I was born here, so more Puerto Rican from the American point of view, you know, the emmigrant because we're part of the U.S. and then also, you know, inner city going to college with people from the suburbs and who do we hang out with people from the inner city? It's a different again culture. It's a different culture. So it's good. I feel like I can fit into many groups, but I always feel like I'm different. Like I'm there's always a part of me that's a little different no matter what group I go into. Like I can be in a group of women. And I feel connected to women. I can be in a group of black people. I feel very connected to black people. But there's always a part of me that's different because I have so many pieces that come from other places. So for me, it's always been about looking for connections. What do we have in common? When I I'm a religious person and I have no problem asking my Muslim and Jewish friends, please pray for me or pray for my mother, because for me, God is God. Again, I look for connections. What do we have in common? And, that's what's important to me. You know, the inside of the person, the good, the good deeds that they do in their life, what they care about. My parents, my father's not a religious person, but he taught me to be very, very moral. You know, it's not about you did something wrong. You say you're sorry. You have to go back and fix it. You have to go back and make it right. And most religions today are about, OK, we're here in the moment, never mind what's going to happen on the other side, you've got to live in the moment and you've got to fix things while you're here. Make it right. And that's how I've tried to raise my kids. I say, you hold the door for whoever because you don't know if you're the one person that's done done something right by that person all day. That may be the one thing nice that happens to them all day. That may change their day. And we don't know. Everybody carries burdens. Everybody carries baggage. You don't know what their baggage is. They could be dying of cancer. You could be the one smile that they get all day. And I've had many experiences where I've been kind to a person, a stranger and they’ve said that just turned my whole day around. So, you know, we have the power to do that. We have the power to help others, but we have to be cognizant of that. You know, and not assume that every bad deed or a bad thing that happens is is personal. It could just be that person's on a path that day and you just happen to be in their way, you know?
Speaker 2 [00:07:50] Can you tell us a little bit about how your mother impacted the Frog Hollow neighborhood, specifically?
Speaker 1 [00:07:58] When she became the principal of the Betances School that fed from this community, particularly, this was the poorest neighborhood in the city, and she had kids that, there was there was, you know, drugs in the community, there were gangs in the community and that was that one safe place that they could be. I mean, she had the children of drug dealers. She had the children of criminals. But those kids came to school clean. The parents of those children supported that school, whatever their daily activities might have been. They respected her. She could walk in any neighborhood and not worry about anybody doing her any harm because everyone knew who she was. When the Macheteros were on trial in Hartford, she had the kids of the people who were on trial in the Machetero trial. My mother believed in everyone having a fair shake and having a fair chance regardless of where they came from or what their upbringing was. And that school was about respect. And every teacher, or every principal I've ever worked for to this day, I tell them, I said the one thing that I care about is respect. I said I will go out of my way to help people. I'll be part of any team. You ask me to do something, I'll do it, but I will not be disrespected. And it's in the name of my mother and my father and my grandparents, who when they came to this country, were treated like second class citizens. And that's putting it very nicely, had rocks thrown at them, had the N-word thrown at them many times. And I said in their honor, I said no. I will not be disrespected. And it is a lot about cultural awareness and cultural understanding because we do have a different way of handling things. And because I grew up in the black community, I'm very familiar with that cultural awareness and understanding. So like for me, greeting people, letting people know that I see you, that you're part of my day, that you're part of my community is super important. I grew up with that. I grew up with respecting my elders, and we also grew up with very stern discipline. So usually in the school, they’ll call Ms. Negron to go talk to the kids because Ms. Negron doesn't play. And Ms. Negron will call the parent and make sure the parent knows what's going on, but it's done with love. And sometimes people see that and think you're strict you’re this whatever. I said, no, the kids know I love them. They know that they are my heart. They know that I will walk through fire for them. They know they know it in their heart. You don't have to tell a child they know. And my mother was that way. My mother would do anything. Her, her, her custodians, her teachers, her secretaries. They would do anything for my mother because they knew my mom would anything she asked you to do she was not above doing it herself. And she taught me to respect. Didn't matter what if it could be that person that has to pick up that paper and put it in the trash can? Their job is honorable. You respect that person. Everybody's job is honorable, and I have raised my kids that way. And like even if I see a street person, someone on the street, we don't look the other way. I said that's that's a message from God to remind us that we have to have a good heart, that we have to care about people who are less fortunate than us. You know, and I've taught my children that way. You give them money, OK, because you don't know their story either. So that type of thing like, you know. But it was very difficult for her. She eventually had to leave. You know, when you talk about fighting for bilingual education, you are really fighting racism. It is a battle against racism. OK? Most Hispanic children are children of color, and they not only have a bias against people who speak different languages here, but they especially have a bias against children of color. And you know that when you look at Haitian refugees as opposed to Bosnian refugees, they'll let people from Slavic countries in and they won't let Haitians in. And they're saying that the Haitians are not political refugees when Haiti has one of the most corrupt governments in the planet. How can you say that they're not political refugees, what you're really saying is they’re black. We don't want to, got too many black people here, OK, that kind of thing. My mom went through schools here when she she went to West Hartford. She went through Hartford schools and you were not allowed to date white men. You know, white boys, all of her, all of her boyfriends were black. You know, that's how it was. My parents were not allowed to get married. They tried to get married in Maryland. But because my father was white, my mother was black, they would not allow them to get married. That's a true story. They had to do something where they crossed a bridge over here and sign the the license over there to make it legal. And the minute they got married, the church got rid of the pastor. They kicked him out of the church because he married my mother and father. And I had the fortune to meet this man who stayed down there in this little podunk town in Maryland, stayed there fighting the fight, and you walk down those same streets today and every other couple is interracial. So that tells me that those people who stayed and fought that fight like my grandparents who were white, but they stayed there fighting their fight. And that's a lot of things. When I teach my students, I said, look at the people who are marching with Dr. King. There are a lot of white people. There are a lot of people from different backgrounds. I said that I want you to understand that everybody, when there's going to be a change, it has to be everybody. You can't just be that one group that's fighting. It has to be everybody, you know? So and I wanted them to understand that and especially my Hispanic kids, like I really teach them about the civil rights movement I said that if they didn't make all those changes, Hispanics would not have the rights that they have today. They wouldn't, you know, we wouldn’t all be able to go to the same schools because that just wouldn't be a thing. So history it’s so important to know your history, and it's so important to know where you are in history today. And that's why this type of event honoring heroes and such is is so important because young people need to know that those doors were opened by a lot of hard work and like people like Maria Sanchez, who weren't necessarily educated but knew how to fight that fight, you know, and believed in something bigger than themselves. A lot of the reason I don't know a lot about my parents until later in life is because they were very humble. So it was more like I would learn their stories. But I learned from other people like even about my grandparents, I learned about my grandfather at his funeral. People would come up to say, Oh, your grandfather did this, your grandfather in a little town in Pocomoke, Maryland was the first one to integrate. He was a coach and he had a little basketball after school program, you know, like they have. He was first one to integrate little black boys play with little white boys. And I said I know the town didn't like him after that, but that type of thing that he would never go around saying, this is what I did or, you know, I found it out at his funeral. Because I think that, you know, people who do things, they do it because they feel it's the right thing to do, not because they're trying to get their name on a wall somewhere.
Speaker 2 [00:15:21] How do you think the community can best honor the legacy of your mother?
Speaker 1 [00:15:26] I think everything they're doing is wonderful. I think a library is a perfect, you know, opening a library is a perfect commemoration to my mother her love of learning her love of books. Her love of education all ties right back into that. And she was very excited about this. She's very excited to hear about it. She was very she was honored, obviously, about the mural. But just, you know, the fact that she's up there with Maria Sanchez, it was a good combo. So.
Speaker 2 [00:16:06] Do you have any questions for us?
Speaker 1 [00:16:08] No.
Speaker 2 [00:16:10] Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 [00:16:11] Oh, thank you.
Original Format
Audio Recording
Duration
16 minutes