Lorenzo should be alive. I had a different letter written for this week – some footnotes on the World Cup and the intersection of identity, calling, and purpose on and off the pitch.
But today, I’m thinking about Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, shot by ICE agents in Houston, TX, while in his car picking up his employees at a stoplight. I’m thinking about the homes he built for his family and other families as an entrepreneur. I’m thinking about his three sons who he worked hard to send to college. I’m thinking about how his sons had to hear about the death of their father on the news, because the cops and the hospital wouldn’t give the oldest son answers. I’m thinking about how Lorenzo, a father who served his family and community as a Mexican man, should be alive today.
My dad and how he knew his identity as a Latino man was a superpower, not something to be ashamed about. He modeled with his life the ways that integrating our racial and ethnic identity with our sense of calling and purpose is crucial to reclaiming who we are and how we serve. Especially, when the narratives around immigrants can make us seem like a problem to be solved, rather than people to be celebrated.
I am more and more convinced every day that the legacy of dads like my dad, Jorge, and Lorenzo is that we must never disconnect who we are from our sense of vocation. Those raices sustain us to steward the good within us and around us.
What lessons will you carry onward from your dad (or from father-figures in your life) as you continue to live fully alive in your identity, calling, and purpose?
Buen Camino
Full entry on Sarah’s Substack.
