Meet Marianna Lucero of In Lak’ech Denver Arts in SW Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marianna Lucero.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Marianna. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My name is Marianna Lucero and I am a Xicana born and raised in SW Denver. I am also a teacher for Denver Public Schools, a teatristra, first-generation college student, and now, the Founder and Executive Director of In Lak’ech Denver Arts. My mother, Rosa, is a fierce Mexicana and a master story-teller, who continues to use her gift of cuento to bridge my present to my past. Lively stories nestle me in the arms of a mother Tierra that I never knew. Her words delicately paint the montañas of Canatlán, the crystal olas off the coast of Veracruz, and vivid dance parties fueled by my abuelos special ponche. I collect her cuentos like lunares on my skin, each freckle, a story, a song of familia, comida, and musica. I know who I am because of her.

I grew up right off of Evans and South Federal Blvd, in a community so special, that I would never dream of leaving it. We come from cumbias, taquerias, back-yard parties and familia… first. We come from first-generation graduations, cruising slow on Sunday nights, and girls who wear big hoops and have even bigger dreams. We come from… we’re so much more than what you see on the news. I was nurtured by a company of teatristas at the Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, where I’ve been a company member since 2007. The Teatro empowered me as a young Xicana to learn the truth about my ancestors, and to cherish what it means to step into the experiences of those that paved the way for all of us. If it weren’t for the communities that raised me, I would not be the person I am today. I am forever indebted to them for guiding me, and helping me develop the tenacity and strength that I needed to pursue my goals and passions. That drive pushed me to attain a BFA in Theatre, Film and Television and a Graduate Teacher Education Master’s degree in Urban Community Teaching from the University of Colorado, Denver. In 2018, I also graduated with my Master’s degree in Theatre Education from the University of Northern Colorado.

My love of teaching and the arts led me to Goldrick Elementary, where I have been serving my community for the past seven years as a Dance and Drama teacher. In fact, both of my brothers and my husband attended Goldrick as children! My greatest joy is being able to co-create socially conscious and culturally relevant productions with my incredibly talented students. It was there that I founded our annual production, “Viva la Vida! A Dia de los Muertos Celebration of Life”. I also proudly founded and still coach the Goldrick Dance Team, which annually consists of 25-30 3rd-5th graders. In 2015, we won the Bringing Back the Arts Choreography Competition, and since then we continue to grow upon our reputation for producing community-responsive productions. Currently, I am in a fellowship with Moonshot Edventures, an excellent non-profit organization that surfaces and supports diverse leaders with designing and launching their own schools and programs. This fellowship has equipped and empowered me to pursue a longtime dream of mine, which is to expand my arts programming in SW Denver.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have the honor of growing up in the same barrio, and sharing the same cultural background as many of my students and their parents. This gave us the rare opportunity to build a Dance and Drama program together from the ground up. As our program continued to grow and take shape, I started to think about the possibilities of opening up my own arts center, right in our barrio. I wanted it to be a place where my students could continue working together to cultivate the art and movements that we wanted to stand behind. I wanted it to be a space founded on comunidad, familia and the reclamation of OUR narratives through our work. This goal became urgent when my former students came back to visit me, telling me that their new schools lacked the same kind of community and programing that we had created together. They urged me to open up my own center, but I knew that I lacked the knowledge and funding to reach such a feat, so it would have to remain a distant ambition, for now.

In 2018, the tragic death of one of my young students made me want to leave the teaching profession altogether. I spiraled and I fell into one of the deepest depressions of my life. Nothing made sense anymore, and I wanted to disappear, but the pain of leaving my students behind would be just as palpable as her death, and I refused to run. Even now, it is difficult for me to write this without reliving the pain of her loss. I choose to continue my journey because her name will forever be a battle cry against a system that ignores the permanent consequences of mental health issues. Though heavy, I try finding solace in the lessons she taught me. In life, her sweet character taught me to always lead and teach with kindness. Her giving heart taught me to continue sharing my love of the arts with my students, and her compassion for others taught me that I could grow compassion within myself. She taught me that I didn’t always have to be the strong one and that it was ok for me to lean on my community. I still struggle with navigating my pain sometimes, but I always try to remember who I am fighting for, my students, my jaguar warriors.

When I applied to Moonshot Edventures, I did not expect to be admitted into their competitive fellowship, but as fate would have it, I was chosen along with 16 other remarkable fellows that have become my family and systems of support. Moonshot invests in our leadership development, empowering us as a set of underrepresented leaders, so that we can transform the outcomes for traditionally underserved students in our current education system. This fellowship has served as a catalyst for my growing leadership skills and a springboard for my edventure, In Lak’ech Denver Arts. I am grateful every single day to be a part of a fellowship that is truly grounded in the needs of students and communities.

Please tell us about In Lak’ech Denver Arts.
In Lak’ech Denver Arts is an after- school program set to fully launch in 2021. It will serve 5th-8th grade students in SW Denver. Our name, In Lak’ech, is the Mayan precept, “You are my other me”. It is the belief that by seeing others as extensions of us, we can better learn how to love and respect each other, and in turn, we show the world that we love and respect ourselves. This ancestral belief is the lens that we choose to do our work through, so that our program’s efforts are aligned with honoring the humanity in others, and bringing communities together. Our programming aims to provide students in SW Denver with a high- quality community-responsive arts curriculum. In Lak’ech will facilitate our youth in activities where they will build upon performance skills while also: broadening their social awareness, creating cross-cultural connections and be inspired into social advocacy within their own communities and beyond.

In Lak’ech Denver Arts also believes in the human right to practice and preserve one’s own culture and will offer a variety of amazing cultural classes such as: Danza Azteca, Folklorico, African Dance, weaving and beading, story-telling with Indigenous elders, and cultural cooking classes that will all be run by local community members. We will also be offering special artist residencies, where students will have the opportunities to collaborate with local Denver artists who live and work in their very own communities.

In Lak’ech will continue to find ways to provide arts opportunities for our students by remaining accessible and innovative during Covid-19 and beyond. We are currently building and nurturing partnerships with local artists and community organizations that we hope to bring into our learning spaces, whether those be in future classrooms or in virtual settings. With so many communities struggling during this time, In Lak’ech will use our platform to provide engaging and meaningful material to our youth, while also helping raise awareness and provide resources where they are needed the most.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My fondest childhood memories take place with my mother, Rosa. I talk about her in every personal story that I have ever written because of the profound impact she continues to make on my life. You see, my mother is a wordsmith, a Mexican connoisseur of cuentos, stories. She was born in Canatlán, Durango, Mexico, and even though I have never been there myself, I swear I have recreated it in my imagination a million times over. She has shown me that just about any mundane task has the potential of igniting a damn good story. They are all usually about her childhood in Durango, and what it was like to be one of 11 brothers and sisters. Some of my favorite stories of hers are about her life as a young woman, adventuring en el Ciudad de México, swimming in the oceans of Veracruz, and the trials and tribulations of raising me and my two older brothers as a single mother. She taught me how to dance cumbia to Fito Olivares, how to sing loudly and unapologetically to our favorite Maná album, and that a good home-cooked meal made with love, will always make the best gift for anyone.

Above anything else, my mother has taught me perseverance. She came to the United States at 31, without many resources and no knowledge of the English language. When I was born, she spoke to me in Spanish because it was the only way she could communicate with me, and she did it, despite being told that I should only speak English. Her defiance helped me develop into a bilingual child who grew up to be a fully bilingual adult. It is because of her that I am able to offer my content in both English and Spanish to many of my English Language Learners at Goldrick, and for that, I am forever grateful. My mother also took the initiative to teach herself English and with the additional help of my step-father, she is now fully bilingual herself.

She remains the ultimate matriarch in our familia. Sharp-tongued, witty, intelligent and effortlessly beautiful. Her presence fills an entire room with warmth and laughter. She also fills our lucky panzas with the best homemade Mexican food in the world, but you know, I am extremely biased. She’ll tell you herself, having to cook for over 11 people every day came with its hardships, but it also developed her talent and ingenuity in the kitchen. If you would like to learn more about it, I’m sure she would love to tell you a cuento. My husband once jokingly told me, “Marianna, you really are your mother” and I couldn’t help but smile back because that will forever be the greatest compliment I will ever receive.

Contact Info:

• Website: InLakechDenverArts.org
• Phone: 3037269939
• Email: Marianna@InLakechDenverArts.org
• Instagram: In_Lakech_Denver_Arts
• Facebook: @InLakechDenverArts

Image Credit:
Honored Photography
Armando Geneyro
Goldrick Elementary

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