Cleo Kelley  0:03  

Hi. My name is Cleo Kelley. I'm a student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Today I'm interviewing Lyons Sanchezconcha from Chesterfield, Virginia. Today is Wednesday, April 16, 2025 the time is 5:11pm. This interview is being conducted on Zoom. Lyons, thank you so much for allowing me to interview for this project. 

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha 0:29

Thank you for having me, Cleo.

 

Cleo Kelley  0:32  

So to start off, I want to get to the know a little bit more about you, your family and your upbringing. Could you start by sharing where your family's from, a bit about your childhood and how you grew up?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  0:45  

Yeah, most of my family, well, all of my family, really is from Peru. I was born in Peru, myself and San Miguel, which is an suburb of Lima, which is the capital city there, and I immigrated to Sterling, Virginia in 1999. I lived in Sterling for most of my life, between the ages of five and 20, when I transferred, I then moved to Charlottesville for school at UVA, and then I moved to Richmond. So I've been in Richmond ever since, mostly in the city of Richmond, a little bit in Henrico, and now a little bit in Chesterfield, but I've been in Richmond for nine years, since I graduated from my undergrad.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:34  

Okay, did you grow up religious? Or are you still religious at all?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:40  

I am not particularly religious. I am not not religious. My family is Catholic, and I think when we just moved here, there wasn't enough time or even transportation to continue going to church or the Catholic processes of different things. So my family's religious, but I'm I'm not really that religious. Sorry I’m getting a call, let me take this real quick.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  2:30

Sorry about that, I’ve got a student who’s coming and I just have to sign a form for him. 

 

Cleo Kelley 2:37

No you’re fine. Could you elaborate more on your education? Like where you went to school and how far you achieved academically?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  2:48

Yeah. I started going to school and like pre-k and kindergarten over in Peru. So that’s where I started to learn how to read and write in Spanish and I also, you know, had a little bit of Spanish of Peruvian history taught before I immigrated here in August of 1999. When I immigrated here was right before we needed to enroll for kindergarten in the US. So I attended kindergarten and first grade in one elementary school in Sterling and then I transferred to another elementary school in Sterling for second, third and fourth. And finally, our last house, my parents current house, I went to fifth grade and then middle school and high school and I was an ESL student for kinder, first and second grade. After third grade, I was no longer in ESL. I completed my high school diploma in 2012 in Sterling at Park View high school and then I went to community college in Northern Virginia Community College at the Loudoun campus over in Sterling. I have a twin brother. He went to George Mason and I went to NOVA, the community college. He stopped going to Mason and I continued. I was able to become the first in my family to get an associate’s degree. I actually got 3, in general studies, liberal arts and social sciences, which was mainly my passion. And I transferred that degree over to the University of Virginia. At UVA, I completed my bachelor’s of arts in Spanish. I also got to study abroad and then became the first person in my family to get a—  to graduate from college, which was a special moment. I remember my niece and my brother and my parents at the time wearing my cap at that graduation back in 2016. Shortly before graduating, I had gotten a job which was in Richmond. It was helping students, you know, do their financial aid, their SATs and all these things to prepare them for college and life after high school. That’s what brought me to Huguenot high school, I was a college advisor here for two years and then I stayed on to teach a few years and then I became the graduation coach. Around that time, the superintendent of the district said that I should consider getting a masters and becoming a leader at the school district. So I did. I went to the University of Richmond and in 2023, I completed my masters program. Around that same time, I was recognized by the city as a Richmond top 40, under 40, for the work that I've done, which included several things as long as well as serving on a board appointed by the governor at the time, Governor Northam and Governor Youngkin, and, you know, chairing this Latino Advisory Board. And then, yeah, and then recently, I applied for my doctorate program, and I'm going to be getting my doctorate at Columbia University and and it’s in education. Yeah, Thank you. Let me sign this thing For the camera Quick. You.

 

Cleo Kelley  5:50  

That's amazing. 

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  5:50  

Thank you. Wow, thank you crying. That's to make my parents proud. Neither my mom or dad finished their high school diploma. They I think they dropped out around fifth or sixth grade in Peru.

 

Cleo Kelley  7:43  

Well, you're definitely doing that its amazing. Thank you. To switch gears a bit. I want to touch about your migration journey. Could you tell me more about your journey to Peru, to the states, and how you came to live in Virginia?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  7:58  

Of course. I am part of a family of seven kids. Five of them are, like a year or two apart, you know, each and then after a long time, when they were all between 15 and 22 my parents had me and my twin brother, and so it was us seven, and Mom and Dad, and we lived in a small, one bedroom place. It was like one bedroom with two bunk beds, and that's where we all lived. They grew up, and my sister got a visa to to tour the US, because a lot of people don't know that different passports grant you different opportunities to go to different places. So with our US passport, you can go to France, for example, just because they have a good agreement. But with the US, with a Peruvian passport, you can't go to the US. You have to ask for a visa. And so she got a visa to come here, and she came here, and she decided to stay here, and she was with family. She was with my my my dad's sister, and our aunt was not being very nice to her. So then my dad came here, and he and her were working in 90 you know, she came in 97 he came in 98 and then my mom said, why don't we take the the two youngest, you know, we were just five at the time. And so my mom my older brother, and then me and my twin brother came. So the four of us came in August 11 of 1999 and we came with a visa, which means we were able to, you know, buy a flight right on an airplane. And that's a privilege in some ways, you know. But I was, I was five, you know, I was just doing whatever, whatever adults tell you to do, right, go ahead and put this giant jacket on, even though it was, well, it was cold in Peru, and it was warm here. So we got here and it was really hot. I remember remembering that it was hot at night, and that was something that had never happened in Peru. We went to the grocery store, and I had my first soda, which was Dr Pepper, and I remember Tarzan. Tarzan the VHS had just come out, and the McDonald's toys and my friends bought my my dad's boss had given him a bunch of old toys that because he knew his kids were coming. And I remember seeing a vacuum for the first time. I remember all these crazy little things, right? And then we enrolled in school, and I remember crying a lot when we were going to school because I didn't want to be with away from my family. I didn't know the language or anything. But the school was nice to us. I remember they gave us each a book bag and supplies and everything. And eventually we became, from a young age, just school leaders. We then helped after a year, we helped students who had just immigrated, and so, you know, because we had been through their process, we helped me like a buddy system, where we would help somebody who, who came with with, you know, getting settled and everything. And I remember ESL classes were some of our favorites. Our teachers were kind. And so it wasn't until 2006 seven years later that I then got a green card because my mom got one and my dad got one through his work. We became legal permanent residents, and because me and my brother were younger than 18, we did as well. It wasn't until 11 years after that, or 17 years after we immigrated here in 2017 I 18 years. I guess I that December of 2016 I had submitted our paperwork to become a US citizen. At that time the Trump administration, this first administration, had coming around, and so we decided to do the paperwork to become citizens, and I was able to take the test and become a citizen in 2017 and so now i It's crazy how time flies. Now it's been eight years where I've been able to, of course, reside legally here since 22,006 but also becoming a citizen was important to me, because as I become more civically engaged and involved, I think it's important for us to have a voice in electing our elected and appointed officials and having a voice in that democratic process, since we are a part of the state and an important part of this economy as well. Yeah, that was kind of my immigration journey in a nutshell. Yeah.

 

Cleo Kelley  12:42  

That's that's really touching. That's really sweet. Yeah

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  12:45  

I remember having a layover in Houston, and I saw pennies for the first time, and I thought they were fake money, because I never seen money. Yeah. Do

 

Cleo Kelley  12:57  

Do you have any family still currently living in Peru?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  13:00  

Yeah? Yes, yes. In fact, it wasn't until around this time last year, in 2004 when my last sibling was able to get her visa, and for the first time in 2004 for the first time since 1997 I had all of my siblings and my mom and dad in the same room. So that was a special moment, yeah, because she was always there, and we were here, and we could go there, but she couldn't go here. And while we went there, some of my siblings still couldn't go there. And so it eventually worked out where now my siblings, who are here, are here, and she got her visa, and she came here and and that was, that was a special moment. I remember thinking, it's been almost 30 years, and I can finally have my brothers and sisters and my mom and dad in the same room.

 

Cleo Kelley  13:53  

That's amazing.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  13:57  

Thank you. Yeah, but yeah, I still have aunts and uncles. One my sister is still there, but mostly aunts and uncles and my parents have thought about, you know, retiring and moving back, perhaps, but, but most of my family is is now here. I would say most of my nuclear family is not here, and my extended family is in Peru.

 

Cleo Kelley  14:16  

Do you keep in contact with your extended family there?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  14:20  

I do. I do my God, you know? Back to the religion question. My God. Parents are in Peru, and I message them. And my sister, of course, I talk to her, but it's hard. It's hard when you're an assistant principal and you're running around and you work these crazy days and hours, and you also want to try to establish a life here, you know? And I think that's part of the immigrant experience, right? This idea of like, I'm this and I'm this and I'm both and, and what does that look like? And I don't have to be more of this or less of this or or anything like that. It's just a matter of of knowing that even being an immigrant in itself is a a. Is a beautiful identifier, I would say, yeah.

 

Cleo Kelley  15:05  

So talk more about Virginia. What was your experience like when you first moved here? And how has it changed over time?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  15:13  

Well, I remember when I first came here, I was very protected. You know. There were a lot of unknowns, you know. And so it was just easier to to be closer to home and Latino families as a whole, not to generalize. We tend to be a collectivistic culture, you know. So it's we like to stay together and little things impact everybody in but the state, I think, quickly became our home in some ways, and then in hindsight, it was not as welcoming. I remember being in first grade and having a student say something along the lines of, well, we don't want to or I remember there was a classmate that's crazy, because you're six, right? But you remember these things where there was a classmate that said, Well, I don't want lions on our team, or I don't want them to play with us. And somebody else was like, Well, why not? And they're like, because he doesn't look like us, you know? And I think those little things stay with you. You still realize that again, and I think it wasn't until recently that I realized that we need to claim Virginia as our home. You know, back then, there were fewer immigrants too, and a lot of the immigrant communities would kind of be more centered, and Alexandria or Arlington and little pockets where now I go back to Sterling, and things are government, things are both in English and in Spanish, you know, and communities and flavors and restaurants and everything. It's now so intertwined. Back then, it still felt so so new. And even now in Richmond, I see a younger Nova in the making, as I see a lot of the trends that are happening here. I remember in high school, I had an experience where a police officer kind of profiled me and pulled me over for a broken tail light and searched the car for weed. And I was like a band geek, you know, I was going to pick up my music for the musical, for PIP band, I had to sit on the curb and wait for another officer, and they searched the car, and there was nothing in there, of course. But I was nervous, and just talking to the officer about I had a Virginia Tech shirt on, and I was asking them about what kind of requirements do you need to become an officer? But you know, you fast forward a few years later, and during 2020 I served on the mayor's reimagining public safety task force, and I think about how in some ways I was doing it for that version of Alliance, in some ways I was doing it for the future alliances to come to know that you don't have to experience this, that you can call out inappropriate behavior. And that's just one of a couple. You know, there's a couple other places where I just felt like, like, maybe I was nice to this state, but maybe it wasn't nice back. And now we're getting and now I love Virginia, but I I'm also claiming it, and I'm claiming our place in it, for me and for my family and for my friends, and for the fact that that this is the story of Virginia, but also the story of the US. It's always been like what the bottom of the Statue of Liberty says. You know, bring me your humbled your tired masses and and it's the land of opportunity. So I think while you have either people or situations that make you feel unwelcome or uncomfortable, I think the greater part of society wants you to be a part of it, and I think that you should, and I think that we should. I think that we're moving in that direction. It's a positive, positive direction. Yeah,

 

Cleo Kelley  19:01  

I agree. I definitely agree with that. What has been your experience with the Latino community in Virginia?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  19:11  

So the Latino community in Virginia was my family at first, right? My close, nuclear family, and then it was my family friends, right? My the co worker for my mom, who was from Mexico, and we tried Mexican food, you know, my mom's friend who was Bolivian, and we knew of Bolivian food and and it started to grow as I also started becoming part of society. I worked since I was in middle school at a grocery store, and started meeting other folks and realizing I could speak Spanish outside of my house because speaking work I could speak. It was co workers I could speak. It was classmates, right? We are. We were a very diverse school in Sterling, probably one of the most diverse places of Loudoun County. I. And I started interacting with other folks of Salvadoran backgrounds, Guatemalan backgrounds, Nicaraguan backgrounds, and just seeing more and more of like mi gente. But also in some ways, you grow up based on what your family believes, in my family, and I think part of it comes from a point of protection. Can be some sometimes arrogant and uninformed and closed off to meeting new people and or too quick to stereotype, you know, oh, these people are always like this, and these people are like this. And I think that's part of just society as a whole, when you think of even now, how there's a big, big, intentional or perhaps unintentional, but I would say intentional move to categorize criminals and immigrants in the same category, right? It's tough because, you know, it's, it's like saying, It's like saying something can be, you know, made in China and orange, you can be both of those, but they're not exclusive from each other. It's not because you are an immigrant, you are a criminal, and it's not because, you know, and it's just very interesting when even subtle stuff comes out that I being trying to reason. Understand that it's not it's not an intentional it comes from a place of protection and everything, but I also understand how it can be pertained in a negative light, especially for folks who might not have the experience that I have, and sympathize right, and understand what it's like to struggle when you first move someplace. But I remember meeting a lot of folks, and then that transitioned me as I stayed here longer, right? Truthfully, as I came from being here for five years to 10 years to 15 to 20, and now I've been here 25 years, and I work in a black and brown school, and I work with students. For example, just this past weekend, I ran the 10k their famous Richmond 10k with a student who got here in December, you know. And he's high school age, of course, but I see the different sub categories of being immigrant slash Latino. You mean immigrant from any country in the world, right? You can be Latino and not having immigrated here. You can be some of my friends are Latino and are, you know, first generation, second generation. And so I think that in in my professional years since, in the past, like 10 years since becoming, you know, employed after, after college, I've then learned, even in college, I remember volunteering in a community in a mobile home park in Charlottesville, and you got UVA, beautiful and everything in the campus, and then you've got a mobile home park where 99.5 of The population is Latino, you know. And and just realizing, like, wow, okay, so we im great here, but we lived in an apartment and then a house. We never lived in a mobile park, you know, and, and kind of looking at documentation statuses and how that can separate different levels of privileges among a community that that is often thought as as one. And even now, you know, I understand the different factors that can contribute to to this identity of being Latino or being an immigrant. And I work with students, right who? When I work with them, I consider, how old were they when they immigrated? You know, how, is their English? How much education do they have? I have some students that stopped going to school. Immigrated here at the age of 15, but they stopped studying in their home country at the age of 10. They started working at that age, and now they're here. They're 15. They haven't gotten to school in five years, but legally, they have three more years of school before they cannot be a student anymore here in the US. So these challenges, I think that's part of why I like my profession, because I get to work with some of these students, and I am the first and only Latino assistant principal at my high school, you know, the only immigrant, the only assistant principal who also was an ESL student, who also immigrated here, and I think that hopefully not the last you know, but I think that is important is to see folks in these positions, in addition to the kitchen and janitorial staff, you know, we deserve to tell these folks that, yeah, they too, can get, can get a diploma, and can go off and do things and can can pay it forward. Yeah,

 

Cleo Kelley  24:47  

You're very inspiring. Like, I'm just like, I could just tell you're so good atyour profession, because I'm just like, sitting here, like, oh my gosh, he's so well spoken.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  24:57  

Wow, thank you.

 

Cleo Kelley  24:59  

Um, and what has your experience been with those outside the Latino community in Virginia

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  25:07  

and Virginia? I think I have experienced a mixed bag, you know, of and again, it's my experiences with other people outside of the Latino community in particular has been, has? Well, I guess would fall in different categories. I think one of them would be the folks who come from similar social economic backgrounds. Is mine growing up, but they didn't identify as Latino, you know. And I think I remember from leaving living in apartments and being in sterling in general, you have friends and such that either are also immigrants, but not Latino immigrants. My friend, one of my best friends in high school, immigrated from Ghana, right? So, also learning language, also figuring it out, but again, not an immigrant from a Latin American country, or they're just other races and backgrounds, but, but not, not necessarily an immigrant, you know, but similar working class background, right? Our families come from that same working class where, you know, if you just ask around enough, you can find a guy who will do an oil change for you instead of having to go to the place. And so I think that that has been part of my experience, if I'm looking at particularly the majority white experience, I think from an early age, I learned that there were people who who are good and can be good, and I think it's hard to also transition out of that mindset of like they are the good white people, right? And we are here and just thankful that they're not mad at us. You know, to to also change into like, No, we're like, the same, you know, like, there doesn't have to be a complex here. But I think that, you know, if you study a little bit of psychology and you read like the pedagogy of the oppressed, it's, it's very interesting, because I see some of these trends now, especially in Latinos who have been here for a while. Is that a in some ways, I'm talking about the Latinos who voted for Trump, right? Like they become the oppressed, become the oppressor, so that they can no longer be the oppressed. And that's, that's hard to swallow, but it happens, right? Because it's like, why are you going to get on top when? When, when you still have got this, this party that still considers us less than what you started saying, Well, I'm I may be less than, but not as less than than these. That's tough to kind of see happen also, but, but I also know that I've gotten to the place where I am because of some exceptional educators and leaders, role models and mentors, that I've had some of my best friends to this moment, or my former my former band teacher and when I was in middle school even, and my professors. I've got two really good professors from the Community College. I've got a professor even from the University of Virginia. And even in my job back in 2023 I experienced the tragedy at graduation. There was a shooting. My professors from my master's program. They came to my house and they brought food and they just sat with me, and they just listened. And I think that's that's what makes me realize like there are folks who are outside of my identifier as a Latino, or just loving and caring and giving. And I think I do. I think that they outnumber those that that aren't. And that's that's good, that gives me hope, you know, and I think I've learned to understand too. As I hear back to the point I was making about Latinos who might vote against their best interest, I remember a Thanksgiving years ago when my my family was having food, and they were talking about, in Peru, there's a lot of Venezuelan immigrants. They're leaving Venezuela and they're coming to Peru, and they're like, you know, these Venezuelans, they're coming to Peru, and they're taking our jobs, and they're bringing drugs and they're bringing crime. And I was like, Wait, pause, like, what is that? What does that sound like? Right? And I drew that parallel, what they say about us coming to the US as a whole, and back to this point of like the oppressors the oppressed become the oppressors, so that they can seem like they're not the oppressed. And so, yeah, I think, I think that it's been interesting to also see people of various backgrounds and thinkings and mentality and realize like, well, they're not bad people. You know this is coming. This is coming from something right, whether it's a point of protection, whether it's to conservatism, because you you're a little afraid of the unknown, and if you don't have a a gay or trans or non binary friend. Right or relative, you're not going to feel like those rights are important to you, you know. And so it's very interesting, as I've gotten just in general, just a little bit more educated also, and and met more people and traveled, and I've learned that that I can understand where some of these folks come from, enough to have a conversation and maybe one that leads towards a mutual understanding of each other and just a collective desire to move forward together, rather than divided.

 

Cleo Kelley  30:33  

And can you share some of the biggest obstacles you've encountered while living in Virginia or just in the United States

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  30:40  

in general, some of the say that again,

 

Cleo Kelley  30:44  

some of the biggest obstacles you'd encounter.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  30:47  

So I, I shared with you a little bit about being in elementary school and a kid being like, Oh, we don't want to play with clients because he doesn't look like us. Classic, you know, you know, moment of like racism, colorism, whatever you want to call it, that sticks with a six year old, you know, who is now 31 and thinking about it, you know, then, you know, I remember, just in general, feeling like a relative. So he married my sister. He was white, and he, after a while, just wasn't really nice to the family for various reasons. And just feeling like, Man, this is unfair, and trying to like, you know, fight back in a way where it's like, I love my family and I want to protect them, but I also understand these different intricacies of in general, you know, just family dynamics with friends and exes and whatever. And so I just remember being being young, but, but, you know, I, like, yelled at him for something, and he called the police, and the officer, like, yelled at me it made me cry. And said, I could take you to Yale for insulting at someone. And I was like, so I think I think these little things, when I think back at them, they are part of the reason why I'm like, No, I'm going to sit with Governor Yankee. I'm going to talk to him for an hour about what you know, and then, and it also taught me how to problem solve, right? Like, whatever happened at the end of the day, I got to tell that guy, I remember, I got the time you're a bad father and your damn bad husband, and whatever I say isn't going to change that, you know. And you know, just kind of to live with that. And so I, you know, I've gotten to this point where it's like, you can just, you know, you can just say things without being strategic. Soon after that was when the when the officer profiled me and pulled me over and searched my car for no reason. I remember after all that thing happened, I got home and I checked my tail light, and the lights worked just fine, you know, and so, but I was thinking about that when it was 2020, and I'm in this mayor's Task Force, and thinking about how I was one of the only Latinos on the task force, and how that was important when 11, now 12% of the state is Latino. Why it's important to have these perspectives and these different bodies. I just remember different, you know, different interactions. I think some of them with police officers. There's like, a road that was closed, and they said some snarky comment, and I was so scared, and I, like, took my hands out of the car, but I was like, I'm gonna approach you. And I said, did you guys say something? And they were fumbling, right? They're like, Oh, no, I didn't. I was talking to him and this and, and it's just so I think back, and I'm like, what an idiot. Like, just keep driving away. But this, I don't know, inner feeling to say something, to do something, it can look different now, right? It can be like you said earlier. You're so well spoken. It can be wing Well spoken. It can be being on a board meeting. It can be being in these spaces. But like that gentle, subtle clap back and at the end of day, like I'm going to fight in whatever role I have and whatever responsibility for our community and for our rights, and I'm going to be a gentleman about it, but I'm going to make sure that I'm not going to sit quietly while rights are taken away. I remember the governor's first budget, when he was the current governor, when he came into office, pulled away funding from DACA recipients who were meant to receive part of a Vasa that so if you're undocumented, back when I first started doing the job that I do, if you were undocumented, you You could not pay in state tuition, and you could not get any financial aid. And that changed. There were different legislations passed that first allowed for undocumented and DACA recipients to pay in state tuition at VCU even, and then, excuse me, the year after that, for the these communities to risk. Receive some financial aid from the state. And so that was special to me, because you talk about these communities, who are, you know, I just saw the stat today, they're contributing millions right to our taxes, to our economy, and they're not receiving the benefits of it, right? When you think about financial aid, you think about, you know, it's, it's just what you get because you pay taxes, and that's just what you get. And these communities don't, don't get it, and they don't get it because of just legislature that can be changed. You know, that should be changed. So I don't know if I can still pull this up, but yeah, 980, $9.8 billion in 2023 and $96.7 billion in 2022. Wow. Came into our taxes by undocumented immigrants. Now, when you think about these taxes, sure, some of them will pay for the roads, some of the but some of them will pay for things and programs and subsidies and that they don't qualify for because they don't have a social and so that's that's an inequality, right? I think about first, we're talking about little instances and little that one time, that one cop said that thing. Now we're talking about broader ways that this state or country isn't being kind to us, and I think that's part of it. I think about migrant workers who come and work our fields in Virginia, even, and they don't have any rights. They're like modern day slaves almost. There's no There's no minimum wage for migrant workers. The idea being like, well, you sign up to be a migrant worker, so you fall outside of these different regulations and and it's tough, but it's also, I uh, heartwarming, and I think it gives us hope that change can happen, because there are people who look like us and have experienced what we've experienced, and might identify as a migrant worker, as an undocumented person, as a DACA recipient, but also might not, there are a lot of allies and people who are just passionate about saying, like, you know what? This is important to me, and I'm going to stand by you and do my part. And there's a part for everybody to play in all of this, right? But I think, yes, I think as I gotten older and in more recent years, I have seen that that these unkind moments and inequities come in a larger space. Back to the governor's budget, there was money that was pulled from undocumented and DACA recipients to receive financial aid by the state, and then that money was used to create an HBCU scholarship for historically back colleges and universities. And to me as an outsider, what that says is you're trying to divide and conquer. You're trying to pin Latinos and black communities against each other, and that sucks, you know? That's so against what I think we should be. That's not Virginia being for lovers, you know? And so, yeah, and so things have changed since then, and that didn't fully take it, didn't empty the money so that some people who could qualify for this financial aid would still receive it. But it's, it's an example of things that are happening at a bigger scale that I think are inequities. And almost more important than that one person telling that one guy something mean or racist, you know, because these are happening in systemic, large scale places. When I was chairman of the Latino Advisory Board, we would hear how this inequity happens in housing a lot too. You've got families paying for deposits for apartments that then they don't qualify to get and they don't give them their deposit back. And you think about families who are working these jobs in kitchens and landscaping companies and such, they're, you know, $500 that's a lot of money for them, you know. And then you respond with some sort of like, well, what are you going to do? We can call police, you know, that to hold somebody's immigrant status, immigration status, or to take advantage of vulnerable communities, it's happening. You know, it's and and I think it's something that we need to to fight against and fix.

 

Cleo Kelley  39:20  

100% agree absolutely. We've touched on this a bit. But can you tell me more about your current job and other jobs you've had since being here?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  39:32  

Yeah, my first job ever was helping my dad, because he works in construction. So you know, I would help him with painting and hammering stuff and screwing stuff on and drywall and all that stuff. And I've done that for as long as I can remember, right? But my first official job was working at a grocery store since I was 14 in middle school, and I just held that job all the way until I had to leave Northern. Virginia. I actually came back to the job during COVID, when I had to, when I left Richmond and I was in Northern Virginia again, I figured, you want grocery stores again, slammed. I called my old boss and I went and I helped her with a little bit, and also allowed me to get some access to toilet paper and chlorine and sanitizer and Lysol. So it's a way to win. But you know, I worked at a grocery store and moved on up right from bagging to pushing cards to cashier to customer service manager and doing all the front end returns and, you know, money orders and all that stuff. I then got a job at the school that I was at at the Northern Virginia Community College, I worked as a student representative of the Office of Student Life. So when you pay tuition, you have some money that goes towards activities and such. So this office would fund what to do with that money, right? Have little events and Hispanic Heritage Month speakers and advocacy day and a movie showing and stuff like that. And so I would help that that office was one person, and I would help her. I was her assistant. And that really got me into education at the higher ed level, but it got me into being in a position where, you know, I had an email, I had an email, and I was a professional, you know, but I was still a student, and I, I then resigned both of those jobs because I had to move to Charlottesville. And I moved to Charlottesville, and in Charlottesville, I used my work study money, Federal Work Study Grant, to work, as you know, the stall see journals that go behind the all the stalls in the college campuses. I would put those up, I would have a big bag of them, and I would go around and replace the old ones and put the new ones in. And I did that. And also was an assistant for the studio art building at UVA. I would help organize the supplies and manage the alumni mailing list and stuff like that, until I graduated right before graduating, about six months before I I went to an information session, and then I applied and interviewed to become a college advisor. That was my first adult job. Is working at a school and helping all students, but prioritizing low socio economic status, racially underrepresented, and first generation to college students be able to access and attain a college education from the high school, right? So primarily worked with the seniors, but really kind of worked with all students. I remember, that's what brought me to hug high school. I worked. I was paid by the University of Virginia. I was an AmeriCorps employee, but I worked at Union High School every day, and I did that, and I I remember seeing back then, we only had, like four counselors. We had a smaller admin team, a ton of students, a lot of newly immigrated students. I would go into an ESL classroom and say, Who here wants to go to college? You know, when you finish high school, very few people would raise their hand. And that has changed, and I feel fortunate that now, nine years later, we have an insane amount of student support staff. We have twice as many counselors as we had twice as many social workers and community partners here in the building helping our students. And we also have

Lyons Sanchezconcha  43:34  

students who now see their potential and see a future beyond I guess I'm just going to keep working at that the end down that I work at right now, or at the grocery store where I work at right now, or, you know, putting roofing in and siding in, which is a lot of the job that our students have now, right? And so the job was college advisor for two years. Then I was a teacher, a Spanish teacher, for two and a half, three years, and then I was a graduation coach, the first ever. We got title one funding, and we created this role to help students who are at risk of graduating. So I helped retain students who are at risk, recover students who had dropped out, and then generally support everybody to reach graduation. And then I got my masters and I became assistant principal, so now I am an assistant principal at Union High School. Love it keeps me on my toes. It keeps me busy. I'm looking at you and I'm looking at my radio and my phone going off, but it's a, it's a, it's a great job. And you know why before I became a graduation coach, and I started my master's program. I also worked at the Sacred Heart Center for a little bit. It's a community it's a community center that serves the Latino community here in the area, and so I worked with them, with some of their programming, and I still help them out. We do an annual scholarship for students every year there. He's going. On its fifth year now, so

 

Cleo Kelley  45:01  

I think we partnered with them for our project. Yeah, we've done volunteering there this semester. 

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  45:08  

That's amazing, excellent. Yeah, no. So that's those have been my jobs.You know, I don't think I left anything off. Yeah.

 

Cleo Kelley  45:18  

Can you tell me more about any community organizations you've been a part of and how you got involved with them.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  45:25  

I can I'm gonna pause briefly to check some of these notifications on my phone, though, And there's an announcement there.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  46:27  

All right, I think I'm good. I have to head to another event after this, but I've got time other community organizations and groups that I've been a part of this. Might take some time, because I I grew at the community college. I became a part of the Student Government Association, and then eventually I was their first student representative for the board, the Northern Virginia Community College Board. And that was really cool, and also really geeky, because at the time, everyone's, you know, being a young, 20 year old and living life. And I'm, like, so interested in Robert's Rules of Order and how you make a motion and you second it. And so I remember then going to UVA, and folks are going to parties and stuff. And I'm like, I kind of want to go see a Board of Visitors meeting, right? They're like, what cares about the Board of Visitors? But I remember just being interested in meeting those folks, right? The provost, the deans, the the NC, learning, you know, the inner workings of a place I loved, which was the community college that got me to to love doing what I call extracurriculars, right? So I was in student government, and I was in a couple this faculty senate, you know, the the honors club. And none of those were the reason I was there. I was there to be a student, and so I kept this, this, maybe it started, actually, in high school, when I was in the marching band, I was in the drum line, you know, just I kept this drive to just do a little extra to spice up the main money maker, right? And so coming to Richmond, my main money maker was being a college advisor, then a teacher, then a graduation coach, then a assistant principal. And now, while I can't be an assistant principal and do all these other things, I did start off here knowing that given an opportunity to be involved, in fact, the board that I later was appointed on had a couple events for the community, and I would go to it. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed speaking with other like minded individuals about like minded interests and learning how it mattered. I remember the Secretary of Education back in 2017 went to speak at an event, and I later asked her about ESL students and how we see them impacting our graduation rates. And she came up to me, very special guest, right with her people, and she's there, and she came up to me, she gave me her card, and her phone number was on the back of it. Her not her government phone number, but just another right written in. And she was like, I'd like to talk to you some more about this, if you have some time. Here's my card. And I was like, Well, you know, but also really excited, because I've always been driven by this advocacy and this desire to to take what I do beyond the classroom. That was actually at a conference for the Virginia College Access Network and the conference the year after, I asked who wants to be involved with our board and such, and I said, Me. And so I was appointed. I was the young. GUEST person, the first Latino, the first immigrant appointed to this board, and imposter syndrome sent in. Sure you're familiar this idea of like, what am I doing here? Like, this is esteemed the college access professionals across the state. And I'm a 22 year old, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. I I don't even know what to do when I get home from work, you know. Like, do I cook? Do I order something? And so I started to shrug it off, and I started to, then start to think about myself, of what, how I think of my students, you know, or this is new trend now, like, think about your younger self, right? Be kind to that younger self. And so I tell a lot of my students, you know, I had to, I had to buy a blazer from the discount rack when I would go to these meetings at Northern Virginia Community College. And I used to be so scared that people would notice that the top blazer and my black pants, my black blazer, my black pants, didn't match. It wasn't a suit. It was like a mix of shoot, like the pants I got Walmart and the blazer I got on sale at Kohl's, and they looked like a black suit, but it wasn't actually a suit that was all the same fabric. That kid with that mentality and that experience and all the ones that came before it, being born in Peru and immigrating here and everything we've talked about, deserved a spot on that board, and we all do. And maybe I wasn't the first, but I was somebody on that board who had that experience and who could talk to decisions and policies going forward from this perspective. And that was so important, that was so important. And so I started, I started owning it, you know. And I started being like, No, I would want my students here. And I would always say, like, I may be the first, but not the last. And so I became, eventually the president of that board. And I just rolled off that board in December of 2024 after serving for six years. But the Virginia College Access Network is an organization that I work closely with with which brings you know folks from the high school or the higher ed and that in between space who help increase access to college in Virginia. I also was, am on the board for the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network, or Val hen, they do scholarships and programs for students in Virginia, similar to Virginia can but specified in the Latino community. And I always admired them. I admire that most of what they do is put money into the hands of folks because they know that that's the biggest barrier to reaching College, and that's been really great. I'm currently sit on the access committee for the Virginia five to nine, now known as the Commonwealth savers. And this is a huge state agency that works with, you know, increasing again, access and affordability and attainment for college and future programming for for everyone in the state I have been on boards for different nonprofits like the Asian and Latino solidarity alliance that helps communities, immigrant communities in particular, become more informed on different government processes and protocols so that they can be more civically engaged. And in 2020 I was appointed by the governor at the time to the Virginia Latino Advisory Board, which is a board that advises the governor and their cabinet on Latino issues impacting the state. And again, imposter syndrome said in when I would join that board, and especially when I became the chairman of that board in 2022 but people said I did a good job. And people said I was able to manage, you know, democratically appointed and Republican appointed board members to come to a common idea that the issues are non partisan. You know, this is happening in Roanoke. This is happening in Harrisonburg and Virginia Beach and Fredericksburg and Stafford and Harrisonburg, Winchester, Alexander it's happening, whether we do something about it, how much money we spend, or whatever. That's where political, political ideology impacts it. But I would say that is one of the more significant groups that I got involved with with because I became the chairman of that board, and I think it was impactful, you know, the work that we've done in all of these boards that now I feel like I'm 31 but I'm like, I want to retire, you know? I'm like, It's too much. That's, that's the next Chloe Kellys of the world. Jump on in and take it on from here, you know? But, but it's also just mindset, you know, just wanting to to do less of that. Because there's always people who want to do that and can do it, and should, should, like, I was, should have somebody be like, Nah, you could do it. I believe in you, you know, you're not too young. You're not too like, do it. Um. It and, and, and so that I can also spend some more time on, like my main job, and then also, just like, raising a family and living that happy American life and not feeling that immigrant or minority weight almost on you to take care of it all, for all of us, you know. And I think that that's been very interesting. Currently, I'm involved in the leadership Metro Richmond leader quest, which is like a more just like a leadership program, and that's been really great. But then also the Rockwood Leadership Institute, they have a black and Latino change makers fellowship. We were just in a retreat where they said, you know, take care of yourself this week. Get your sleep. Take care so and it's going to feel a little unsettling, a little uncomfortable, because all of you are here, because you guys are just doers and makers and shakers. And it did, and it still does. You know, it still feels weird to to perhaps, say no to an opportunity,

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  56:00  

but it's, it's a matter of also one realizing that there's so many of us that we can do it together in community, that I think there is actually an older immigrant or Latino mentality of, like, No, we're the ones. We're the godfathers, you know, like, oh, you and that's great. They paved the way so we could start here and not here. But I do think that it would behoove us to to pass the baton, you know, to share the wealth, to to like you're doing through this project, share our stories and realize that whether you were born here or immigrated here, I've been here X amount of years or whatever, or have X education or not, like we all need to be in These spaces and advocating. And we also all deserve to say we did our part. We left it better than we found it. We can breathe now. We can take a break. Now, you know,

 

Cleo Kelley  56:53  

You've answered one of my questions already, which was great. Do you have any future plans within the organizations that you're currently a part of

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  57:04  

right now, I I intend to be a little selfish. I think you, yes, worked for an extra four hours because of a student's case, four or five hours. But I intend to kind of take a break, roll off these boards, focus on me, get my doctorate, build build a relationship, build a family, and then come back a little stronger and more stable than before, so that then I can kind of pick up where I was and take it a mile, two, three further than I have been able to in recent years. And I know that that's that's the nature of the job. I think in a lot of these organizations, I would like to say thank you. Next, you know, like the Virginia College Access Network board, I was the first Latino appointed. I left, I brought on two Latinas, you know, and they're both great. One works in Roanoke, and one works at in HBCU. Like, of course, they need to be on this board. They're incredible, you know. And so I think that that similar thing, you know, with the Virginia Latino Advisory Board, the standard is here. Now you know you have listening sessions. You can't have this board and not listen to the rest of the communities. You're not the chosen one just because you're one of 21 on this board. What you tell the governor, it can't be what you think. It has to be what you're reporting out from the community you know, has to be what you what you're picking up and are relaying. So I think that I've done some really good things that I can say I'm proud of, and I hope for my my future plans, my immediate plans, are to be a little more in the back, you know, of the I don't know, of the fight, and to better equip myself to come back bigger and better than before. You know, I can say, you know, I'm not a fan of this current presidential administration, but I can say that by the time that he leaves office, I'll have my dad who didn't who grew up in rural Peru and didn't have enough enough to eat when he was young and didn't graduate from school. Well, his son will have doctor before his last name, you know. And I can say that, that that was time well spent, you know. And we'll and we'll go from there. And currently I'm invested in in our governor's race. I think, of course, as with everything, the closer and more local we are, the more it impacts us, you know. And so I'm very excited about that, too. And supporting where I believe. You know, I think either you're either going to get a black immigrant as governor right, or a person who's vowed and trusted to to really put forth the rights and and successes of the immigrant community in Virginia, and so I'm I'm really excited either way, I think that I will never be able to sit still. It's not in my nature, but that I look forward to to kind of take taking a break and and cheering people on from the sideline, being there if needed, but, but coming back a little bit a little bit later.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:00:52  

Shifting gears, I want to talk more about COVID 19, because I feel like that's a major topic for everybody in any type of conversation or discussion, um, where were you living when the pandemic happened, and how did you first hear about it?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:01:10  

I was living on the corner of Arthur Ashe and Carrie, and I loved that apartment. It was so great walk to the VMFA and and I was working here as a teacher, and I remember comforting my students who were unsure, you know, who were scared, who were wiping their phones with their Lysol wipes and and just not sure what to expect, as they went off to that early spring break, it feels like from that Monday to that Friday, things change so much, right? And I called my family and I watched with the principal at the time the President addressed the nation, unsure also as to what to expect, but knowing that, you know, if I don't have to be in the building, I'm gonna go up to be with my family, and if they're out of toilet paper and all that stuff up in Northern Virginia, let me grab some from here. So I went to the store, I got some of the last rolls of toilet paper and Lysol and flour and stuff and water, and I drove up to Northern Virginia, and I lived with my family for a while. I started working, like I said, at the grocery store, and I remember working at least six out of the seven days a week, and at least eight hours, if not 12 hours some days, just at the grocery store, while also preparing lessons for my students to work on asynchronously. And at the time, I was still with the Sacred Heart Center and doing some virtual sessions for the students. And so it was a very busy time for me. And then as I went back to Richmond and left Northern Virginia, I remember with a virtual setting where you could go from one classroom to another classroom, to a virtual call to another virtual call. It was very possible for me to sit with the same ring light, actually, you know, and take call to call the call. And also, just like never, never take a break, you know, I remember, and this might be a little team I but I remember, like it took me exactly one minute and a couple seconds to pee. And that's because I knew, because I was like, guys work on this thing, and I would just, and so it's like, the only reason I needed to get up, you know, I could just grab something and eat it from here. And so it also became very toxic, because it was all just from that one space and that one computer. And it was great. I remember participating in panels with the Secretary of Education at the time and and working on a lot of neat new things, joining a lot of these new boards, fighting a lot of the social justice fight that came. But it was hard, you know, I worked with students, and it was hard when I remember even some students in a virtual classroom would turn the camera on, and they were working themselves. They were laying cement, you know. And so as things started to open up and we opened the school up, we it was nicer. It was nice to see the students. It was nice to distribute some things to them. We were still virtual. We came back in person. Excuse me, things change. You know, in terms of like IEP meetings and professional development sessions can take place virtually. Now we learned how, how easy and accessible that was, and maybe even more so right for folks who might have mobility issues, etc, to be able to tune in virtually. And so I think there were, there were pros and cons, but I think as a whole, it was a negative time in many ways for folks, and it left a lot of the students that we work with now with very pivotal years kind of taken away from them. But we're humans, you know, we persevere the craziest of things. So I think, I think it taught us a lot. It was very interesting to see how many quote, unquote, essential workers were immigrants. You know, while when I wasn't at the grocery store and or doing all my virtual jobs, when I was in Northern Virginia, I was helping my brother in law at the time, install washers and dryers and fridges in people's homes, you know. And we were masked up and everything, but we're still working because, you know, and I remember Northern Virginia traffic was so light crazy, but the folks who were on the road were going from one job to the other because they were essential jobs, you know. Even teaching was an essential job, you know. And so I think that is one thing that it taught us, too, is, what are we doing? But we don't really have to do, you know, like state inspections, no offense, you know, it's like, okay, you know. But also, what are we undervaluing in society, or taking for granted and and I think that was a that was a good, I mean, I feel like people have forgotten now, but that was a good reminder of what was actually essential,

 

Cleo Kelley  1:06:21  

yeah, you were in the high school setting when you were teaching,

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:06:25  

yeah, always teaching in high school. Always, I've always taught in this high school, even on high school, because

 

Cleo Kelley  1:06:30  

I went to Glen Allen High School, and I was a senior of the COVID classin 2020 and Glen Allen just really stopped classes, like we took a two week break, and then they tried to do it online, and we I never even had to get on a zoom call. And they just like, alright, well, we'll round up your quarter three and quarter two grade to make your quarter four grade, and I'll graduate. I was like, oh, okay,

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:06:57  

yeah. How was your graduation? Was it like a drive through.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:07:02  

It was at the raceway. We had like a PowerPoint, YouTube, live and the pre recorded speeches. It was, it was sad, but it's good, because now I graduate this May, and it'll be my first actual graduation ever, which is really sweet.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:07:20  

Nice. Well, congratulations.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:07:22  

Thank you, COVID was definitely a wake up call for everybody. You take stuff for granted, and then once something like this happens, you're like, wow, yeah. How did your family or you respond to changes like staying at home or shifts in work,

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:07:44  

shifts in work. Well, a lot of my family depended on jobs in other people's homes. You know, most of the women in my family work in cleaning, and most of the men in my family work in construction, so when projects wouldn't come up or be canceled. You know, relatives that had to go on unemployment because they no longer had these jobs right to go remodel somebody's basement. Slowly they started coming back on. And slowly I would help too. I remember helping, you know, I just always, if I can, you know, I had friends who would go winter break, spring break, and go work, I mean, go travel somewhere fun, and I would just go help my family and whatever project they were working on for some other richer, wealthier Northern Virginia family. But it did. It impacted. I remember celebrating that, that Mother's Day. I don't know if you remember that, that Mother's Day. It's just very interesting, because it was like May, and we had been in it since March, end of March. We just, I feel like we ordered IHOP to go, and we just ate outside and and since a lot of us were essential workers and we were all in the house. We all got COVID Very early on. And I remember, I feel like my mom had had COVID During Mother's Day. So it's very interesting, you know, and I had COVID and I was worried. I didn't know what was going to happen. It was early then. And then, of course, I'm sorry. I'm a Empath over here, and so I'm like giving, donating antibodies. I remember I donated a couple times because that was something that was helpful for COVID patients, and I can donate blood. So I was like, Yeah, take my I know I had COVID, so why not take my antibodies? So it was just very interesting. It was very, very interesting just being in that space where I remember driving to Richmond just because I had a good doctor who still had COVID tests. So we would, I drove my brother and dad at the time, and they got a COVID test, and then we drove back and we got the call that it was positive. And so, because even now, it's hard to think about when those weren't so easily accessible. Yeah. It's hard to think pre masks. I remember when they were like, Oh, wait, we should wear masks. And it was like, wait, what? That wasn't in March, that was, that was later, like April, I think. And so it was all just a very interesting experience. But for my family, we all we struggled through it, we struggled through it, but we made it. Have some distant family that passed due to due to COVID, but fortunately, we all kind of were able to take care of ourselves. And it's interesting.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:10:36  

It was definitely a time.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:10:38  

It's crazy. I think it was five years ago.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:10:40  

I can't even wrap my head around that. Like, I try to think back about how, like, it was the first few months, and I was just like, 17 18, years old. I don't remember anything. I was like, I remember because I went to Longwood University, and then I transferred to VCU, and at Longwood, we all were wearing masks. Like it was, like, mask mandated, like, we can, really couldn't meet people. It's like, it's just such crazy to think about. It's such a different time and like, how far we've evolved from that. It's just, it's really crazy to put into perspective. In your opinion. How was the Latino community affected by the pandemic?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:11:25  

In my opinion, we were in the front lines, and we were impacted the hardest in a negative way. My brother was technically a business owner, but he never knew the information about the small business loans. You know, he never it was, it was like savvy folks who probably didn't need the small business benefits, who applied their businesses for it, and they took it. And we were just like, I don't know, you know, I guess there's no jobs anymore, and so, I mean, at the very least I remember, I remember doing a couple COVID panels, right? And I actually remember, I don't know if you know about this or not, because this was in Richmond, but there was a moment when the Department of Health decided to use Google Translate to translate some information, and it translated something around the vaccines in a way where it was like the vaccine is not required, and it translated as the vaccine is not recommended, And that's kind of a bad mistake to make, but, but, you know, who's who is it going to impact Spanish speakers, right? And so I think in various ways, in various ways, we were often the last to get information. We're collectivistic culture, like I mentioned. So we kind of, I would even argue, we struggle with decision making. We're better when you just say, hey, we really think you should do this. Do it. Okay? I think especially when you're first immigrating stuff, you kind of look at somebody you trust and you're like, Oh, what are you doing? Okay, should I do it too? Yeah, okay, great. I'll do it. I think when you give folks, like the opportunity to say, hey, you can opt out of SOS if you want to, or you don't have to, you know, it's like, folks don't, you know, they don't know. What do you think I should do? You know, it's going to be what my family would say. And I remember working with some doctors at the time to do a lot of COVID information videos and such. I remember there's an organization called Casa de salud, and we did a little video on COVID and just how to stay in the know and everything. And it was very like you said, it's a different time, but it was very important to to relay this information out to the community from from trusted sources. And at that point, what was trusted is what you knew. You know. You knew Sacred Heart Center. So you knew you could trust what they were saying. You knew Casa de salud, and people knew VCU, you know. And so I did a lot of work, but the Casa salud is a doctor who works at VCU. And so, yeah, I think in particular, the Latino community was hit hard. I think we, you know, we often things as things from a receiver perspective, and not really like with everything that gets in the background. So, for example, we're in our homes, and we're like, dang, I'm bored, you know? And then we're like, oh, great, all these Richmond restaurants now have delivery and stuff cool for me, right? But then we don't think about like, Okay, well, now there are folks so I get to sit at home and I get to order my food or drive by and pick it up. But what about the folks that are in there working and stuff and intermingling and getting sick and and so I think it that's, that's one thing that I think you. It is part of the reason why COVID was particularly hard for Latino communities, because it, it didn't stop the world for a lot of folks, and we just had to work around it. We had, we just, I mean, remember calling students and helping my students out with the unemployment benefits you know, and talking to other students families in Spanish about the vaccine, or what they had said, or what you know, and just language access and all those pieces are just so important that I think we did it, but we did it at the cost of some immigrant and Latino communities. You

 

Cleo Kelley  1:15:49  

You answered all my questions. As we wrap up, I'd like to hear more about your sense of identity and what you'd like people to take away from you. Do you feel like you belong in your community, and are there things that make it harder to feel at home?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:16:11  

My sense of identity is, I'm an immigrant. I'm lions first and foremost, right? Can only speak from my perspective, from my experiences and for my crazy little brain, but I'm also primarily when you look at other ways that folks can identify myself identify, first and foremost, as an immigrant. And I think it's hard. It's hard because I've been giving this whole interview and and thinking primarily in English, but that's not that's my second language. You know, I I learned this language. I learned this country. I learned these systems. This country taught me how to even sit in front of this computer and have the credentials that I have to hold the job that I do. And so I think being an immigrant and being forever thankful for my parents for bringing me here, and forever indebted to give back to them to be my best self, not just in this life that we all have, but also because of the fact that we started there, and we could have still been there, you know. And thinking of immigration as as a journey forward, but also as a as a way to improve, not just economically, professionally, with our language, with whatever, but as a way to improve as a person, and that's why I like education, because I think as we grow, we also educate ourselves. And we're always forever students. We're always learning. And what we're learning is not just things that are fun facts, you know, but things that make us better humans, things that help us solve conflict, better, things that help us communicate better. That help us fight against the Machito Latino community, the machista, you know, like this patriarchal, anti, you know, forward thinking and anti feminist mentality. In Peru, women don't drive. You know, in Peru, it's often the case where the women just raises the family, you know, and and it's just very, very interesting to be able to be in a position where I can question and fight and and advocate against all these things, you know, it's a privilege. It's a privilege to be able to do that, and it's a privilege. I came because I immigrated here, and so an immigrant is one of my biggest identifiers. In addition to that, I would say I'm an educator. I'm an educator from when I had all my nieces and nephews, because most of my siblings are older than me, so I had all these, you know, Theo lions forever and you you're always kind of leading by example, or leading in certain ways, where even I remember telling my niece, I was like, I can't hear you. I can't I literally can't understand you when you're crying. You gotta stop crying so I can understand you. And you know, that was like a little tactic I just came up with. And now I'm I'm an adult, and I was working with this the principal, and we're talking about how this one teacher was throwing a tantrum, and his response was like, I'm not going to entertain that. Whenever you're ready and regulated to have a conversation. We can talk about that. I was like, you know, it's drawing a little parallel between those two things, but, but I think that being an educator and everything it encompasses, right, helping students be their best selves, helping manage a school building, helping problem solve in a complex way. That's all education is. It's complex problem solving because our clients are still developing humans and and they have their things, especially when you work in a public school, you can't say if you can afford it. Come here. Okay? It's just like whoever you are, if you live in this area, you're our kid, whatever disability you. Have if you just immigrated here, if you haven't been to school for the last five years in your home country, if you don't have any money or any food or housing, we're still going to teach you. We just have to figure those other parts. So that's the complex problem solving part of it. I just love being an educator, and I think that's a big part of how I identify. I also would say, identify as a advocate or supporter, or maybe like just community member, not necessarily community leader, but someone who will lead if you need me to, because of the whole idea that I want to advocate for our communities. Coming to Richmond, I learned about the history of Richmond and how it was so closely aligned to it's like still raw in Richmond, you know, being the capital of Confederacy and the capital of slave trade and the capital of all this hatred that's still deeply engraved in how our housing was set up and white flight and now gentrification and now the county is becoming more diverse, but then excerpts like the powhatans and goochlands and ashlands and new Kents of the area are becoming new developments because People just want to move further away from different communities. That's all still very much alive, and it's very much fought against right, anti Dei, anti critical race theory. And it's like, no, no. We just, we just need to know these things, because they're, they're just what's happening. And we just need to understand that if something was strategically put in place to minimize people and to divide people, then it has to be strategically undone. That's what equity is, you know, and and so it's just, I think being an advocate, it would be the third way I identify. You know, I'm an immigrant, I'm an educator, I'm an advocate. Everything else is just, you know, I'm somebody's son, you know, I'm somebody's partner. I'm my dog's dad. You know, Melville, Douglas and I, I'm a twin brother. I'm an uncle. I, you know, I'm Latino, and a lover of reggaeton and salsa and all these beautiful things in life and our food. But I think all of that is is, is lions, you know. So

 

Cleo Kelley  1:22:36  

What are your thoughts on how immigration is discussed in politics or by the public, and what do you wish people better understood about the Latino community?

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:22:47  

I think that there is a recent trend to discuss immigration and crime in the same vein, and I can't think of a better way to explain it than our Henry goes Commonwealth attorney recently explaining in response to a press release from the governor's office that if you have a gang, and let's say the gang is ms, 13 in a school, and Let's say the school is meadow Brook High School, and the gang is committing crimes, so that is a criminal issue, and it's being resolved by local law enforcement, like if somebody shot somebody right, that's a crime, and it's being investigated and resolved and taken care of by the local law enforcement. Immigration is not criminal law. Immigration is civil law. Immigration is one there's no right way to do it. People always say, Well, you just do it the right way. Well, when you're asking for asylum status, or when you are a refugee, the right way is to come up and say, I need help. You know, it's not to sit on a plane like that's not and so I think, I think, I think that when, when the governor would say something like, you know, Virginia State Police will work with ice to fight against dangerous, criminal, illegal immigrants there, first of all, there's like, 10 different things that describe these immigrants, but they're separate. You know what I mean? Like, because they are immigrants does not mean they're criminals, and because they're criminals does not mean that they're rumors. So there are two different things, and anyone who doesn't know, and that's why I think it's so dangerous to have the president or governor that we have, is because when you're in a position of power, you influence people, whether you know it or not. When I walk in these halls, you. You know, I have to look at how I behave. Because students, whether you know it or not, are going to pick up on what you do similarly, whether you ever get to meet the governor or not. When you see a press release like that, if you're slightly less informed, you're going to say, hey, you know what that does. Sound kind of right. I don't like criminals. I don't and then you start turning on to I don't like immigrants, and why? When, when they're not one, and it's and so I think that is the most dangerous thing right there, right that is the most dangerous thing is, is to to group these two communities together. Crime can exist and it'll be resolved by the local law enforcement. And immigration issues can exist and it'll be solved in a civil way, but it's hard to get an immigration search warrant, because that's civil civil law, you know? And so I think as I share those little more intricacies, I think the answer to that is advocacy, but I think before you even get to that, it's awareness. I think step one is awareness and education. That's why I'm an educator. Like we must all be educated on how immigration works. One, we shouldn't talk about things we don't know anything about, right? And, and, and we should all be ingrained as kids, as an educator. I hope we do this, that if you don't know about it, you have a thirst and desire to learn something about it, right? Or it just doesn't matter to you, so you're not going to say anything about it. But it's hard in today's society, when you have systems in place that'll tell you what you want it to you have algorithms that are literally give you tiktoks Based on what you are liking and what you're not liking. And so it's easier to live in a space where one could believe the Earth is flat, and everything around you will tell you that it is flat, and will further prove to you that it is and so I think that it's dangerous when step one is inform is make people aware. These are the different statuses that you can have as an immigrant. These are the different ways that you can you know, these are different wait times for a refugee to get a response. You know, these are the different things that you can do with or without a social and with or without a legal and like legal permanent residency doesn't mean anything anymore. It's just, it's very dangerous, but it starts with awareness and education. And I do believe that the answer is spreading that awareness and advocating against it. And if anything this right here, sharing our stories, sharing the journeys of these communities and these folks to say, Oh, hey, I also had this funky thing happen to me when I was in elementary school. I also feel this way, you know about whatever, as we start to realize we're all just kind of human here, and we're all just trying to make it. It would benefit us if we all saw each other as like brothers and sisters without being silly, you know, or cheesy, rather than as like us and them.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:28:16  

And lastly, what do you hope people take away from your life story and what you shared today.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:28:25  

What do I hope people take away from my life story? Well, I guess first things first is Si se puede, which is Spanish for yes you can, or yes one can. And I think about where I came from, and where my family came from, and even beyond that, right, like indigenous Indian Peruvian, like communities being colonized by the Spanish. And, you know, we're in this world for a little bit, right, a few, you know, decades where we get to make a difference. And in this time, I feel like one big takeaway is like, yes, we can. We can, one way or another. It'll be harder, it might take longer, might cost a little more, but we can do it. And so that was my first tattoo that I got. It's my mom's handwriting, so I hope my mom doesn't hear this interview, but she wouldn't understand it anyway, because it's in English. My first tattoo is Si se puede. So I think that's one takeaway, is that, like we can do it right, and anyone can do it, and if I can do it, we can do it. And if you need help, I'm here to help. You know, my email is my first name.my, last name. At Gmail, I'm happy to help. That's what I do. I think another takeaway is that i. That we belong in this state, in this country, we belong.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:30:12  

We're contributing to this economy. We're contributing to to society. This society is quickly becoming also a fan of Latin culture and music and all these things that, like we need to understand that it's not an us and them again. It's, it's, it's this collectivistic, beautiful, you know, if we were in the 90s, you would say the melting pot, right? But, but I think this, this idea of we belong or belonging is super important, and it's really tied to identity. Right? Identity is important and culture is important, but I think belonging is that secret sauce to claiming your space and owning your space in this society that we're in, whether you own a workman, and you get up every morning to go paint houses or tend to gardens or cook in a kitchen or clean a house. We belong. And I think the other takeaway is, I guess, the third one, because I do tend to be long winded and I don't want to take too much of your time. Would be that we need to take care of ourselves, you know. And I think, even if I think about my life and chapters, I think I'm approaching this chapter, you know, last year I got a dog because I was like, I can't stay home so late every night I have to go home, if even to let him out, if even to feed him. But this idea of like we don't have to fight that immigrant and insert whatever right, insert minority, insert black, insert whatever into the space. We don't have to fight that struggle every day until the day that we die. We can rest, we can take a vacation. We can treat ourselves, you know, go see bad bunny in Puerto Rico. I don't know we've we deserve. And I think it's, it's so cool that I get to see my parents do that. You know, they're not retired, and they won't, probably ever, but they're, they're enjoying more now taking some time. One of my favorite things was to take them to Spain. And I knew they would like Spain because they speak Spanish, so they would kind of like get it. And now they want to go to Paris, of course. Now they got the travel bug, but, but they, you know, they've earned it, right? And so I do think that that's that would be kind of my, my main takeaway is, is that, yes, fight the good fight, and get that sense of belonging. But also, and yes, we can, like see se puede, but also pause, treat yourself, take a break, prioritize self care, prioritize mental health. It's so important you can't help others if you don't help yourself, and it's so hard to balance that, am I being selfish, you know? But yeah. I mean, other than that, I would say, if there was a fourth one is kind of tied to all these it's, it's keep chipping and chipping away at imposter syndrome. And it goes with the yes, we can, right? But it's this idea of like people will always tell us we might not have the credentials, we might not know enough, we might not think because of our gender or race or our sexual orientation, whatever. But it's, I think it's, it's upon us to to not give an F and do it anyway. You know what I mean, to realize that we are all that in a pack of chips and to pat ourselves in the back and to treat ourselves like we wouldn't what we would want to treat a younger version of ourselves or those folks in our lives that we love and we do it for? You know

 

Cleo Kelley  1:34:08  

You're so inspiring like I can't. That's all the questions I've had. Thank you so much for sharing your time with me. Talking to me today. I really appreciate it. This was, I'm, like, so inspired right now, like, I can't wait, I can't wait to tell my family about this.

 

Lyons Sanchezconcha  1:34:27  

Yeah well, I'm glad, I'm glad you liked it. I I'm Yeah, I mean, for you and for others who hear this, that that's the hope right to go off and and just be your best selves. So if, with that being said, if you ever need anything, any reference, or whatever I can help with. Congratulations on reaching graduation, that's a huge accomplishment, and congratulations on doing this. This is so cool. I would have died to have done something like this in college. That's awesome. So yeah, thank you. That's.

 

Cleo Kelley  1:34:59  

Thank you.