Sometimes, change is not about finding another path, but about daring to walk with other steps,

By Milvia Berenice Pacheco Salvatierra

I don’t remember where I read this passage or who said it, but it seems perfect to open this letter, which attempts to share with the entire community the transition process I’m embarking on at MÁS. The first thing that comes to mind is to reflect on what it means to transition at this moment; what this process of moving from one place to another, from one position to another, from one way of relating to another entails. What am I leaving behind? What do I want to change? How do I want to move differently?

What am I leaving behind?

I’m leaving behind the role of Executive Director. I’m letting go of ways of relating that are structurally imposed by assuming roles that aren’t tailored to who we are. I’m letting go of the limitations and responsibilities implicit in the title of Executive Director, to find a more genuine way of relating to the organization, one that continues to promote the healing process this space has provided me on countless occasions.

What do I want to change?

I want to change the way I relate to the organization. I want to make room for collective leadership to deepen and materialize. I want the seeds of awareness about the importance of centering Blackness that we have planted in the community to flourish, and for many Afro-Latinx artists in Seattle to join in this work of deepening this conversation. I want to change “being one” to “being many,” and for unity to reside in the collective action that seeks liberation.

From a very intuitive place, I have always seen myself as the daughter of MÁS. I was born into community leadership work through the practice of creating the spaces and programs we offer. And in that action, I have found an understanding of my positionality in the world as a woman, a Black person, a migrant, and an artist; I have learned that to exist in my essential being, I must struggle with a system that tries to erase me. For this reason, for the past seven years, I have dedicated myself obsessively to building, developing, and sustaining the organization (understanding that it is a fundamental space for others who, like me, navigate these systemic barriers), to the point of endangering my own physical and emotional health. So, for me, it’s essential to take this break and find new ways to relate to this space that I viscerally love. Where I have nurtured affections and knowledge that give meaning to the way I inhabit the world.

I believe more than ever that MÁS needs to exist as an organization, but the time has come for other hands and leaders to step in and sustain this much-needed space. I need to pause, to take some time to restore myself physically and spiritually, to return with another tumbao to continue walking, or rather, to continue dancing and building, in community and from the community, this experience we call MÁS.

How else do I want to walk?

I don’t want to continue walking feeling the weight and responsibility on my shoulders. I want the steps of building space to become salsa steps. Where the key that guides us and keeps us in rhythm and harmony is ancestral wisdom, and we come together in circles and in pairs to dance the MÁS experience. As abstract as it may seem, understanding that there is a rhythm that connects us all is essential to being able to tune into the necessary transformation processes that guide us toward collective liberation. So, the other way I want to live the MÁS experience is by dancing, creating, being an artist, and inviting other artists to engage in conversation with me about what it means to be and exist as Afro-descendant artists.

I enter into transition because transition allows me to flow, repair, move, and explore new possibilities of being, without being trapped in structures that reduce our being.
I don’t leave. I don’t run away from what I’ve built. I move, I transform. And for that process to manifest, pause and distance are necessary.

So: with the joy in my heart that comes from having a board of directors that believes in the collective process, and with the confidence that each of the committees that support the organization’s work is capable of continuing to build the organization we need, I must take a break, and after that, I will return and assume a new role that is constantly evolving.

I’m moving forward so that MÁS can continue MÁS pa’lante (to move forward)

I leave you with the invitation to reflect on ¿what you would like to change and what other steps would you want to take?

Here is a link in case you want to connect with me or with the board of directors, to leave a message or learn more about this transition. https://forms.gle/aPsAr9WcCx6Lt4x18

For now, I say goodbye with the certainty that you will always find me in the community.