Manuela Stewart Sifuentes is a woman on the go. She’s Executive Director of the Latino Task Force of Boulder County and at the helm of the countywide One Action 2016: Arts + Immigration Project, working to promote open conversations about immigration issues through the arts.
“Arts + Immigration is a collaboration among the cultural arts, and immigrant-serving and educational organizations,” explains Manuela, 37, who recently completed the Leadership Fellows program. Recalling the powerful influence of “Documented,” a film about Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, Manuela says the goal of the project is to “bring into focus through the arts one of the most controversial and least understood subjects, locally and nationally, and combat preconceived notions that all immigrants are brown or black.”
“It’s about making a human connection to the experience of being an immigrant,” she continues. “Whether you’re an immigrant yourself, or the child or grandchild of immigrants…it can get quite complicated.”
Indeed, Manuela herself has a complicated story. Her father – a Peace Corps volunteer from Boulder – met her mother in Guatemala where Manuela was born. “I wasn’t born the daughter of an immigrant because my mother wasn’t even in this country. So I don’t fall neatly into a ‘category’ of immigrants.”
Manuela stresses the importance of each generation making things better for the next. “The arts personalize the often impersonal immigration statistics and resulting policies,” she says.
She also credits the Leadership Fellows program with her current professional success. “I lived in Boulder as a college student,” says Manuela, who went on to live in Thailand, Guatemala, Washington, D.C. and Michigan, earning master’s degrees in public health and public administration along the way. “When I came back with my husband, just a week before the 2013 floods, it was a different community that I didn’t really know. The Leadership Fellows program opened my eyes.”
It was Mayor Pro Tem Mary Young who encouraged Manuela to apply for the program. Leadership Fellows meet monthly for nearly a year, and participate in a networking lunch every quarter. Community leaders across sectors are invited to connect with Fellows on countywide challenges, and to share successful strategies for inclusive and transformational leadership in Boulder County.
“For me, it was incredibly helpful to meet people who, like me, are interested in social justice issues,” says Manuela. “It would have taken three to five years to make those kinds of connections on my own!”
While her bilingual, Peruvian husband – Sebastián Sifuentes – had no problem finding a job in social services here, Manuela was still seeking employment six months after moving back to Boulder. “So I decided to give myself a job, translating and interpreting in the medical field,” she says. “After joining the Leadership Fellows program, a lot more opportunities came my way.” Including her current leadership role with the Latino Task Force.
The Leadership Fellows program, now in its fifth year, maintains an active Facebook page for job and board openings, event announcements, and personal and professional updates. Additionally, Leadership Fellows are invited to participate in events with The Community Foundation and Boulder Chamber’s broader networks. Check back soon – coming up, we’ll announce on our blog and social media channels how to apply for the 2016-17 cohort of Leadership Fellows.
