The multicultural community is all of us!

An AOF story about yearning for multicultural community.
By Krista Finstad Hanson
 
I am a white, Midwestern girl born in Iowa to a father from Minnesota and a mother from Wisconsin. My father's family are Norwegian Lutherans and "German from Russia" Mennonites. My mother's family are Norwegian and German Lutherans, Dutch Calvinists, and Swiss Mennonites who later became Methodists. I grew up with ethnic foods at holidays and smatterings of objects called by different words by my grandparents. A History of World Religions class in college put me on a quest which led to Unity Church, where my husband and I raised our two kids.
 
After my parents divorced in 1979, my mom, two siblings, and I, moved to my mom's hometown Sparta, Wisconsin near Fort McCoy. 1980 was the year of the Mariel boatlift, and Cuban refugees were placed at Fort McCoy. My mom, a nurse, and her family volunteered with those refugees. Eventually, my aunt married one of the men from the boatlift. I now had a Tio José and a cousin from that marriage. In 1982, my mom married a man originally from India. He was divorced from his American wife and had three sons. I grew up in a diverse household with biracial and bicultural stepbrothers.
 
As a second grader in Windom, MN, I once took a field trip to St. Paul and visited the Festival of Nations, a highlight of that year. How could I have known that my career — as an Adult ELL teacher for 25 years with 15 of those spent working at the International Institute of Minnesota, would lead back to that same Festival of Nations, an event (now defunct) hosted by the Institute.
 
I regularly honor and celebrate my various ethnic heritages. I am proud to call the "sanctuary state" of Minnesota my home. I have been living the dream of a multicultural community all these years.

Krista Finstad Hanson is a daughter, sister, wife, and mom of two adults who were raised at Unity Church. She works as an adult ELL teacher, writer, and historian.