Having met at the Bierstube in October 1999 for a session on, “Race and Ethnicity: Social Change Through Public Awareness,” Jeff and Rosa have survived the past 23 years well. We have come through the tragedy of 9-11 and terrible wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the financial meltdown of 2007-8, the pandemic, the racial uprising in Minneapolis, and the Presidency of Donald Trump still very much in love.

After deciding to make our work lives in the United States, Rosa migrated from Guatemala and has been involved in many aspects of public policy and advocacy in Saint Paul and is now serving as the Executive Director of the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs, a state agency serving Latinx communities. Jeff continues to teach at Southwest Minnesota State University and keeps active with his work in the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute.

We think often of our colleagues from the session, some of whom have passed away. Minnesota was blessed with a contingent of “four plus one” at our session. Rosa and myself, Curtiss De Young, now the Chief Executive Officer of the Minnesota Council of Churches, and Helen Kivnick and Gary Gardner. Helen, a Professor of Social Work and founder of City Songs, was one of our faculty members and Gary, her partner, is Professor of Horticulture.

For the twentieth Anniversary of our session, we held a supper with Curtiss, his partner Karen and Hellen and Gary. What a great night. We shared remembrances and reflected on the ways the Salzburg Seminar changed our lives. Sadly, Helen passed away in 2020.

Rosa and I have worked hard to live by the lessons learned at the seminar. Our session opened with timeless wisdom from Bishop Samuel Ruiz who implored those of us with privilege to listen carefully to those who need assistance--to ask them what problems they face, how they would solve their problems, and then assist them with a light touch as they work out their own destiny. Ron Takaki asked us to find the ties that bind us together. Lani Guinier caused us to think about the challenges of nationhood and national identity in a world where capital freely crosses borders in a flash while labor remains trapped behind walls, literal and figurative. Yasmine Alibhai-Brown warned us about the importance of maintaining a free press and an open exchange of ideas. Njabulo Ndebele, Helen Kivnick, and Shayam Benegal, cleared a path toward understanding though language, musical performance, and film. 

The words of our faculty remain timely and profound, but so too were the contributions of our fellow seminarians that included fiery exchanges in the seminar room, a flash theater production, freedom singing in the Bierstube, and, of course, lots of dancing, conversation, ping pong, and foosball after hours.

The challenges of race and ethnicity remain urgent and unresolved. Among our many conversations at Salzburg was one concerning the reemergence of a nationalist hard right in Europe and the xenophobic campaign of Austrian, Jörg Haider. Today, 23 years after we met in Salzburg, hate and authoritarianism are growing. Importantly, the forces of intolerance are being met by millions who join the struggle with a spirit of love, of listening, and by focusing on the ties that bind us together on this precious planet.