A descendant of Pala Band of Mission Indians Valentine Contreras expressed “feelings of imposter syndrome,” during a panel where Native Americans spoke of similar experiences of feeling left out in both their culture and American culture, not knowing where they fit in.
Contreras was one of three speakers for the Keeping it 100 panel, held by the Native American Indigenous Collaborative, who spoke on his experiences on finding his native roots as an Indigenous Native living in an American society.
Rio Medina, a community liaison, and Steph Viera, an associate producer, also spoke on their experiences and current Native activities at LBCC.
“Showing up for indigenous students at LBCC namely ones who are looking to grow and expand and use their indigenous identity to support them in their work journey is the goal for this panel,” Viera said.
During the panel, the speakers started off by speaking a little about themselves and then answered questions asked by attendees and then spoke as a group together about issues related to Native Americans at LBCC.
“It’s an opportunity to be able to bring important representation in the professional field,” Medina continued, “Keeping it 100 means to me that I will be able to be really honest and be really truthful about conversations as professionals that we don’t really get to have.”
Medina spoke of Natives having to prove their identity through a blood test called a blood quantum.
“The idea of a blood quantum test is that someone has their blood tested to see how much Indian they have in their blood,” Contreras said.
“Feeling like I was not native enough because I was not raised in the traditional customs and culture of the Pala Band mission Indians. I always had those internal questions of ‘am I doing the right thing? I say I’m native but I don’t have long hair or I don’t wear traditional clothing,’” Contreras stated. “It wasn’t until I got into my college career that I really started to become more proud of that fact that I’m Native American. Going back to the reservation, talking to my aunts and uncles, trying to reconnect with the culture and learn (the) ways, the frame of mind that a Native person is.”
Contreras stated that as a youth he would DJ and after being asked to play Native music and him having no song to play led to him going on a deep dive into his heritage.
“I remember that instance when I was out DJing at a club in LA someone asking do you have any tribal music or any native songs and I didn’t have anything in my library or my vinyl collection and at that point it made me realize oh man that something that I can do promote the Native musicians Native artists,” Contreras stated.
Contraras stated he joined a Native Journalist program where they wrote about Native American issues and events where he realized he could do many more things watching the others at work.
“It prompted me to go and search for indigenous artists (and) Indigenous musicians and now on my platform I have the ability to promote these artists and bring more awareness to the music that we make,” Contreras stated.