Monthly cultural calendar preparer retires

 

Community cultural calendar curator Yvonne Montoya Zamora has retired after she compiled the calendar for December 2024. Her calendars list monthly cultural events, highlighting hidden diversity in the Inland Northwest.

In 16 years of sending the calendar to more than 100 groups and individuals, she has seen the area's population grow more diverse.

The calendar helps people not only learn about cultural traditions, events and foods but also attend events to meet people and build community.

Yvonne grew up in a close-knit Hispanic Catholic community in Albuquerque, N. Mex., where faith, community and family were important.

"That led me to be curious about the world," she said.

The idea of the cultural calendar arose in 2007, when she served on the Chamber of Commerce Workforce Diversity Committee and the Task Force on Race Relations. Those groups thought it would be good to have a calendar with events from diverse communities.

Yvonne, who was diversity initiatives coordinator, asked her supervisor at Washington State University (WSU) Spokane if she could do a calendar. She agreed.

In March 2008, Yvonne started the calendar, sending it to WSU employees, who forwarded it to friends.

After retiring from WSU in 2017, Yvonne continued the calendar, except during COVID when events were cancelled.

"I continued, because I liked doing it, but it grew longer, was time consuming, and I sent it later and later because of my other activities," she said.

When she told people in September that December would be the last one, they wanted it to continue.

Yvonne decided to pass on responsibility for the Community Cultural Calendar to The Fig Tree, which could integrate it with their in-print and online calendar with faith and nonprofit events.

"Since 2020, I've partnered with Marijke Fakasiieiki, development and editorial associate, who does their calendar," said Yvonne.

"I'm grateful The Fig Tree will continue it, because their calendar is valued. So, people will still be able to know about cultural events," she commented.

The Fig Tree is discussing expanding its online calendar to add more descriptions and links.

When Yvonne started, she prioritized people of color, women and children and LGBTQIA+ groups. The calendar has also included national and international cultural and religious holidays and cultural group lists.

She found events through her higher education jobs and volunteering with such organizations as the YWCA, Hispanic Business and Professional Association (HBPA), AHANA (African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American) - Multi-Ethnic Business Association (MEBA), the Salish School of Spokane, Unity in the Community, NAACP, Camp Fire, Inland Northwest's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, the local and state organizations of the Society for Human Resource Management, the Task Force on Race Relations and the Expo 74 50th Anniversary Arts and Culture Pillar Committee.

"Using the Fig Tree Resource Directory also ensured I had a complete list of diverse groups," Yvonne added. "I added Hispanic churches with Spanish masses and books so people could learn about cultures during heritage months."

Yvonne has provided details on events, including speakers, cost and web links for more information.

"Cultural groups are trying to keep traditions alive for their community's and their children's futures. They also want to showcase their traditions for the public," she said.

Yvonne has not only gathered the information but also attended events she has included. She highlighted several of them.

• The in-person and online programs offered by Humanities Washington;

• A state-wide Hmong Celebration;

• Twenty plus years of Unity in the Community always on the third Saturday of August;

• The HBPA graduation recognition which also grants Hispanic scholarships to high school and college graduates;

• Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) honoring relatives who have passed away;

• The Native American Graduation Ceremony, which invited her daughter to speak when she earned her doctoral degree and when her eldest grandson was a high school graduate, and

• The Salmon Tales fundraiser that supports the Salish School, where three of her grandchildren currently attend and learn by immersion.

Yvonne noted that some organizations that performed in the Arts and Culture pillar at last spring's 50th anniversary of the Expo '74 had also performed at Expo '74.

"That speaks to their longevity and to Expo '74 helping us be more open to different cultures," she said.

While attending a three-week Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in 2006, Yvonne learned that to be effective in intercultural communication she needed to understand her own family cultural heritage.

So, she learned more about her heritage. A recent DNA test showed she is Native American (Mescalero Apache and Pueblo), Portuguese and Spanish.

Her ancestors and relatives lived in New Mexico in the late 1600s and early 1700s when the territory was called New Spain.

She went to schools and a church where the majority who attended were Hispanic.

"Vatican II also gave me a different perspective of my world." Yvonne said. "After that, I realized the many churches and faiths needed to reconcile. We can't isolate ourselves. It's important to recognize the dignity of all people."

In 1976, she earned a bachelor's degree in criminology at the University of Albuquerque, a Catholic University, where she met her husband, John Murphy, who is Irish-German. There, she took a world religions class, learning about Judaism, Buddhism and Islam.

Yvonne and John moved to Pullman, where he completed a master's degree in criminal justice, and they worked for the WSU police department. Later they moved to Cheney, where he worked with the EWU police department, and they were members of St. Rose of Lima parish.

At Eastern Washington University, she earned a bachelor's degree in business administration while working in human resources at EWU.

Yvonne earned a master's in public administration at EWU. She worked in human resources at EWU, Community Colleges of Spokane and WSU Spokane.

"I am retiring from all boards and commissions, so I have time to work on genealogy, read, attend my grandchildren's activities, but I will continue to attend community activities and cultural events."

For information and to post cultural events for February, email development@thefigtree.org. The online calendar will be at thefigtree.org/calendar.html.