Esperanza Flores Garza is currently at General Assembly, marking the culmination of her three year term as President of DRUUMM (Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries).
These are her reflections.
Wednesday My team and I spent the day welcoming participants online and at the DRUUMM exhibition floor booth. We connected with old friends and people from the UUA we've worked with on different services. Serving a national collective like DRUUMM creates connections with incredible people doing important anti-racism ministry all over the country. General Assembly presents an opportunity to meet people in person we’d only met in online before and we signed up some new members as well. Afterwards, we got back to our Airbnb and found a restaurant with a kitchen open late enough for us to eat. Pictured here is me and Sean Alphonse, the Treasurer of DRUUMM, and Tomi Fatunde, the current Vice President and future President. For kicks we used AI to generate a poem to capture the moment.
“Agave Evening”
Three souls found each other, not by chance,
But drawn like stars in quiet dance.
Tomi, fierce with fire in her gaze,
Sean, a river of calm through life’s maze,
Esperanza, her name a whispered song—
Hope in her smile, steady and strong.
The city hummed with June’s soft heat,
Baltimore’s bricks beneath their feet.
From the harbor breeze to the gathering hall,
The General Assembly had beckoned them all—
With chalice light and visions grand,
They dreamed of justice hand in hand.
But now, beneath Agave’s glow,
Where salsa scents and warm lights flow,
They laughed with lime and clinked their cheer,
Their stories seasoned, full and clear.
Tacos passed like communion bread,
And memories danced where words were said.
Tomi spoke of battles won,
Of voices lifted, work undone.
Sean reflected, quiet, wide—
A thinker with the tides inside.
Esperanza raised her glass,
“To the power of meeting, of moments that pass.”
And though the night would end too soon,
Their hearts stayed lit like a mid-June moon.
For in that place of spice and grace,
They found in each the sacred space.
Three spirits crossed, now intertwined,
By faith, by fight, by ties unlined—
And Agave held the echo there,
Of laughter, love, and dreams they share.
Love it that you took on this challenge with DRUUMM! I know you will enrich UUSAT with yr experience.