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Alejandra Zavala
Dance and Culture 1010
Brian Benington
November 7, 2015
Beauty within Cultures
I had the pleasure to interview not just a coworker, but also a great friend. His name is
Leonard Bagalwa, he is originally from Congo, Central Africa, but he also lived in Malawi and
other Southern African Countries. He is married and has two beautiful girls, who mean the world
to him. He like many refugees had no option, but to live Congo about 15 years ago, but like he
said things happen for a reason. I was able to see pain and frustration as he was sharing with
me how difficult it was for him to start a new life in a society he was not used to. For him being
in a new country marked the beginning of a new life, a life that brought him many great
accomplishments, along with knowledge. Back in his homeland he unfortunately drop of from
middle school, because education was not very important for him or his family, but when he
arrived to the U.S he realized how different life was from what he had lived back home. Not till
then realized how important education is in this society, fortunately he made the decision to
pursue further education, and thankfully education later brought many great things into his
personal and professional life.
Leonard described his culture as warm, and tender, a culture where individuals are always
happy and friendly towards one another. Growing up in Congo he saw how individuals

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respected each others beliefs, and traditions, to the extent of even try to learn from one another.
For them music is very important, it is life, it is joy, and it means the world to them. They hear
music and become a joyful family, where everyone is accepted and treated equally. Many say
music is the universal language, which Leonard and I agreed too. Music brings individuals
together, through music one can understand and feel the beauty of culture, he share with me how
they will dance for hours with individuals they have never seen before, and they still manage to
have fun. Living in different parts of Africa, Leonard has meet many individuals who speak
several different languages, but not because the individual doesnt speak the same language they
will treated them in a different way. Instead when this individual didnt know the language, they
try their best to learn the other individual language in order to make them feel welcome as well
as valued. Language was never a barrier for Leonard until he moved to the U.S, here language
has become one of the biggest barriers he has had to face since he arrived to the country. He
share with me how in an occasion at work a lady insisted she could not understand a word he
was saying because of his accent. Since he didnt want to make the individual feel bad he
transfer her to a coworker, but he could not answer himself why someone will put him down
because of his accent. Leonard speaks several African accents as well as French and English.
That day he felt very sad, he wanted to quit and stop trying to fit in a world others believed he
didnt belong to. Luckily his boss talk to him and make him realized that the kind of situations
should not make me feel bad or put him down in any way. The group of individuals he is
working with now is amazing, they are all very understanding. They love to talk about the
fascinating things within one's culture.

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For Leonard leaving in America has been a great journey, a journey that has helped him
valued his own culture, at the same time he has learned from several other different cultures
around him. Our office is very diverse, we have individuals from all over the world, there are
several different languages spoken there, we often share how we do specific things in the same
way, even though we are from different parts of the world. Since Leonard was opening up to the
conversation, I asked about his family. For him family is very valuable, it is the most precious
treasure one can have. A big scary challenge for him is raising his kids in a culture different from
his own, he feels quite concern. In many occasions he feels like we are misleading our kids, in
his opinion he feels like in this society kids have access to anything and everything they want,
even if kids dont deserve it. Before he continue talking about raising kids here, he want me to
know he was not judging anybody, but he honestly feels that privilege Americans dont really
know the value the things their families are giving them. There is another huge difference
between this culture and his, he shared with me how they care for the elderly, the elderly is
respected and valued back home. Compare to here, he has seen how elderly end up in nursing
homes, forgotten and unloved. When he was sharing that information with me, I feel sadness and
frustration, the elderly should be care and respected. For him is hard to imagine his kids may one
day in the near future will place him in a nursing home, if that ever happens it would be very
devastating, since is not something he grew up with. He prays every day for that not to happen,
but he is not sure what will happen until that time arrives.
Leonard will do everything he can to overcome his fears, and try to do his best at raising
his two girls to be good members of society. He wants to break the cycle and stop stereotypes,
but in order to do it he needs to be able to have a good relationship with his family. He cant

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change the fact his daughters are spending a very great deal of time with the privilege group, and
in many occasions they show him concerns on how they dont feel they fit either of the two
cultures. Being at home they want to keep daddy happy, by following his rules and their culture,
but once theyre at school with their professors and friends they feel different, they want to
experience whatever their friend are doing and thinking. Leonard doesnt want his family to feel
confusion, but he himself feels that way from time to time.
As his kids get older he is trying to prepare himself for the many things they will do
different from him. For example within his culture, showing affection in public towards your
significant other is not seen very well. He doesnt consider himself very old, but sometimes he
finds himself talking or thinking as if he is 30 years older than he actually is. Dating is a scary
topic for him, and quite uncomfortable. He knows theres nothing wrong about showing affection
to your significant other in public, but he feels uncomfortable even thinking about it. He knows
he will have to deal with it sooner than later, and for that reason he is trying to prepare himself
for that moment. His two kids are the world to him, and he will always respect their wants and
believes, even if he doesnt agree to it.
When I heard Leonard talking about his culture, he brought lots of personal memories
from my own culture. In many instances I found myself comparing and contrasting the two
cultures, we both found many similarities among the two cultures. As he shared the beauty of his
culture with me, I felt a connection with his stories. Even though we were supposed to meet for
about an hour, we end up talking for a long period of time. For some inexplicable reason, time
flew by when we were talking, and it seemed to me that were not going to be able to stop talking.

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Looking at the time we had been talking I decided not to ask any more questions, but at that
point he actually had the desire to talk more and I honestly wanted to hear more. Therefore I let
him continued, by the look in his eyes and the emotions in his face, I knew he was having a good
time talking about his life, and his culture to someone from another culture. According to
Leonard the interview didnt really felt like an interview, for him it was more like a stress
reliever, he was able to share things that he will otherwise wouldnt have share. By the time we
concluding with the interview, Leonard thank me for allowing him to feel so good. It had been a
long time since he had not talked so much about his culture and his personal experiences within
the culture, that it allowed him to reconnect and reconcile with the now and then.
To conclude with the interview he reiterated how family is his biggest treasure, and how
music, has connected them as a family as well as the connections they have made with other
cultures. He doesnt think he has completely acculturated to this culture, which is not something
he will fight. Leonard likes who he is and is very proud of himself, knowing where one comes
from is the most important thing in order to know where one wants to go. Each culture is
beautiful, and should not be seen as a tread.