About Our Community

Mariposas

Mariposas was born in 2013 in central North Carolina with the mission of facilitating a space that centered the voices and experiences of Latinx youth and their families. Our goal was to create a weekly opportunity for youth and families to experience an educational environment where joy, solidarity and support could start dismantling the harm inflicted on us by an education system that continues to marginalize, sideline, and diminish the experiences and wisdom of Black and Brown students and their families all around the nation.


Pies pa qué los quiero, si tengo alas pa’ volar.”

– F.K

What is Mariposas?

A lot has happened since 2013 and today we are a community of close to 100 youth and their families who come together weekly to share, to learn and reflect, to express solidarity, and to act towards a vision of personal liberation centered on voice and wisdom, the pursuit of opportunity, working towards justice, and democratic engagement. It’s very difficult to explain Mariposas, but we sum it up through the following:

  • Mariposas believes that all of us are OWNers of, and ACTivists towards, our socio-emotional health, education, personal liberation, democratic engagement, and the pursuit of justice.
  • Identity, voice and justice are the core of the Mariposas curriculum.
  • Community is made-up of 45 students from 3rd grade to college, their families, and educators. Mariposas is based at FPG Bilingüe, but community members are multi-age, multi-generational, represent 5 different schools, and originate in many countries.