Dear Jumbo Community,

This past weekend, members of the University Chaplaincy team, Interfaith Student Ambassadors, and first-year Tufts students had the opportunity to tour Boston’s Chinatown with Alice Kane, director of the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE), and Diane O'Donoghue, director of the Public Humanities at Tisch College for Civic Life. The tour is part of a new monthly initiative supported by an Interfaith America grant, promoting engagement at the intersection of religion, civics, and cultural pluralism.

As we walked through the vibrant streets, we reflected on the rich history of this community, further brought to life by the exhibition Endurance Streets: Resilience and Response in Boston’s Chinese Community. This exhibit, located in windows at 116 Harrison Avenue, presents murals, photographs, and stories that depict Chinatown’s past and present. It is a vivid reminder of the challenges this community has faced, from the Chinese Exclusion Act to the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes. As I looked at these images, I was struck by the force of the community’s perseverance and the necessity of reparative work in this moment.

The Endurance Streets exhibit, curated by O'Donoghue in collaboration with CHSNE, draws from the archives of the late Tunney Lee, a Chinatown resident, urban planning professor at MIT, and an archiver of the neighborhood’s development. His photos, captured over many decades, showcase workers in laundries, garment factories, and restaurants. These images, particularly one of women organizing protests during factory closures, speak to the deep resilience of this neighborhood, a theme that has been central to Chinatown’s story since the 1870s.

As human beings, we often strive to preserve, transform, or even transcend our environments. We have the capacity to shape and be shaped by the cultures around us. Chinatown, with its history of enduring both systemic injustice and urban development pressures, is a powerful example of how cultural resilience impacts both physical spaces and the people who inhabit them. By allowing ourselves to fully engage with our surroundings—through all our senses—we open ourselves to the possibility of being surprised, challenged, and transformed.

Personally, this experience has deepened my understanding of how cultural exchanges leave lasting imprints across generations, visible in food, art, and everyday life. These reflections remind me of the importance of curiosity—not to extract information or essentialize, but to genuinely seek out the stories and perspectives we have yet to learn.

As a chaplain, I have the privilege of listening intently to the experiences, challenges, and reflections of students, staff, and faculty. But it’s equally important to enter into different cultural spaces physically and metaphorically with humility, to engage with the unfamiliar, and to embrace the discomfort that often accompanies growth.

Through self-reflection, I’ve come to better understand my own resistance to discomfort—whether it’s worry, fear, or the sense of losing control. Yet, it’s through these very moments that I’ve learned to communicate and process, to perceive time, and to hold space for the memories, experiences, and lessons life brings. 

I invite you to share your stories with me. Together, we can practice the art of listening, cultivating a deeper, more humanizing understanding of each other—and of ourselves.

En conjunto, 

Anthony Cruz Pantojas

Humanist Chaplain