(woman) Welcome to... a patchwork of stories about the arts, culture, and history in our region.

Hi, I'm Matt Olien.

And I'm Barb Gravel.

On this edition of Prairie Mosaic, we'll listen to poetry read by a champion, meet an immigrant who call Moorhead home, and listen to a band who is both hero and villain.

Chupacabra!

The roles of women in the US Armed Forces have changed dramatically over the years.

For a female in the military, constantly being surrounded by men can bring both challenges and rewards.

Watch as two Minnesota veterans tell their personal stories of struggle and success.

Moving forward when we give you instructions you're only response will be yes drill sergeant, no drill sergeant.

Am I understood?

(recruits) Yes drill sergeant!

(Sarah Merritt) When you're surrounded by a lot more men than women, men who can do a lot more push-ups than you, can do a lot more sit-ups, can run faster, if you like there was kind of a challenge But at the same time I've always felt that men and women are different.

So I never felt pressure to be more than what I was or to match or complete.

It definitely pushed me to go harder.

(Mindy Broden) I grew up a farm girl-- the physical pieces of being in the military was not a big deal.

I enjoyed it-- basic training was actually the funnest time of my time in the service-- getting to obstacles and different things like that.

Physically it wasn't challenging for me at all.

It was more I grew up in a small rural community where everybody knew me as Mindy, and all of a sudden I went to the military where I am one of the only women.

So it was a very unique experience with different cultures, different backgrounds of people.

I had never experienced that amount of male attention, I would say before, some of it largely inappropriate and not knowing how to handle it.

I felt protection, we had a bunch of big Brothers and big uncles kind of looking out for you.

And wherever you go, there are people that don't do that.

It doesn't matter what field you're in.

So there were some that were more protective of you than others, and looked out for you more than others, but I never felt like I was discriminated against because of my gender.

I feel like there has been a little bit more acceptance on women being able to fill some of those roles that maybe they didn't in the past.

Women are doing truck driving and maintenance on vehicles.

It's probably come a long way as far as what women are capable of and wanting to do.

Our mission on a regular basis was to just load up these trucks and bring stuff from point A to B and survive.

My job was the weapons, making sure they were clean, making sure that they were functional and all that stuff.

I don't know if it was a job that I necessarily was wanting, but I really enjoyed doing it because I had my own arms room, I had my own way of doing things, my own system.

I did feel like it was a very important job.

Any of those weapons went out and they malfunctioned I would've felt like that was on me.

I was on a convoy, and we got some small arms fire, which, the direction when we get small arms fire-- just blow through, we just keep on going.

The only time we stop is if there is a casualty.

I think it really kind of awakened us to the reality of-- this is war, this isn't just mission-- we literally could die out here.

I got home, I actually moved in with my mom in the very beginning.

It was just kind of the plan all along.

And she was growing concerned because I was up all night and sleeping all day.

And she made a couple of comments that I was different, that I had changed, and I went to a veteran therapist who said it's probably PTSD related.

So then I kind of started down that road of like, okay, well, let's try to fix and figure this out.

What ended up really pulling me out of depression or anxiety or just the life that I was living, I think it was my faith.

I think my faith grew really strong.

As a woman sometimes we get in this mindset of we need to prove something.

We need to prove who we are, we need to prove our value, and men and women, although we're different, we're equal in value.

And what we do matters, and what we do makes a difference whether we are doing as many push-ups or not doing as many push-ups, so whether were at the front line or not at the front line, what we're doing matters; it makes a difference.

Fort Hood Texas was my first duty station.

It was first day at my duty station, and when I in-processed that I was sexually assaulted.

As a 28-year-old young woman, limited experiences outside of here, it was different.

I had in-processed late in the evening, and staff sergeant.

that in-processed me was my perpetrator.

I still am not sure that I would've came forward with it, But he was going to be a Navy chaplain and had just graduated seminary school.

I knew if I didn't say anything that there would be other women.

That investigation took 6 months.

So I was stuck in Fort Hood for 6 months now feeling like I'm wearing a scarlet letter and a little bit scared of retribution.

After I came forward, 13 other women also came forward.

and then it turned into drinking more alcohol as well.

I ended up really developing an addiction So for me there was a lot of challenges I would say during that time.

It wasn't related to being deployed, it was just related to a lot of different things that had accumulated over time.

When I got back out of the service, I came back to this area here in Bagley, and I started going to AA meetings, I started chairing AA meetings, I started working in the jails with another gentleman doing AA meetings for females that were incarcerated.

In the interim I decided I'm going back to school to use my GI Bill and all of those things.

And I took my first psychology course.

I just lit up with passion.

It does seem that veterans are a little more open to therapy with a veteran, and I've had several on my caseload that I think it's been incredibly beneficial because I can speak their language, and I can empathize, and I can understand, and they don't feel like they are going to break me.

I have a nickname at work, they call me "The Velvet Hammer" because it's like you're smooth but effective, because I am very blunt.

They joke around and say I use trucker speak to connect with people but can use all the intelligent words as well I just-- be very genuine and very real, and that I think connects more than anything.

I think there's definitely a lot more women that are in leadership now than probably were before.

I remember when I went through AIT we had one female drill sergeant predominant, and now they have drill sergeants that are female, commanders that are female, you have first sergeants that are female, so I think as time went on with more women being in the military, they have risen up through the ranks and taken roles of leadership and really supported other female military members.

I think that's good.

I can definitively say that the struggles and the suffering that I have endured have made me strong.

So my goal in life is just to give people hope.

immigrants leave behind everything they've known, their family's histories and their homes for something greater.

many of them who find their way to this area and strengthen the communities they live in.

Marcia Santiago Scarpin and Jorge Scarpin share their immigration story of why they left their home country of Brazil and how they found a new home in Moorhead, Minnesota.

My name is Marcia Scarpin, and I'm from Brazil I grew up in a very small city in Brazil called Arapongas.

Arapongas is a city in part of my state in Brazil.

My whole life I have been studying public schools, I was applying for a PhD in Sao Paulo at Fundaçao Getulio Vargas.

Fundaçao Getulio Vargas is the best business school in Latin America.

In my 3rd year I had the opportunity to come to the United States.

For the first time in my life for a conference, and after that I have an opportunity to be here for 7 months in my PhD because my program had a partnership with Indiana University.

So I live at Indiana University for like, 6 months.

I stayed 2 months more to travel in some states here in the United States.

and come back to Brazil.

When I had this opportunity to live here in the United States, I had the opportunity to see how life is easy here in the United States when you compare it to Brazil.

You have everything easy-- for food, for car, for gas station and less bureaucracy than Brazil.

So when I come back to Brazil, I was married at that time, and I told Jorge, I say Jorge, I want to live in the United States.

Jorge was very surprised and he goes okay, Marcia-- how?

I'm Jorge Scarpin.

I was a faculty member, an accounting faculty in my home country Brazil for some time.

So my college there, it was a public one, and they were facing some budget cuts, and so on.

Then okay, let's try, and we had kind of specific area that we want to go, and it was around the Midwest.

Then Concordia invited me to come, came for the visit, was in November of 2016.

And we arrived here in August, 2017.

Then some years later my wife started teaching here as well at Concordia in 2023.

So it's her second year now.

My first winter here was a huge challenge to deal with not only the snow but first how to buy proper apparel for the cold.

So okay, there are tons of jackets.

And for me a winter is about 40°.

All of them were the same.

Then they explain, no, this is a light jacket, this is a heavy jacket, so I purchase a lot of wrong jackets!

I like the snow.

I never see snow before I lived here.

And I like it-- everything's white, it's beautiful.

But when you have wind and snow in your face, this is hard to you.

You know?

Because when there's no start like, depends, October or November, you expect it-- new season.

So the winter, and you have Christmas, holidays, and so on.

However, when you go to the like, final-- February or March... April, May, and you still have snow, and you still have ice in your gardens, you say oh my goodness.

But, even so, I do appreciate it-- the sky and the sun because we have beautiful days here.

I think I was very proud for myself, to have this courage to move to Brazil to United States.

Also I'm very proud to offer for my daughter ah, possibilities.

You Know?

She will have possibilities, she can do whatever she wants.

And I'm very proud about that.

And it's very interesting because Gab, my daughter, she's born here, and she is totally Minnesota.

Like truly, she loves cold, she loves snow, she loves skating.

But every year we go to Brazil because I want to make sure Gabby knows she has a Brazilian family In our home we just speak in Portuguese with her, just in Portuguese.

And I think it's really important for her, it's really important for her to know her heritage.

So when you ask her Gabby, you are American or you are Brazilian?

And she always answer us, I am American-Brazilian!

You know?

And I think it's really important for her.

And for me, today this is my home.

You know, and this is so important to have a home.

So if you have any people to think about to move to the United States or move to this area, I think this area is a very very good place to start One thing that I can tell is that sometimes locals, they see immigrants as a bunch of similar people.

We are very different from one another just like a local people-- they are very different from one another Especially on their background of coming here.

A lot of people they come here because they don't have anywhere to go, or that is my last chance.

The worst thing for them is that they have nowhere to come back.

if they need to.

Then there are other immigrants like me, I can hear-- planned to come here.

If I need to go back to my home country for a family visit or for anything, I can go back there.

I do have a life there.

So that is, we are very diverse on who we are and especially what do we want here.

Poetry out loud is a high school program that encourages students to learn about poetry while they master public speaking skills and build self-confidence.

Leah Hochhalter from Valley City high school is the 2025 North Dakota Poetry Out Loud State Champion.

Listen as she recites the poems "1969" by Alex Dimitrov and "The Arrow and the Song" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"The summer everyone left for the moon "even those yet to be born.

And the dead "who can't vacation here but met us all there by the veil between worlds."

Poetry Out Loud is a poetry competition where people memorize and then recite and interpret poetry from many different poets.

So we scour the source of Poetry Out Loud for poems that speak to us and then memorize them then recite them in front of an audience and in front of judges.

The first poem I recited was "1969" by Alex Dimitrov.

I like how it talked about this grand time where everybody was loving each other, and we were going to the moon, and this crazy time for America where we didn't know where the future was heading, so it was this sense of love everywhere you went.

But then at the same time, there's a war going on.

So I loved how the poem talked about us humans are like living life and we're looking to the future but also to the past.

But we're never really living in the present.

So I love how that poem kind of called us out on that.

It was like there's so much future ahead, but who ever lives in the present?

So I liked how it called action to living in the present and reminding yourself that we aren't immortal, so take life for what you have and to remember to live it to the fullest.

"The summer everyone left for the moon "even those yet to be born.

And the dead "who can't vacation here but met us all there "by the veil between worlds.

"The number one song in America was "'In the Year 2525' "because who has ever lived in the present "when there's so much of the future "to continue without us.

"How the best lover won't need to forgive you "and surely take everything off your hands "without having to ask, without knowing "your name, no matter the number of times "you married or didn't, "your favorite midnight movie, "the cigarettes you couldn't give up, "wanting to kiss other people you shouldn't "and now to forever be kissed by the Earth.

"In the Earth.

"With the earth.

"When we all briefly left it "to look back on each other from above, "shocked by how bright "even our pain is "running wildly beside us "like an underground river.

"And whatever language is good for, "A sign, "a message left up there "that reads: "HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH "FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON "JULY 1969, A.D. "WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.

"Then returned to continue the war."

I did "The Arrow and the Song" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It had a deeper meaning than just what was on the surface, and I liked how I was able to kind of show two sides of me because the 1st stanza of the poem is almost like a lament and like regretful like you're throwing out this shot into the world and you don't know where it lands-- you don't really care.

Then the 2nd stanza is talking more compassionately.

You're throwing this compassionate song into the world, and you don't know where it lands.

But who knows?

Then the 3rd stanza talks about how afterwards these chances that you took and you threw-- seeing where they ended up and landed and how the arrow which kind of signifies harsh and maybe negativity and words that just don't land right, how the arrow was unbroken but it landed in an oak, so the oak was damaged but the song was still intact fully, but it was found in the heart of a friend.

So I was like to that one was kind of like-- awwhh.

"I shot an arrow into the air, "It fell to earth, I knew not where; "For, so swiftly it flew, the sight "Could not follow it in its flight.

"I breathed a song into the air, "It fell to earth, I knew not where; "For who has sight so keen and strong, "That it can follow the flight of song?

"Long, long afterward "In an oak "I found the arrow, "Still unbroke; "And the song, from beginning to end, "I found again In the heart of a friend."

With a flair for the dramatic, The Hero and the Villain from St.

Cloud, Minnesota will entertain as well as mystify.

Their focus is mixing rock, country, and folk and their passion for telling musical stories makes them a unique part of the Minnesota music scene.

[bass intro] ♪ [playing early 1960s style rock] Chupacabra!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ He lives by himself in a desert land ♪ ♪ Not quite beast not quite man ♪ ♪ A lust for blood he'll never fully understand ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ He plays all day in a musty cave ♪ ♪ What goes in will never escape ♪ ♪ Just a pair of blood red eyes and you know it's too late ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ But before he gets a taste ♪ ♪ ♪ He plucks the worn-out blood-soaked string ♪ ♪ Of his rusty old washtub bass ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh yeah yeah ♪ ♪ I'm dead ♪ ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ The way he moves in the twilight hour ♪ ♪ Searching for something he can devour ♪ ♪ Just the sound of his beating heart growing louder and louder ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ Slashing the throats of a careless few ♪ ♪ Who were out in the desert with nothing to do ♪ ♪ A set of razor sharp claws and your life is through ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ But before he gets a taste ♪ ♪ ♪ He plucks the worn-out blood-soaked string ♪ ♪ Of his rusty old washtub bass ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh yeah yeah ♪ ♪ ♪ All right!

♪ ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ [harmonica solo] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ Sick and tired of the same old scene ♪ ♪ Gonna grab his bass he's gonna head out east ♪ ♪ To the promised land of the south the town of New Orleans ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ He'll find a gig with a bluegrass band ♪ ♪ Full of mythical creatures half-beast half-man ♪ ♪ Never again will the blood of a kill stain his hands ♪ Chupacabra!

♪ But before he gets a taste ♪ ♪ ♪ He plucks the worn-out blood-soaked string ♪ ♪ Of his rusty old washtub bass ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ ♪ All right ♪ ♪ Chupacabra!

If you know of an artist, a topic, or an organization in our region that you think would make for an interesting segment, please contact us at... (Matt) You can watch this and other episodes of "Prairie Mosaic" on Prairie Public's YouTube channel, and follow Prairie Public on social media as well.

I'm Matt Olien.

And I'm Barb Gravel.

Thank you for joining us for another edition of "Prairie Mosaic."

[guitar, bass, and drums play in bright country rhythm] (Barb) "Prairie Mosaic" is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, the North Dakota Council on the Arts and by the members of Prairie Public.