Day after day, strolling through the Boise High hallways becomes an insignificant task students partake in to study a designated course skill. One annual event that gives students the power to be teachers for the day stands out with its engaging and interactive projects regarding social issues of the community. Among the list of presenters, the main speech given by the keynote speaker brings the entire student body together during the unusual day. This year’s summit introduces Guero Loco, a bilingual educational speaker and rapper focused on providing a variety of life lessons he accumulated over the course of his career. Progressing through life, Guero found hardships, opportunities and solutions, which he plans to share with students with an emphasis on the summit theme.

On the Brave Together: Finding Common Ground theme of the summit, Guero believes that we must all work together and accept each other’s ideas to find the best solution to a problem. “We will need your generation’s bravery, your intelligence, your collective kindness, and your willingness to listen to, cooperate with, and learn from others,” Guero added.

Along with focusing on topics such as following dreams, “failures, successes, self-doubt, self-love, friends, and frenemies,” Guero also plans to highlight his journey becoming bilingual. “Being, or becoming, bilingual or multilingual is so crucial for us to really begin to embrace as a nation.”

The importance of being fluent in multiple languages is already being adopted in countless high schools around the world, which “allows them [students] to meet new people, and maybe get a different perspective to think about and incorporate.”

“Learning another language 100% changed my life for the better,” Guero reflected, “I’m thankful for the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve built with others through my bilingualism.” The presenter thinks that though he cannot confirm the studies that establish a connection between bilingualism and the delay in mental deterioration diseases, he can, in fact, verify his personal experience learning Spanish. “Being bilingual has helped me to remember to see things from the perspective of others, to keep my mind open to new possibilities, and to live a much more full life than I would have as a monolingual,” acknowledged Guero. Growing up, Guero never minded learning another language, that is, until he joined the Marines and was told he’d be “building a career around learning the language [Spanish] during a six-month crash course at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.” With this opportunity, Guero realized the uses of bilingualism and, later, the acceptance of the Hispanic community of his city, Indianapolis. His frequent international travels contributed to the cause as well, until “eventually, I started writing music and rapping 100% Spanish,” Guero revealed.

“There were the challenges and also the other things that came natural and from experience,” Guero admitted about the process of becoming an educational speaker, “I had to figure out my educational music and how that was going to work.”

Coming up with addictive musical ways to learn Spanish in the beginning of his career, Guero saw the importance of the support for his vision switching “from being more of a mainstream 100% Spanish hip hop artist to a bilingual educational artist/speaker over a pretty short period of time.” After he pursued both his careers as an educational speaker and a rapper separately, Guero found a way to combine both his passions and motivate people to learn from his stories and songs by creating a program called Bilingual Nation USA. “I just want the music I’m making to be used for good wherever and however it can be,” Guero said. After being connected with some of the Boise High Summit coordinators via Twitter, he was chosen by students to participate due to his experience and knowledge. “For those who are able to learn from others,” Guero addressed, “y’all are about to get what it took me decades to learn as an adult, broken down in a fun and simple way. For others, kick back and enjoy the music, funny stories, and some of the pics and videos from my travels.” Finishing his interview, Guero sent a short message to the Boise High community, “Thank you for having me Boise High, I really can’t wait to be out there! Also, big shout outs to Ms. Wilmot, Ms. Tetrick, and the other educators from Idaho for opening the doors for me to be out there!! See you all soon!”