SAM would like to share a team member highlight in recognition of the many communities choosing today to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day.
Carmen, SAM’s Director of Administrative Affairs
Carmen Levitt serves as SAM’s Director of Administrative Affairs. She is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. Carmen’s great grandparents lived in the area near what is now Arizona before the state’s 1912 admission to the United States as its 48th state.
Carmen, born Carmelita Irene Giocamea, remembers her elementary school years spent in Arizona, near Phoenix. While not living on tribal lands, the tribal lineage from her parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents entitles her, as well as her children, to continue membership in the tribe and access its facilities and resources.
Attending elementary school in Arizona, Carmen’s parents were encouraged not to speak Spanish at home with her. It would help her learn English and be more successful with her education. The advice given to her parents made connecting to her heritage more of a challenge but was a necessity of the time and within the system in place.
“While I understand now there was much more behind that advice, it did lead me to be successful in school,” she explains.
Was shortening her name during her school years also a result of advice received?
“No, it was simply easier to write,” she says with a chuckle. Carmen does, however, recall having her formal name called out during graduations and other important public occasions. And at those times, she remembers wondering if it may cause those unfamiliar with her to make assumptions. While not a major concern, it did make her consider the impact when she and her husband, Eric Levitt, named their children, Grace, Joseph, and Jason. Family bonds were honored through the names they selected as each is tied to parents and grandparents in some way.
Strong family ties are a part of Carmen’s heritage, even though she does not now live near the majority of her relatives. All have a strong work ethic. Her father did not graduate high school, but served in the Vietnam War and worked in jobs that required intense manual labor. Her grandparents were field workers. Within the tribe, community, and family, education was not initially viewed as the key to success in life, yet it is one that Carmen’s mother embraced, earning a degree long after reaching her 40’s and building a career at several high profile companies and governmental institutions. That drive, along with the value system that upheld a strong work ethic, laid a foundation for who Carmen is today.
Having finished middle and high school in South Carolina and earning a degree from the University of South Carolina, Carmen feels she has embraced the best of all worlds open to her.
“I still feel attached to the hard work ethic and the resiliency of my family as members of the Yaqui Tribe,” she says. “Those qualities of my heritage are things I try to embody in all I do.”
SAM is thankful to have Carmen on the team working to ensure that children across Spartanburg have every opportunity in life – to learn from their heritage and past – and use it to build strong futures.
Joseph, Grace, and Jason Levitt wear facemasks sent to them by their Pascua Yaqui Tribe.