Haragni Chuna is an artist with Fern Street Community Arts Inc, a 2024 recipient of the Prebys Foundation’s Healing Through the Arts & Nature grant.
This grant supports nonprofit organizations that serve youth, veterans, justice-impacted individuals, and historically underserved communities. Through innovative approaches, these organizations provide meaningful opportunities to enhance well-being and quality of life in a post-pandemic world.
Haragni’s Story
“I’ve lived in City Heights for as long as I’ve lived in the US. I was born in Peru with all my family, and I moved here with my dad, and then later, my mom. I was about 10 years old when we moved. We came here because my grandma lived here years before.
When we started living with my grandma, she wanted to find something for me to do when I was elementary school because she had a job and couldn’t take care of me.
She wanted me to have an after-school program to go to and she figured that since I did gymnastics when I was little, Fern Street Community Arts would be perfect for me. And ever since then, I’ve been doing circus all throughout my childhood. It kind of raised me into what I am today. Even now as a college student, I still come here very often.
I go to San Diego Mesa College. I’m in my second year, and I’m going for public health, and I plan on transferring to UCSD to become a physician’s assistant.
When I started with Fern Street Circus, I just thought it was a fun thing to do. But I grew older and learned, and my teachers started figuring out that I’m motivated and I have discipline, and they realized that I could do more.
I started doing partner tricks with one of my friends in the circus. And then we did our first partner contortion act. And since then, I’ve performed for every single yearly show that we do, because we do a tour every year, and they’re always just happy to have me.
I’ve always liked entertaining people, and I like seeing their smiles. I watch old recordings with my mom, and you just hear people in the background be like, ‘wow, oh my god.’ And it makes me feel good. It’s so fun.
What I like most is sharing what I know. Actually, one of the things I’m really scared of is teaching, but I just see the little ones, and sometimes they’ll struggle, and they look up to the older students. They want to know what I know, and I like to help them out. It’s really fun.
In the deep parts of my heart I know I would love to be a teacher, but there’s a part of me that’s hesitant because I always feel like I don’t know enough. Even though I do, I probably know so much, but when it comes to teaching somebody else, I think it’s just self-doubt. We’re always learning, we’re always growing. I’m sure with time, that part of me is going to hopefully bury itself, and then I could break out of that and finally get to share my knowledge with everybody else, and feel confident and comfortable.
I also like knowing that I’m doing something good for my body as well, because it takes a lot of strengthening, stretching, conditioning, and I always feel good afterwards. I know that I put effort in and I did a good job, but it makes me feel good, both physically and mentally.
Practicing is one of the things that I do to decompress. I look forward to it when I’m having a hard week at school, I like coming here and decompressing. As you’re becoming an adult, you’re learning so many new things, you’re focusing on school or a job or family. I feel like it’s very rare to just focus on yourself. And I feel like taking dance classes and taking acrobatics classes like I do is one of those times where you literally just focus on yourself, and you have to be focused on yourself. And it’s not to selfish to not think about anybody else, but what you’re doing with your body, and working towards something and improving.
I love to make the students feel welcome and I’m kind to them. I mostly focus on them building relationships with each other. Since I am older than the rest of the students, I do feel a little bit separate from them now, so I try to bond more with the teaching artists and students that are closer to my age. And then that’s where Mayte comes in. I love Mayte, we joined around the same time. So, we’ve both been here together for about nine years.
The little kids really enjoy having other friends outside of school. They have a lot of fun with each other. I’ve also noticed that their parents also come in and they want to be part of this community, because they like to see their children grow. The parents usually have meetings with each other, and they like to hang out — I’m pretty sure Catalina told me that they play games while the kids are taking class. We try to make them feel very much included, and a lot of them become like staff.
I’m finding a suitable career, which is why I’m becoming a physician’s assistant but I would love to have circus and dance as a part of my life forever. It’s who I am in my core.
I see myself very old, still doing back bends and splits. I definitely see that.”
This profile is a feature for People de San Diego, a storytelling project by the Prebys Foundation highlighting valuable community members of San Diego County.
