Solidaridad

I just started volunteering for this organization CLAYSS (Centro latinoamericano de aprendizaje y servicio solidario) which promotes service learning in Latin America. The way they talk to us about service learning is interesting because it seems like Argentines don't think we Americans know what it is. It is a newer concept among educators in America and maybe it is because of where I come from (hippy-dippiness), but I felt very familiar with the subject. This type of education works well here because it promotes leadership, self-motivation, problem solving, etc. Perhaps is the solution to that banking style of education that our friend Paulo Freire talks about.
Also exists a very different concept of what the word solidarity or "solidaridad" means, and this too they like to flaunt in Americans faces like we have no clue as to what this word means in Spanish. Well, they're right. Solidarity here means any action with the community, any good work done to help society. For me, in English that word brings to mind images of that idealistic, Marxist kid with a silkscreened hammer and sickle on his studded sweatshirt. It makes me think of radicalism. Also I think of the magazine that my parents get in the mail from some union or other (not sure which one), which is called "Solidarity."
Anyway, I think what doesn't translate is this universalist, human interconnectedness that is felt amongst people here, since life here (not for all, but for most) is considered a struggle, for the most part because life is not secure, things change, money becomes unavailable, you step in dog shit now and then. Solidaridad in Spanish could mean for us could mean community service, but it isn't isolated or compartmentalized here nor does it have conotations. As with "tranquilidad," Americans don't really live in a society in which "solidaridad" can exist. This isn't a sad thing, just different, although I wish Americans could live in a more interconnected way, in the sense that empathy wasn't a trait, but a way of life.