Opening the Doorby Howard W. Hewitt |
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新澳门六合彩开奖直播 helped three first-generation Americansto see beyond the Salinas Valley. Now they鈥檙e raising hopes and expectations in the city they call home.
Ernie Vela 鈥�95 never really worked the fields. But he built bicycles and was a theater usher, wearing his "little black clip-on tie" at a local movie theater to earn his lunch money and pay for school clothes.
Anthony Avitia 鈥�96 didn鈥檛 work the fields as a child but intentionally suffered through a summer of the heat and backbreaking labor after his senior year at Alisal High School. He wanted to remember why he was going off to college.
"I never wanted to do it again," Mariscal recalls of his days in the fields. "My parents did it and they told us, 鈥榃e want you to get an education so you don鈥檛 have to be coming home dirty and breaking your back.鈥� They taught us what it is to earn a buck. It鈥檚 hard labor. I didn鈥檛 want to be earning my bucks that way, for sure."
Today, Mariscal and his two fellow 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 men earn their money as educators. They could have made a lot more money elsewhere. Mariscal had a job offer in telecommunications in Colorado. Vela could have gone into education in Cincinnati. Avitia had career opportunities he passed up in San Francisco and Phoenix. But all three returned to Alisal High School on the poor east side of Salinas where each grew up and graduated.
These first-generation Americans and first-generation college graduates are part of a unique niche in Salinas. They are three of eight 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 College graduates to come from Alisal. And the pipeline hasn鈥檛 run dry just yet; '08 will bring the alumni group to nine. The story starts with Rueben Magana Jr. 鈥�90 who opened the door from the nation鈥檚 salad bowl to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 College. Then it was Vela who helped encourage others to travel so far from home and bet their futures on this little Midwestern college that changed his and others鈥� lives.
All three say 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 helped them see the world beyond the Salinas Valley. And once they saw the world, its challenges and opportunities, it led them back to the Valley they call home.
"I felt a sense of responsibility to come back to the community and contribute," Vela says. "When I was a senior at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播, something provoked me to start thinking, What is the purpose of us being here on Earth? What鈥檚 our legacy? I left California and went to Indiana, and that geographical move made me realize that my world is not just Salinas; my world is the whole world.
He also realized that the place to begin changing that world was in Salinas.
He started as an elementary school teacher and is now principal of Cesar Chavez Elementary School on the far southeastside of Salinas. "You鈥檙e not only touching the lives of 30 kids, but now I鈥檓 potentially touching the lives of 750 kids."
All three men also felt the strong sense of family responsibility that permeates Hispanic culture.
"My parents passed up the opportunity to purchase a house in 1991 when I graduated from Alisal," Vela recalls. "They wanted to make sure I didn鈥檛 have to worry about finances. They wanted me to focus on school, so they took a back seat for themselves. All the time at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 I was thinking, How am I going to pay them back?"
So he bought them a house. Just after getting married at age 21, he bought the home he now shares with his parents, wife, and four children.
Mariscal felt the strong pull of family, but resisted it during his college years. "I wanted to get out of Salinas," he says emphatically. "It鈥檚 not the best city to grow up in. Our city, especially the east side, is plagued by violence, drugs, and teenage pregnancy."
The tall, laid-back English teacher entered 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 with thoughts of pursuing medicine. But it was tough, and he changed plans after a talk with English Professor Warren Rosenberg. He graduated with an English major and biology minor. He attended job fairs and had several offers that could have led to lucrative careers.
"I wanted to take this job [in Colorado] real bad," he recalls. "But I had a little brother I didn鈥檛 know and a little sister I鈥檇 never really met. That鈥檚 when I decided to come back. We鈥檝e always been a close-knit family. My mom and dad had done a heck of a job supporting us. I don鈥檛 know how they managed to put five kids through college."
"Going to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 from here was an eye-opener," he says. "I wasn鈥檛 aware of my cultural past. I grew up with it and took it for granted. During my time at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 I realized there was a part of me that wanted to do more; more for my people, more for the Latinos in this area."
After 新澳门六合彩开奖直播, Avitia explored social work. He was a teacher in a migrant workers program. He worked for the Muscular Dystrophy Association as a community liaison. He spent three years working in Project READ in San Francisco. That鈥檚 when he realized education could be the way to satisfy his yearning to serve his community. So he focused on his education at San Jose State, which he is finishing up now, to earn a master鈥檚 degree in counseling.
He spent the 2005-2006 school year at Alisal leading a classroom in contract learning. Avitia took low-level, low-skills students and tried to help them catch up so they might be able to graduate.
"My biggest issue is motivation, and how to get these kids to believe in their future and hopes," he explains. "Some of these students are so far behind that regardless of how much we do here they鈥檙e still not going to graduate. More than anything, I try to put a little bit of hope in these students and help them be more vocal for themselves."
All three men say being from the area gives them a strong bond with students.
"This is my community and this is where I grew up," Avitia says. "There was a gang problem when I was here because it鈥檚 a low-income housing area, and there鈥檚 still a gang problem. I can relate to these kids on that level and say, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 tell me anything that I don鈥檛 know.鈥�"
More than 2,000 students attend Alisal High School with 300 to 340 graduating each year, yet only 10 to 15 percent go off to college. In contrast, a Sacramento State research project showed 52 percent of California high-school students going directly to a four-year college.
"One of the big challenges we face are the parents," explains Natalie Mariscal, Alisal High School guidance counselor and Hugo鈥檚 wife. "Students come to my office and say, 鈥業鈥檓 going to go to college,鈥� but they don鈥檛 know what it takes to do that. They don鈥檛 even realize they鈥檙e going to have to have above a C-average. And some parents are still in the mind-set that if their child leaves, they鈥檙e not going to come back.
"And, of course, poverty is a big chall-enge," the counselor says. "Many just really don鈥檛 think that they can go to college."
Hugo walks through the school courtyard at midday and talks about the challenges.
"There is not a whole lot they can do at home," he says of his students. "They definitely can鈥檛 ask a parent for help. They can鈥檛 afford to go to a tutor. We just have to accomplish what we can."
Mariscal calls out to one student then another, telling them they must put a sweatshirt or jacket over their plain white T-shirts鈥攁 sign of gang affiliation.
"How do I change these kids who want to lead a gang life? They want to think they鈥檙e hard and they鈥檙e tough guys out on the street. Really, they鈥檙e the sweetest kids, innocent boys, but they don鈥檛 know anything. How do we change that? We try to convert them but it鈥檚 tough because they鈥檙e surrounded by it every day."
Mariscal asks a short, muscled young man what he鈥檚 up to and gets little response as the student quietly slips away.
"It doesn鈥檛 hurt that I鈥檓 6鈥�4"," the former 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 quarterback says with a grin.
Seeing these successful 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 men back at their high school has an impact on the students.
"I love these kids," Mariscal says. "The fact I went to school here and I鈥檓 Mexican like they are, I know they look up to me and that鈥檚 rewarding. A lot of these kids are the first in their whole family to graduate."
Mariscal has coached football and been involved with Alisal athletics, but his primary goal is to get students to think beyond the Valley.
"I get frustrated when they want to go to the community college here because, if they stay, they鈥檙e still going to be surrounded by all the negativity," Mariscal says. "They need to get out and learn to be their own person. A lot of these moms and dads won鈥檛 let them even go to school because they鈥檙e moving away so far."
Mariscal insists his thinking and life changed when he escaped the Valley during his four years in Crawfordsville.
"新澳门六合彩开奖直播 shapes you to think a certain way," he reflects. "新澳门六合彩开奖直播 doesn鈥檛 brainwash anybody. It makes you see the possibilities and makes you aware of everything that surrounds you. 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 makes you see and appreciate the uniqueness of different things, different professions. It did so much for me."
The Salinas-to-新澳门六合彩开奖直播 pipeline opened up in 1986. Alisal had a special group of seniors who had achieved at an unusually high level. Teachers and administrators knew that it was a rare chance to push some of the class鈥檚 best students outside the Valley and Bay area to some of the nation鈥檚 premier colleges.
Patrick Egan was an Alisal coach and English teacher at the time. He was good friends with George Shirley, who knew about 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 College. "The Class of 1986 just happened to be an incredibly talented group, so we worked very hard at getting them to colleges throughout the country," Egan explains.
But for Egan it has been far more than just offering encouragement. He鈥檚 taken students to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 recruiting nights in the Bay area. He鈥檚 even driven students to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 from his native Chicago home.
Egan says that Ruben Magana succeeded at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 because he was a "real go-getter." A few others tried and returned home, too far away from their familiar settings. Egan believes the ball really started rolling with Vela.
"He was afraid to go to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 because of the distance," Egan remembers. Vela couldn鈥檛 afford the plane ticket so Egan drove him to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播. He spent the first weekend at school with Ernie, much as a parent would during orientation. Egan and others have worked to eliminate students鈥� excuses. Now that eight Alisal students have graduated from 新澳门六合彩开奖直播, and two more are currently enrolled, Egan says the dream he had back in 1986 has been fulfilled.
The men who have grown up in the Valley, taken the path to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 College, and set a daily positive example for their students encourage Egan with their own big dreams. Avitia wants to have an impact on lives and return to Alisal or nearby as a counselor. Mariscal has turned down numerous job offers to go elsewhere and has thought of becoming an athletic director. Vela is even more specific in his dreams. He鈥檇 like to become superintendent of the Salinas School District.
"Everything I did at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 had the undertone that you鈥檙e being developed and prepared to be a leader, regardless of the field you go into," Vela says. "It amazes me that when I meet other alums, they鈥檙e not just doctors, they鈥檙e heads of their department. They鈥檙e not just businessmen, they鈥檙e CEOs."
As leaders in the culturally rich Salinas Valley, Vela, Mariscal, and Avitia are catalysts in a time of rapid change and charged political debate. Issues of immigration and language are front and center daily in Salinas.
"Do we salute the flag every day?" Vela asks as he prepares for the graduation ceremony at Cesar Chavez Elementary School. "Absolutely. Do our third-graders learn how to sing the National Anthem? Absolutely. There is still a sense of American pride that we want to pass on to the kids. But nearly everyone is bilingual. It鈥檚 calculated. We also honor Spanish, and we honor that culture because we need to bring their parents into the picture of education."
Vela, Mariscal, and Avitia have been able to achieve largely because of their parents鈥� encouragement and sacrifice. All three say, while much has changed, nothing has changed.
"If you ask parents today, 鈥榃hy did you come to the United States?鈥� the first thing they鈥檒l say is, 鈥楾o give my kids a better opportunity,鈥�" Vela says. "They are thinking of their kids, just as my parents were thinking of me. The educational opportunities available in this country are obvious, and a lot of these people want to take advantage of that. It behooves us to extend and open that door culturally, because we want them to be a part of the education process."
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Hugo Mariscal 鈥�98 remembershow his back would hurt. He was just 14 and picking strawberries in the expansive Salinas Valley fields of Central California.
"I can have more of an impact going to my hometown and working with children than I can picketing in Washington, DC," Vela says.
Raised by his mother and having one sister, Avitia felt a similar family pull. But he also had a sense that social work would be his calling.
The courtyard buzzes with activity, not unlike other high schools where students group together in cliques. Yet here the skin is brown and the booming music is to a Hispanic hip-hop beat. Salinas, which sits just eight miles inland from Monterey, is more than 60 percent Hispanic; Alisal is nearly 100 percent.