The Mexican Community of South Central Lost Angeles: Kids Our Only Hope
by Gerardo Morales

Contents: 1. The Lost Part of Aztlan? pages 1-6 2. Cholos. pages 7-14 3. Miseducation. pages 15-19 4. Education Funding. pages 20-22 5. The Future. page 23 The Lost Part of Aztlan? The ancient civilizations of Mexico were believed to have come from north of Mexico, a place called Aztlan, a region that may well cover the southwest of United States. It was a sacred place for them, the place where they were born , a place where their beginnings took place. It is a territory that covers from San Francisco to Michoacan and from Texas to Nevada. It is yet uncertain where exactly these Native civilizations of Mezo-America came from. Historians claim Los Angeles as one of the many options. Los Angeles California was a land once owned by Mexico. In this project I would like to anylize specifically about the Mexican community of South Central Los Angeles. A community that for long has been the subject of criticism, untold discrimination, alienation, but which all above has maintained it's traditions and struggled in search of a better future in this land which was originally theirs. Los Angeles is the city with the largest population of Mexicans outside of Mexico. The 1990 Census as reported by Rodolfo Acu$a accounts for 37 percent white, 13 percent black, 9.2 percent Asian, and 39.9 percent Latino with 28.5 percent of Mexican origin for Los Angeles City. Geographically the Mexican community in Los Angeles has no boundaries it can be seen from the barrios of East Los Angeles or Chicanos LA's center of gravity as regarded by Peter Theroux in his book about Los Angeles Translating LA. The barrios of East Los Angeles cover the communities of Boyle Heights, El Sereno, El Monte and Lincoln Heights. This area has been heavily dominated by Mexican migration since this territory was still Mexico. but the Mexican community can be seen further east of Southern California in communities such as Riverside, up north in the valleys of San Fernando and down in the Beaches of Long Beach. Traces of the once owned land by Mexico can be see, hundreds of streets still take Spanish names, stores are filled with signs posted in Spanish. Although the Mexican community can be observed all over Southern California, it's strength as far as political power is weak. It is the single major reason for much of its struggle. As we say "La Lucha Continua" the struggle goes on, the Mexican community has many problems still to face. There is the problem of education , bilingual education to be exact. The community splitting apart to discuss whether their children should learn English solely or have them taught in Spanish first or have them taught in Spanish first. Poverty is also a major concern among the Mexican community since the average net income for these families is about an average of $16,000 a year in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. There is also the issue of immigration which has risen with so much anger in the last few years. Government has made life even harder for the members of the community who are not legally documented to work . The more recent attempts to stop immigrants grants from coming have been the new laws made by the California state to deny prenatal assistance to undocumented women. Another proposition that made a substantial damage to the Mexican community was Proposition 209. Proposition 209 sought the elimination of the Affirmative Action program, that served minorities to be equally treated as far as education and employment opportunities. A law that has really made a crucial impact on the Mexican community was Proposition 187. This Proposition seeked the elimination of medical, and educational benefits to the undocumented people of California. The community is well aware of the fact that changes need to be made. Changes that will result in equal representation of our population which compromises nearly 50% of the total population of Los Angeles City. After many struggles the Mexican community has had many successes also. The community has been able to maintain it's traditions, it's culture, it's language and it's determination to maintain an integrated community. I will first begin with outlining a little bit of the history of this community. Its history dates back more than 3,000 years when the first Mexicans settled this land and moved south towards the regions of central Mexico. They formed in Mexico some of the most civilized cultures of the time. They began by forming the Olmec civilization around 12,000 B.C., considered by some as the mother culture of Mexico , was the beginning of several civilizations to follow and make history. Some of their most astonishing accomplishments are yet still found in cities such as La Venta. They are identified as great sculpturers. They are were then followed by two other civilizations the Maya and the Teotihuacan around 200 B.C. The Mayan civilization, around 200 B.C to 800 A.D., is regarded as the Classic or Golden Age period in Pre- Columbian Mexico. In this period of time the Mayas made many advancements in many fields. One of the fields that they were great at was astrology. The Mayas devised the worlds most accurate calendar. They might even understood the concept of zero in mathematics before its discovery by the fifthcentury Hindus . They were also great architects and engineers. They managed to raise structures to heights of 230 feet, that have stood until this day, about fifteen hundred years. All this history has been forgotten in todays text books. The history of Mexico contributing any history to this country is hidden from the minds of todays youngsters. Though many students here in South Central are from Mexican decent, their history is not taught to them until they get to their college years and that is done if they choose to learn about their true history. About their true roots, not about their father Washington. more than three thousand years of their past history and not even a mentioning of their great ancestors, and if you do listen about Mexicans in a history class you will hear only about their war against the Texans or their loss of territory to the then United States or even the most current about immigration. If your lucky you might even hear a Latino name such as that of Cesar Chavez, the great farmworker and activist. But that wasn't the end of Mexico, followed was the Post-Classic Period which was from 800 A.D. until the Spanish invasion in the early sixteenth century. The two most prominent tribes were the Toltecs and the Aztecs or Culhua-Mexica as they came to call themselves. the Aztecs founded the city where Mexico city is now situated. the Aztecs adopted from their ancestor cultures learning in math, medicine, agriculture, astronomy, philosophy, architecture and the arts such as sculpting, ceramics, muralism and hieroglyphic script. After this came the tragic coming of the Spaniards who destroyed this last civilization in Mexico. The Spaniards took over all of what is now Mexico, the Southwest United States, and reaching parts of South America. The Mexica people or Mexicanos as the Spaniards called them, where turned into slaves many died from diseases brought by the Spaniards. Independence came in September of 1821 by this time the most of the people making up Mexico were a mixture of Spanish and indigenous blood, called Mestizos. Mexico's government was weak and lacked leadership. half of its territory was then lost to the United States. The supposed agreement they made was The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty in which The United States robbed Mexico of its territory for about $18,000,000 . This territory now makes up the states of California, New Mexico, and Colorado. People living in this territories were then restricted with the rights they had such as the right to own land. From that point on the Mexican population has suffered injustices by the American government. Injustices are still faced today in Los Angeles. The hard fact is that the Mexican community was that true owner of the lands in which they now settle, but today they are now called "illegal aliens" when they come in search of a better life this side of the border as if they were from another world. I'd like to approach in this project the many problems that the Mexican community faces today, problems such as gangs, education, and legal problems such as immigration, problems that affect everyone in this community, no matter the legal status. The coming of the Europeans would be one of the most crucial event that would make its profound destructive mark in Mexicans and their history. All this is being covered up by ignorants such as Michael S. Berliner who wrote an article on the Los Angeles Times not to long ago. "Man's best came with Columbus," he says, "Before 1492, what is now the United States was sparsely inhabited, unused and undeveloped" ignoring the fact that thousands of years before Columbus landed on this land there was a civilization that was estimated in Mexico to be about 25 million and after the so called "conquest" dropped to about 2 million because of diseases, massacres, and enslavement that the Europeans brought to this land. There were already civilizations that were being developed and would have flourish to maybe be among the greatest in the world. "The inhabitants were primarily wandering gathers, living day to day," he goes on to say that the life here was "nasty, brutish and short." After the successful acquaintance of half of the Mexican territory, European society had total control of the political changes that would occur in what is now the so called "Southwest." As Tomas Almagur would describe in his book about racial relationships in California, "the Mexican population was deemed half civilized," and the new white immigrants believed that "the indigenous population was the lowest level of humankind imaginable." With these taughts in mind, the new settlers of what was then owned by Mexicans and Native Indians, were to form a government that would favor them and would totally forget their so called credo of "all men are created equal." There was much suffering is you were not of the white race in the beginnings of the colonization. Mexican became to be known as a "Maligned Word," as Ruben Baltazar said, "the word Mexican has been dragged through the mud of racism since the Anglos arrived in the Southwest." Just as the Japanese were insulted with the "Remember Pearl Harbor," the Mexican insult was "Remember the Alamo." Or like Carey Mc Williams pointed, the word "greaser" in his book "North of Mexico." The definition of the word was supposedly, "California slang for a mixed race of Mexican and Indians." They, " totally ingnored the fact that Neve and the Spanish did not 'discover' Southern California any more than Columbus discovered America; they invaded," says Rodolfo Acu$a. Insults ranging from these to worst have lasted through the years, making a sentiment of hate and humiliation to the Mexican community. They have triggered a wave of discrimination and alienation towards my community. In my project I pretend to analyze just a few of the problems that the community faces today. I will define three problems which will be gangs, education and political oppression. I will find the different actions that the community is taking and suggest solutions to the problems. Cholos "For 1991, police cited these statistics: 100,000 gang members, 800 gangs,nearly 600 young people killed." These police statistics were reported in Luis J. Rodriguez' book "Always Running." He narrates the history of gangs in Los Angeles, "This lifestyle originated with the Mexican Pachuco gangs of the 1930s and 1940s,and was later recreated with the Cholos,"Rodriguez' experience is just another tale that happens on a daily bases throughout this neighborhood, but "these stats have been used to create hysteria against black and Latino youth." This problem is my first target in this project, gangs; gangs are the single deadliest community concern today among our teens. Violence in our streets has risen dramatically over the past ten or fifteen years. It has destroyed many futures, taken the lives of many, and left an undeliable negative mark on our community. I have always questioned why would anyone want to live a life as a gang member. My personal experience living here in South Central is that I have always been around gangs, but I have never been tempted to even search for their support, or as they would say so called security, or even friendship. I think that any of those characteristics can be found in any good friend. I understand their feeling of rebellion, it is one that I also carry. But my rebellion can be defined as one against the persons who want to suppress and take advantage of mi gente, it is one that I think they also feel. The only problem I that the way of expressing their rebellion is just not the appropriate way of expressing their anger towards the people who have denied them either a chance to succeed, an opportunity to be someone, or simply a chance to have their talents seen in a positive way. To look for answers to many of my questions I decided this time to interview a gangmember, one that I have known for a good portion of my life. I have lived close to him since childhood. I have seen him grow, had great times with him, but just for some reason something went wrong with him. Here we are two vatos ,as they would call ourselves or simply any man. Two with similar backgrounds, same family, but different friends and very possibly totally different futures. The person I will interview is my cousin, a twenty-two year old gangmember of a nearby gang called 41st street gang, imprisoned two years for robbery, and two times shot in drive by shootings, but above all a great person. He is kind, used to be a great student way back in elementary, that is when he was in Mexico. I decided to interview him and hope that he would give me some intelligent answers as to why he joined, what is he looking for after six years of being involved in gangs. He joined when he was sixteen and in junior high. As I was about to start my interview with my cousin I thought to myself, "Here we are two persons so similar, but so different, so close but at the same time so far apart. " I thought I knew everything about him but I though wrong. My first feeling, looking close to him was him telling me or almost inviting me like a song by MC Kidd Frost that goes, "look into my eyes/ come and see/ a day in the life of a G(gangster).... there's no picket fences and life ain't simple/ I'm living life today homey check it." The first thing he told me was " what the heck are you gonna do with this shit. if you're gonna go to some newspaper and publish what I'm gonna have to tell you to forget it." I had to explain to him that this was all just part of a report for my English class. He just laughed and said "English class, lets just go kick it at a nght club, and we'll do this tomorrow." (It was Saturday night and I was lucky to find him at my aunts house, anyway I promised him that we would go partying after the interview.) But he started asking more questions "why should your teacher or classmates be interested in hearing about me?" I had to tell him to shut up, and that this was my interview not his, and he also told me that if I wanted to use a name to use only his nick name for what he called safety purposes, plus all or most of the interviews was done in Spanish. My first question was the most obvious one, "why did you join, you the person who I would never have guessed would ever do such a stupid thing as joining a gang?" he's answer was one that I would of thought of myself "First of all I was a little chavalito(kid) when I joined. I didn't know what was up then. It's like when you're a little kid anxious to explore whats the world's like." I followed "did you needed gangs to know what the world was like?" He answered "I guess I joined because I wanted to have some fun, to enjoy myself and not have to give a damm about whatever happened to me, to have a feeling of protection, the feeling of if you ever do any thing to me, me and my homeboys will get you and kill you." I then responded, "My aunt cares alot about you, and you know that. She has cared for you ever since we were in Mexico, remember? plus protection, what did you fear then, and has your reason for joining and still belonging to the gang stayed the same." He first made a comment of the good old days we used to have in Mexico back when we were little kids, back when neither of us imagined that at some point in our lives we would have to leave that and come in search of the so-called American Dream. "Yeah, those used to be the good old days huh. We used to be a real family. There it was a small town, but we lived happier. The rancho was a style of life that I miss, and as far as the reason of protection, it wasn't that I was afraid of anyone. You see you wouldn't wanna have to be the kid who would always be pushed around by some big bully that would take advantage of you. If they knew you belonged to the gang they wouldn't even mess with you. As far as the question of protection is still the reason that after six years I am still here, the answer would be yes. More than ever I need protection, and not that I'm afraid of anybody, but rival gangs won't attack you one on one. Plus I, like many of my homeboys are known by our rivals. Whether we were involved in a drive-by shooting or simply crossed out the name of the rival gang, your life is already in danger. So you see unless you go to the other side of the world, you can't just leave your gang you will either be killed anyway if not by rival gangs by your own homeboys, they hate betrayal,"he responded. "Do you like many vatos blame what you've done and keep doing on society?," I asked, he's answer was "I think that society has much to do with the reason, but society I don't think is the single most important reason or factor of my involvement in gangs. But you know what I think that mayve, just mayve if we had never come to the States and stayed in Mexico my life wouldn't of ended up this way. Here you've got the feeling of having to show that your better than the person next to you. Sexes against sexes, races against races, you fight for equality and this is the only way I know of fightting." Then I asked, "But what do you fight for?, Your have no reason at least from mine and the societies point of view, what's your goal in this." he responded, "I fight for my self, for respect, I feel I'm in danger everyday it's either me or the other vato , it's about kill or getting killed you see".( he showed me he's three bullet scars that were left from a drive by shooting just two years ago, he spent about two months in the hospital. He was lucky he didn't die.) he went on " I have no goals in life, I ain't got anything to loose, no family, no job to care about, nobody cares if I'd loose my life in a shooting."I responded angrily, "what do you mean you aint got no one that cares, you have us! , your family what more would you want?." he then paused for a while looked around at pictures from his childhood back when he's mom regarded as a great kid with a promising future. My aunt, she still cares, always remainding him of how much she loves him, always trying to get him of out his dumb desision of joining gangs.He had nothing to think about now probably. He asked me to stop and he now looked very quietly, he's last comment was "come-on carnal (brother), you know I'm good, you know that I if it was up to me I would have been somebody in life but, my decision as a child, a foolish child totally destroyed what I am today." My cousin's interview was real interest to me, it revealed me what really was going on through a gangmembers mind. It showed me that they were ordinary people like any other person, that they could have been someone in their lives. That it is not all their fault that they chose their destiny of being who they are. Not that I say that I simpatacy with the way of rebellion, but they are part of my this community and all they need is some help, some support that will make them think twice before they take the decision of joining gangs. But to find out more about what persons who are concerned with this issue I decided to interview my former high school history teacher, Mr. Herman from Jefferson High School. He has worked for this community as a teacher for several years now, I remember when he used to be a Middle School instructor about 8 years ago. He has always worked close to this South Central youth community. I always thought that he had interesting opinions about society, government, and about the community. The first question I decided to ask Mr. Herman was: "Mr. Herman what is your opinion about this community (South Central)?" he's answer was, " People here are nice and like any other people but without money," I then continued on to ask him about what his opinion on the problem of gangs was, I asked, " In your opinion as a teacher of these kids why do they join gangs?," he then responded "they're mad they want justice, they want it and don't know how to get it," I then asked him "gangs seem to be an endless cat and mouse game, will we ever be able to fight gangs and stop them in the future?" he's response was "Yeah, once people are proud of their society, they won't wanna cause trouble. In order to be proud of our society everybody has to have food, housing, health care, education, and respect." The reasons about why gangmembers decide to join gangs might be different in each one whether is justice, rage, protection, companionship, respect, or simply plain curiosity; One thing that won't change are the results which will either be imprisonment, hospitals, or even death. Another thing that all of these kids have in common are solutions to their problems. Solutions for gang problems are not easy to accomplish, the community has to unite in order to battle this problem. The blame must be taking by all, it is not just the problem of the kid, it is a problem that should be addressed by parents, educators and government alike. All of these youngsters that roam our streets have the capability to be a great student or to have a decent job. All they need is an opportunity to be heard, to be understood, they need respect and their sense of proud to be Latinos. As it is sometimes said the problem must be stopped before it begins. I think that the earlier these kids are taught about the dangers of gangs and the benefits of school, the better the possibilities of the kid getting a good education. Kids need to make a connection early in their lives between a career and how to get there. Parent need to be taught or re-trained to motivate their kids positively. Kids need to learn and have their sense of pride, they need to be given the sense of equality at that early age. They need to be given the weapons to fight in life, but the weapons of knowledge. They need to be taught how to stand up for themselves and defend their rights. They also need to be taught to work with other recial groups, such is the case here in south central where the relations between mexican or latino gangs is devastating. If they do unite will be only to cause harm as they did in the 1992 riots when you had mexican and african- american gangmenbers unite to destroy their own community, during the riots you could see in many walls with graffiti that read brown and black power. Now that their young is the time when they will make the decision of taking the right path and continuing with their education or join gangs and end up causing trouble and harm to their selves, family, friends, and community. What is the community doing to help our youth? Very little is the support being offered by our community: only a handful of organizations are taking action against this problem that greatly involves everyone. Government is not providing enough money in prevention programs that will give our youth a chance to get them involved in positive activities. Although we lack many organizations that should be able to help our youth, a couple are groups designed to help our youth. I found one organization that is committed to helping our young kids stay away from the streets and make something productive in their spare time. The organization is located in Central Avenue, the heart of South Central once an area heavily populated and dominated by an African-American community, now with a population almost half or more Latinos of Mexican decent. The community organization is dedicated to the social problems such as gangs, drugs, violence and racism is called A Place Called Home(APCH), which was founded four years ago. I talked to Christopher Smart who is the Associate Program Director at the organization. He gave me a short tour of the facility which has various sections so that kids will have the basic rights that every kid should have a place to go after school watch TV, play with friends, and be with people who care about them. The 10,000 square foot facility has a gym, an arts and crafts room for kids, a study room, a small computer lab, and a small library. It is house to 1,500 youth members, 63% Latino and 37% African American, ages range from 9 to 20 year old youngsters. Programs range from Gang Prevention to Health and Wellness, from Education to Job Readiness I asked Chris if he had any idea of how many young gangmembers they were helping out by getting them out of the streets and welcoming them into the organization. Chris said, "An exact number we don't have, although we do ask kids before they enter whether they are gangmembers but of course most of them will tell you "no", but our purpose is to help all kids no matter who they are so anyone who wants to come in is welcomed to." Their mission as Chris says, "is to revitalize the community at South Central Los Angeles in a continued effort to provide inner-city youth with a safe environment and a safe place to develop and grow." When I asked who funded the organization, I was surprised to know that it was funded by private organizations and individuals, and that this was the only APCH in the South Central Area . The effort being done by this organization is a great way of fighting gangs. The time I was there many were kids enjoying themselves talking to friends, doing homework and exercising in the gym. It seemed to me the organization was achieving their purpose. They were getting kids out of the streets and making them feel just as the organizations name describes itself, "A Place Called Home." Having kids in these organizations keeps them away from the dangers of hanging out with gangmembers and doing drugs or alcohol. It is also designed to target the specific age where kids are the most active, curious, and eager to learn and explore. The only thing that really bothers me is that as surprisingly as it sounds, this organization is funded by private individuals who care about our community. Individuals that have chosen to give our kids the choice to stay away from gangs. This organization should be funded with government money and should have the capability to reach kids from all over the South Central region. One of these organizations should be built within every ten blocks of each other, giving our youth the support and attention they need . Ironically two years ago just five blocks south there was a brand new state-of-the-art police station constructed. It seems to me that it's just as Rodolfo F. Acu$a would put it, "society had either to invest in the public schools and educate Latinos and other Angelenos, or spend more money in on police, prisons, welfare, housing subsidies, health care and security systems." Government could heve funded two or maybe even three more centers such as APCH, but they have decided that creating their own way of stopping the 60,000 gang members reported living in South Central L.A. is better. How about creating jobs also, creating more jobs with decent pay. Having jobs will certainly lower our robbery rate here. If you would ask anyone that if he had a choice of having a job and earning a decent amount of money or selling dope or sex, they would certainly go for the decent job. If you are a young teenager in search for a job here in South Central Los Angeles you most likely won't find a job that will pay you a decent amount of money. Here you have only swapmeet stores that will hire girls for about 20 bucks a day or if lucky one of the supermarkets might pay you minimum wage. "Gangs are not alien powers," as Luis J Rodriguez would put it they have a solution just as any human behavior problem. All these groups need is a sense of respect, belonging, protection, and caring. Rodriguez says that "Gangs flourish when there is a lack of social recreation, decent education or employment," and what do we do with these individuals whom we cannot accommodate, "Outlaw their actions and recreations." It's simple for government institutions such as the LAPD to do this, But by doing this we are not finding solutions to the problem, we are only pointing fingers at who should take the blame. It is the responsibility of everyone to unite and make an effort to create organizations that will closely work with parents, kids, and educators. These programs should be sponsored by the government but run by community leaders, leaders who will reflect our community, and who will be able to understand the needs of our community. Miseducation South Central is unfortunate to have some of the poorest schools in the nation, schools that have been underfunded and misguided by the state, county, and city. These schools are also among the most populated schools in the nation with a rate of about 35 kids per classroom. The attention given by teachers to students is just not enough. The appearance of school surrounding territories at times seem worse than those that surround our jails; walls are destroyed by nearby gangs with graffiti, some schools lay in the intersections of very busy traffic, such is the case of 28th Street Elementary School located at the intersections of San Pedro and 28th street or Wadsworth Elementary School located just beside Martin Luther King Boulevard, where traffic is heavy during morning rush hours. This is territory where we should feel comfortable that we are going away and leaving our kids in a safe environment. Staff at many times is not capable to teach as they should or just not sufficient. I can recall going to school in the 8 grade and having as many as 5 different teachers for a math class and as a result ending up with little or no knowledge about the subject. The lack of good education and poor funding for our schools makes our community one of the poorest as far as test scores and college admissions go. Schools which are supposed to be the bridge to a successful life for our future leaders, become in this community a barrier that Mexican and the rest of Latino kids must face. Problems have yet worsed with propositions such as 187 and 209. Proposition 187 in 1994 sought to eliminate education for kids of undocumented parents. It was passed by the voters of California and although it was not implemented it caused an invisible damage among our kids. Many of them felt unwanted in this country, a country that many were born in, but just because of their color or their decendency they feel alienated. So was the tension in our relationships among citizens, especially between Anglos and our community, since they are the majority of voters and were the responsible for the major force allowing the proposition's passage. The most recent battle among educators, school administrators, the city, parents and politicians in general is the question regarding bilingual education. The final decision is on how do we want our kids to learn, either have them learn in their native language or have them adjust to the English language as they can, so called immersion or the more common name sink or swim theory. It specifically affects my community since my community is a greatly Spanish-speaking community in which the process of learning English can be very difficult if the right tools for learning are not there. Bilingual education does work, but it has to be well administrated and funded. Although English-only instruction has some good points, it's disadvantages are greater, making bilingual education a better way of preparing students for life in today's multicultural society. The controversy over whether bilingual education is doing what it's supposed to be doing, which is to teach students English, has the whole nation devating whether to keep it or find a new way of instruction. The advantages that bilingual education has to offer are far more beneficiary to today's multicultural society, where the idea of the typical Anglo-American white person who will only speak English has been banished. Today's American society is made up of many different groups, all with different cultures, beliefs, customs, and of course all with different languages. It is here that English-only instruction cannot fit all, and it is here where the balance of advantages tilts more toward bilingual education as the more efficient way of instructing our students. English-only may have a few advantages, one of them might be that students are kept united with their classmates as opposed to separating them according to their language ability. Keeping students united is also beneficial since it helps bond students from different ethnic groups as one. It also exposes them to learn some American culture which will be beneficiary the student if he is from a foreign country. But these reasons are just not enough to make English-only instruction our option. Although English-only education may have some good points, bilingual education offers far more advantages. One of the advantages that bilingual education offers to students is that students feels less intimidated learning a language that is strange to them. As Jeffrey W. Kobrick tells us in "The Compelling Case for Bilingual Education," students are "humiliated for their language and values, forced to endure the teaching of a culture that is unrelated to the realities of their lives, it is no wonder that children withdraw mentally then physically from school." What bilingual education does, he says is that, it views such children as advantaged, rather than seeing their native language as a defect. My own little six-year old sister, who is currently enrolled in a bilingual class, feels a lot more confortable learning to read and write the language she learned at home, and at the same time slowly merging herself into a new language. "Language is oral" Kobrick continues, "It is speech before it is reading and writing." At the time a child enters school he is already speaking and understanding a language. He is ready to learn to read and write, but if a program that prematurely forces English is imposed upon him it can guarantee that the student will eventually become illiterate in English. Other advantages include a students development of self-esteem, pride and confidence. Self-esteem is boosted when a student in bilingual education is taught in his own language, making him proud of his language and confident that he has the ability to complete his classroom . As Angelo Gonzales in "Bilingual Education: The Key to Basic Skills" pointed out, "The New York City Board of Education Report on Bilingual Pupil Services," found that at all grade levels," the attendance rates of students in the program, ranging from 86 to 94 percent, were higher to those of the general population" and concurrently " higher rates were found among students in high school bilingual programs." Which can only mean that that students enrolled in bilingual programs are eager to learn. Gonzales cites another report favoring that a student maintain his language, done by Kenji Hakuta, a linguist at Yale University, saying that " children who were the most bilingual, that is, who developed English without the loss of Spanish were brighter in both verbal and non-verbal tests." One of the most important (if not the most)reasons for keeping bilingual education is that the society is changing and becoming more diverse than ever. With people from all over the world speaking all types of languages, it is necessary to try and meet all of their needs, having students educated in their own language will help their own people benefit from their abitity to communicate. " Neighborhoods like those in the San Fernando Valley, whose residents were largely white and English speaking 10 to 20 years ago, today have a Hispanic population of at least 90 percent," says Richard Bernstain in "Bilingual Education: A War of Words." We are all immigrants who come here in search of new opportunities. We do not know the language and have a tough time trying to adapt to the American society. We are all unique and "rather than see the United States as a melting pot, we like to think of it as a salad bowl with equal recognition of everyone" and "bilingual education is a part of that" according to Suzanne Ramos, a lawyer for the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, quoted in Bernstein's article. Bilingual education seems to be our best option for instructing our students to learn English. Although bilingual education is not perfect, it is certainly better than English-only instruction, Bilingual education programs for the most part are doing what they were designed to do, which is to teach students English while giving them the opportunity to develop skills in their own native language. If there are reasons why it is failing in some cases, it is that staff are not prepared and capacitated to teach in another language or because not enough funds are spent on staff and textbooks. I have personally talked to some European students in which their experience back in Europe was that they are taught 3 or more languages. This country is categorized as being one of ,if not the most powerful nation in the world then I don't see why we can't be willing to accomplish that. The decision whether we will keep bilingual education or search for new ways on teaching our kids will be decided in less than a month here in California. It is called Proposition 227. The decision is hard for many to make, even my community is divided on whether they want their kids to spend time in bilingual classes or have them transfer to classrooms where English is the only language spoken. The reason is that parents think that the results given by the program are poor and that their kids would be better off being exposed to English only. There needs to be put more attention on to how the program is administrated if we want it to work. Next months' elections will be crucial since anything that California does will reflect upon the whole nation for further trends. As we saw with the passage of Proposition 187, the anti- immigrant movement was spread troughout other parts of the country. There are immigrants from many nationalities, and with many cultures and customs. A part of their culture and identity is their language. My community is not willing to lose their Spanish. They are not willing to melt in the melting pot yet. We would rather see ourselves, as Ramos says, "a salad bowl," all together but with an individual identity. Every culture is different, and keeping our language will help us bond together and make us feel confortable. Plus, we Latinos are no longer a minority in this part of the state. More than ever our voices will be heard and it will be time to decide how we want our governmental institutions, such as education, to serve the needs of everyone. Education Funding Funding for our schools is also a major concern on our community. Being considered one of the poorest sectors of the country as far as funding goes, South Central Los Angeles schools lack maintenance. With structures that sometimes are older than any person alive in Los Angeles, these buildings are rather, than a second home, a concern to our kids. With jails and police stations that are being built, our schools are being left as a second alternative in the spending budget of our government. We need more schools being built, old schools repaired, and to make education a priority since this is our investment in our future leaders. There was an article written in the Los Angeles Times about a reporter who decided to visit the high school campuses in the South Central area. His findings were of no suprise to me, I attended one of the schools mentioned on the article. The author, Bill Boyarsky, describes how in the course of his tour of one of the high schools the bathrooms and drinking fountains were filty, there were burnt out lights, the walls were filled with graffiti and the tiles from the ceiling had fallen on the floor. As he walked towards a gym he, "could smell the bathrooms even before he entered the building." He mentioned a community organization that was working towards the betterment of these conditions. He wrote a second article a month later and said that a group of students were being organized by a "South Central-grass root organization, the Community Coalition for Subtance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, which has been working several years to reduce the number of liquor stores in the area, eliminate motels where prostitutes and drug dealers gather ,and, lately to improve schools." The organized group of students is called South Central Youth Empowered thru Action, it is as he said , "composed of African American and Latinos, working together in an area where there is often tension between the two groups." The problem of not having enough funds to even have a decent place to go get an education is the product of the miscarriage of our supervisors, city councils and mayor who are not putting attention to our needs as a community. I decided to visit the organization mentioned in the article. The organization is located on Vermont at 81st Street, in the heart of the community where there is no predominant group. It is a coalition that as described by its chairman, Dr. Harry Douglas, that, "provides people with the unique opportunity of South Los Angeles together to effectively implement social action programs and direct meaningful intervention activities to address a persistent community problem." I decided to interview Elmer Roldan who is a Youth Organizer for the South Central Youth Empowerment thru Action (SC-YEA). My first question was, "what do you think is the major problem our youth is facing today?" He answered, "Well I don't think there is specifically one problem. It is a series of problems facing our youth, but two that I think are of major concern are gangs and education." I proceeded, "Is government doing what they should be doing to help our youth?" he's answer, "Definitely not, they are not spending enough money in education." and followed, " I think that to help our kids get away from gangs we should have programs such as PTA, or organizations that should work for an improvement in relationships between parents teachers and the student, what we are doing to help them is to provide them with the opportunity to be heard." When asked, "What is your goal in organizing this protest towards the improvement for funds to our schools?" he answered, "it's going to be a difficult fight we know, but what we pretend to do is just get our fair share of the money that Proposition BB should provide us with." he continued, " for example a high school located in the Valley named Granada Hills is receiving about $5 million dollars,Van Nuys and Burmingham High School nearly $6 million, and a school located here called Jefferson High School will only receive about $2.3 million, we want to know how did they come up with these numbers and change them because we know that the real needs for those funds are here in South Central. Our goal is to be heard by the committee who is in charge of distributing the BB funds and to get the city major if it's necessary." Getting a fair share of money even if it's supplied by the government, is not easy, but fortunately we have at least one community coalition to work towards the equality of education. These kids working on this organization should not have to be worrying if there is enough money to fix up their schools. They should be home studying or getting together to have a good time. Unfortunately, our government would rather have these kids worry about ceiling tiles hitting them in their heads instead of thinking of their next test. They should have the right like any kid to go to a safe environment and only worry about homework. Providing enough money to fix schools is what the government should be doing, not spending millions of dollars to built new prisons and cover the costs of prisoners. Our schools should be first on the priority list for the BB Proposition spending budget. Unfortunately, our schools are at the bottom of the list. These students are our future teachers, lawyers, doctors and politicians. There is no reason why should we have to suppress them at such a young age. The Future Expectations for a better future seems dim now. With new laws being implemented to hurt the future of my community, it is difficult to predict when will we start a new phase, a phase where we will be able to move towards educational, social and economic improvement, where we will no longer have to worry about the next law that will try to tie us down and not let us rise. What can be done to accomplish this may seem difficult but if we continue to promote unity, we can definitely expect a better future. What we need to do is first get our people to start making their voices heard. But much of the problem is that our people cannot vote. We are in the hands of those that make, promote and vote on laws. Proposition 187 made an awakening call to my community to rise up and register to vote, but more needs to be done to get people to vote. We have to stop the legislators that are making life almost impossible for the community. Although like Molly Ivyns said, "Californians look foolish blaming immigrants," the creators of the propositions made it seem all great, with a spending cut for illegal immigrants but the reality was that it was, "one of those simple solutions to a complex problem guaranteed to make everything worse." The fact is that immigrants created this country, and that they provide us with economic growth. Government holds a geat part of money from undocumented immigrants, since they cannot claim their witheld taxes from IRS and receive public assistance plus take advantage of many opportunities given to residents or citizens. The solution to ignorance is to educate our people. To make them aware of the problems targeting us. To our kids, make them aware of their true identity and heritage, so they can be proud of who they are. To not limit them, to have them in our priority lists for spending government money. To make the right decisions when it comes to their education. Knowledge and perseverance towards a common goal are the tools that we will need in our long fight for equality, equality that will change the Mexican community into a great community. In this project I tried to focus in our only hope which is our youth. Our youth who will be the ultimate inheritors of the actions we take today. They will either become great leaders in a society which will make a place to accommodate them, or a society that will close its doors which will keep them in oppression and turn them into criminals and prisoners. But until we are certain that we will have a so-called color blind society in which we will be able to get along with all of our different ethic groups, our chances of providing a better future for our kids seem limited. Challenged Dreams Throughout the city of Los Angeles, there are a variety of communities that we are not familiar with. We know nothing about the people, places and day-to-day living. Because the city is so incredibly enormous, it would take a lifetime to visit all small communities. Knowing this, I have taken it upon myself give you a tour of one of these communities. I have chosen to take a closer look at the immigrant community living in the Pico-Union area. I have chosen to analyze the area south of 8th Street, east of Normandie Avenue, north of Washington Boulevard and west of Union Avenue. Through this paper, I hope to make people aware that many of these places experience so much difficulty in order to survive. I will give you a closer look at the people, places, and problems facing this community. I will be focusing on the people that live in this community in addition to the changes it has undergone throughout the years. This community has survived many crises including civil wars, earthquakes, riots and severe anti-immigrant sentiment. With the help of several non-profit organizations which were established at the beginning of the 1980's (during most civil wars in Central America), this community is still standing and growing. There has been an incredible amount of determination on behalf of most immigrants to merge into the mainstream dominant culture. This of course is not because of people choosing to accept a culture different from their own but because it has been necessary to be accepted. Many of these people have to deal with many crises. Not only the war in their countries but the fact of having to work for low salaries and live in small but very expensive housing. This is the result of not having adequate working permits to allow them to find better jobs. People have to generally work well over fifty hours a week to make ends meet. Even working excessive hours, the working conditions are not good. The employers take advantage of their undocumented status by threatening to contact the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) if they fail to abide by their guidelines . Like most immigrants, there has been a lot of struggle to "fit in" and be accepted by the dominant culture. Lack of stability and immigration status has made it harder for many immigrants to become an active in the political game. We all have to struggle at some point in our life. In this country, immigrants have to struggle twice as hard to be able to "get around". Newly arrived immigrants had to pay an outrageous amount of money to be brought into the United States. As Jose Gonzalez, stated, "I had to pay $1500.00 to be brought to Los Angeles. I spent almost one month in Tijuana, Mexico waiting for the right moment to cross the border. I had a limited amount of money and had to sleep in a small, dark room which housed other undocumented people attempting to cross the border". Mr. Gonzalez has been here for three difficult years. He does not have a steady job. He works as a gardener, a cook, and recently as a sewing machine operator. He is aware that there aren't many options for his to consider. He is undocumented and therefore can't afford to be picky as to the kind of job he performs. His goal is to be able to have enough money to pay the rent, buy groceries and mail some money to his family in Mexico. He dreams of someday being able to bring his family here. He misses playing with his children but believes its worth being here in the states because his family will have food on their table. Jose Gonzalez is a good example of the ways in which immigrants struggle to make ends meet. He like many live in constant fear of being detained and forced to go back to Mexico. Throughout the neighborhood, you see many people who are unemployed. Many trying to make a living by selling fruit, clothes and even drugs. It is no secret that the Pico-Union area is known for the problem of drug pushing. The residents and the police are aware of this. It is extremely difficult for many people to find jobs to support themselves and families. Most immigrants coming into the United States have no money and at times have no family members to help them out. Maria Lopez, a long-time "illegal" resident of Los Angeles, has been recently laid-off from her job. She has two children both born in Los Angeles, ages 6 and 10. She lives with a distant relative and her children. Unfortunately she has no support from the father of her children. Ms. Lopez, lives on Pico Boulevard in an old apartment building. Her apartment is nicely decorated with the limited furniture she owns. Most of it she says was given to her by friends and neighbors. All around her apartment you see photographs of her family in Mexico. She states that she misses her parents and dreams of the day when she can take her children back home to meet their grandmother for the first time. In addition to not having a green card, even if she decided to risk leaving to Mexico, the lack of money prevents her from actually taking that initiative. The purchase of a travel ticket would set her back on her monthly rent for her apartment. Her monthly rent is $400.00 per month for a single apartment. She only makes minimum wage. Maria like many struggling immigrants, is often melancholy and wants to see her family back home; however, she is aware of the opportunities she has by remaining in the United States. She states that if she were to return to Mexico with her children, it would be much more difficult for them to received adequate education. She wants the best for her children, and at least for now, their current living situation is the best she can afford. Currently, she is looking for a job is certain will find one sooner or later. Maria states that she has often been in the same situation. "I've always managed to find a job, it just that sometimes that pay is not very good so I continue to search for the best offer". Throughout this community I have noticed that most people are facing the same problems. It always involves immigration status and the struggle people go through in order to obtain "status." For many, the importance of status is often overlooked. I know that for a long time, I have taken it for granted. I came to the United States as an "undocumented immigrant" with my mother. My father had sent for us after working for many years to save enough money to pay of the smugglers. I am lucky to say that I don't recall the pain and suffering people go through because I was only two years old. My mother on the other hand dreads remembering what she had to go through to come to this country. We entered the United States on September of 1977. The first 8 years, we were in an undocumented status. My parents lived in constant fear of being detained on the street and being forced to return to Mexico. I vaguely remember one occasion in which my father requested that my mother not leave the apartment because there were too many raids by immigration officials in downtown Los Angeles. He said that it would be more difficult for him to take care of two girls if my mom were to be detained. He risked detention and would go to work to be able to support our family. During the Reagan era, we legalized our status and obtained a green card. I stopped living afraid that my parents or I would be forced to return to Mexico. For the remaining time I forgot the struggles my family went through. I forgot what it was like to be undocumented. This was until I realized that there are others continuing to struggle to obtain legal status in the United States. During the summer of 1992, I became acquainted with an organization who serves the unrepresented area of Pico-Union and other neighboring areas. El Rescate was born in 1981. It opened its doors to help the Central American immigrants arriving to Los Angeles, fleeing the civil wars that their countries were suffering from. Most of the immigrants who arrived during this time were from El Salvador and Guatemala. Many of these families began to establish their homes in the Pico-Union area which continues to house these same people and their families. El Rescate's objective is to help people to become familiar with the ever so complicated immigration. The history of immigration to the United States and the history and the history of American racism hatred and bigotry are deeply interwoven. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which amends section on the Immigration and Nationality Act, is merely the latest in a long line of immigration laws which have had a racial subtext. It is not a coincidence that nearly all immigration laws have been enacted at times of a high degree of anti-communism, racism or nativism. Furthermore, the anti-immigrant enactments, which have coincided with national economic depressions, serve as a recourse that politicians can use to deflect blame. Immigration regulations have not been so rigid. Current laws are chipping away at the "American Dream" of many immigrants. Families are being split apart. Most facing exclusion or deportation have difficult choices to make. The choice is clear cut but unfair. People have to go back to their native country alone or take their families with them. Regardless of the work done by the immigrants, they have to be subjected to discrimination. The system of disempowering and marginalizing the nonwhite immigrant continues to this day. Proposition 187, known originally as the "Save Our State" (SOS) initiative, was a voter movement to deny undocumented immigrants the public benefits they formerly were legally entitled. Passed by a majority of the California electorate, Proposition 187 served as a public opinion gauge for politicians in Washington. Consequently, in an election year, the 104th Congress opportunistically seized the issue and overwhelmingly passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA) , an act which amended various sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Eventually, President Bill Clinton, signed IIRAIRA into law on September 30, 1996. In my opinion, IIRAIRA is merely the latest attempt to prevent people from making the " American Dream" a reality. Though politicians claim the INA was amended in order to regulate immigration and to control population growth, the disproportionate impact on Latinos is consistent with the American tradition of keeping the United States white, both racially, economically, politically, and culturally. Nevertheless, the supporters of IIRAIRA allege that the amendments to the INA were race-neutral and color blind. On the surface, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996 appears merely to be the United States' basic immigration statute. Though confusing at times, it defines and explains the steps needed to become a resident, qualify for asylum, or become a naturalized citizen. Due to this, an individual would have to read nearly 500 pages of text decipher the sections that have been amended by IIRAIRA. Furthermore, those outside the United States who seek to obtain legal residency through the legal manner, often times witness the harsh realities of the new immigration act. Any American consulate officer throughout the world who believes the undocumented applicant will become "public charge" has the authority to deny the applicant's request for lawful permanent residency. The new amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act allows INS to count the illegal time spent in the United States beginning April 1, 1997. Any undocumented immigrant remaining in the U.S. illegally after September 30, 1997 (180 days after the law went into effect), will be unable to adjust to legal status for 3 years. Those individuals who remain illegally in the U.S. after March 30, 1998 (1 year after the new INA went into effect) will not be able to apply for residency for 10 years. Moreover, any immigrant who re-enters the United States before their penalty expires may be barred from obtaining legal residency for life. There are exceptions made to undocumented minors under 18 years of age, battered women and children, asylum applicants, and beneficiaries of family unity petitions. The humane treatment, however, is not automatic, nor guaranteed. The child's immunity ends at the age of 18, at which moment the illegal time will begin to count against him or her. On the other hand, battered women have to prove and document the spousal abuse to the INS and the decision to grant the exemption is completely subjective and discretionary. The effect of the "Three-to-Ten Year Penalty" for families is horrendous and damaging. The penalty phase of INA leaves immigrant families with only two choices-to leave or remain. In addition, many advocates of IIRAIRA, ignore the fact that many immigrant families consist of diverse members. Like Maria Lopez, the Mexican immigrant with two U.S. citizen children, many live with other families or friends. They all live together and are economically co-dependent. When IIRAIRA was signed into law, Maria knew she had a very difficult choice to make. She decided to remain in the United States in order to allow her children to enjoy the benefits that come with citizenship. She states that she is aware that she is "breaking the law" but it would not be fair for her children to grow up in Mexico with limited access to education. The last thing on Maria's mind, was to separate herself from her children. She states, "they are my inspiration and my hope for a better future." Maria hopes that her children go on to college and earn their degrees; however, she is aware that in order to so this, she will be confronted with a series of obstacles. By living in the United States past the one year deadline, Maria must remain invisible from the INS for at least ten years. Once this time has elapsed, she may have the opportunity to invoke the affirmative defense known as "cancellation of removal." Cancellation of removal replaces what was formerly known as suspension of deportation. If Maria is to qualify for such remedy, she will have to prove three factors. First, she must prove that she has been physically present in the United States for 10 consecutive years prior to the commencement of the removal proceedings. Second, Maria would have to prove that she is a person who has exhibited "good moral character" during such period. Finally, she must prove the most difficult factor for many people. She must establish that her removal would result in "exceptional and extremely unusual hardship" to her children who are citizens. Luckily for Maria, when the time comes, she will have most of the factors covered. The other option available to Maria is to wait for her children to turn 21 years of age. At that time, as citizens, they can file a family petition for their mother. Considering that the children are 6 and 10 years old, she Maria would have to wait eleven years before they can even file the first application. Unfortunately, at this time, she has no immediate remedy for her case. Throughout the immigrant community living in Pico-Union, you find people who are not afraid to work hard in order to have their families survive. Many immigrants face the possibility of deportation. This is hard for anyone who has been in the United States for many years, in addition to having relatives residing in the United States and even U.S. citizen children. It seems to me as though immigration laws are changing for the worst. Even legal immigration is becoming more difficult due the tougher requirements that are being imposed. New legislation is basically punishing the poor for not having enough money. It is unfair and unjust that people have to prove themselves as wealthy in order to be with their families. Like Maria, there are many immigrants who have to live in a society full of prejudice and discrimination. It is up to people who are conscious and aware of the struggle immigrant go through to change the way in which immigrant are viewed. We, the immigrants of this country, are not here to take, we share and have contributed to the growth of this country. I feel it is only fair that we are able to live and share the "American Dream" with our own families. As long as families continue to pursue the dream, I think immigrants continue to fight for the equality others enjoy. Even though immigration laws change to prevent both "illegal" and "legal" immigration, immigrants will continue to come to the country which is known for helping people seeking refuge. REFERENCES Glossary Alien:A person not a citizen or national of te United States. Amnesty:A temporary program pardoning illegal immigrants (also known as legalized aliens) for unlawful entry, which lets them remain in the United States. Asylee:A person in the United States who has been granted asylum (see below). Asylum:Permission to remain in the United States granted to aliens who claim their safety is threatened in their country because of the religious or political beliefs. Green Card:The card (once green, now actually pink and white) that designates an immigrant to the United States as a permanent resident. Immigrant:A perron who comes into a country to live there. Naturalization:The process by which an immigrant become a citizen. Permanent resident alien:A person legally entitled to live and work in the United States, a status usually achieved after an immigrant has lived in this country for three to five years.