:: Research Paper ::
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The following is a research paper that I wrote for my Society and Politics class. It is based off of the primary research which are the interviews that we had done ourselves. I wriote about what I figured to be true, supported by the evidence my partner and I gathered.
Chapter 1
The following are the profiles of all of the people involved in our audio documentary, all of whom we interview ourselves. I found it important to give insight about these people’s personalities and backgrounds because people’s opinions are shaped around their environment, upbringing, family, and personal experiences. Therefore, the profiles of the people involved in our own research are the following:
YETZENIA:
I decided what would be better than to begin this by describing myself and what I have to contribute to this issue. My name, obviously, is Yetzenia, and I am 17 years old as Junior at Mountain View High School. I currently live in Mountain View with both my parents, a cousin from Mexico who came to pursue a better education, and an uncle. There have always been a lot of people in my household, so now with both my brother and my sister gone, my home feels pretty empty. My siblings and I come from immigrant parents who came here from Mexico in their teens. Thus, we are the first generation of our family that has been born and raised in this country. I’ve seen what it takes to immigrate here, through the experiences of my cousins, aunts, and uncles coming to this country, as well as all of the struggles that there are with becoming a citizen, getting a job, and facing discrimination. I always argue with my peers over the imposing laws against immigration because I’ve seen how it essentially is first hand. But the point is that although my parents are immigrants, I was born on American soil, and I have every right to be here and give birth to yet another generation that will flourish in this country. I have the right to become educated to have the ability to provide for my family as my parents had for me. I have the right to do the same, if not better, than any of my peers who believe the have more of a right to be here because of their European decent. Thankfully, these rights are the gift that my parents had given me the second I was born at Stanford, and I will continue to pass this gift along, so long as my blood runs through the veins of my children and their children.
ERIK:
Erik is my older brother who lives down in Southern California. I remember the day he left for college. My sister and I stood in the driveway, crying so hard, not knowing what it was going to be like once he was gone. I loved my big brother, although I look back and realize that I hardly even knew him. While I was too busy playing with my dolls, he was too busy with school, working, football, and friends. But I still loved him, and I still didn’t want him to leave our family. He hugged me very tight in the last few moments before he left, and assured me that it was going to be ok; that he would be coming home for Christmas and for his breaks from school. And I thought, “Christmas?! That’s so long from now,” and continued to cry into his chest even harder. Then, it was time for him to go and I ran inside to my room. I wasn’t even thinking about how I would get his room now that he was gone. I just wanted our family to stay together. I didn’t realize what he was actually doing for himself, our family, and for me. It wasn’t until I was 14 years old getting ready for his graduation from the University of Southern California did I acknowledge what was taking place. No one else in my family had ever gone to college, let alone graduate from such a prestigious, elite school. What my brother had done at that moment when he received his diploma was set an example for me and my sister. The bar of receiving a higher education had been set and it’s now up to my sister and me to match it.
LISA:
Lisa is currently 17 years old and lives in Mountain View , California . Right now, she is finally in her last semester of high school, a period of time that has been long awaited. We both attend the same school and have casually known each other on and off for the past couple of years. Lisa is such a fun, loving, and vibrant person which makes me enjoy her presence and company very much. However, it wasn’t until this year did we really start becoming friends and finding out that we have more and more things in common. Aside from boyfriends and weekends, our conversations become so in depth at times. She herself is a child born of immigrant parents, and has seen, just as I, how hard it can be, and knows the expectations put upon the first generation. And because of this knowledge, do we appreciate the things that most teens our age completely take for granted: money given to us or spent on us; just money in general. We know that money doesn’t come easy and therefore really should not be taken for grated, because there is never a guarantee that it’ll always be there. One time, she and I went out to the Los Altos Hills, up Moody Rd. , and parked along side of the road on some Wednesday afternoon that we got out early from school. Our breaths were completely taken away, as usual, by the scenery of the Peninsula to one side, and God’s given nature to the other. We stood there leaned up against my car on a hill, just pondering about the numerous things in our lives. “You see all of that out there,” Lisa said, referring to the view of part of the Bay Area,” look at how dirty it all looks. All of that costs money out there. People live and die for that shit. But you see this over here? This is Free. God gave this to us. This is ours and you don’t have to have money to enjoy this, and it’s beautiful as it is.”
ROBERT:
Robert is a 40-something teacher for special-ed children that is currently attending San Jose State University and is about to receive his masters. He is also Latino, and although his father had gone to school and received and education, unlike the rest of the people we had interviewed, he still had an insight as to the challenges there were being Latino, and trying to succeed in school. One thing that he had emphasized throughout our conversation was the fact that success, now a days, does not stop at a high school level. That if you want to be anything in like, the continuance of an education is essential. Thus, it does not end a graduating high school; neither does it stop at getting accepted into a college. What matters is whether or not you stick it through for the additional however many years and get a degree in something, anything for that matter, simply so that you show you were determined and that you studied something, therefore knowing it better than the average person. That is what he believes will bring success.
Chapter 2
It is obvious that families are the main outlet for support among young people who are not yet on their own. If they don’t have people pushing them when they feel down, giving them words of encouragement when that individual needs it, they are almost guaranteed a failure. Your family is supposed to be there for you to back you up 100%, and if they can not be there for you, it’s as if you are fighting against the rest of the world, and in terms of an education, there is no justifiable excuse not to support your friends, siblings, and particularly your own children.
In Lisa’s case, she says that she’s “acknowledged and [seen] the struggles they [her parents have] done, and how supportive they are.” For Lisa, she wants nothing but to make both her mother and father proud, as does just about every other child does. But when it comes to a diploma, unfortunately, there are far too many that fall short. I personally had an aunt who made it all the way to her senior year in high school, and did not obtain all of the required credits. “It feels good to be the first one in my family to graduate ‘cause my brother didn’t make it, he dropped out… [all my dad’s] hopes for my brother was to graduate, and he didn’t do it so like now the focus is one me, but I really want to do it.” Lisa had told me how devastated her father was because he brother did not make it to his graduation. Unfortunately, he had fallen into one the many pit holes that so many Latino men find themselves in, ranging from gang violence, substance abuse, incarceration, unemployment, to unexpected children. Regardless of her brother’s situation, Lisa chooses to make herself different. “I want to make [my dad] proud.”
In addition to the significance of a family’s support on a student aspiring to do better for themselves, my brother’s story can be looked at as an example of the importance behind a family’s support. At first, my brother wasn’t really even trying to go to college. His “aspirations were actually to go into the armed forces, specifically the air force… and college came to [him] as a push from counselors, parents,… at the very end.” After all, he figured that “the worst thing [a college] could say was ‘No.’” So essentially, it was due to the push and support that my parents gave him did he find a college for himself. In our family, education had been stressed so much in our upbringing, but it wasn’t until my brother worked for it did my parents realize that what they’ve always wanted was actually with in their grasp. “I was going to be the first in my family to ever graduate from a top-rank university, in essence, putting my name, putting my mark on this country… [They kept] me with as much as an open mind and [supported] me [with] everything, emotionally, financially; always just being there kind of as a coach, being my biggest critique as well, and pushing me, telling me I can do better, not to accept just what was given to me.” Luckily, my brother had my parents to encourage him the way they did. During my brother’s senior year, he was semi-enrolled in the ROTC, but his files got “mixed up” because of his moving to southern California for school. This is when soldiers began to get shipped off to the Middle East. If it wasn’t for college interfering with his budding army career, there is a good chance he could have been one of them.
Chapter 3
There are so many struggles that Latino’s go through that they dream to obtain. The truth is, there are plenty of Latinos that do graduate high school; not nearly the amount that should but there are some. When Erik was at his graduation, he had said that there was a good 50% of Latino’s did graduate, but of them there was only about 25 that he actually saw go on to go to top-ranked schools. As Robert had said, “too much emphasis is put on gong to college, 85% of dropouts happen their freshman year in college, normally second semester.” So because of this, explains how my brother witnessed this fact carry onto his high school gradation, of which I saw a far less representation of the “20% Latino demographic” that most colleges are said to have.
Unfortunately, there are many who don’t even make it to the processes of applying to colleges and getting accepted. Robert had made a point to my partner and I about the way school is designed and that makes it harder for Latinos. “School is designed [for] socialization more than anything else…” he explained, “how to behave, how to read and write, how tot conduct yourself... They cover it up with standards… and a lot of Latinos especially younger ones we like to be a little more independent, were a little bit louder, were a little bit more outspoken, and it doesn’t always fir into that traditional mode. Consequently, if you don’t fit into that traditional mode, you’re not really nurtured to go to school.”
Additionally, the way Latino culture tends to be, it doesn’t typically raise the children to have education as a priority. Many families, as Robert and Lisa also had pointed out, let their children work instead of focus on schools, particularly males. Many families that are struggling financially worry about the present and how much money is in the household and whether or not they will be able to pay there bills. “Most people… they just want the money right now,” as Lisa put it. This is probably the most common question young Latino’s ask themselves: money right now, or an education?
In my brother’s situation, our family did nothing but stress that school was always first before anything. For him, the biggest hindrance he had to face was the fact that he had no information. It was all up to him to find out what the SAT’s, scholarships, FAFSA, and all the other tests and formed that are required for college admissions on top of maintaining the workload for school and a job. Plus, it wasn’t just obtaining that information, but knowing what to do with it. And also, there was the issue of cost. “A lot of people think because something costs that much, I wont be able to afford it, therefore I wont try, and I think that’s the biggest hindrance because people cut themselves short of their opportunities… its like anything. I don’t think that it’s to Latinos or anybody. I think it’s underestimating yourself and not applying yourself.” In agreement with my brother, what it really comes down to is the underestimation that people have of themselves. If an individual really worked hard and knew what to do to achieve there dreams, they will always without a doubt, find a way to achieve it. But success truly begins with yourself and your own aspirations.
Chapter 4
The people afore mentioned in this essay were examples of people that knew what they wanted and worked to obtain it. Lisa thought that she wasn’t going to make it to graduate from Mountain View High School. My brother was about to go into the military, and although he still could have received and education, it still wouldn’t have been the same experience for my family to see his apply himself fully to his education and pull through it. And as for myself, there was a period of time in my life where there was a strong doubt as to my success in this world because of poor decisions I had made early on in my life.
Robert is still working to receive his Masters. I believe that he is supposed to graduate this year from SJSU. Although I hadn’t gotten the chance to really get to know him very well, I wish him and his family the best of luck.
Now after all the years, Lisa is finally going to graduate from our high school in June of 2007. She will be the first in her family to graduate at all in this country, and she fortunately has a loving family that is extremely proud of what she is doing for herself and their family. After high school, her plans are to become a massage therapist and attend the National Holistic Institute to specialize in massage therapy. “I want to help people,” she says.
My brother still continues to live down in Orange County. He found himself working in the loan industry as a loan officer, but is thinking about choosing a different branch of work, and thankfully, has the education in his background to do so. He currently has a loving girlfriend of one year, who our family loves and enjoys. However things end up in his life, I know that my brother will not stop trying until he gets what he wants. I wish my brother the best of any luck in the world, and may he find happiness in what he does, and hold onto the precious love that he shares.
As for me, I’m still a junior, so there’s another year before I graduate, but I know I am going to graduate. I am on track, hopefully enough, to attend a state school. This year, I came to the conclusion that I want to work as a nurse, specifically in pediatrics because of my love for children. I am working on getting into San Jose State for the graduate nursing program they just opened. I am really excited to get my life going and I just can not wait for the day where I am settled enough to have children of my own, and watch them grow up to be beautiful, smart, loving people.
So through all the support, motivation, and struggles, there are many people who do everything within their power to have a better life for themselves. This is nothing but a choice, a decision that only comes with maturity and a pulsing want for a higher goal, because us, as Latino’s, have a lot of aspects of society fighting against us. We need to have the ganas to keep going.