You Are My Roots

YOU ARE MY ROOTS

LETTERS ON RESISTANCE, RESILIENCE AND REIMAGINATION

Written by the 2015-2016 9th grade

Ethnic Studies students at Roosevelt High School

This book was written by 2015-2016 9th grade classes of Ethnic Studies at Roosevelt High School and printed in May 2017.

The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826LA. We support student publishing and are thrilled you picked up this book.

Las opiniones expresadas en este libro son las de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente las de 826LA. Apoyamos la publicación de jóvenes autores y estamos felices que haya recogido este libro.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

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MAR VISTA 12515 Venice Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90066

EDITORS:: ANGELICA BUTIU CORONADO AND SARA BARDALES

COVER ARTWORK BY: OMAR G. RAMIREZ

BOOK DESIGNED BY: RACHEL MENDELSOHN

BOOK PRINTED BY: BOOKMOBILE

This project was made possible in part by support from the Vera R. Campbell Foundation

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Rose That Grew From Concrete — 9

What Is Ethnic Studies? — 10

Foreward — 12

LETTERS TO SELF, 16

I Dream of a Life With No Stress, Steve G. —17

M.F. — 20

The Past is ALready Written, But Our Future Is Not, Luis C. — 23

You’re Halfway There, Briana R. — 30

What You Will Know, Yunuhen P. — 33

Atzi O. — 36

Remembering the Days, Jose H. — 36

A Trip Down Memory Lane, Carol M. — 39

Luz G. — 41

The Key to a Better Place, Michelle — 42

A Life Worth Remembering, Stephanie G. — 44

Shedding My Skin, C.A.S. — 46

Code 1: Acknowledge, Matthew H. — 49

Living a Journey, S.R. — 52

Keep Working Ari, Do It Better For You, Ariadna C. —56

Where Did We Go Wrong?, Brianne O. —58

Imagining a Better Place, Carolos A.Z. — 60

The Path to a Better Life, Fernando R. — 62

Gabriela L. — 64

Impending Future, Marisol G. — 67

Responsibility of Perfection: Lowkey Nerd, Richard C. — 69

A Child’s Changing Perspective on Life, Mariah S. —71

Strong, Independent, Dependent Women, Ashley A. — 75

Hard Working Men, Antonio D. — 77

I’m Not Scared Anymore, Cassandra G. — 78

Esmerelda L. — 81

Working On It, Gabby P. — 84

The One That Could, Gerardo V. — 87

Let Them Remember Me, Leslie H. — 88

Determined, Maira V. — 91

You’ve Learned a Lot From Here, Isaias A. — 94

Abraham A. — 95

Natalie L. — 96

From Darkness to Light, Grecia F. — 99

LETTERS

TO IMPORTANT PEOPLE , 102

Thank You For Not Raising Me Like a Spoiled Brat, Oscar V. — 103

Ashley V. — 106

Wherever I Go, Jose A. — 108

Jaquelin R. — 110

Leslie M.O. — 112

Jasmine G. —114

Soldier, Amy M. — 116

My Life Away From You, Jaylene A. — 118

Randy H. — 119

Together We Stand, Together We Will Fall, Jovany M. — 120

The World and I, Victor H. — 124

Gisselle D. —126

My Dearest Mother, Maribel — 128

Kitty D. — 130

Opportunities, Naive O. — 136

Blessing to Have an Older Sister, Tiffany H. — 137

As Long As You Have Me, Jocelyn R. — 139

Let’s End Strong, Leslie G. — 141

Thanks to My Mother, Gerson G. — 143

I Wish I Could Show You a Photo Album Growing Up, Cristal M. — 145

Brenda B. — 146

Paola G.V. — 148

Jennifer S. — 151

LETTERS

TO FUTURE ETHNIC

STUDIES

TEACHERS , 152

Thous Shalt Educate Thy Homie as Thyself, Liz R. 153

The Eyes Shut in History, Jacqueline R. — 157

Conscious of the Horrors, Jennifer M. — 160

Fighting for my Silver Lining!, Klarissa M. — 163

Black People is Important Too, Leana M. — 168

Aurora F. — 171

Evelyn A. — 173

Unite With People to Achieve What You Want, Jocelyn M. — 175

Pedro D. — 177

The Importance of Importance, Raylene M. — 180

We Are Not The Minority, Ruben E. — 183

How to be an Ethnic Studies Teacher, Andrew G. — 185

LETTERS

TO PUBLIC FIGURES FROM THE PAST AND PRESENT, 188

Paoloa L. — 192

The Way Home, Sabrina M. — 190

A Light Towards Hope the Enlightenment of Malcolm X., Jesus L. — 194

Big Shoes to Fill: The Legacy of a Legend, Aldo P. — 197

El Capitàn Y Mi Idolo, Valentin S. — 200

Equal Pay, Equal Pay, Julia R. — 202

Turning a Negative into a Positive, Diego D. — 206

Love and Pain of Jimi Hendrix, Fabian M. — 207

Diana T. — 209

Letter to Tupac Shakur, Hillary C. — 211

ABOUT 826LA, 213

THE ROSE THAT GREW FROM CONCRETE

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?

Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.

Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.

Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.

-Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew From Concrete

DEAR READER,

You currently hold the beautiful byproduct of what we, as educators, can best describe as the blooming, bursting brilliance of our 9th grade Ethnic Studies students. Every year, we commit to cultivating a curriculum and thus, a space for our students to engage in content and practices not found in traditional classrooms. Inspired by the words and work of Tupac Shakur, Jeff Duncan-Andrade, and Paulo Freire to name a few, we carefully create a space where students explore history with an inquisitive attitude and critical lens. With the purpose of healing, humanization, and liberation, students share fears, frustrations, daydreams and desires, in a space free from judgement. In essence, our hope is to create opportunities for our students to reflect on their lived experiences as opportunities to engage in resistance, resilience and reimagination. As we grow and heal with our students, we reimagine the function and purpose of the classroom. More than anything, we want to ensure our classes are gently tended gardens full of roses in bloom-strengthening their roots, healing their damaged petals, and permanently transforming what may have once only been concrete. This process is only possible due to our students’ courageous commitment to heal through vulnerability as they share their hopes, daydreams, and their highs and lows. This collection of honestly reflective letters is a celebration of every rose in the process of making its way through the concrete. We hope that as you read these letters you too are inspired to plant your own garden.

WHAT IS ETHNIC STUDIES?

Teaching Ethnic Studies can very well be seen as a political gardening project, where the teacher is engaged in planting seeds of consciousness and very carefully tending to the soil working to assure that the classroom is a fertile place to cultivate critical and reflective minds. As Ethnic Studies teachers in this political gardening project, we hope the seeds bloom and continue to thrive given the constant social and institutional threats. Freire teaches us that humans are imperfect, unfinished, incomplete beings in a state of “becoming more fully human.” A rose with damaged petals, like a human with imperfections, seeks to flourish and grow towards the sun. As teachers, we are in constant reflection of our practice. We too engage in the sharing of our thoughts and feelings and work to develop an enriching Ethnic Studies curriculum that is nourishing to the roots of our students. Such a curriculum can support the germination of a critical consciousness and the development of their agency to transform themselves and the world around them. To create a classroom ecosystem that is interconnected and relationship-based, we realize that it cannot be based in isolated or non-communicative acts. Instead, we take a loving approach that speaks to the whole student, addressing their culture, history, lived experience, intellect, passion, and feelings.

Freire’s philosophy of knowing is centered around human practice and interaction with the world, not just from abstract theorizing. Knowing requires us to be reflective and active, this praxical approach requires us to know with our entire bodies, including both reason and feelings. We realize that to grow blooming roses, the classroom soil must be tenderized, and rich in a curriculum that speaks to young people’s source of knowledge, their entire bodies. Their bodies carry feelings and emotions that tell stories of trauma, resilience, hope, and dreams. Their bodies are also rooted to the lived experiences of their families and ancestors and tied to collective historical and communal stories of joy, oppression, and survival. We must see youth as conduits of knowledge that can channel their voice in dialogue with others to create a classroom filled with life and hope. We are working as political gardeners planting seeds of liberation and tending to a rose garden in a critically conscious way. We do this by applying a problem-posing pedagogy that is reflective, authentic, and transformational. The potential of such a space can provide youth with a vision on how to confront concrete barriers and social toxins. It can guide youth with the realization that they have the power to change the conditions of the world and inspire the will to pursue the reimagined world they hope to live in.

Our hope for our students is rooted in heart. It is a revolutionary love birthed from a hunger for justice and change, propelled by emancipatory dreams of an unshackled world and absent from suffering of the soul and void of savage oppression. It is a political hope that inspires action and a persistent critical reflection on our liberatory educational practice. We teach hope so that the hopeless can trust that they too can daydream beyond our classroom walls and rethink the landscape of L.A. transformed as a healing environment. We want to instill in our students that change is a collective action that begins with deep reflection of their minds and the exchange of words through voice and paper.

These letters are part of that collective action. We dedicate this book to youth, family, educators, revolutionaries, and to the community of Boyle Heights. These letters are seeds waiting to germinate towards the sun.

Roxana Dueñas and Jorge Lopez Ethnic Studies Teachers at Roosevelt High School

FOREWORD

Dear Gloria Anzaldúa,

NEPANTLA

I am standing still, holding the written words of Malcolm X, I close my eyes, inhale, and say to myself, “this will get me through another pointless day at school.” Hoping one more day of 12th grade does not end with another trip to the office, detention, or worse a call home. Public Enemy plays in my headphones, the train-like rhythms of the funky drummer march while the gravity of Chuck D’s words seep into my body.

I have stood at the crossroads in a state of crisis, an in-between space trying to merge and choose a direction. I desired a self-determined identity that claims I am from both here and there while also moving in a direction determined by my will.

Finding direction is not always easy or clear. Left only to the curricula imposed by poorly funded local educational agencies I would have never recognized the value in my story. The letters and words scribed on paper, the voices blaring from speakers, the images crafted on surfaces, and the smells thrust into the nostrils need to be named, nurtured, and known in the classroom. Otherwise, learning is buried under handouts, standardized tests, and outdated text books.

A WILD TONGUE

I live in the toxic environment normalized by the interlocking systems of oppression refusing to confess to its own complicity, clinging to the remaining threads of a quilt shaped by our ancestors. Breaking the silence leads to balance, liberation, and restoration. By reclaiming language, I reclaimed myself and my history, placing value where deficits have been placed. Voices in our languages disrupt the silence offering humanity a chance to reimagine mestizaje.

You, bell hooks, and Paolo Freire encourage us to look beyond obedience and conformity. The inquisitive child’s process of wonder and development is attacked, suppressed, and removed by the dominant educational institution upholding systems of oppression. Our race, class, gender, and language matter and we can take action.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

Ethnic Studies provides a lens to imagine where we have been, what our current state of being is, and determine for ourselves where we want to be.

This book is a collections of letters carefully culled to inspire. It is the communal effort to resist binary forces and address the historical traumas experienced in our communities to construct a process that leads to healing. We need to see our experiences in the classroom and on campus as intersecting, critical, restorative, and humanizing.

It is a challenge to be accepted outside of school too. Ethnic Studies needs to be a part of all school subjects and careers to make sure stories and voices aren’t excluded by scientists, mathematicians, b-girls, animators, waiters, city planners, bankers, soldiers, athletes, gardeners, ICE, educators, and chefs. I needed Ethnic Studies when I sat at my desk during the sixth grade listening to a teacher who viewed me and my classmates as a paycheck. Imagine what it would be like to be engaged by a culturally competent educator who utilizes the framework essential to Ethnic Studies in chemistry class. Imagine what it would be like to hear the discussions in an economics class lead by a Black feminist educator. Imagine classes activated by resistance, resilience, and love.

I can imagine my children heading to casting calls throughout L.A. where casting directors, producers, writers, clients, and crews speak, see, and feel from a place of critical hope and audacious love. They could unlock the prevalent systems of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism to transform an entire industry.

When our voices are confident our communities get stronger and can hold space for everyone, therefore transforming the human condition. The collaborative and participatory process of Ethnic Studies fosters children with the tools to traverse a toxic concrete landscape in any and all directions. The sounds, images, words, and letters held within a cassette, an accent, an undocumented status, a dinner table, a sexual identity, a black book, a digital message, a city map, and a posture filled with unbound sustainable love, all grow roots with hope.

With

Gratitude, Omar G. Ramirez, Artist

I DREAM OF A LIFE WITH NO STRESS

Dear Future Self,

LETTERS TO SELF

You were really quiet and you were learning how to take care of yourself. I want you to accomplish your goals, live the life you have always dreamed of: finish high school, finish college, and get a career. These are very important, you are the first in the family to make it there, and you know that you can have a better future. I’ve made it to the ninth grade, I’m only a few years away from reaching our goals. You can’t give up now even though things may have gotten a little more difficult but that shouldn’t stop you. Mom wants you to do your best because she wants you to live the life she couldn’t give you. She couldn’t give you more money, a nice looking home, or a complete family, and she wants you to have that. I give her such a hard time, but later in life you’ll make her proud and you won’t have to worry about her working really hard for little money.

Today I’m looking at the world from a different perspective, I see my happiness slowly fading away. Am I weak because dad wasn’t there to teach me how to be strong? Little brother didn’t have the opportunity to live, I feel so lonely. Momma is sick and struggles with money, how can I focus on my own life when hers is at risk? Lately I’ve been feeling unhappy and irritated for no particular reason. My mind tells me, “Keep your problems to yourself, keep quiet, don’t make anyone a part of your problems.” One of the reasons why I’m silent, is because I’m trapped in my mind. I’m defeating myself, these types of things don’t let me think correctly. I’ve thought of giving up on school, but I’ve learned that life is just going to get more difficult and we have to find ways to make life easier. Future self, be happy, be successful, be a role model to the younger kids who look up to you.

My mom inspires me to do well in school because she couldn’t finish school. She had to search for jobs that would pay enough to take care of me. She works twelve hour shifts and she still has to come home to cook and clean. When I would get bad grades she would always say, “Si no tienes buenos grados vas a terminar como yo.” I should get good grades in school, because if I don’t, I’m going to end up like her. I would sit down and think, think about how difficult it is to be a single mother with a child, with a job that pays little money. As a kid I always felt like I’m the only one who can change the way me and my mother are living. I see her come home late with a tired expression on her face and I tell myself, “She has taken care of me for so many years, and in a few years I’ll take care of her.” She gives me strength when I feel weak, when I feel like giving up, she’s a hero in my eyes.

I feel great when I help my mother. When she needs help with the groceries or helping her clean the house. Since I’m a really lazy person, I complain but end up cleaning because my mother can’t do everything by herself. I forget about my problems when I have conversations with my mother. She’s cooking in the kitchen and I’m sitting on table talking about my day. She also gives me advice when I tell her about my conflicts. Sometimes I need my dad or my brother, I wish I could talk to them in person when I’m alone. My brother is in a better place and my father is in another place. I can still talk to him through the phone, but it doesn’t feel like he’s with me and that makes me feel really lonely. My mother is very religious and she always tells me, “Cuando tù estès triste, debes de orar, porque Diòs siempre estará allí,” “When you’re feeling down, you should pray because God will always be there.” Praying has become a habit, it erases my negative thoughts, and it gives me strength to move on.

Future self, I want you to seek for help, these type of feelings won’t disappear unless you talk to someone. You can’t solve these problems by yourself. I know you don’t like to talk about your problems because you’re afraid of other people’s judgement. You can start off by telling a few people you trust about your problems and maybe they can help you. I want you to change the way you think. Stop being so negative, start thinking positive, don’t think about what could go wrong, but what could go right. Stop self-hatred, you want to be happy? You will find happiness if you have self-love. Stop thinking about what you don’t

have and be grateful. Be grateful because you have a mother who cares, you have friends who care, you have clothes on your body, shoes on your feet, intelligence in your mind, you’re skinny but you are stronger than you think. Remember, life gets heavier, but everyday you become stronger.

I dream of a life with no stress

But I carry heavy pain that keeps me depressed

So much on my mind, but have nothing to say

I want to change, but can’t find a way

Too young to be feeling like this

But a perfect life doesn’t exist

Deep thoughts in a dark room

Searching for light, hoping I find it soon

I feel like my life is a mess

But I won’t let it stop me from reaching success

Life has become rough

It seems like my childhood years weren’t enough

I went from laughing all those years

To drowning in my own tears

I put my hands together, close my eyes, and pray

Hoping I become a better person everyday

Having a better future is my mission

But first I have to break out of this depressing prison

I have to release myself from these heavy chains

So I can go out into the world and make a change

Sincerely,

Steve G.

DEAR OLD FRIEND,

You were one of a kind, one like no other

Like a shadow in the dark, you could never be seen

From being in the streets for as long as you could remember, but mostly since you were three

It’s like the moon blocks the sun

Eclipsed by the cold

Like frozen water we can’t run

Prayer won’t work, no disrespect to a nun

You felt like a vampire

All you’ve seen was blood

You are from misery

You have presented yourself in many ways

The help you tried to get was only violation

The loneliness you had was molested

You had strangers who tried to force themselves onto you

A gang paid to rape you

A fiancé to beat you

And killed the child inside you

How magical it is to feel such a sad emotion

You needed ingredients to concoct a happiness potion

Yesterday was not promised

So today you refuse to think about tomorrow

You cried yourself to sleep at night

Just wishing it would stop

Maybe tomorrow it will cease

Then again, maybe not

They pushed you and poked you

They called you hurtful names

To you it was like prison

To them it was all fun and games

Their hearts, made of ice

But they didn’t even deserve that

Yours was once a rainbow

But they moulded it to darkest dark

You hated yourself, you hated everyone

There was no one you could trust

Are they proud of what they’ve done ?

They turned your soul into dust

If there was a door you could open

A simple path you could trend

You didn’t want to be stuck

There forever

In the endless spiral

You are from secrets from accused

Fake charities stealing money, laughing when nothing is funny

Cheating partners losing trust, teens pregnant from a night of lust

Rape victims ashamed to speak, lives destroyed, remain meek

Middle East raging no in war, All for pride nothing more

Gangbangers need attention, killing for an honorable mention

Fools and vengeance shall expire, for winds of change to transpire

You are from the hole in filthy

Your ribs are cracked

Your face is purple

Your first thought, “sleep”

But your anger cuts through the pain

Your head is throbbing

The cells stink of desperations

The rats are out playing

Your mouth is dry and sour

You are cold

But determined to show otherwise

You feel like crying

You feel like screaming

A good health of you

A life

But you stay quiet like a good obedient soldier

Who’s not allowed

To show emotions

You guess some questions are hard to define

Like the desert landscape, You’ve changed with time.

Sincerely, M.F.

THE PAST IS ALREADY WRITTEN, BUT OUR FUTURE IS NOT

Dear Future Self,

Have ten years passed already since I last wrote to you? Did you attend a private college or pursue the goals you have right now? I want you to know that if you ended up taking a different path in life instead of the one you had before, it is alright and if you are happy with what you became, I cannot complain. In what did you find success? As of right now, I want to become an author like Gloria Anzaldua who writes books about inequality, but I am pretty sure that my dream career may change. Not so long ago, I wanted to become a graphic designer and before that a cardiologist. During my second year in Stevenson Middle School, I remember I wanted to become a fantastic chef that can cook the finest and most exotic meals. Although my passions may have changed, I have not. I still love food, math, and learning about the human heart, even though my goals have changed. Just always remember that everything keeps changing and nothing stays the same forever, so redreaming is not a bad thing at all. It is always nice to have backup plans if your main pursuit backfires.

Speaking of changing, how much has our community changed? Has Boyle Heights become wealthy like Beverly Hills? Did families get more opportunities to receive money? Right now I still want to be an author, but giving back to my community is something that I wish can come true. I think, by writing about the struggles and injustices working-class people of color face, it can change what people believe is acceptable and unacceptable and create a movement that will put a stop to discrimination. I have lived in Boyle Heights since I was born, at the White Memorial Hospital on April 13, 2001

and I’ll probably still be living in Boyle Heights at least until I go off to a university. Are you living in Boyle Heights right now? Growing up in Boyle Heights wasn’t something necessarily bad but instead something great. For sure I wasn’t living the life of a movie star, but my community is something I always loved. I hardly ever get out of Boyle Heights, so I grew up to love it. When people say Boyle Heights is just a poor place for Mexican families, I get a bit upset because this neighborhood is one of the most diverse communities with many cultures and backstories. The police sirens that I constantly hear and the helicopters flying above us flashing searchlights makes me know I am still in Boyle Heights. The thing about this neighborhood, is that even though it isn’t the most wealthy in money, it is wealthy by having a rich history of protests and events that created a movement towards equality which I take great pleasure in learning. I want you to remember all the great memories you have been able to make just by living in Boyle Heights. You attended Roosevelt High School; spent time enjoying a raspado or esquite at El Mercado with family and friends; ate seafood at a bunch of different mariscos such as El Siete Mares and got extremely exhausted after only jogging a half quarter of Evergreen cemetery’s frame. Remember when you joined the Spark program in eighth grade to have an internship at ZGF Architects and Warner Bros. Studios, which later gave you an opportunity to present the project you made with your mentor in the internship in Dodger Stadium and the LA Times building? I want you to enjoy the fact that you got an opportunity to join the amazing program College Track, that makes it easy for you to go to college. By the way, did College Track help you out a lot? Are you still in contact with anyone from College Track? How many scholarships were offered to you?

Anyway, I want you to make the world a better place like the world that’s often showed to toddlers in cartoons, by changing how people see one another with literature. Writing really is something powerful because it helps many people find their passion and when writing, such as poems and personal experiences are shared out, readers can become empowered just by reading the words. Words are something truly strong, since it can really leave an impact on someone. An example can be a German that started a world war, Hitler. His words were able to hypnotize people to let him do his misdeeds. He started off by saying that being German is the greatest thing in the world and this would make a big audience pay attention right away, giving him a chance to make people hear and agree with his thoughts. Hitler was a very

cruel man that just wanted to make the world become hell, but his words were what let him get away with it. Another example can also be me, my family, friends, teachers,etc. I have always been told that I am good at drawing, even though at my earlier ages I remember drawing stick figures like everyone else did. Although you would draw mostly like everyone else, the compliments of being an artist stuck with you and your drawing skills have greatly improved. Every flattering comment I receive sticks with me, making me believe that I am those comments, building my personality. So this thing about words being puissant is no lie and I want for you to use this in a way that can assist the public.

Your purpose is to decrease inequality. I actually never really knew much about what oppression was or even that it is very much alive today. I thought the world I lived in was like the one shown in cartoons, where everyone is friends. Once I grew up, I began to face reality and realized that life isn’t as it is shown on television, but to be honest, I didn’t really care about what was going on in the world until I heard the things my Ethnic Studies teacher had to say. Do you know if Ms. Dueñas is still teaching at Roosevelt? Has Ethnic Studies become common? A lesson that really captured my attention was about the Europeans colonizing the land of the Taínos and doing no matter what to the residents in order to find gold. When I heard that young native children’s hands were cut off for not discovering gold, it added fuel to the fire burning inside my head. This piece of history is what made me become more aware of how the world suffers from oppression. I think Ethnic Studies is a gateway to the truth because it helps us realize what is going on and realize the truth about stuff like it did to me. I started to appreciate the things that I get more than I did before, like having an Ethnic Studies class, since many brave Chicano students from 1968 Boyle Heights decided to risk a lot by doing the 1968 East LA Walkouts. These kids decided to boycott the schools, like African Americans decided to boycott buses, in order to pressure the school district for their demands to be heard. Without these kids’ actions, we wouldn’t have the same education we receive today as colored students. It just fills me up with rage, almost enough to erupt like a volcano, that there are so many labels in the world that set us apart. We shouldn’t be thinking that our society is great or that our country, the United States, is a noble nation if there are people suffering from oppression. Farm workers do labor on a daily basis, full time, picking vegetables and fruits in the fields for a payment that is less than minimum wage. These poor people are somewhat

like slaves, constantly toiling, being so scared of their manager that they are willing to work for extremely scarce payment or even for free. Even though it is obvious that without these farm workers we wouldn’t be getting any produce at all, they still don’t receive the respect they deserve. The police or as Ta-Nehisi Coates calls them, “destroyers”, abuse the power they have by literally murdering people and not even getting punished at all for their misdeeds. It is just sad to think that there is a lot of police brutality, Eric Garner was choked to death by an officer, who thought he was selling cigarettes, as he kept saying, “I can’t breathe.” Tamir Rice, a twelve-year-old boy, was shot in a park for using a toy gun. Aren’t police supposed to protect you from violence and danger, not evoke it? Police intimidate us and I even feel like my heart beats ten times faster as I pass one, we aren’t supposed to feel this way towards someone who promotes feeling comfortable. Eric and Tamir were African Americans and it is most likely that their deaths were because of their skin color.

We weren’t born choosing how we will look like! We are all still humans and we want to treat others like you and me want to be treated. Heterosexism, ableism, patriarchy, racism and all the other -isms shouldn’t exist. When we divide ourselves, we set up these walls that could lead to conflict. Conflict later on leads to war and the hatred for one another grows. So if you, Luis, ever want to decrease this inequality that is everywhere, start off by making people forget these labels through your writing. With your writing, you can empower people in so many ways like it did to me. Reading the literature from others in Ethnic Studies really changed my point of view. Because really, what is the exact definition of race? What would you call someone that was born in Japan but is a descendant of Native Americans and spend his or her life in Italy learning its language, culture, etc.? My dream of becoming an author can be the first step to a revolution that will be put in History textbooks of the future. Of course, it will be easier to just protest rather than take time composing a book, but a book will give me the impact I want. A protest will most likely lead to riot and violence, I don’t want violence and writing a book won’t make people punch each other in the middle of the road, at least I think. I said that as of now, I want to become an author, I want to write the things that we as people of color face in our lives. I talked about wanting to give back to my community and it isn’t going to be easy to make this goal be achieved, since all of us really are racist to a certain point, stereotyping and hurting someone without even knowing. I have to tell the truth, that I would

sometimes use the term “gay” as a way to offend someone, but now that I think about it, I could’ve been hurting someone’s feelings that might have heard me. Why do we use the term “gay” as an offensive word? I also remember back in elementary, boys would use the word girl to insult another boy. Girls can do anything a boy can and nothing, besides our bodies, makes us different. In my culture, it is common for the women to become stay at home moms that clean, cook and raise kids, while the guy goes to work to get money to support the family. It will be strange for many if it were the male to stay home washing dishes while the female is typing up documents in her office at work. Girls can be smart, athletic, hard working and much more, not just a mom! So, using the word girl back in elementary as a way to get someone upset was foolish.

With everything that I have learned so far, I realized that I was really dumb to ignore the news. All the things that go on should always be a concern, because it is an example of how corrupt our society is. If more people start becoming more involved with what is happening just by simply watching the news, we could start changing aspects of our lives that will help build a better community. The things from the past can’t be changed, but our future can always be altered, even though I do wish we can somehow go back in time and undo the misdeeds of ignorant racist people. Anyways, we should also focus on the present too since there are many crazy things going on in the year of 2016. My favorite topic I’ve been focusing on so far is politics, mainly because of Donald Trump; Trump isn’t really that much different from acting like a seven-year-old and he is as ignorant as an adolescent. Him saying jokes about Eric Garner saying, “I can’t breathe”, makes me sick to my stomach. I cannot believe a guy who makes fun of a reporter with disabilities can still be taken seriously. I also hated that he said that us Hispanics are bringing drugs, crime and we are all rapists and killers. I am not saying that all of us are innocent angels, but there are some bad Latinos just like there is some bad Whites and bad Black folks. Anyway, I am not sure what he means by this thing of making America great once more, but if he is saying to make the country a White superior nation without any immigrants, he is just insane. If people knew their history, the Americas belonged to all the Native Americans until they were enslaved, raped, murdered and sent as cargo to other places when Christopher Columbus and his crew landed on the Bahamas in 1492. The New World was later becoming populated with more and more White people, starting with colonies such as Jamestown and with more than

12 million people of different ethnicities immigrating to the U.S. starting in 1892 with the gateway, Ellis Island in New York, the United States is made up of immigrants. So if Donald Trump wants immigrants to flee the country, everyone needs to leave. Did Trump become president? I hope not! I just despise this guy since he is showing that he is a complete fool by being racist, unprofessional and presenting a lot of misogyny and I don’t know what is worse, that there is an imbecile who could become president or that there are a lot of supporters showing a lot of imbalance in the nation. Trump is a problem and is trying to bring back all the bad in our country’s past.

Talking about time, when you achieved your goals, did you find happiness? This is something I wonder most of the time. I want to become an author, because I like writing what I think and I will be proud sharing my thoughts and feelings with numerous readers, but am I really going to be smiling with joy? All of us go to school mainly to get educated for an opportunity to have a well paying job, and we all think that once we become successful with wealth we’ll be happy, but are we thinking wrong. As J.Cole says in his song, “Love Yourz”, “For what’s money without happiness.” I may sound like I am ready to take on the world, however I am actually afraid of growing up. I can’t believe I am already attending high school and it seems like yesterday I was sitting on a rug in my kindergarten classroom thinking to myself, “I cannot wait to graduate high school.” The time seems to go by so fast, that I may be an adult ready for an interview with an employer and worrying about taxes and bills tomorrow. Luis, always have tenacity and resilience to conquer vigorous obstacles that may interfere with your road to success. Whatever comes in my way, I will surpass it!

I do want my road to success to end with me becoming an author, because I am really passionate about writing. I have mentioned this earlier about writing being able to leave a huge impact and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has some really great examples. When she talks in TED Talks, “The Danger of a Single Story” on October 2009, Chimamanda says, “What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children.” This is basically saying that a book makes people, especially kids, become very gullible to believe whatever the book contains. She also says, “My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language.” This too

shows how easy it is to believe anything from anything and this roommate of hers is a good example. In addition to this, I have to say I used to think the very same way, and I used to think that everyone that was the color brown can read, understand, write or at least talk in Spanish, but clearly I was wrong. This goes to say that we are very vulnerable when it comes to what is right and what is wrong. I assume if people read a book about unfairness written by me, it will make the reader think about what is really happening in the world and make them want to change it. I specifically want this book to be aimed at a young audience since they will have plenty of time to spread messages, especially since the younger generation are most likely to have social media. This is awesome, because word can be escalated in just minutes through the Internet and this will have a better impact. I think that if I manage to produce a popular site that gives the latest news with numerous stories, poems, and personal experiences will be an amazing first step towards a world that can be full of justice. Luis, you and your generation are going to become someone like Bell Hooks, MLK, Malcolm X, Gloria Anzaldua, Cesar Chavez and possibly start a group like the Brown Berets and the Black Panthers.

Sincerely, Your Past Self, Luis C.

Dear Future Self,

YOU’RE HALFWAY THERE

Future Self, tell me you’ve made all my dreams come true! Tell me you’re as hardworking as mom. Tell me I now have the big house on the beach, nice cars, all the Nikes in the world and a whole bunch of animals. I want you to have the house by the beach because I want you to feel like you live in a getaway. I want to be able to get away because your whole life you weren’t able to. Tell me you’ve proved all the hateful people, rude teachers and yourself wrong. Tell me you can now come back to school and show all the teachers that made stereotypical remarks wrong, that you don’t get paid minimum wage and you don’t associate with gangs. Tell me you’ve done the exact opposite and you tell them with the biggest smile on your face. Tell me you’ve made mom proud. Tell me you’ve changed for the better. Tell me over the course of ten years you’ve changed from a fifteen year old, immature student, getting mad and not wanting to do any work because you thought you were your own person, constantly rolling your eyes, snapping and having a hot temper. All you wanted to do was play softball because that was your biggest passion in high school, dismissing homework because you preferred to be practicing. Not being motivated in school because you weren’t confident in yourself because of experiences in your life that shut you down as a person. Being lazy and putting up fronts to not do anything because you thought high school would be easy. Getting below average grades. Being motivated in softball because you’ve played your whole life, not to mention it helped you manage your stress and anger. You enjoyed it and you had so much fun, you were in your comfort zone at practice and games. You were at your happiest on the field until you came home to a report card with three F’s, disappointed in yourself because you knew those F’s weren’t going to get you into college.

So you go to school the next week wishing those grades would go up, but they don’t because you don’t do the work even though you want to change. You let the obnoxious kids and boring classes stop you from focusing like you should have. So you’re left with the rest of the week more unmotivated than before, knowing you should take charge of your future but it’s so overwhelming, you give up. What’s the point of wanting to play softball for USC and study criminology if your grades are just going to hold you back from achieving something mom wasn’t able to do? She had the same dreams as you did but wasn’t able to fulfill them simply because she let life get in her way. She had two kids by the age of twenty-five, having to raise them on her own because she has so much independence. Tell me you’ve made mom proud because you were the first to graduate from college in your family; tell me you have a career and won’t have to struggle like mom did every single day. I want you to buy her everything she wants because she never got the chance to do that for herself. She worked nine hour shifts, six days a week. She came home tired yet still cooks, did laundry, and pleased all of us. She was too busy giving you everything you’ve ever wanted to do it for herself. Let her know she’s valued the same way a diamond is.

Tell me you’ve become a strong, confident, beautiful and happy young woman. That you don’t depend on a male because Mom didn’t either. Tell me that despite all the struggles you’ve gone through at home, you’ve set the biggest example of strength and resilience for everyone around you. That at twentyfive you’ve graduated college and your life is way different from what mom’s was at that age. At twentyfive I want you to be searching for the career you just finished studying your butt off for. When you were fifteen, everyone saw you as an intelligent, funny, stubborn and outspoken young lady. Although you have never really seen it in yourself, tell me you’ve stayed the same. Tell me you’ve stayed a considerate, kind hearted person.

My advice to you is to stay humble and remember where you came from. Remember Boyle Heights, California. Remember Roosevelt High School, your friends and all the lessons you’ve learned. Oh, tell me you won’t forget it! Remember late nights in the Projects with all your friends, playing kick the can or late nights at Costello Park right after you got out of practice. I want you to always remain grateful and thank everyone around you for everything you have in your life. To remain independent and never let anyone bring you down. I want you to tell me you’ve become the woman mom raised you to be.

My advice to you is to never forget to have fun, to remain young at heart. My advice to you is all that hard work wasn’t for nothing, never give up. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

Sincerely,

The Younger You, Briana R.

WHAT YOU WILL KNOW

Dear Nine Year-Old Self,

You are such a young girl that wants to know everything, very right. You have such a good heart. Five years ago, I was you at nine years old. I’m writing this to let you know how the world is now, in 2016. We have been having racism, sexism, oppression, resilience, and resistance; you just didn’t know about it back then. I am currently taking Ethnic Studies at Roosevelt High School. We talk about all the stuff happening, that I just mentioned that I had no idea it was happening.

I remember when I was nine I would play basketball with my brother and his friends and they would never pass me the ball even though I was open. They would never pass it because they said, “You’re not strong enough to drive to the basket.” They obviously didn’t know they were participating in sexism. Now I am in the Roosevelt varsity basketball team, I didn’t give up and I know every girl that people underestimate has the strength to do anything.

Many girls don’t see they are being oppressed by their own family, like when their relative, like brother or dad tells them to change clothes because it’s too tight. They can’t wear makeup because they’ll say, ”You look like a clown” when you only have mascara and lipstick. Women can wear whatever they want and how much they want without being told they can’t wear it. Many people see women as lower than men. Women brought everyone to the world. They look at women just to stay home, clean, cook, wash, and do everything for the husband. Yes of course we can do that but we can also work like men. All women are strong, ¡Las mujers pueden hacer todo!

It’s crazy how I would always stay quiet when I was nine, people would always step on me. Some advice I want to give you is, you will go through some really tough and rough times, like fighting with your mom, family problems, friends and just life in general, but you will get through them, just remain strong. You always have to have your head held up high. You will get through it, you will remain strong. Follow your dreams, Yunuhen. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do anything. If you believe, you will succeed.

Yours truly, Yunuhen P.

P.S. Please dress cute, haha.

DEAR FUTURE SELF,

At the moment I am fourteen years old, it is May 12th, 2016 and you are in Mr. Lopez’s third period class. You’re not exactly in the best position of your life. You’re in high school which isn’t exactly the most glamorous place like everyone says it is. Most adults say, “High school is going to the best four years of your life.” but everyone of them seem to forget to mention the fact that it is stressful. You don’t exactly feel accepted; not at school, somewhat at home, not anywhere, really. You are uncomfortable with yourself and everything else around you contributes to the way you feel.

Family doesn’t exactly make you feel comfortable either. They always find a way to bring up your mistakes rather than actually acknowledging the good things that you have done. Even if it’s not intentional, they still add on to this sense of being self conscious and prideless about yourself. Your dad is an immigrant from Mexico so he expects a lot from you. He expects you to always have a 4.0 GPA, involved in activities, and always on top of your studies. They want you to accomplish the things they never got to accomplish. He has gone through a lot of different obstacles to become a teacher.

I want to be successful in life, not just for me, but for my parents as well. Not only do I have parents whom I owe my success to, but I also have siblings to set an example for. They have to see that if I can do it, they can too. What would become of my siblings if they saw that I wasn’t doing everything I can in order to succeed? It’s not easy being the oldest child because you have to set the example. If you don’t set a good example then you are blamed for your siblings’ mistakes. College is not an option in my family. College will get you to where you need to go in life: out of poverty.

I just wrote this to let you know there is always room for improvement. I know you don’t want your kids to go through the struggles that you had to go through. If everything goes well in high school, then you’ll be the first from your generation to graduate from Roosevelt High School. This will make the alumni in your family very proud. I believe if you keep working hard, you’ll accomplish your goals. Hopefully you’re living in the house of your dreams and have a career by the time you read this.

Sincerely,

Atzi O.

REMEMBERING THE DAYS

Hello Jose,

First, if you are reading this, congrats. You are not dead and you are still living on this planet.

This letter will come in two different sections; one if life went well for us and we are happy and the other will be if it went horrible. I hope we find this letter very useful and inspirational in both the good and bad. Thank you for reading this intro and I hope for the best of us after reading this.

If life has gone well, continue reading. If not, continue looking down and I wish us the best of luck.

How are we doing? I see we have made it very far and succeeded in life and are happy. Even though life is going well with happiness and luck there will always be a problem that will come up but remember, that it is just life. But if that does happen- which I doubt- just be ready to face it and find the solution to the problem. In other words, I hope you are happy that you have come this far in life; keep reaching high for more happiness. Continue visiting Mom and Dad because they taught us we need to be happy. Remember, they forced you to learn in school for your future and it went well. So thank them and keep in touch with them because soon they might not be there. Also, keep in touch with our siblings, especially the ones that helped us succeed. I say this because they have pushed us to be a good student and they gave us the inspiration that we needed to go to college and graduate.

At this point you are probably wondering, “Why write this if we have succeeded in life?” Well there is a simple answer to that question. You have

probably noticed- or if you have not noticed- that thanks to all that success, you forgot about family and managed to still be happy. Remember, after all that success, family is the key to true happiness and it is important for you to keep in touch with family and never let them leave us, or worse, never let us leave them. Never forget what they have taught us about life and be thankful to College Track and its staff for helping us with scholarships. Be thankful for all the friends that helped us in school and those that gave you the homework for English class or for any other class- just be thankful. If it weren’t for your family and friends, who knows, maybe we would have been another person at a different place, living on the planet. Just don’t forget about family and friends. Always be thankful because you never know when the last time we might hear from them will be.

If life has gone horribly, please read this until the very end and hope that we are inspired to try and accomplish a little more.

Hey, I see at this point, you want to become a criminal, or worse because life has played us. We tried our best to overcome it and beat the game that life has tossed at us but at least we tried. Just remember you have family and friends to reach out to when we are feeling down and cannot get up. For any problem we have, there will always be a solution but it will take coping, resilience, and guts for the long journey that will lead us to the answer. Like Malcolm X once said, “There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” He is saying that every problem will contain one little spark that will fix it and build resilience in us so just look for that little spark in life.

If you don’t have the inspiration, just remember we have gone through some bad situations in the past. Like when Mom used to take us at night every day to collect cans for recycling because what Dad used to bring home from work wasn’t enough for rent and feeding brothers and sisters, both younger and older than us. That seven year old kid with sneakers, shorts, and a t-shirt that would follow his Mom all night in the long, cold, dark and sometimes rainy nights. That one kid that would go home at one in the morning, tired, having to take a shower. Sleeping then waking up to get ready for school and then coming home to repeat the same thing again. That little kid was us and remember we didn’t let that interfere with our education. All I’m trying to say

is that if we have passed through some rough and exhausting times, we can get out of the time we are in. Just look for the little spark and that dark and cruel place we are.

Now let’s go with people we have met in our past life in high school. Remember freshman year bro? That year was full of so much excitement. Remember your family or should I say, “Bandily”. This was the greatest family you had, with Carlos Marroquin, Destiny Bravo, Emily Morales, Michael Macias,Victor Hernandez, Omar Mora, Seth Montero, and Josselyn Lomelli and you sister Liliana Honorato. Those people that gave you great memories are the ones that tried to make you feel better with great, big, warm hugs and large group hugs that made you feel safe and sound when you were feeling down.

If we need inspiration, just remember the times, the people, and the places that made our life happy when we were in need of help or because you were in the right place at the right time. Just remember those Field Shows at Football Games the smell of the grass when practicing and performing. The feelings we got when our conductor said to pull out Marching Season music from two or three years ago, those joyful and energizing feelings you got from playing those measures that got you marching with excitement, and the feeling we got when the conductor said there will be free food at the performances we attended. The long and painful hours of practice the whole marching band had, but those hard and cruel hours were worth every second of our life because great things came out of it. The performances that the Jazz and Latin Jazz had, the performance with the Mayor and the Cinco De Mayo Performances at the East La Civic Center, the Concerts and Solos you had in songs that got the audience yelling and screaming. Those were joyful and life-filling moments that got us jumping with joy and happiness. Just remember that life is like a rollercoaster and sooner it will get better because one may never stay in a bad place forever. Just remember the days that made us feel special in life.

Lots of love, Jose

H.

P.S. I hope you’re still beating the games life has been playing and tossing at you. Remember, keep trying for more happiness.

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Dear Future Self,

I don’t know what you do at the moment you’re reading this, whatever that may be I hope you’re happy. Hopefully you still write, I know you loved that. If you don’t anymore, just remember why you started in the first place. You felt like it was something you were really good at. I hope you have gone to beautiful places, seen beautiful views and have met some pretty amazing people. Everytime you come back from a new place, visit home. Take Mom out for coffee even if you still don’t think coffee was ever your cup of tea. Go to dinner with Dad and talk about your travels, visit your friends and watch a movie with the girls. Remember where you came from, that you haven’t changed. Maybe you’re taller, or you have a different style- haircut even. What I’m trying to tell you is, you are still Carol. Carol who grew up in Boyle Heights, Carol who has the best group of friends, Carol who was always optimistic even if the outcome was far fetched. Carol, who loved to spend time reading her favorite books and write about anything she wanted.

I know writing was your thing way before, but after that one particular Christmas you were given a journal, you started writing way more. You wrote about things that stuck to you like quotes, poems, or “the best days of your life”. You wrote about being happy or sad or things that couldn’t have just been a coincidence. I hope you kept that notebook and take pride in it. You should read it every once in awhile. I hope it makes you smile, cry, and feel every emotion you felt when you first wrote it.

Writing put you in your little bubble, or as I like to call it, your own cloud nine. It made you look at whatever was going on and reflect on everything.

It made you plan what to do next if you couldn’t figure something out; it’s your way of solving things. If anything was bothering you, it’s almost as if the paper was begging for ink. Your hand having the urge to put pen to paper. It’s something that you were really passionate about. Sometimes you wondered if you’d ever take it as a profession or study it in college. Maybe now that you’re reading this, you smile and tell yourself, “I did”. Then again, maybe I’m wrong. I guess we won’t know yet. I know you’ll tell me the story soon.

I hope you’re wondering about the way I addressed you in the beginning and how it wasn’t specific.With that, I hope you know by now that I couldn’t have guessed what you have become, because you’re unpredictable. I tell you this, not because it’s a bad thing or I want to scold you or anything like that, but because you find interest in so many things, it’s tough to tell what you’d choose. If there’s something that I know to be true, it’s that you trust yourself. You do what you think is right. You know that even if you mess up or make mistakes you have the understanding that mistakes happen and they do not define you; your character and the way you treat people do. Remember to give yourself credit for what you’re capable of and don’t ever underestimate yourself. Lastly, remember that there is always a strength that peaks over struggle if you let it.

All the love, Carol M.

DEAR FUTURE LUZ,

It’s already 11:30 p.m, a day before this is due and you have nothing. Well, who needs sleep anyway, right? Syke! Who are you kidding, tomorrow you need to wake up early to get ready for your choir performance. I can’t believe you actually gave choir a shot. You don’t really like going out of your comfort zone but you did it. This is kind of awkward, probably because this is like the 1,268th letter you’ve done. You have already written so many but none of them were perfect to you. You don’t even know what perfect looks like but let’s just give this a try.

I hope you are the person you set out to be. I hope you proved all those people wrong who said Mexicans can’t do it. Well actually, Sì se puede! I hope you chased your dreams to the end of the Earth and if you haven’t yet, don’t give up! I hope you remember how to see the sun through the dark storm. I hope you never hid yourself to make anyone else happy. Most importantly, I hope you stayed absolutely in love with yourself the whole way through this. Take a moment to realize the woman you’ve become, all those opportunities you thought you never had, the goals you thought you would have never accomplished, and all those people you’ve proved wrong. Doesn’t it feel good? To be happy and successful. You are unstoppable and unbreakable.

Through all of this, I hope you still remember the little girl you used to be. The little girl whose father went to the north to seek a better life. The little girl who later had to cross the border when she was only three years old. The little girl who hated school because it was a struggle fitting in. The little girl who started to love school little by little, you remember her yet? She began to be Luz, the girl that lights up people’s world. I hope you haven’t forgotten about her because you are who you are right now because of her. I hope you haven’t forgotten where you came from and I hope you’re still proud of who you are. Your roots and culture are an important part of you. Being Mexican isn’t something you are ashamed of, you are proud to be called a Mexican. Let’s just hope that little girl is still in you.

Sincerely,

Fifteen year old Luz G.

THE KEY TO A BETTER PLACE

Dear Thirty-five Year Old Michelle,

If you’re reading this, it is because you gave up or because you’re now thirty-five years old, which means you’re old. You always try to escape your problems by drawing, which explains why you have so many drawings. You have to understand that life is only going to get worse every time because life will always throw more problems your way. You’ll have to face them but you have to keep on going and do it with a smile to show that nothing can bring you down. Life will always kick you when you’re not looking. Things are getting worse here because you’re not getting along with your parents and you hide your feelings, but you have to say and show how you feel, not only draw them. I feel like you’re going to give up on everything because things are getting harder and you can’t take it anymore.

You should really stop keeping everything to yourself, since it’s only going to give you more pain. You think that you can solve your problems on your own but you’re wrong! Why can’t you just ask for help? Learn how to trust others because they can actually help you out and if you do trust them you won’t have to face your problems on your own. You think you’re alone and there isn’t anyone that truly cares about you but you’re wrong. You have so many people out there that want to help you because they don’t like to see you down.

You’re improving in your drawing, maybe because drawing is a way to escape from your problems and it’s also the way you express your feelings without saying a word. You should really face your problems instead of avoiding them. Why do you run away from them? You’re the type of person to put everyone’s feelings before your own which is sometimes a problem because you end up

hurting yourself even more. Sometimes you feel like you can’t take it anymore and you want to give up, but you know that you don’t want people to see you fall apart. You have to stay strong and keep going. Every time you want to give up remember all the people you want to prove wrong. Also think about the people that believe in you.

You should remember that you’re not alone, because you have people that care about you. Do you remember that promise you made to yourself? You promised yourself you were going to change the world for the better. You have to use the thing you love so much which is art. Use it to help people go on the right path; use it to make this world a better place. If sometimes you feel like it’s impossible and you can’t change the world, think about your sister and how you don’t want her to see what you’ve seen and what you’ve gone through.

Drawing is the thing that makes you forget about your troubles. It’s also a way to express your feelings. For example, if you’re feeling blue you draw something that represents sadness. And if you’re happy you’ll draw something colorful and full of life. Art is the sun to your life. Without it, you don’t have anything and if you get away from art, you’re lost in this world. You think drawing will tell people what you can’t say with words. Every time you feel like you’re going to explode, get paper, colored pencils, and pens and draw your feelings. Draw what you can’t say! I really do hope you haven’t stopped drawing because art has been the best part. Drawing will give you the motivation to keep on going. Art will be the key to your better place.

Truly yours,

Fifteen Year Old Michelle

A LIFE WORTH REMEMBERING

Dear Future Me,

Twenty years can do so much to someone. Life changes, its patterns die out, and new ones are made. Remembering our past may bring back bad memories and hurt you. However, the past is in the past, and I know you’re better now. You’re thirty-five, married, and living in England working in the career of your dreams. I yearned that we’d be a movie director, producer, and creator. As a movie director we could share our ideas using movies for everyone to see. If not, that’s alright. College must’ve been hard for you, but I know that we wouldn’t give up on our aspirations. We’ve struggled through countless depths for the career we could enjoy. All that hard work has paid off and you probably live a great life now. All in all, I know you’re better off now than you were in the past.

Our memories weren’t nostalgic and the past can’t hurt us anymore. During our elementary and middle school years, we were faced with internal oppression. The other kids would antagonize us with hurtful words and belittle us until they sank in. During elementary school, we were resilient, but that would not last through middle school. I guess the anger inside of us elevated to the point that we couldn’t bottle it up anymore. It’s ironic how we wanted to fit in when we were younger. However, we don’t care about that anymore. We grew up to be what we thought was normal, but others saw us differently. Seeing other kids go through our experiences hurt us because we understand and acknowledge their pain. The pain of hating themselves, constantly being stressed out, and wanting to disappear. Hopefully, we helped them realize that being different is okay and that it will never demean your personality. We were once unwanted and outcasted by others. We were seen as stupid and ugly because we were different. I remember sitting next to a girl in third grade who seemed sweet at first glance, but her heart was as cold as ice. She corrupted our mind by telling us we didn’t matter and we should just kill ourselves. Her words don’t affect us today, but they were strong enough for us

to remember. First Street Elementary did its best to help students with bullies, but since we didn’t talk, we couldn’t be helped. If it wasn’t for this girl who started to spread hate towards us, we wouldn’t be as open-minded and determined as we are today.

During our Ethnic Studies class in Roosevelt High School, we learned that there were people like us. People like Malcolm X, Frida Kahlo, Angela Davis, and Albert Einstein. Although they weren’t liked at first, they are now viewed with admiration as leaders, role models, and people who made a difference. They made a difference by helping and standing up for others. Just like them, I know we can make a difference too.

Even though we’ve been outcasted by others, there was one boy in Stevenson Middle School who changed all that. He became our best friend and lifted us out of our cloud of darkness where we were trapped in for so long. He was the first person we could trust, the first to not leave us, and the first who felt just like family. He made us feel wanted and never made us feel hatred toward ourselves. He made a big difference in our life and now we aren’t scared of new experiences anymore.

Although he felt like family, he could never replace the people we lost. In 2013, our father passed away and it tore us apart. We were devastated and shocked by this grave loss. Fortunately, we came to our senses and stopped thinking about running away or doing worse. Our father was our biggest influence and inspiration for staying in school. He’s the reason we want to accomplish our goal of finishing school and settling into a sustainable career. Finishing school and going to USC, we do it for him- to make him proud. I can still remember what he used to tell us, “I’m very proud of you.”

I’m sorry if this letter brought back bad memories, but now you see how much we have progressed since then. I have faith that we will do well in our future. In fact, I’m looking forward to seeing what we have accomplished and seeing how we grew. I’m looking forward to seeing how we grow as a person from teenager to a strong woman. I see us having a great future and we’ll just be looking back on our past and happy that we were able to live the life we want.Take care and continue to be yourself because there’s only one of us and I’m glad to be a part of you.

Sincerely, Yourself,

Stephanie G.

SHEDDING MY SKIN

Dear Carolina,

I seem to remember everything about you, like it was yesterday, that I banished you from my life. I can still see how fragile you were, and I can still feel a part of you in me. Although I miss some things about you, your way of caring, thinking and planning, I seem to hate you. You would let others bring out the worst in you and let them put you down. You were the most caring person, I think, I’ve ever known, but now I see you weren’t the person I wanted to be. You’d be happy to know that things have changed, my group of friends, my way of seeing things and my attitude.

Although I think the family problems were a bit less complicated back then, I wouldn’t want you back. I remember everything you were put through at home and school. You have been strong through it all, although you had a total break down last year. You cut off everyone and pushed away a lot of good friends. It embarrasses me to think about how every emotional thing would make you cry. You used to just always have this sense of anger in you that I think is still there. You put up with more things than you should have. You hurt yourself so many times trying to make sure that your friends didn’t, but for what? You don’t even talk to most of them now. They went their own way like everyone said they would. You’re better for it though, they were judgmental, self absorbed and oppressors. I can’t seem to remember the last time you had an actual friend that you could communicate with and not feel ashamed.

I’m still working to get past the shame and self-consciousness we felt. Now I

am stuck with acne scars, so let me tell you seventh and eighth grade were hell. Getting made fun of because of the way you look can kill your self-esteem and confidence. I think that, that’s the reason why we are always so angry now, angry at everyone but mostly at ourselves for letting that happen.

You’ll be happy to hear that I found someone that listens to me and is always there for me, he’s someone really important in my life. I had been going through some really bad situations but he didn’t distance himself from me. Hopefully you understand that I want him in my life from now on. I’ve also been working really hard to change, but not into you again, into someone better. Someone that can take anything that life hands to me. I don’t want to let people see me fail. I feel that the only way I can make a better us is to completely erase the memory of you. Everything in our past caused nothing but hurt and pain. At the moment, my life has enough of that, I don’t need any more. I just need your help to forget or at least to only remember how your choices influenced who I am now. Just stay out of my life because I can’t seem to let go and move on from my past. Those hurtful memories are holding me back from getting to where and who I want to be. Why haunt me and cause me more pain than what you had to go through? Do you know that I use you as an example of who I never want to be ever again?

Seeing the world for a better place is something I can’t do through your eyes. I should just move on and let go of the past, which is you. I know it will take some time to find a way but believe me I’ll find it. I’ve learned that as you get older people change. Everyone in your life isn’t always meant to be there. Leaving a problem before it gets worse is better than sticking around to see the outcome.

I’ve come to realize that through the tough times you have to be your own support system. Although people will be around to help you, you need to help yourself. I think this anger or disappointment will always be in me, but I’ve learned to accept it. Not everything bad in your life goes away but you can always make the best of it. I think there are some things people can’t change. Sometimes you’re just so used to it that accepting it is the best way to move on from it. Things get fixed on their own sometimes, so maybe just leaving it there is for the better.

The summer after eighth grade I lost weight, played sports and it was my way of letting out anger. Football was always my favorite thing to do. Now in

ninth grade, I haven’t joined any sports, and I feel that would explain why I have all this anger in me. I’ve been holding in so much anger that it just keeps building up. I used to not understand why I was so angry all the time and jealous, always overthinking. I’m taking an Ethnic Studies class and I’ve been learning about different types of oppression. I think I understand now, somewhat that this anger inside me isn’t good. It’s like my own self oppression.

Maybe on my way to becoming a new me I can learn to let go of it all and just be happy. Although I am happy, I feel that I can reach another level of happiness. A happiness where anger is easy to get rid of. That sadness is just a temporary feeling that stays hidden in the shadows where it won’t be found.

Sincerely,

C.A.S

CODE 1: ACKNOWLEDGE

Dear Future Self,

Life’s a journey. I mean, that is what people say. Some people see the world, do various things. You have always thought about making a difference. You have dreamed of having a career in law enforcement, as a police officer. You want to “protect and serve.” I want to protect and serve because I want to make a difference, particularly in Boyle Heights/East L.A. I remember living in Boyle Heights. As crazy and tough as it is, I would find it really hard to forget it. I have come across so many opportunities since I lived there. I am a cadet with the Los Angeles Police Department, a student at the famous Roosevelt High School (famous in the Eastside for it’s football). I am also a scholar with the i.am College Track Boyle Heights Program. Believe it or not, Boyle Heights has a lot of good things to offer. But, the particular area where I live was a different story. Even though it is three to four blocks away from Roosevelt, it is pretty crazy out there. The place is full of gang members, for it is the epicenter of Primera Flats, one of Boyle Heights many gangs that “ruled” the streets. Night comes and nothing but gun shots fly through the air, rival gang members trying to take each other out. I remember the time when I first had to start watching my back, simply because there was so much gang activity, and simply because I wear a uniform with an LAPD cadet badge, in a neighborhood where mostly everyone hates the police.

I have been with the LAPD Cadets for a year already. A year of serving the community, volunteering, and other various things I did throughout the program. Through this time, I had heard a lot of things. People talking crap about the police, and how no one in the city’s government cared about

communities like Boyle Heights, saying that the police are only here to brutalize people, and all kinds of other things. I’ve had people tell me, “You really wanna be a pig?” And I tell them “No. I want to be a police officer.” I want to be able to protect the people of this community, serve the people of this community. The people here in the community go through tough times in tough neighborhoods. One of my goals I hope to achieve is joining the FBI, but I’d like to be able to serve this community because I think it really needs whatever help it can get. All you see is gang-bangers, teens who should probably be in school instead of on the streets, and adults that are struggling to provide for their families. I believe that if there are people here that are willing to step up and make a difference, then everybody can have the ability to make a change and better the community.

I want to be in law enforcement because it interests me, and I want to help people. But in society like this one, it can sometimes be difficult to find people who think that becoming a cop is a good thing. Once I had become a cadet, there were people who would look at me, and they would distance themselves. There were some friends that would judge me because I was part of the program. I thought people were like this simply because of the type of era we live in. I think they felt intimidated by me simply because I wanted to go that particular route, and be on that side of the law. I would wake up every morning, and most of the time, there would be another “officer-involved shooting.” They may have thought that I wanted to be just like the police that they saw on the news all the time, the ones who shot people, beat them up on the street, and brutalize them for no reason at all. I know that’s not why I want to be a police officer. I want to be a police officer because I feel that if I am able to protect the people and do something that is truly beneficial, I will succeed. So as I walk through this neighborhood everyday, I go on to think that I will one day watch over this city, and protect the people. Most of all, I hope to help the youth of Boyle Heights and decrease the number of youth in gangs.

I told you in the beginning of this letter that life is a journey. It’s been a hell of a journey for you, but it’s not over yet. Being involved in law enforcement, you were able to put away criminals, the ones who tried to hurt the good people of this world, and make life miserable. You were able to make a difference. I remember that while in the LAPD Cadets, I went through various law enforcement trainings. One of the things that I learned about was

police codes and LAPD radio codes. One code that caught my attention, and popped up in mind while writing you this letter was Code One. Code One means to acknowledge. I thought of this code because while you are reading this letter, I want you to acknowledge what you have done, but especially acknowledge those that you have helped, for they had to give themselves the ability to change and make a difference for themselves. You did what you could do to help people, for the better good. You were able to make a difference, where now, hopefully, life is a little bit easier. The job is not done yet; you can still do more for the better. Hopefully, when the journey’s done, you can truly say that you were there to “protect and serve.” Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing.” I do believe that’s true.

Sincerely,

Matthew H.

LIVING A JOURNEY

Dear Future Aislym

Hey Aislym you must be twenty-five years old about now? These years seem like if it were a clock. I remember when I was in the fifth grade moving on to sixth grade. It was a new school, I was growing up and changing friends. I was scared at first but then made my very first best friend and made other good friends too. Soon enough I was moving on to seventh grade with nothing at all into making good friends and meeting more teachers and having more classes. Soon enough I was on my way to eighth grade. It was the best year so far with my new best friend, Daisy. I remember how we all came to the Roosevelt auditorium for our culmination and were being seated and called out to go up on stage one by one. It was so amazing and really emotional and really unbelievable. I never would have realized how much of a big thing it turned out to be, especially to my parents who were also really proud. Now I’m in the ninth grade moving onto tenth. My life is going by so fast and I’m growing up quickly too.

Nowadays in school there’s a lot of couples and a lot of drama all over the place. I want to tell you that right now, I’m passing all my classes and it seems like I’m going to pass my ninth grade year. It also seems like I’m going to make our parents proud again so they could know that they raised a smart,intelligent girl. Besides that I also have great supportive friends that make me happy and laugh when I’m sad, depressed, miserable, or heartbroken. I hope that you’re still in touch with them; they’ve been there for us so many times and if you’re not in touch with them I think you should text them or give them a call when you have the chance.

Something that I’ve been looking forward to in a long time is getting into a sport and doing something with my life since most of the time I’m pretty bored. I’m thinking about getting into softball or volleyball since I’m pretty good at them both compared to the other sports. Since tryouts for volleyball are this week I think I’m going to go and see if I make it during the summer. I’m also looking forward to passing ninth grade and making our parents proud for raising an educated girl and so they won’t feel like the time they spent with us was a waste. It pretty much seems like it though.

I’m also looking forward to our quince since it’s a big party to celebrate us maturing from the little girl we once were, into a woman. In that party we do so many transitional things like giving you your last special doll and once you have it you play with it by dancing with it. Once that’s over, you give it back to show you’re moving on and taking a step into becoming a woman. Another thing is changing your shoes from flats into high heels since you’re no longer a little girl and you can use high heels and be more like an adult. Something else would be either changing or getting your first crown and representing that you have come of age to become something more. For example, having a princess with a little crown and then becoming of age and turning into a queen and changing the crown into a bigger and fancier one. I know most of this because my older sister also had a quince and I was the one little girl that gave her her last doll. Since she was the first one in the family to have a quince, she didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know what she needed or anything but in the end it ended up being something amazing to her. So far, her quince has been the best one and everyone tries to get her ideas and make it similar but it never is.

Since my mom really liked how it came out she wanted me to have one. I didn’t really want a quince at first because it was too much to do and too much to gather. It seemed to be a lot for me. I didn’t really want to put up with all of this, all I wanted was to focus on school, get in a sport and be active. I didn’t want my mom to be in charge of it because me and her don’t have the same taste in clothes or anything so I knew the things she was going to get me were not going to make me happy and I’m not going to enjoy my party. I started getting my things but most importantly I had to find my dress so I looked and looked for it for so long and couldn’t find the perfect one. Finally, I did on social media and fell in love with it. Soon, I told my parents

and got the opinion of my sister and went to a store in Huntington Park and got it custom made. They took my measurements and sent it out to get it made. Now I have to go back and see if it fits and if that’s the way I want it. I think the only way I love it so much is because it’s unique. Every store I would go to, to see if they had it would say, “No, I would have to get it made.” This dress seemed to look more like Belle in Beauty and the Beast but in teal. Now that that is done all I have to do is really get into it now and try to get all the other things together.

Do you remember how you were eleven years ago? Well at that age you would get home and you would sometimes be cranky, I would also try to be on my own and focus on myself but couldn’t because of my siblings. Remember how I’d get into arguments with my siblings for dumb reasons and my parents for different reasons? I’d also try to focus on my homework and music when I’m at home but can’t because either it’s loud, I have to exercise, or because of chores I have to do. At school it would be completely different because there’s people that would judge you by your behavior. In this case, in school there’s less freedom than there would be at home. In school, I’m more respectful and responsible so I could have a good reputation. On the other hand, at home I’m more free and able to do anything and play how ever I want with anyone and not minding to deal with the consequences. Like if I were to play with someone they might take it personally. Then I’m going to have to deal with bad consequences that I wouldn’t really want to.

Another thing I like to do in school is to express myself, be happy and enjoy everything. Remember how the school years would pass by so fast like a roller coaster? Never knowing what’s going to come up or down, how fast or slow it might go. In school I would try to make the most out of everything and try not to take things for granted. Somehow, I finally realized, why be mad or sad or depressed or heartbroken when you can be happy and explore so much,and laugh, talk, and focus on other important things? Right now I get home and I’m sometimes cranky because I still have things to do that I don’t want to do. I would like you to change and not be like that anymore; help out and do your chores. Even though your parents would sometimes get on your nerves and seem pretty annoying, at some point you still love them so you should also be helping them out for everything they did for you. For example, giving you food, having a roof over your head, throw you some great parties on your birthday, and even spend time with you and for having some laughing

moments that you can’t compare to any others. I remember when our parents threw us a house party when I was turning thirteen. We would always laugh and get excited when it came to biting my cake since everyone wanted to push my head down. Everyone would laugh so loud and for so long and we would have a really good time. The cake they had bought me was so good and had so much frosting that if I were to bite it and they were to push my head down my face would be covered in frosting. Anyway, we would have so much fun and memories that I would never forget. Something I would like you to change would be the way that you dress. Try dressing up more elegant and since you have your own money and you work for it try dressing better. Some dreams that I have right now and that I would want you to accomplish for me is to explore some places. Go to New York, back to your hometown and explore, take pictures and once you’re done with that, explore Florida, Europe, Asia, and more if you have any more places by then.

Be happy!

By happy I mean enjoying life, and everything and everyone all around you. Because right now, things just come and go and I really don’t mind but then sometimes it gets to me and it’s just stuck to me like leaves on a tree but eventually fall out as time passes. It’s hard to be happy since everyone all around has different types of emotions that get to you or sometimes it’s just things that happen that could make your color change like chameleons. I hope that now you’re a bright pink happy color.

Sincerely,

Your past Aislym

S.R.

KEEP WORKING ARI, DO IT FOR YOU

Dear Past Self,

Although you’re angry, lonely, and upset at this moment, things will get better. Believe me, you don’t have any idea what you’re in for. You’re fifteen right now and happier than ever. At times, the days can still be frustrating but nowhere near as much as they were in your time. You have so much potential in you. You’re loved and cared for. You just need to figure it out for yourself. Isn’t that the way it goes?

I want to ask you why it took so long for you to realize and embrace who you are and what you want to be. Why it took so long for you to come out of your shy bubble and understand to live your life to the fullest. Remember in your time when you had a friend that you were really close to and everyone always asked her why you never talked to anyone and why you were so quiet? I’m sure you remember hearing people say, “She’s too shy and awkward.” You know the worst and most embarrassing part was when you had to pair up with someone in class, because no one really wanted to be your partner since you’re “too awkward and never talks!”

Of course those silly obstacles still creep back at times but now I fully understand it all. I gained some confidence and now I’m not afraid to talk to random people, I’m not afraid to take risks. If someone ever told me in your time that in a couple of years I would touch, play and take a picture with a giant wolf, I would have laughed in their face and called them crazy. But you did it and it was pretty cool if you ask me! Now, I can do anything rebellious and I most likely won’t regret a thing. You’ve turned into a little rebel. Eighth grade you were a rebel! It was your last year of middle school and you should’ve focused on culminating but instead you were out of control. You

talked back to your teachers, ran away from the dean multiple times, and decided to not show up to school sometimes. You messed up completely but I can’t say that I regret a thing because eighth grade was the best and most memorable year of middle school.

Once coming to Roosevelt High School, I changed my rebellious ways when I saw that people in high school were way more mature and the atmosphere was calmer, I’d say. I calmed myself down and stopped with the immature acts. Although I stopped being immature, if there is a time when I can be rebellious, I might take that chance, you never know. I’m embracing who I am and it feels damn good I tell you! You fought through and made it to a better place and a better you. I just want to know why, why it took you such a long period of time. Believe me you are much better, healthier and confident at age fifteen. You’re a changed person, you’re not that awkward girl you were before and you don’t choke up when you talk to new people, you’re learning to love yourself. You’re starting to adjust to who you are. You’re learning to tell yourself and feel that you’re beautiful. You try really hard not to bring your self esteem down. I just wish you were happy and comfortable in your time. The thought of the lack of confidence you had and how unhappy you were infuriates me now. But I understand and I guess I should be grateful with the way things were put together because if it wasn’t for all the nonsense you went through, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today, happy.

We know how great we are supposed to be, dude. Don’t worry, I’m getting us there. Keep working, Ari. Do it for you. You’ve taught me so many things and for that, I want to thank you. You made me realize that I’m a person that wants people to be happy. I found humor in me and I love to make people laugh. You taught me to never take the people I care about for granted. You made me realize that I want to inspire people to do whatever they want to do. Speak for the people that don’t have the courage to speak their mind. Never do I want to forget about the people that brought me down because they are my motivation to push forward and succeed. I want to thank you for all of this. I want to thank you for all the harsh words you’ve endured, I know now when to close my ears and walk away. I want to thank you for all the mistakes you’ve made, they have guided me into making better decisions today. I want to thank you for so much because you’ve created the person I am today; happy, confident, and appreciative.

With love,

WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?

Your Present Self, Ariadna C.

Dear Past Self,

Where did we go wrong? We started off fine. We had good grades like we are used to, good relationships with our parents and everyone around us. Instead of going out on Friday nights with friends like we would, we would stay home with our little sisters Destiny and Bella. The TV would be on with our favorite songs. Destiny would be dancing and singing, while Bella would have us on the couch with all her makeup out. She would add her blue eyeshadow and her dark purple lipstick on us because she was making me look like the sea witch, Ursula from the Little Mermaid. The pink and peach powders would be on the couch. Why did we let that go?

We were cutting school to stay home and watch TV, “Law and Order.” Our parents grounded us so many times but we would still sneak out to be on our own. Our decision didn’t just have a bad impact on us but on everyone. Grades went down and it didn’t feel good. Just seeing our report card and GPA, I wanted to break down. We aren’t used to seeing those kinds of grades. We didn’t like how mad our parents would get at us. When we would tell our little sister Bella, “No” or we are too tired when she wanted to play with us.

We didn’t like the way anything felt. It didn’t feel right seeing how our grades dropped. Also, the way our parents were acting toward us. Things around us weren’t the same so we had to change our ways. Have we found ourselves? We were going back to school and working hard to get our grades back. There was so much happiness seeing those good grades back on our report card. Our personality changed from shy to outgoing and attracting new friends.

Those type of friends that help you with homework and give you good advice. There was once this app, Ogle, that you can post things anonymously and our name came out several times. We called our friend Destiny right away. We told her that our name came out and that we were going to write something back. She knew we were mad so she told us to breathe. She then said that we are better than that and we shouldn’t even download the app. That was exactly what we did. We paid no attention and it kept us strong.

Now when Bella our little sister wants to play we’ll take her by the hand and go to the park. When we would arrive her big smile filled her face. We’ll race to the swings and take turns pushing each other. Bella would run all over the basketball court full of people playing and her ruining the game for running through. When she gets tired and decides to throw herself on the sand it fills me with joy knowing she’s enjoying herself. This makes us so happy seeing the way our changes made a difference on our future and family.

Sincerely, Younger Brianne O.

IMAGINING A BETTER LIFE

Dear Future Self,

Hey, are you still at Harvard University? I hope you’re still following your dreams.

What degrees do you have? Remember when I was a child I wanted to be a firefighter? Now I hope we get to be a civil engineer in construction design. I wanted this career because I like fixing toys and taking them apart. If we don’t get this job, try having a decent job that will pay well. Be something good that you’ll enjoy doing.

Remember where you came from, okay? Don’t be ashamed that you came from a poor neighborhood. Our mother did her best to give us everything we may need to succeed. Remember the way we used to live in that little apartment that was always falling apart. She migrated from Veracruz, Mexico to the U.S to give us a better future. Just don’t forget about your roots. I also hope you are still connected with the family. Do you worry about losing mom? Our mom may be the most important thing to us since she is the one that has been there since day one. She is the most valuable thing to our life. Just thinking of losing her may make us feel sad or even want to cry. Her love for us is so unique that you won’t find the type of way she loved us. Remember to at least have pictures of her when she passes away, so we can still feel connected to her.

Don’t make the same mistakes our parents did. Remember the way our mom told us how our dad abandoned us as a baby? When I found this out, it hurt

me because it made me feel unwanted. It still hurts me just thinking about it. Keep your head up because problems aren’t always easy to overcome. Be a better person than when you were a teenager. Find a person that will be there for you through good and bad- you’ll know what I mean. Get some friends that will teach you good things like giving you good advice over things that will make you wiser not friends that will drag you down with problems. Remember when our stepdad laid a hand on our mother? Don’t ever dare to do that to your future wife. When I saw this happen it made me get angry towards myself since I couldn’t do anything about it.

Stay connected with the family since they will always try to support you. Tell mom everything you wanted her to know before she passes away, okay? Thank her for believing in me, she was the best support we ever had. Do your best to spend some time with her, make her feel appreciated. Give mom back the money she spent in order to pay for our college. She may not want money, so find ways to pay her back. Try taking her out to Mexican restaurants since she likes Mexican food and that will allow both of you to spend time to catch up with things. Get reunited with the family to spend some time with them while you still have them around. Get more involved with the community to provide help for those who need it just like the way our mom helped us. If you can’t achieve your goals make new ones and just don’t give up. Things can be hard to achieve, but can be achieved if you put your mind too it.

Sincerely,

Carlos A. Z.

THE PATH TO A BETTER LIFE

Dear Future Self,

Right now I am in my freshman Ethnic Studies class writing to myself twenty years from now. I am taking forever to write this letter because I don’t know what I’m going to be like in twenty years. My Dad and Mom struggle to give my brothers and I a better life so I have to give back to them by helping them with any money issues. You like technology and building stuff maybe you’ll be an engineer or a business man. I’m not sure what my career is going to be, but I hope I chose well.Your goal right now is to go to college and graduate. You have College Track to help you out with that. College Track is a program that helps students make their way to college. They have counselors that help you choose a college, fun classes like film production, and tutors so they can help you with your homework. They really help you out and I hope you give back to them as well, because without them, you might not have been able to go to college. I hope time has been kind to you, and that you are well. Experiencing the highs and lows drives you to go after your dream. Everyone has a dream, but not everyone lives it or even pursues it, but you will.

I have lots of dreams that I may not accomplish, but my main dream is to give my parents a better life. A life is where they won’t always stress about paying bills or having to work as hard as a beaver. I want my parents to always be full of energy, and be happy like a kid when they get ice cream. Accomplishing that dream will make me very happy because seeing my parents full of joy makes me feel good. My other dream is to be a professional skateboarder. I imagine myself waking up joyful knowing that my job is just

to skate because getting paid for doing something you love is awesome. Skateboarding is what you love right now, it’s more like an obsession you can’t stop thinking about, it’s your happiness. Life is like skateboarding, when you fall you get back up. When you get hurt you heal slow. When you are feeling down skateboarding is always there for you. My mom may think that I’m going to hurt myself but instead it helps me. Many challenges that I’m facing right now get in my way a lot. My mom is always stressed about bills that she has to pay, especially because she is not working right now. My father and older brother had to go back to Mexico so that made life for her even worse because she had to work even more than she used too. Every time I see her she looks tired and that makes me feel bad. It’s hard to see my mom struggle. When I’m skateboarding it helps me realize that I can fix and change things in life. Just like if I’m trying to learn a trick but it’s so hard I stop and think what I’m doing wrong and how I can fix it so I can land the trick. These things motivate me to work hard in school and in life.

I hope you overcame some fears and obstacles that you were facing before. A fear that I have right now is not getting through high school, but I know I will accomplish it. Hopefully you are still overcoming obstacles. I wonder if you are going to be someone important or someone that people look up to? I hope you chose a good career that makes you happy. Are you an engineer or a business man? If you are not an important person, it’s ok, but I hope you got your parents out of poverty. Do you have a beautiful wife that supports you and cares about you? Do you have two kids that you love standing right next to you reading this letter? I hope you do because they need to know how you struggled so they can be motivated. I hope you wake up everyday enthusiastic, happy, and smiling because that means you’re living a successful life. People only see the success, but behind the curtains, I fail a lot more than I succeed. It’s not about doing the impossible, it’s the matter of how you can break it down to something possible. I want you to know that you can control how hard you work. Remember the key to success is happiness.

Best wishes, Fernando

R.

DEAR PAST SELF,

Hey, it’s been awhile since we last spoke. I know what you’re going through and it’s not the end of the world. Life isn’t about what you’re going through, it’s about what you’ve overcome. Yes, life sucks. Our life sucks really bad, but just remember that many people go through worse things. I know how you felt that night. You don’t need to keep your feelings bottled up. Anxiety sucks. It controls us in many ways. Some that I can’t even explain. All you gotta do is say no to the demons inside your head. They persuade you, manipulate you. All your feelings don’t have to be inside you. You will feel vulnerable. It’s hard, but people will like you for who you are. You can’t just pretend like everything’s going okay. Let them in. Talk. It’s like therapy in another weird sense. All those bottled up feelings will feel less stressful. It feels like a relief but it also is a little crazy to admit how you really feel instead of just wearing a fake smile all the time. Don’t question everything people say. You wonder if people thought you were annoying. Wondering, drowning into your own thoughts thinking, “Are we friends?” Vulnerability is a big step to feeling something again. Not only have you locked away your friends, but also your feelings. Just remember it’s not everything. You aren’t sacrificing your whole life. People judge, but if you find the right person, they’ll embrace you. It won’t kill. Don’t let people define you. I know anxiety makes you hide away because you feel extremely annoying. Don’t question the fact that people think you’re an annoying thing, they don’t. That’s the monsters eating you alive. You’re stronger than them. When you text them, their “oh’s” and “okay” make you feel annoying, they don’t engage in the conversation and that’s when your thoughts go into overdrive. Fight for the rights in your own body. Let people in. It’s okay to let people in and see you hurt. You’re struggling, I get that. Just keep fighting it, but you can’t stay in oblivion forever.

You have people around you who care. It may not be the people you’re living with but there are people who care about you and your problems as a whole. Don’t listen to those girls in your class. Your acne scars are your battle scars. Your hair is a part of you, embrace it. Don’t run back to an old toxic friend just because their comfort is familiar. Trust me, these new friends are way better than those from elementary. Old friends come with memories. They may be good memories, but you have to look at the bigger picture. They aren’t good. They take advantage of you for always staying with them since you never had anywhere else to go. You only had them, with their rude comments. The whole class was against you because they thought you were strange, weird and clueless. You believed these people were different but no. They still formed that “club” trying to be cool and talking behind your back. They never truly cared for you. I see that now. But you shouldn’t go running back to them it’s not good for you. And I know you’ve never been stable before and you don’t know what’s going on. But I just know, don’t go crawling back to them. Ever. You felt like you’ve never had a true friend to rely on, but you do. You have your best friend. She’s always there. Remember the time that she told you a story to stop you from crying. When you fell on a sprinkler while running around. That wound was a cherry in your mind. All the blood and veins you could see. How could you think it was a cherry? She told you a story about you just being mermaids and you saving her life. She comforted you and made you happy. Don’t take her for granted. She’ll be busy, yes, but she’s your best friend. She isn’t a normal human. She’s like a second mom to you. Makes you feel safe and secure about your journey of life. She’s short, funny and crazy. Remember the video of when you two were dancing in front of a camera? She laughed at you for falling. “Bleachers” has a completely different meaning now. Your sense of humor is probably psychotic. You guys go way back, eleven years, now fourteen. She didn’t grow up for you, she was immature to keep you satisfied. Even if she is four years older. When she started middle school, with cooler friends, she still played the little games you wanted to. Your bond will get stronger. I know. No matter what happens. Even if she hurts you. Even if you hurt her. You’ll know each other better. You’ll finally reach your goal of being taller than her. Everything will turn out okay. Take the help that’s offered to you. Don’t let them tell you what you can or can’t do. You are you. Every broken piece of you. It all counts; you matter.

If you love to sing, you better start and don’t ever stop until you’ve sung your swan song. Who cares if they call you annoying. You love to do it. People may

or may not agree with it but don’t listen. As you listen to new music, listen to the lyrics rather than the music. Listen to the lyrics that pour your heart out of how much hurt you’re in. Don’t ever stop listening to it. You’re better off with yourself, music, a pen and paper in your hand any day of the week. The music gets you, makes you cry with all its emotions. You went through different music phases, but you’ll find your true self in alternative. It’s a completely different universe of magic. Some people take drugs to heal the pain, but your medication is the music that makes you forget the world. Fine, maybe I’ll pretend right now but I swear to God you’re going to change the world. And I promise you someday we’ll tell ourselves, this is paradise. You don’t know it, but life is going to stab you in the heart time after time after time until you can’t get up, gives you a second, then continues to stab, and stab, and stab. Literally hell on earth. But you just have to be resilient and fight against your oppression. People will always tell you that you won’t be able to do this because of your ethnicity, family, gender etc. but you just have to persevere. Fight against it. Don’t give in. Don’t follow the status quo like everyone else. You’re a little ball of uniqueness and you must embrace it. Family is a pain. They’ve never understood anything; don’t let them get to you. Judgmental, that’s all they are. They could never understand your inner battle with you and the monsters inside. I’m not sure I know me now. I guess we could figure that out together. Your toxic brain doesn’t control me anymore. I finally realized how to cope with the pain. It’s not a perfect world, but perfect is overrated. I’m not your little pitiful self. I am not the way you think. I’ll never go back to you. But just know I’m stronger than you. I can fight my own battles now. I can’t pretend like I know you, we are two completely different people now.

Sincerely,

Gabriela L.

IMPENDING FUTURE

Dear Future Self,

Never give up! Try your best to succeed. I want to let you know you are a good person because you like to help others. You like being there for them, and don’t let yourself not accomplish graduating from high school in the future. Accomplish the goals, you are working hard in 2016, like trying to pass every class, to become a pediatrician, because you like helping kids and you have patience with them or become a social worker you want children to feel safe. Go to college and finish four years at UC Davis, so you can be someone in life. Also, make your mom proud and get her a home she always wanted. Remember her telling you when you were eleven, “quando estes grande, yo quiero que me compres una casa grande,” her eyes shining when she said it. Don’t let Mom compare you to your sister, or tell you to be like her, just because she has five medals and awards she would receive in high school, while you only have one. Be the third one in your family to graduate from a university. Remember that moment in freshman year when you got accepted to the Upward Bound program? That was exciting, because you know you will get help from people to reach the goal you wanted, of being on track to graduate and go to college. You’ll get the car you want which is a Bentley . You’ll struggle a bit, but you’ll accomplish your goals just like the women who tried to reach their goals in the past.

The school year at Roosevelt High School was good. I lost some friends who I would hang out with, but you know what they say, some friends switch up on you. Then I met new ones. They are really fun and comfortable to be around. My favorite class was Ethnic Studies. That class really stood out to

me. I learned about women’s rights, my own culture, and the walkouts. I didn’t really get to know about Chicano studies in elementary and middle school History class. My teachers would only mention men; only one woman which was Harriet Tubman who ran the Underground Railroad and helped the slaves. But when I started learning about Chicano culture I was surprised and really enjoyed it. My favorite topic was racism because it was really interesting to learn about it the uprising fact was that it still exists. I didn’t know we had to wait for the second year of college to learn about Ethnic Studies but it’s cool that we have it in high school. Some other high schools should have it too.

“Devote yourself to an idea Go make it happen struggle on it

Overcome your fears. Smile don’t you Forget this is your dream”

Sincerely,

RESPONSIBILITY OF PERFECTION: LOWKEY NERD

Yourself Marisol G. Dear Future Self,

Well, I am fifteen years old right now; a freshman at Roosevelt High School. I am still young and learning how to live in this world. My family, my girlfriend, and my friends are very important to me. They’ve always been there for me when I most needed them and whenever I feel like giving up, they are there to motivate me. When I’m feeling down my mom always notices it in me. I don’t know how but she just does and she always calls me over and asks me, “Qué traes mijo?” and I would just explain my problem to her.

In seventh grade I received a big art project and I literally freaked out since I’m not a good drawer. When I got home I got to it right away. My mom had seen that I was struggling so she came to me with her iPad and showed me a good, but simple picture of a cool drawing that would be great for my project. We both started working on it and suddenly, Chris and Luis, two of my friends, arrived to help me and less than one hour and a half, my project was done. They are the people I love the most.

Important things in my life now are my education and also playing football in high school. In order to play football I have to keep my grades up. I’ve always wanted to play football once I got to highschool. I have always played football as a little boy when I was in elementary and I would get home and play right outside my house or at the park with a few friends. I always wondered how it felt to play in an actual football team. Since I was a little boy, I had already planned to join Roosevelt’s football team and beat Garfield. I recently joined on May 2, 2016. Right now I have to be patient and wait until

football season to start to play my first game. My grades are good and I am proud of myself for being able to maintain A’s and B’s. I may hate school but I still care about being someone successful in life. Waking up early is just so tiring, but I know that throughout my whole life, I’m going to have to wake up early either way but it still doesn’t make me like school. So much work is very stressing at times that it gets me thinking about dropping out but I know that I’ll never do that. In middle school, I struggled in the seventh grade to get good grades. I would put too much pressure on myself about homework. I would struggle so much that it would get me angry and cause me to break down and cry. They took me to counseling but it didn’t seem to help me. I wanted to have the best grades ever to impress my mom. I wanted my mom to be proud of her children.

My oldest brother didn’t really care about school and as the second oldest in my family I didn’t have someone to motivate me so I felt that I had to set the examples for my younger brothers. I wanted to be their role model. It makes me feel good to set an example for them. I went through all that and I ended up passing seventh grade with straight A’s. As I grew up and went on to another school year a sudden change happened to me.

Throughout my eighth grade year, my temper got terribly out of control and now I don’t stress out on schoolwork as much as I did before. I’m really not sure why I changed but I’m guessing it’s the fact that I’m not going to let myself get punked on by anyone. It was both a good and bad change; now I don’t put too much pressure on myself about school but I have a short temper. For example, every time someone looks at me the wrong way or gives me a mean look, I literally just snap and go up to them and very aggressively, ask if they have a problem or what are they looking at. This has happened so many times that most of the times it ends up causing a fight. This temper has made me argue also with my family and friends.

Me and my mom disagree most of the time. I want to go outside to hang out with my homies but at times, she doesn’t let me because she wants me to do chores or help her out. Most of the time she has no reason to not let me go out. It gets me mad when she constantly keeps reminding me to do chores because it’s already engraved in my mind on what I have to do.

Sincerely,

A CHILD’S CHANGING PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE

Richard C. Dear Past Self,

You’re barely in the fourth grade and I know you are getting excited to move on to the fifth grade. You are especially looking forward to middle school, you are starting to think about how you want things to be different. People are starting to grow up and move on with their life. Because my parents wanted to keep me a child as long as possible, I missed out on experiencing new things, like going out to eat with friends. I felt singled out and so will you, but don’t let that keep you from being happy. Fifth grade is where it starts. Your friends start hanging out after school, going to the store down the street while you wait for your mom to pick you up at school. They start going to the mall or the movies, and the next day they’ll laugh and joke about what happened. Meanwhile, you will stand by without saying a word and smile as everyone laughs to something you don’t understand. While you are in the fifth grade, you will start noticing and caring about different things that never bothered you before. You will think that how you dress is too childish. In the fourth grade your mom even bought you tutus. You liked them when she bought them for you. As soon as you stepped inside class with one, everyone stared and laughed. You felt embarrassed. It even lowered your self-esteem. You hardly wore them but you had to once in awhile because your mom thought they were cute and you didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her you didn’t like them. You’ll notice that other girls are growing up faster than you, and you’ll see that having the newest toy isn’t what everyone talks about anymore. Everything starts changing, your world will be turned upside down.

Fifth grade isn’t that bad, that’s just the turning point, the time when you start realizing the changes. Slowly your friends will discover new things and leave you behind. One moment everyone is talking about the new cartoon that just came out, the next everyone will be talking about their new boyfriend or girlfriend. Once you get into middle school, things change drastically, you’ll face decisions you never thought you’d have to make. One day, you will have friends that’ll put you in a situation where you will have to decide if you’ll be like them and be “cool,” or look the other way and be outcasted for being “lame,”One of those friends is going to choose the wrong path and take everyone else with her. The first day you see it will be when she brings a hookah pen to school. While you’re in the halls during lunch she’ll take it out. Once you see it you’ll freeze and then become on high alert. She’ll hand the pen around and all your friends will accept it without thinking twice. The pen comes around to you. A million thoughts are racing through your mind at once. All the consequences if you accept it, the idea of a chance that your parents won’t find out. You’ll think, “if I take a little, it won’t hurt,” but it will, you know that. A little is all it takes for you to become addicted. If that’s what happens, there will be horrible consequences, and you don’t want that to happen. You weren’t raised like that anyway. You were raised to make good decisions and stay away from the bad. Everything will make you dizzy, your heartbeat will sound like thunder in your ears. Then you’ll have to make a choice. There’s only one right choice, I’m not going to tell you what it is because I know that’s the choice you will make.

I’ll tell you this right now, you will always be bullied. I’m in high school and bullying still hasn’t gone away, it’s rare but it’s still there. I’m telling you to not let bullying get to you. They are just words. Don’t let mean comments stop you from doing what you love and being the person you want to be. Even though other kids would’ve grown up and stopped accepting affection from their mothers doesn’t mean you should too. Your mom loves you to death and isn’t afraid to show it. She’s protective and wants you to stay her baby forever; you’re her only child and she only gets the experience once. There was only one chance she had to spoil a child, especially a daughter. As soon as you grow up it’s over for her. She didn’t want it to end. At open houses you will hold your mom’s hand, give her hugs and kisses, and sit on her lap in the classes. The next day some girls will mock and make fun of you. All of that mocking will make you wish your mom could just leave you alone

in public and let you grow up. I’m telling you to ignore those thoughts. Today I wish that I could have just one last day in my childhood. Before you didn’t have to worry about anything, everything was fun and games, all you had to do was live life. Now time is flying by. My first year of high school went by faster than I expected; believe people when they say it’ll go by before you know it. I wish for just one more time that my mom could hold me in her lap, one more time that she could play a game with me. Now I’m literally too big and there’s no more free time. You can’t slack off anymore, there’s no more having fun. You need to work extra hard now so you won’t have to in the future. I miss when it took me ten minutes to do homework. Now it takes at least an hour. You may want to grow up, but growing up brings huge responsibilities that you’ll wish you could get rid of. Enjoy being a child.

Everything around you will change. In some ways you will too. Until this day you will be studious, and that’s a good thing, it’ll pay off in the long run. No matter what, you will always be the student that studies more than enough for a test, you’ll always have to get straight A’s. I definitely know that because of that you will have the best future, a future that you always wanted. I’ll tell you that you will always be the good kid that does everything she is told, that follows all the rules, and never does anything bad. There’s nothing wrong with that, anyone else who thinks otherwise is wrong. Yes, I do get in trouble, nobody is perfect, but I get in trouble for not washing the dishes not for getting caught ditching. You may think that it’s unfair you get punished for forgetting a simple chore, but it is better for you to get in trouble for that than get in trouble for something serious; especially with your parents. It seems unfair but your parents punish you for simple things because they are trying to teach you that you can’t get into the habit of thinking you can get away with forgetting those simple things. They’re trying to teach you the value of responsibilities. Being a good kid will pay off. Because you obey your parents, they’ll trust you. In high school you’ll have more freedom. They won’t let you do anything crazy like stay out late at a party but they will let you hang out with friends. You’ll finally be the one to go to the store down the street; just like you always wanted. That experience will make you feel grown up, it’ll be a taste of what it’s like to be independent. You’ll feel free and get to see what’s it’s like to be like everyone else. It’s nothing special, but it’s something new.

Something that absolutely changes with you is how you see life. As I’ve said

before, when I was a kid it was all fun and games. Now I have a whole different perspective on things. I have to think about the future, my long term goals and how I will achieve them. My main worry is doing well in school. Next year I’ll think about getting a job and a driver’s license. In three years I’ll have to start applying to colleges and worry about how I’ll pay for it. After high school and college, I’ll be on my own. I’ll have to support myself and be independent. The list goes on, there’s so much to think about. It’s a big world, and before you know it you’ll be lost in it.

Overall, it will be difficult for you to go through the transition from a child to an adolescent, but you will get through it. Enjoy your time while it lasts because time will go by faster than you can imagine. Don’t try to grow up sooner like everyone else because you’ll miss the fun part. You have good things coming towards you, don’t mess it up by giving in to the unfriendly feelings everyone else has for you. The way our life is headed is worth all the hard work and resistance to “fitting in with the cool people.” Just wait and see.

Sincerely,

Mariah S.

STRONG, INDEPENDENT, DEPENDENT WOMEN

Dear Future Dependable Me,

I am fourteen right now and and I’m here to tell you about my present self and the present day society. I hope you are doing well in school amidst everything. The me I am today is a tall girl that is happy when she has good days. My good days are when I don’t have to hear rude remarks, no one gets me mad, and when I could be with my friends. My bad days are when people try to be fake and say something that gets to me. These days affect me because I can’t be happy and I always keep those comments in my head. When I react to those days I act like I don’t care. I am currently in cheer and softball.

Right now, I am trying to overcome the problems I’ve been having such as family, school, and myself. My world was like a puddle of tears. I’ve been having problems trying to find myself and trying to see what I want to do. I’m trying to find a way to ignore everyone and keep my head up. The advice I give you when I’m older is to be confident, don’t be insecure by ignoring everyone, believe in myself, trust myself. I know it’s not easy but it’s the best way. What I always want you to remember is to be happy and smile through everything. Just remember when you were in middle school and mom said, “I remember when you were always happy, now you’re not.” Remember! My smile disappeared like the sun at night. I want you to remember everything you’ve been through, all those people that didn’t think well of you. Please remember! That will help motivate yourself to prove people wrong.

Things I want to achieve is graduating from Roosevelt High School and USC,

then becoming a hard working woman, working in journalism or something else. I want to be a hard working woman that doesn’t have to depend on anyone. Dreams I have are to become a strong, independent, and dependable woman. I will do these things by not depending on anyone for anything and by believing in myself no matter what. I won’t let anyone bring me down ever again. Changes I want to make for myself is to be more open, secure about myself, and the most important one is to not care what people think or say about me!

Sincerely,

Ashley A.

HARD WORKING MEN

Dear Future Self,

Hey future self, I want to give you advice to stop thinking so much about the past negatives; it may not be easy for us. Achieve the impossible with your struggles. What makes it impossible is when you don’t focus on working on something like homework and reading. You should put your phone away to help you focus on things that are important. Today I’m okay with the friends I hang out with during lunch. I hope I’m in college because my mom and dad will be happy, like a kid in a candy store. I also hope you still talk to our little brother, David get along together. I hope you do alright in class and get better grades.

Do we have a well paying job? I wonder if we still talk to our six uncles. I feel we do get along and sometimes not. Do we visit our grandma because she has been kind of lonely since grandpa passed away. I hope we play the guitar. It is mostly kind of hard to use but it helps clear my mind. I hope we do remember grandpa, I won’t forget him. Do we visit him and leave some flowers for him? Do we visit our uncle most of the time?

I really want to see if we made our parents happy. Do we meet new friends? I would like to see if they are alright. I hope we are doing good right now in college. Do we still see our friends and hangout with them? What are my hobbies when we are older? I want to help my mom even if I move out of the house. I also want to help my sister and brother with their homework. Don’t get frustrated, stressed out, or lose hope.

Sincerely,

Antonio D.

I’M NOT SCARED ANYMORE

Dear Future Cassandra,

I hope you changed your attitude. Now I don’t have a lot of connections with people but I wished like my mom. My mom is a person who has a lot of friends and I wish I were like that. My mom is also really respectful with all kinds of people; the most wonderful thing she does is always having that wonderful smile on her face. She might not have the time, but she is a person that likes to have fun with her family and friends.

Right now I have good grades but I’m worried they might drop. I see myself changing. I care about my future and my success but sometimes I don’t express how I am feeling inside. I don’t talk to my friends or family because I’m scared they won’t understand me. I’m worried they will pressure me to express my emotions. When I was in elementary school, people would bully me. The only way for me to not be bullied was becoming one. When I became one of them I would bully my ex friends. I would bully my friend Laura, her nickname was Fish because she would smell like one. The reason I became a bully was because my teacher would bully me when I was in the third grade. Miss Cassie would treat me as if I was nothing in life. She would discriminate against me because she told me she hated brown people. Days passed and Miss Cassie was being meaner, she started hurting me. She wouldn’t let me go to the restroom, she would not let me get lunch. I got really mad. The only way was to walk out of class. The next day she was really mad because I walked out. She smashed my fingers between two tables and I got really mad. I had a really big bump on my finger. I went up to the principal with my mom and she got fired. She was fired because she was hitting other students also. She was not allowed to hit anyone or to make

them feel lesser. When I got to the third grade I was still one of the bullies. The girl with the nickname Fish had the same class I had. Something inside of me said, “You’re not a bad person, you’re a good person. Stop being someone you’re not!” The way Laura and I became friends was when our third grade teacher Ms. Basa put us in a group. When I got the chance to talk to her, she made me understand that I don’t have to be someone that I’m not. We became friends in the beginning of third grade. She was really funny and respectful to the person that had been bullying her. We became friends since third grade until now and I hope we can stay friends until we are old. As days passed we kept having the same classes together. We became best friends, who know everything about each other- we even know each other’s parents. We know our likes and dislikes. We have been friends for six years . She is always there for me and even though she’s not the perfect person everyone would like to have, she is the best person I would like to have. She the best friend I wouldn’t like to lose.

I got to middle school and started meeting new friends. No matter how much I try to express my feelings with my family and friends, I wouldn’t because I knew they wouldn’t understand me. They would think I am just a teenager that cries for no good reason. As time went by, I reached eighth grade. I started meeting more and more friends. I went to a class, the girls wouldn’t say anything. When they first saw me, I couldn’t tell if they liked having a new classmate or if they just didn’t like me. The way they would look at me was as if I was a bad person. By the looks on their face, I knew they were going to make fun of me and the next day they were talking about me behind my back. I got tired of it and decided to push them so they would leave me alone. The good thing is that my friend Stephanie was there. She was the one who took control of my attitude. She would understand me because they would make fun of her also. They wouldn’t say it to your face. They would send notes and look at you to make sure you were looking.

I finally finished eighth grade with really good grades. While on stage, I realized that having good grades was the best feeling I have ever felt. I felt like I had done something good in my life, like I was worth something, even if I wasn’t worth anything in elementary and middle school. My family and friends would treat me like I was part of a wonderful family and no matter what, they would always love me. I went to high school and started to express

my feelings more. Each day I was feeling much better because my family and friends were always there for me. The bad thing about me is, when I express my feelings, I express them in a really aggressive way instead of telling someone about it. Instead of saying something, I would stay quiet and not say a word. Every time I get home I would talk with my mom. I think she is the person that understands me most. I love talking to my friends and family because I know they would be there for me at any moment. I also know they would be there all my life because they love me. The other thing that has been helping me are my good grades. I feel like I have done something in life that would help me all over the place.

In the future I would like to be known as a person that has been through many hard moments in their life. I would also like to help my sisters. I’d like for them to be happy and be someone in life that other people would like to know. I want to be that person that never gives up. That person that would alway be brave and no longer be scared of anything. This is who I am and I hope I don’t change.

Sincerely,

Cassandra G.

DEAR FUTURE ME,

What I’m about to tell you is a story of what you went through when you were younger. I want to remind you about your struggles because you never once thought about self-harm or giving up. You went through all these rough times and you never gave up on life or school. I want you to read this when you’re feeling down or feel like giving up on what you’re doing. Now tell me, do you remember having to see mom crying for hours, dad making mom’s life miserable even her boyfriend making it terrible? Let me tell you the story about the struggles you’ve been through.

It was heartbreaking seeing Mom cry until three in the morning, thinking Dad was cheating on her because he wouldn’t come home until the next morning. Constantly fighting every single day, having to hear them yell at each other most of the day. Until one day the arguing was over because Dad was leaving. No goodbye, no hug, no kiss; he just walked out the door without saying a word. Weeks, months, even years have passed since we saw Dad. No calls, no gifts for our birthday, nothing. After about a year and a half, Mom found a boyfriend. He started to become more like our father figure, we all loved him except for Chris. Chris has always been the brother with a problem trusting outsiders. Another year passed and still no father. Mom would call Dad to tell him Jonathan and you were about to have surgery but he never came. Jonathan is the brother that will be in the hospital most of the time. Jonathan suffered so much, from having surgeries in his stomach to his legs and head. Do you remember the first time he had a seizure, how scared you were? Do you remember shaking for hours, witnessing Jonathan have a seizure scares you and makes you think that you could lose him? Seeing him shaking, throwing out so much saliva looking like he was about to… watching the firefighters taking him to the hospital and the next day he asks you, “Esme, what happened to me? Why do I keep ending up at the hospital?” Answering him would be the hard part. Doctors saying if he has many more seizures he can pass away. You needing surgery for your appendix and tonsils because you couldn’t breathe. Mother would leave voicemails telling Dad about it but he would never call back.

One day someone knocked on the door, it was our uncle, we haven’t seen him since the last time we saw Dad. Ricky was the rude uncle, he was holding papers. Chris opened the door and Ricky quickly gave Chris the papers and

told him to give them to Mom. So he did, then we saw Mom break down. We asked what was wrong and she said nothing. Days later we found out that Dad had sent Mom divorce papers and also wanted full custody of us. Once court started, everything started to break down slowly. On the day we finally got to see Dad, it felt awkward. After all these years he finally decided to man up. It felt as if he was just a stranger. We asked why he left but he would always end up changing the subject. Weeks later, he confessed that he was having another child. Of course it hurt, it hurt so bad it felt as if our heart was torn up into many pieces. It made us think, while we were waiting for him to come home, he was out partying and ended up getting himself a girlfriend and now is going to have a family with her. Once court started the judge ended up giving Dad visitations, where he could only see us for a few hours. Then the judge gave him the weekends to be with us. He fought for time, time to hang out with us but he hardly ever came to pick us up. Mom, of course was really pissed.

Year after year, more money spent on court and less money spent on us. Never once did Dad help with school supplies or groceries. Dad never even bothered to take us to the doctors or dentist. After about six years of court, Mom got multiple sclerosis. She stayed at the hospital for weeks, the house was lonely. One day we came home from school and grandma was crying. She said to us, “Your Mom’s heart stopped, they had to revive her. She’s okay right now, I just can’t imagine losing her. You guys still need her, we all still need her.” We all started to cry after that. More and more family problems. When we would go to Dad’s side of the family they would look at us as if we didn’t belong with them. Dad’s mom would always have something bad to say about us. So many years of arguing, so many years of stress. Many people that had pity for us would suggest we talk to a therapist. It was just frustrating. After about five years of court that’s when Jonathan started to have his episodes. Doctors say that the seizures are caused by stress, too much on his mind. Jonathan would have his seizures close to the holidays at the end of the year. Eight years of court and it’s stood the same. All the thousands of dollars spent on attorneys and nothing changed. After all these years of fighting, nothing came out of it.

You see, there’s more to this story but you know it all. You been through all these struggles so why think about giving up now? You were young, you were small you’ve been through so much. You could’ve given up at school and life

but you didn’t because you know what’s best for you. You need and will get through whatever it is because you are a strong, smart and a dedicated woman. Once you accomplish what you’re doing, you will be happy and feel like you succeeded. Continue to follow your dreams! Your dream is to go to college and study science to be a veterinarian. You want to move out of L.A. and live in a place that you dream of living in and eventually having a family. You know what you want and what you want is to succeed.

Sincerely,

Esmeralda L.

WORKING ON IT

Dear the You You Are Now,

Who are you now? It’s been fifteen years since you were just a freshman at Roosevelt High School. Remember, once a Rider always a Rider! I never actually payed attention to what I had planned for the future until now. I’ve always had my mind set on the present time. There’s already a lot of things going on and it’s only freshman year. I could only imagine what it’s like now in the future. My only worries at the moment are maintaining good grades and still being able to go to basketball practice. There has been a couple of rough patches here and there but I’ve been able to get through it. There’s been a few heartbreaks, from family members passing away to getting your heart broken by your first love. It’s okay though, we stayed good friends. I wonder how we’ll be now that you’re reading this fifteen years from now.

It’s hard to think about where I’ll be in the future. There are still probably a few problems you’re dealing with or stressed out about; work, bills, or family issues. My advice to you, keep working no matter how hard things get. No one said that life was going to be easy. I know this advice is just like any others you’ve heard before, but that’s what I kept telling myself in school and at practice. You have friends and family to help you if you really need it. You will always have your sister Wendy. She has been there for you through any obstacle you have faced in life. Wendy was always like your second mother. She would feed you and take you places like Dodger games, restaurants, the mall, etc. She would buy you things you didn’t need but that you wanted. She’s the one you went to if you had a problem with your other siblings, Lalo and Nena. She gives really good advice to you when you need it. She’s given

you advice about high school and sports. She says not to care what others think of you as long as you’re happy. You should be forever thankful for that. One thing I don’t want you to forget is where you came from. You were born and raised in Boyle Heights. A place where you can experience the best of things, like tacos from the taco trucks at every corner; and the worst of things like gang violence and dirty streets. Sometimes though, it can make you mentally stronger or weaker, depending on how you look at the situation. If you don’t include the gang rivalries, you can somewhat see Boyle Heights as a place where we are all one big family. The streets taught you a few lessons about who you can and can’t trust. I myself haven’t experienced a friend turning their back on me but I’ve seen it happen to my other friends. I’ve seen some friends be there during the happy times, but when everything goes to hell, they turn their back on you in an instant. They will pretend to be your best friend but they can be talking crap about you behind your back. This reminds me of the lyric in the song “My Story” by Phora, “Took a look around but no ambulance was surrounding me. Guess this is how it ends, huh? I guess this is what my momma meant when she said watch your friends, huh?”

Never forget about basketball. Go shoot around once in awhile when you want to get something off your mind. Basketball is something that relieves you from your stress. Basketball is a distraction from the problems you have going on. You’ve been playing since you were around five years old. I guess you can say it’s your passion. Basketball is my drug. It helped me escape the bad things in life.

How many things have you achieved? I’m hoping you learned how to drive and have your license. Driving is very important to me. I really want that freedom that driving gives. You’ve always liked playing racing games, getting behind the wheel and pressing the little pedals. Making it seem like you’re in your very own car driving. The sound of the engine has always hyped you up. It makes you want to get behind the wheel and drive to a place you’ve never been. I can be able to drive places with my friends and far away from my family. You’ve always wanted to be away from your family, mostly your dad. He doesn’t really approve of who you are. He’s always wanted you to dress more like a girl, putting on a dress, having your hair down, all that type of stuff. I’m the total opposite of what he wants. At the moment you don’t really talk to him as much as you’d like to. You are working on it though. I hope you

have a good relationship with him now. By a good relationship I mean being able to talk to him about our problems. Dad is a good guy, he wants what’s best for you. No matter how much he can annoy you, you still love him at the end of the day because he has taught you right from wrong. He wants what’s best for the family even if it doesn’t seem like it at times and you love him for that.

My goal is to graduate high school and college so fifteen years from now, I’ll be reading this in my dream home with no worries in the world. I’m trying to make it to the WNBA so I can have a job where I’m doing what I love. If that doesn’t work then I will be a police officer. Some dreams I have and will accomplish are to graduate both high school and college and get a well paying job. I want to help my parents out to the point where they can stop worrying about the bills, or if there will be food on the table. Some people are going to hate you for whatever reason, just make them hate you even more by having a successful life. Never change who you are for someone. Stay true to yourself.

THE ONE THAT COULD

Dear Me,

I am writing this letter because I will go through the problems you went through when you were my age. I know for me to be who you are now I will go through struggles and different obstacles. All of those struggles can be as hard as a rock but I will not give up. Everything will be hard on my way to success. Many of my struggles will tell me to give up or I will want to quit from time to time. But those struggles are probably some of the causes that I am successful today.

Sincerely, Gabby

P.

Have we changed over the last ten years or are we still the same person? I’m sure in the last years we have changed little. Did we go to college and leave a legacy? Are we the first in our family to go to college? Are there many things I still haven’t accomplished yet? Some things would be, losing weight learning how to swim, etc. Did we have the courage to do stuff we were afraid to do? Like learning how to drive, cook, or have our own house.

Did we accomplish some of the many dreams we had when we were young? Like becoming a scientist, astronaut, discovering a cure for a rare disease, being a pilot, etc. Will I grow up to be twenty-five years old and have a mansion in LA? Will I be doing activities, actions, and tasks I never thought I would do? Some would be getting married and having children. Others would be traveling to expensive locations, eating at restaurants, going to different states and countries. I could travel around the world and learn different languages, religions, customs, history, etc.

I remember the fun times we had our freshmen year at Roosevelt High School. We met new people that went to the same elementary and middle school as us and we didn’t know. We learned about racism, sexism, and the other -ism’s.

Sincerely,

Gerardo V.

LET THEM REMEMBER ME

Dear Future Me,

I’m currently fifteen years old, it is May 12, 2016. I’m guessing the year is 2026. You probably have a break from work. You have the two kids you have always wanted- no twins because you don’t think you would be able to- they are a handful. I know this because my mom told me stories of my sister and I. You have a husband and have a job as a veterinarian.

The important things in life right now are your grades; to pass the ninth grade without any fails because that would have only disappointed Mom. She knows I could do well in school if I put enough effort, but how much is enough? I’m trying to make Mom and Dad proud. Boys aren’t important right now, education first. Yeah, sometimes I might see cute guys on Instagram or We Heart It thinking, “I want a cute boyfriend” but sometimes boys distract from school by asking if you would like to ditch with them. Stay in school! Anyway, finals are getting to me because they are just around the corner. Theses grades I get are permanently on my record to apply for a college I want. I have to get good grades to be accepted to USC or UCSC and get a good career.

The person I am today is a pretty good student. I sometimes slack off but then I get worried of my mom getting a call because she is a scary woman. She probably scares me more than my dad. She gives me the eye. Where I really love to be is somewhere seeing nature. It’s very peaceful and reminds me every time that we need to take care of Earth. It is basically the only planet that has offered living things to live on. Many gases and pollution

are destroying the world. Mother Nature is supposed to be filled with green and blue, not brown and black. The relaxing sounds of nature is everything… it could be from waterfalls, to winds, birds, everything, except things from mankind. No trees getting cut down, sounds of animals when being tortured for us to have a decent meal. Animals are living things that are part of this world and we need to start treating them like that. I cringe at the thought of slaughter houses. I cringe at the thought of animal cruelty. As you can tell, 60% of my heart is filled with animals.

The sport that really makes me feel better and makes me feel like a person with no worry, is volleyball. Some people would say it is easy- everyone could play, but when you hand them a ball, they can’t even bump straight at you. Volleyball might look like an easy sport but it takes concentration. I play to release stress, stress I get from school or at home. I hope I could probably receive a scholarship by playing and even play in college. My idol is Samantha Bricio. She is a USC Volleyball player and has scored many points with serves. Fight on!

Advice I can give to myself is to never give up. People can’t look at you and say, “She quit because she couldn’t keep up.” Let them remember you as a person who, even though wasn’t good enough to make the team, tried and after all succeeded. The road up the mountain is big and tough, but the top is bigger. Whatever your mountain is, keep climbing. Some paths might be easy and calm, but where is the struggle in that? If the other path is tough, take it. It will be worth it because it shows all the many hard things you had to pass to accomplish your goals. Education is one of the things that are important. Sure it sucks sometimes, but what other things open the door for the future? Growing up in a place where it is mostly known for gangs and for crimes is hard. People would think the kids that go to Roosevelt won’t make it far and if they do, the best college would be ELAC. Attending ELAC isn’t going to change the fact that someone wants to be a lawyer or doctor.

What I always want to remember is my friends and the best moments we had. Like when we all went to my friend Briza’s house and played ping-pong with soda- that was fun. Or when we all attended Carol’s quinceanera. While other people were dancing up on each other, we were doing weird stuff but we were dancing and having fun. That day was March 11, 2016. I want to always remember the years when I played volleyball for Roosevelt High

School. I was pretty nervous the first time I tried out but now I feel comfortable and it’s barely going to be my second year playing. Good things to remember are the football games. My friends and I have a special place located at the 50 yard line. They play music and we get turns but then we leave hungry and tired. high school will probably be your best memories of school. I want to remember the good times I had with my family. Like when we go to Santa Fe Dam with my cousin and my neighbors. It is a little lake and we cook meat or make ceviche. Those are happy moments.

Love, Leslie H.

(P.S. If Donald Trump wins as president, I’m living in Canada)

DETERMINED

Dear Current Self,

I’m so afraid of growing up and not being happy with what I made out of my life. I don’t have role models so I feel like I’m standing alone. Why are you so afraid of messing up in school even though you have good grades? Right now you’re not confident enough but maybe one day you’ll believe in yourself. I’m just fifteen, a freshman at Roosevelt High and there is so much going on. Even as a freshman you have to be on top of everything. There’s a lot of pressure that I personally don’t like but it helps me get things done. I try to cope with everything the right way, I try not to be hard on myself. At times I feel like giving up but I persist in achieving what I want.

My family, mother and father are always there when I need them the most. I don’t like to tell my mom my problems because I don’t like to stress her out with more problems. They are both loving and smart parents, they mean the world to me. I know if I ever need something they are always going to be there for me. I always looked up to my older brothers but I don’t feel the same anymore.

My older brother Victor, he’s twenty-two. He graduated from high school but didn’t continue on to college. Victor, why didn’t you continue? You could have had what you wanted! Why was it poverty that we didn’t have the money to go to college I thought maybe I won’t be able to either. My other older brother Robert, he’s nineteen. He dropped out when he was a junior. Why did you drop out? You’re so smart and bright, you could’ve been someone great in the future and not feel the poverty we are living in today! My

other older brother Marc he’s 16 and he’s on the run. It sucks that you’re never here anymore. Before you and I were really close. I miss us and you’re so much smarter than what you’re doing now. Why are you becoming someone you always said you’d never be? Why aren’t you thinking about how much you’re hurting your family? We love you and we miss you. We really hope you’re doing okay and you’re taking care of yourself, wherever you are. My mom doesn’t deserve what you’re doing to her. You’ve created a hate inside of me I’m so hurt and I hope one day you could apologize to your family and you accept that you messed up.

It all started in middle school when my brother Marc and I started to mess up in school, always ditching. We missed about half a semester, he was an eighth grader and I was a seventh grader. It was easy for me to follow him because he was older then me and I looked up to him. I noticed how much we were hurting my mom so I put a stop to it. I talked to my brother too, “Stop what you’re doing already. You already had fun, now time to get your life together.” He said, “I’m not sure what I want anymore” and he meant he didn’t know if he still wanted to go to school or go back to juvenile. I feel like he doesn’t care that he hurts my mom because if he did he would change, at least to see her happier, knowing he wants a better future. I feel upset at him, seeing my mother so hurt over him makes me feel the same. I hate to see her suffer. I really hope Marc, that you’re thinking about what you’ve done. You’re going to have a bad reputation and you’re pushing away your family when we care for you the most.

At this point I feel like I don’t look up to any of my brothers but I have to be a role model to my little brother Juan, he’s twelve years old. I stand alone and I have to push myself through all these obstacles in my life. I always try to stay positive think big, and try to do big things. I like to get good grades to play sports. I know in the long run it will help me out by making my GPA higher. When I grow up I want to become a police officer because it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, I want to be able to protect others. I want to accomplish these goals I have set to say, “I finally made it out of poverty.” I could give my family what they deserve and and try to payback my mom for all the great things she’s given me. I’m growing up fast, I’m starting to lose interest in things I liked when I was younger. For example when I was younger I wanted to become a teacher, because I always thought it was cool. My mindset always changes while I grow. Every day is a new day to choose what

I want to do for the rest of my life. I always try to stay positive no matter what I do. My goal is to grow and stop feeling the struggle with my family. I know if I do all the right things I will get to where I want to be. I need to see what I’m really capable of inside. I need to know what I have created for my future self. I’m determined to see what I’ve accomplished.

Sincerely, Maira V.

YOU’VE LEARNED A LOT FROM HERE

Dear Future Isaias,

You’ve been through a lot, throughout the years. You’re fifteen years old now and you have many more to go. Growing up in Boyle Heights wasn’t that easy, there has been a lot of shootings. People who were close to you are somewhere else in life.

Living in Boyle Heights was tough; moving from house to house, meeting new neighbors and new friends, watching the closest people in your life go to jail, not being able to see your cousin because he’s in jail is very depressing. Talking to him on the phone is very distressing. All I heard him say was,“It’s boring in here. Ima get out soon, ma boi.” That’s when I start to feel emotional. Seeing a lot of gang violence was sad and scary. You’ll be playing in the park at 8:00 pm and someone would call out their gang name. All you could here is the reloading of a gun and the shots from it. After that you would get your stuff and just run home. Later on you would see a murdered person on the news. Boyle Heights is where I grew up. You’ve learned a lot from there. You played sports such as basketball, baseball, and soccer. You went from Evergreen Elementary to Sheridan Elementary. Then on to Hollenbeck Middle School. After that on to Theodore Roosevelt High School , playing soccer. Getting a chance to practice with professional coaches and players at the FCA camp at UCLA.

Now you’re main goal is to become pro at soccer. You want to attend UCLA. You want to make your family proud of your achievements. You want to be at the top, looking back like, “Man, I made it.” You don’t want to let your family down. You want to prove to them that you can be something big in life. After you have accomplished your dream and all the achievements you have done, feel good about yourself. After all that, you’re going to be stress free and live a good life.

Sincerely, Fifteen year old Isaias A.

DEAR PRESENT SELF,

Most people have always thought of what their future job will be. I feel that’s a thought everyone should experience at least once. I feel this is a healthy thought because when I experience that thought, I then go on to think of my life and how I’ve progressed. Sometimes I have a feeling of greatness or sometimes of sadness. Greatness gives you a feeling of wanting to accomplish more but that feeling of sadness drops your morale and you get second thoughts of quitting. The reason I get both of these feelings is because of some things I’ve achieved and some I haven’t yet. By now I should have achieved more in my academics; I should have gotten better grades in these past months. Reason being, it is better to have that feeling of accomplishment. Why academics is my main goal is because my brother who is in college and my sister who is applying. Given the thought of how they both have accomplished this and have higher standards for me, personally I wouldn’t care for that. But other people will see me as the bird who can’t fly. I’m the one who never knew how to set my standards and accomplish the things I wanted to. One particular reason why I want to get good grades, go to a university and have a good job where I get paid good money, is because that’s everyone’s dream but I also want to show people that I have achieved this much. There are many other reasons for this but some of these stand out more than others. One particular reason why I want to succeed in life is because both my parents were poor. Coming from Mexico and having to work hard their entire life for my brothers, sisters and I means a lot to me. I wouldn’t want to waste that by not doing anything and not making something out of myself.

Sincerely, Abraham

A.

DEAR FUTURE SELF,

Let me start off by saying you’re a strong, successful, and brave woman and everything in life maybe didn’t go as planned but you made something great out of yourself. You’re strong because of everything that you have been through, you always got through it. You’re successful because you were always focused on what was best for you. You’re brave because you are not too scared to take risks. At the end of the day you are that wonderful lady no one thought you were. Those are just a few things of what you are in life. You are the fifth child out of seven kids in your family. It’s your brother Steve first, Jonathan second, then your twin sisters Jessica and Jasmine, then it’s YOU. That unique little girl that everyone loves. Then it’s your little brother Jacob and your little sister Citlalli. Some people might think we’re a big family compared to them, and they’re not wrong.

Ever since you were small, you were daddy’s little girl, remember? He would call you “negra” because you were always getting dirty when you would go outside and play with your cousins. He would buy you almost anything you wanted. He would take you with him almost everywhere he went. He would basically treat you as his little princess. To you he seemed all perfect but to your mom he was the opposite. Your mom was getting sick and tired to how she was being treated by him. So after five kids, she had put up with him for far too long and couldn’t take it anymore so she decided to break it off with him. So after they separated, the bond you had with him was physically going away slowly. You were hardly able to see him, sleep over his house, it was basically just a hi/bye relationship. In a way you were hurt because obviously he was your dad and you loved him but on the other hand you were only five years young when all that happened so you were too young to understand what was going on but you had a small idea of what was happening. So the less you would get to see him there was no missing him.

Then one day you hear your family talk about by your dad, saying that he got sent back back to El Salvador. By that time you were already about nine or ten years old. You were already getting used to what was going on around you. You hardly felt anything towards the ‘bad’ news because the connection with your dad was now mostly dead. It was like if it wanted to hurt you but it just couldn’t. The only way you guys were able to communicate would be if he called one of the family members. And when he would call one of your

brothers it would only be to see if they had money to send him; since he knew they were working. When you would get the chance to talk to him you would start crying, well because you missed him; or so you thought. After a few years, your sister got old enough to work and so she did. Once he found out she had money he started calling her to ask the same question he would ask my brothers, “Oh Mija no tienes dinero para que me mandes? Es que ahorita esta muy despacio mi trabajo. Andale si porfas?” And then your sister would just say she had a few bills she could send him and that was all, that would be the end of their conversation. You thought it was shady of him to only call for that purpose. At times you wouldn’t even talk to him through the phone because it wasn’t your time to be asked for money. The less you guys would talk through the phone the less you would miss him. It would be rare when he would call and talk to you and you didn’t know what to say to him or what to talk about, you didn’t want the conversation to end. But it felt as if you were talking to a stranger. To this day, May 25, 2016, you haven’t heard from him. And that was the end with your dad!

Since your mom was a single mother now, it was hard for her to keep a steady home for her and all five kids. So to start off with help, one of your tias had told her she could stay with her for a while. To start off let me explain the people that lived in a three small bedroom house in the 8th Street Projects. It was your Tia Lena with her two kids and her husband. Then it was your Tia Elva with her four kids and her husband. Then it was your Tia Silvia with her four kids and her husband. Let’s not forget your Tia Chayo with her two kids and her husband. Last but not least your Tia Veronica with her husband. Now imagine all those little kids running around up and down those stairs, going in and out of doors, making a mess. Always going with their little friends, having a good time. The good thing was that you guys were living in a neighborhood where all the little kids would run and play whatever was in their imagination. Since all your cousins were about same age they all got along good and grew up together. You, on the other hand didn’t really grow up with them. Your mom decided to have you later on when everyone was already a bit bigger than you. But that didn’t really matter because you were growing up with your cousin David! You guys would always be together, after all you guys are one year apart, and almost never apart. Anyways, even though you and your other cousins were a few years apart, everyone would be together. Always having a good time, everyone was small and little trouble makers we all knew how to have a good time, even though we would get in trouble.

As all the cousins started getting older, they all started doing their own stuff. Your guy cousins and your brothers would all hang out together with their homies. Since they were always traviesos, even as grown ups, they would get themselves in trouble. Your mom already knew what lifestyle they were in at that time but she couldn’t do anything. My cousins and my brothers would still all show their love to their loved ones but they still did some things that led them in the wrong path. Some of your cousins did time and some are still doing time for maybe being with the wrong people at the wrong time or maybe just for doing wrong. But the girl cousins and your sisters would all hang out and put makeup on each other or practice doing their hair or sometimes they would even go mess with your guy cousins just to tease them and get them mad, and it worked. We all were there for each other, backing each other up when we needed help.

Sincerely,

Natalie L.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

Dear Old Self,

I know you better than anyone ever will. I know it’s hard right now, you feel alone even though you are not. Trust me, you really are not alone. Your thoughts fill your head and that isn’t right. Be strong for the caring family we have who would do anything for us. These people love you so stay around for them.

You’re scared dad won’t come back but he does, your bond isn’t the same but the trust stays with him. When dad left you felt alone, now more than ever. The day he left still is one of the most painful experiences for you but it’s something you use to make you stronger. You’re about eight or nine right now, you’re still a bit confused as to why he chose this time to leave. He didn’t do it because he doesn’t love you, on the contrary, he left to take care of business there so he would never have to leave again. I know it’s super hard, you feel abandoned because at school “friends” are mean. Remember the day they made fun of your project because it looked like you bought it? But it only looked that way because no one helped you and their dads helped them. They made you feel left out but they didn’t know what was going on. Don’t let anyone see you upset but talk about your feelings to someone you trust. It’s difficult at first but you can do it, you really can.

There’s a period where, after everything feels gone you get better. That’s where I am right now, better, stronger and happy. Things don’t seem to cheer you up anymore. You loved writing because you expressed yourself through it but now you can’t even write a word. It’s okay, someday something like writing will help calm you again. Basketball makes me feel happy now. My improve-

ment in the game makes me work harder and my goals make me stronger. Don’t let thoughts of death fill your heart like they did your head. Leaving doesn’t change the bad things, it creates worse things. This isn’t something you like to talk about to anyone. You’re scared to talk because you know they’ll see and act different with you. Fake smiles, thoughts of leaving, crying, feeling like you’re dying inside but showing none of it to the world. There’s help but you don’t need to get it if you don’t want to. You will talk to someone one day, they won’t tell anyone ever. You will confess to someone you don’t know but it will feel right.

The day it happened, I was in adoration at SYLC (Salesian Youth Leadership Conference), they were reading scriptures and explaining them. I remember them saying something about telling God everything, your thoughts, flaws, mistakes and accomplishments. I know it doesn’t feel like you ever want anyone to know it but you finally do tell someone. So, all the priests are outside sitting all over the field with candles because it’s night. Picture it, a night that seems too dark to be real but lights up with stars and candles all over the sky and ground. I was feeling nervous and scared but excited. I was nervous to say it out loud, to say it to another person who might not understand but still won’t judge. He began talking, “Tell me your sins” and I just said it. I told him the way I felt then and now, the way it affected me and how long that was going on for me. I didn’t know if it was a sin but I just said it because for so long it had felt right and suddenly it felt wrong. I began to cry and I wasn’t sure why just then. Why was I crying out a river? Had it finally caught up with me? All the sleepless nights, the loneliness inside, the judgement that we had and have with us? It was scary because I don’t know how I got there maybe you know but I can’t seem to remember. I thought about why I was so upset; I wanted that for a long while and suddenly it filled me with regret. What the priest told me was something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “We all feel like we don’t belong but life is something beautiful and something only some really get to enjoy. Live it fully because God wanted you here, never doubt yourself and be humble.” That was a turning point for me, I got time to reflect over everything that could have made me get to where you are, the sad and lonely time. Perhaps what he said doesn’t make sense or you can’t seem to relate to right now but you will some day. Stay strong babe, your life is precious.

Maybe you are not convinced that you matter and that you are not alone, fast forward fifteen years. You are twenty-four or twenty-three, you’re in that

white coat you’ve always pictured yourself in, sitting in an office doing paperwork from your last patient. And you begin to reminisce over the time you were so sure you wanted to be gone. You’re glad that you went through that, all of it, everything that made you feel that way. Your best and worst moments: Dad leaving, death filling your thoughts, people judging, your first trophy and your last and the time you found God deeply. Without all of it you wouldn’t and couldn’t be the strong, smart, independent and humble person we aspire to be. Don’t be cold to anyone over what happened, be grateful you have all these people to help you. Stay strong, be happy, enjoy every minute of your life and trust me that things turn out good.

In class today, Ethnic Studies, my teacher asked me to write about someone who shows resistance, resilience and re imagination. Resistance is the refusal to accept something that isn’t right. Resilience is being able to get back up after a difficult time or situation. And reimagination is to form a new way of thinking. I thought, “Who shows all this, Dad? Malcolm X? Malala Yousafzai? Rosa Parks? Possibly Tupac?” And then a thought came to me, I know this little girl, this person who wanted it all gone but somehow managed to resist the thoughts that created pain. The little girl who in one way or another got back up every time she thought she was almost done. Receiving criticism from the world affected her but never let it break her down, she stayed resilient. She was in pieces but never completely gone. That eight year old who created and forced a new way of thinking to save her from the monsters in her head who almost killed her. The things in her mind that cause temptation, depression and harm. She re imagined something better and didn’t let the poison in her mind take over. Today I decided to write about you, the old me who I am still scared to talk about but able to talk about. Everything we’ve been through, the good and the bad, it is the reason I decided to write to you. Someone who got through it, the things people might not consider “hard” but the things that were difficult to us. Stay up, stay determined and never give up!

Yours truly,

Future Grecia F.

THANK YOU FOR NOT RAISING ME LIKE A SPOILED BRAT

LETTERS TO IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Dear Jimmy, Mom, and Dad,

Thank you for being people in my life that know what they want. By making decisions, doing what you want and not letting society change you, you have impacted how I make decisions. I remember playing MLB or Boxing on the PS2 and you beating me, mostly every time. Although sometimes you having a brain of an eighty year old because you always forget the things I tell you. Through your work ethic, how hard you work, and the decisions you make. Thank you for not using drugs or alcohol because you know some friends that have and how they have ended up. Working at night and going to college in the morning has shown me how hard it is turning eighteen and having to work. Also by helping me make decisions, telling me to work and to not make the same mistakes you did. Thank you for any advice I needed, like, don’t fail English because you’re going to have to retake it. Or don’t act like this because you’re going to get beat up. Also, thank you for supporting me with anything I am passionate about and for being there everytime I need you. Taking me to car shows like the Cupgang Meet and hearing the C63, Liberty Walk Huracan that sounded like a GT3 car which gave me us a opportunity to sit in a Mclaren 12C, a $200,000 plus car and just witnessing the car culture. Supporting me in photography and giving me feedback even though I look crazy trying to get different angles. You have inspired me as a person and have influenced how I think and act.

To my parents, thank you for the best upbringing you can provide. Not raising us like spoiled brats. I know how hard life was living in third world countries like Mexico and Honduras. All the things you had to do and still do for me and my brother. I know that you had to come to this country at young ages and had to work hard for a better life. Putting education as a priority because you guys know how not having a good education affects getting a job. Teaching me and my brother responsibility, like telling me to go to school early, putting homework first, or telling me to stop being lazy. Even though sometimes I say, “Right now, Right now” and never do anything. Although sometimes we get into arguments, thank you for encouraging us to be somebody in life and for hustling more than some of these rappers out here.

Sincerely,

Oscar V.

DEAR MOM,

I have been thinking about what to write in this letter and even though you don’t understand English, my sisters will explain to you what’s in this letter. It’s funny how you and everyone else make fun of me because of my Spanish and I get offended a little too fast. I have so many things to tell you, Mom but I don’t know how to explain them. I’m scared that someone is going to read this and start making fun of it or judge my writing, but I am going to write it because it’s for you and not for them.

I know before I was born you had a hard time living. I know that you didn’t have as much money as we do now, so you would go to work. You made my sisters and brother sell pillows on the streets so that you were able to pay the rent and buy food and clothes for my siblings and yourself. I also know that you had a hard time living with my dad and keeping up with his actions. I know you had a hard life before I was born and maybe your life is still hard, but I know you aren’t struggling as much as you used to.

After all that, you were strong enough to overcome the situation you were in and move on from the past. Now you have a family that loves you and is always with you. You have four daughters that love you and see you almost everyday, grandchildren that you see everyday and, three son-in-laws that take you to eat, to the mall, and help you in so many ways, just like your daughters. So even though you had a hard time in the past, the future always gets better.

I know right now while I am writing this, you are not having a good time, but all I want to say is that things will change. The day it changed for you is when you got little money that turned out to be enough to pay the rent, buy food, buy clothes, and to pay the bills. Our family changed and worked together to be able to make this happen where we stand today. The past will hurt you so bad for a long time, but the good will stay even longer and you’ll feel better.

We have so many memories together that I can’t even think of one that is my favorite. You would walk me to school and we would always say that we would beat each other to the other side of the alley. So we counted down and we would run and run and run to the other side, I would always run past you because I didn’t want you to fall. If you did, I’d be the one helping you get up. I don’t remember clearly but every morning, you would always make me a shake from milk, sugar, banana, and egg. By the way, it tasted so good and it still does. One day I asked if you can make my nephew Matthew the shake. It was the first time you had done it in two years which brought back so many memories. We also do this right now but not as much because we don’t like going out or I don’t want to go, but we used to go to Cesar Chavez and Whittier to see what nice clothes were there. We would go to the store and you would tell me to get a shirt or pants that I liked. So I would get like two or three shirts, try them on, and ask you which one you liked better.You would say it’s my style to choose what I like. So you would buy two things for me even though you said one because where we go, clothes are fourteen dollars a shirt. I know you spend so much money on me and I appreciate it.

I know we have our ups and downs but within thirty minutes we always start talking to each other, laughing, and we are always able to tell each other everything. Being honest right now, you are like my chismosa partner. I can tell you anything, my secrets, the problems I have at school, and how I lose friends. You always told me that no matter how many friends I lose I will always have at least one or more true friends. I can tell you anything that happens in school.

The last thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you for everything that you did for me from the beginning until the end, I want to thank you for believing in me when I told you what I wanted to be in the future. I remember telling you that I wanted to be a photographer and you told me to be whatever I wanted to be, as long as I am happy doing it, I should go chase my dream and my future. I told you about my problems and you would always give me advise. Every time you see

me doing homework like once a week, you tell me to do better in school so I can have a better life in the future, to have a career in life. You are my motivation to do better at school, to know what I want in life so I can achieve it. You are always going to be my number one person that will always be on my mind, no matter what happens in life or what wrong direction we take. I know I don’t say this to you but I love you, mom.

Sincerely,

Ashley V.

WHEREVER I GO

Dear Aunt Chely,

I’m five weeks by, passing to tenth grade. I feel very proud of myself that I passed, that I had luck in school. When I entered Roosevelt I was scared because I didn’t know anyone, everything was going to be weird because I was coming from a school in Mexico to a school in the USA where everything was going to be different. In Mexico, the schools are smaller and there is not that much help, compared to here in the USA, the schools are big and we get lots of help but you told me, “Te va ir muy bien, vas a ver y si alguien te quiere hacer algo, me dices y nos los chingamos.” When you told me that, I got strength to come to Roosevelt. I have met a lot of new people here in school, I got friends like Jasmin and Saraih that I don’t want to lose. I like when you tell me what friends are good for me and which ones are not, because I feel that you care for me and I like that. You always ask me how I’m doing and plus you’re happy if I’m happy and I like that. There are no words to describe you, Chely. A l momento de estar contigo siento que estoy con mi mamà, you are considered someone that I can talk to as a friend. Your help is greatly appreciated.

You have my respect in the form that you accept my choices and what I like or want, in other words you support me. All the moments I shared with you and Jaylah, like going to Disneyland, it was my first time going and we played lots of games together, I had lots of fun. Or

when we went to visit my aunt Mago at the restaurant where she works and we started laughing like tontos. Those are moments I will never forget. You are kind, you are funny, you give me good advice, like what kinds of friends I should have to help me make good choices. Eres como mi segunda mamà. You are an example to follow, after everything you went through you have a good life. Even after your ex boyfriend left you pregnant with a baby, you didn’t get depressed, you stood up and moved forward with your life. I have a lot of good luck being with you cuando tuviste a Jaylah. Your presence is something I wouldn’t avoid or try to get away. Te quiero.

Sincerely,

Jose A.

DEAR BOYLE HEIGHTS,

Since the day I was born, you have welcomed me into your arms with a warm embrace. You have created tremendous history in all of East Los Angeles; You have experienced the East L.A. Walkouts of 1968, poverty, street violence and peaceful protests, but we will be persistent and make more history that will hopefully influence others. You have a very diverse community that will continue to fight for La Raza , one of those people being myself. And it seems that all the residents are your children, birthed with a will to fight for what is right and able to come together as one loving neighborhood. Although I am only fourteen as I am writing this, I have gone to many protests and marches for the justice in our community, and I am proud to say that I will never stop unless we, as a whole, are all equal. I will not stop until the torture and pain has ended. I will not stop until students are able to learn their own history in a classroom at school. I will not stop until gentrification is no longer a thing. I will not stop until women stop being objectified. I will not stop until people of color are no longer discriminated against. I will not stop until we can all come together in peace and solidarity. But growing up in Boyle Heights is a wonderful journey. I have grown up in a small neighborhood with random strangers that soon became close friends that cared for everyone living here. I have grown to love all the local bands and artists that have given me tips on how to succeed and be happy. As a photographer, I have walked down Boyle and First street to go to Mariachi Plaza and take photographs of the active neighborhood and friendly faces. I have spoken to the joyful mariachis that are always singing, dancing or playing their instruments. I have gone into the small ice cream shop to communicate with the lady that gave me a huge grin when I walked in for the very first time with Las Fotos Project . I have been engaged with various activities going down at Mariachi Plaza, once learning about the murals that have been painted there for many years. As a child, I remember going to the community events and activities, greeting new people on the street or entering the unique and interesting thrift shops here. I am currently attending Roosevelt High School, a school full of wonderful, amazing teachers and peers. I have supported the multiple

street vendors that are simply trying to make a living. I have gone down to the Sixth Street Bridge to take photos and admire it in all of its magical beauty, but being full of pure melancholy once it was torn apart. From the park birthday parties, Easter Day activities and powerful rallies. To new courses such as Ethnic Studies, youth programs and the kind-hearted people that have truly made growing up here an enjoyable, and incredible experience. And I am beyond proud to see what you will hold for future generations, if you will still be the same or if you have made improvements. I only hope that we will all remain united, stick together and really make a change in Los Angeles. As for myself, you provided a home. A home that I will always return to. A home that will protect myself and others. A home where nearly everyone knows everyone. A home that connects us with Little Tokyo, our beloved neighbors. Once after a photography exhibit to showcase the talent of the youth at the Self-Help Graphics and Art where my photograph was displayed, it was then that I realized that I had massive love for everyone in Boyle Heights because everyone is caring and passionate about what they love to do. In a way, it was almost like I was struck by lightning, and it all hit me at once that you deserve more appreciation and love. As mushy and gross as it may sound, I know that you will forever be here for me, whether it is to support, to create more change in society, or to simply provide me with a comforting and loving home. I will not forget you, nor will I abandon you to go somewhere else. I had realized that growing up here has made me stronger, happier and involved with everything that I enjoy, and you will never compare to any other place. This place, Boyle Heights is my true happy place, filled with wonder and love. So I leave you with this heartfelt note: I love you, but these words cannot convey how much you are appreciated and all you have done to give many people a place that they can return to and call “home.”

Sincerely,

Jaquelin R.

PS: Growing up in Boyle Heights is nothing like anywhere else, full of street vendors, interesting and welcoming people, beneficial programs and meetings, talented folk and truly adoring every aspect of this special community. “But even concrete walls cannot stop the beauty of life.” - Raul Gonzalez and Carlos Callejo

DEAR JEFA,

You are my kind, black haired, green-eyed goddess. Well, that was a bit dramatic but it’s true. You give me an example of what a strong, self-sufficient person looks like. I know that growing up wasn’t easy for you because you were poor, which made you start working at the age of eight in the fields of Mexico to try to provide for your eight brothers and sisters. This is why I appreciate you hustling different jobs to make sure we have everything we need. Even though living in Boyle Heights felt comforting, it is a place where survival is everything. Living in a place surrounded by gang wars, the reek of weed, and the sickly sweet smell of crack, plus the discriminating words like wetback and dirty Mexican made it difficult. What made it even more difficult was the fact that my brother and I never really had you around because of your job. Working in clothing factories and packaging plants from five a.m to midnight, getting paid minimum wage didn’t help you completely cover the funeral costs after my dad died. All of that really took its toll on you. Plus, smoking cancer sticks to help you relax and keep the stress away didn’t help the situation. But even though all that chaos was going on in our lives, I always remember you saying, “If you believe, then you can achieve against all odds.” Until now I didn’t know you were quoting Tupac.

I wanted to help you out so bad. I still remember that day because a couple of days later, I got busted by the police along with an older gangster. I didn’t feel guilty about it because it felt good giving you money to help out with the bills. I just wanted to say sorry for making you worry when I came home late. Sorry for making you cry when the police officer aggressively pushed me against the car and cuffed me. As I was sitting in a station holding cell, I began to become scared, not for me but for you and my little brother. One thought kept crossing through my mind; “What is going to happen to my mom and what type of example am I setting for my little brother by being in here?” When I got released I thought you were going to push me away for not being the daughter you wanted me to be. Instead you proved me wrong by never giving up hope that I was going to change. I noticed

you being around more and showering me and my brother with affection. When that happened the world didn’t seem so cold and dark as it was before. The hope you had also gave me hope of being a better person and older sister. What also helped out was being behind bars like a bird in a cage with no freedom. I realized I didn’t want to live my life like that. Thanks to you, you helped me see all the other things I was too stubborn to acknowledge like the trouble and gang activities I was getting into. I want to say thank you, jefita, for being a strict and caring mother when I started slippin’ up and for just being straight up firme. You’re my role model, watching you, a single mother trying her best to raise two kids on her own es una inspiraciòn para mi. I swear, if I had another mom, I would punch her in the face and go out looking for you. Yo se que no digo esto con frecuencia pero te quiero mucho jefita, nunca pienses que no te quiero.

Sincerely,

Leslie M.O.

DEAR ASHLEY,

All my life you have been there for me when I have problems at school. You have shown me to never give up in life, especially to never give up on someone. You prove to me that things do get better if you work hard and have hope. You study for any test you are about to take. School can be stressful but it doesn’t mean you should give up. You are my role model. You do things I dream of doing. Every Tuesday you go to an elementary school and help a kindergartner with her homework. That little girl counts on you just like me. I need you to be here when I get a bad grade just so I won’t be so hard on myself. You give me endless support and encourage me to do what I want to do, like go to college and become a doctor. You show me what resilience is by picking yourself up when you lose track. Not only do you pick yourself up but you pick me up too. You always give me advice on how to improve my life. How I shouldn’t listen to those people who want to bring me down. You think of the most positives things; well, when you’re not mad. When you are in a bad mood you just ignore what is happening to you because you don’t want others to have a bad mood. It’s a blessing to have an older sister to look up to. You tell me to put myself out there in the world. The only way to pass your problems is to go through them. You are the motivation to my day because you always make me laugh with your sarcastic jokes. I love how you make yourself feel like a celebrity by saying, “Who do you think you’re talking to, I’m Ashley Gonzalez.” I know we might start off bad and get into many fights. You might say you hate me but I know you don’t mean it. Those are just words that come out of your mouth when you are angry or stressed. Now it’s my turn to support you with everything that is being thrown out there. All those tests you take, you might be struggling but you know I am here for you. You never settle for something you don’t want. You work hard to earn what you have today.

You are the are the reason I try to focus in school. I want to be the person who gets a letter from UCLA saying that I’m one of the top ranked students at Roosevelt High School. I want to be the person

who goes to college fairs to see what major I want to study. I would have never known I could do these things if it wasn’t for you. Only you and I would know what it feels like to have such a strong bond. Only you and I would know what it feels like when we have the weirdest talks. How we talk about boys but I couldn’t get a word out of me before you would slap me in my arm or even worse, my stomach. I don’t mind you hitting me because those are the memories we create. The kind of memories we’ll look back on in twenty years and say, “Do you remember?” while we laugh. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Thank you for being my best friend and the one who listens to my problems even if you don’t care. I know you have kept all the secrets I have told and you are the one I can count on the most. Thank you for putting up with my attitude even when you thought I was stubborn. I always tell you to leave me alone but you wouldn’t listen. You would think I wanted company, truth be told, you are the company I will always need in my life. Imagining a life without you wouldn’t be the same. I wouldn’t be able to feel the special connection we have that I just can’t explain. Thank you for teaching me that there will always be people that will hate. It doesn’t mean you should let them hurt you. “Haters are going to hate, dogs are going to bark,” is like our motto. People are going to hate and it’s going to be annoying just like dogs barking when strangers pass by. “You are you, don’t let anyone change that.” Actions can speak louder than words because words can hurt but the actions you take to stop it will be the thing that helps you. I’m sorry for calling you mean names that hurt you and make you give me the silent treatment. Thank you for being a part of my life and being that extra push I need everyday.

Sincerely,

Jasmine G.

SOLDIER

Dear Dad,

To the man whom I truly love and admire the most. The man who is the funniest, caring, loving and last but not least, resilient in my eyes. You are resilient because no matter what hell you went through you always managed to overcome it. I know how hard it was for you as a kid. Every story had it’s different tales. One of them was how you overcame bullying. Just because you were a little different in their eyes. Funny how they thought of you with your perfect imperfections. Yes, you had a disability and it had to do with your foot but that didn’t make you any different from them. In my mind, you seemed like a pretty rad kid. I could go on and on about how amazing you are to me but let me give you examples how everything you taught me changed me for the better.

Honestly, without you by my side I would be like a lost little boy, looking for his momma. Thank you so much for all the love and support you’ve given me all these years. Thank you for all these lessons and lectures even though at some points, I didn’t want to hear them because I knew I wasn’t doing the right thing at that moment in time. They made me wiser and stronger. As a girl, growing up you knew things were going to be hard for me. You always told me it was going to be like this. I always heard the words, “Watch your surroundings; learn how to read people because you never know what can happen.” I have lived with those words for a very long time now because I knew if

I listened, nothing bad would happen.

Momma passed away on July 19, 2015. I felt so much pain that day, knowing she was gone. Seeing a strong man like you on his knees asking for forgiveness, as if it were your fault she was gone but it wasn’t. That day, a golden heart stopped beating, your hardworking hands finally at rest. You also said to never stop being me, despite her passing. I remember that day, tìa told me I was her pride and joy in life. All of these wonderful things kept me strong. You made a soldier out of me; I love you, daddy.

Forever your little girl, Amy M.

MY LIFE AWAY FROM YOU

Mom,

I’ve always wanted to know you, as a mom anyway... my mom. It’s so hard to see you hurting. It’s always hurt me to think you chose drugs and alcohol over me and my siblings. When I see you smoke or drink it creates so much hatred in me. You’re supposed to be the woman I look up to. You told me once, “I made all these mistakes so that you didn’t have to.” But you never thought about how hard it would be for me to not have you around. You were too busy showing us what we shouldn’t do, that you forgot to do what you were supposed to do. Now we’re only stuck with knowing what a life looks like when you put other people before your kids. So many others have tried to make me happy and fix your mistakes. But I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if it came from you. I hope that one day I truly can correct your mistakes with my own kids. But I know it’s tough out here Momma, and I just want to say thank you in case I don’t say it enough.

You are the strongest woman I know and I could never thank you enough for the way your strength has influenced who I am as a person. At the end of this all, I want you to know that I love you. No matter what you’ve done, or haven’t done I want you to know that I’m always going to love you. My hope will never run out that someday our family will reunite and be the way it should have been from the beginning. I love you my Beautiful Queen.

Love, Your Daughter, Jaylene A.

DEAR RICHARD CABRAL (A.K.A BABY JOKES),

I have grown up listening to your music and seen you turn your life around from being on the streets to being on the big screen as an actor. Hearing your music now and before has taught me a lot about life, about how to accept what is going, the struggles of growing up in poverty and life in a gang. Teaching me, other young people, and listeners that gang life is no joke and there are many consequences to pay for it. Showing and telling stories that you need to be resistant of and have resilience. There are many ways for us to relate to your situations. Whether it was being stuck on the streets, to not having very supportive parents, or even being locked up in prison, lots of us have been there and are glad that some people like you can represent us. Growing up in Boyle Heights and East LA, I was surrounded by gangs everywhere. When I am at school, outside of school, even when I am at home too. My family members have been through that life as well. Mom was a chola, Dad was a cholo, his brothers were too, exposing it to me a lot as well. I am also really glad that my parents actually let me listen to your music and stories and don’t tell me not to. They understand as well. They don’t see you as just some gang banger, they see you as somebody getting the truth out there to our people, to learn from it and that we can accomplish anything. Just because society labels people and looks down on them. They can prove society wrong. Gang bangers are people too, people do not know their stories and what they have been through. How can somebody judge a life that they have never lived? Thank you so much, Richard for doing what you do. You have helped me in tough times, gave me much better understandings in life, helping me make the right decisions and having you as a role model. Once again, thank you and I am really proud of how much progress you have made in your new career as an actor.

Sincerely,

Randy H.

TOGETHER WE STAND, TOGETHER WE WILL FALL

To the People of the Colored Community,

I am not writing this letter to a specific person but to all Latin, Indigenous, Black, Asian, Indians, and Arabic communities. This letter is for everyone who helped or will help change an unjust situation to all of the people who were part of the process but did not get any acknowledgement or recognition. You’ve all changed history you are an inspiration to all generations.

We are still working on some unjustified incidents like the gentrification of my community, Boyle Heights where they will renew and rebuild Boyle Heights to what they believe to be more beautiful and organized. In the process, they will increase tax fees and rent. Most residents won’t be able to afford the new fees so we would be forced to move. After that it won’t be Boyle Heights, at least not the one I know. Sure, it would be cleaner and fancier but the culture and cheerful Latin community would be gone. The field where my friends and I would play our obnoxious games, where I scraped my knee and my friends had to help me walk home. Where I would run all day and night until my heart throbbed forty miles per second and the feeling of my waist being stabbed. Then there’s Mariachi Plaza, the place where they would have Mariachi bands, their music speaking to me. My joyful heart jumping from all the familiar food and merchandise, from kitchen supplies to fashion necklaces, rings, and dresses. Changing Boyle Heights and its people is like taking my and other people’s

childhood away from our roots. Even so, we have confidence and determination that we can stop these unjustified events. Our source of courage comes from the “normal” people. We have done it once we can do it again. It’s in our genes and that’s one thing no one can take from us. Us “normal” people are as important as Martin Luther King Jr. or Sal Castro. Even the President because what’s a leader without its people? You may never be on the news or books or movies but know you’re appreciated. Without the help of “normal” people there would be no walk outs, revolutions, marches, and no protests.

During the East LA walkouts the Chicano community proved to the system to not take us lightly any longer or underestimate us. We are not just tools they can use, we’re not obedient dogs they can order. The Chicano community made them realize we are human beings capable of amazing things. I have also benefited from the East LA Walkouts in many ways. For example, I would not have the education I have right now. I also have a better chance of going to college since the East L.A. Walkouts brought up the percentage of Latinos going to college. I have the right to speak my language and celebrate my culture with pride and without consequences. I am proud and lucky to be from a strong, intelligent community and heritage, proving when we all come together and put our minds to it we will achieve it because we are resilient. We have pride and spirit. We are strong and intelligent as we have shown in the past. When I learned about the East L.A. Walkouts, I was amazed but filled with fury. Amazed at the planning of the walkouts, how the students overcame fear and walked out together; amazed that even in their lowest points they still didn’t give in but instead gave you more motivation to stop the unjustified world they lived in. I was furious at the system for completely ignoring us as if we were trash; furious at the police brutality; furious at the white adults for not having perspective. What if their children were going through the same? What if they met us, tried to help us, and treated us as inhuman, when they were the inhuman ones themselves? We did not fall prey to them so easily. The Chicano community did it and won. We did not seek vengeance but instead, education and respect, and we won it. They

survived the police brutality, the teachers’ punishments, the discrimination and they changed history. They gave us a story to tell and we have to continue to embrace and carry on the Latino name.

With the help of Martin Luther King Jr., the Black community was able to fight and stop the dehumanization of Black people, the brutality from whites and police, and threats. The whole black community put their bodies and lives at risk for the people they loved. The Black community attended Martin Luther King Jr’s speeches. They walked together from Selma to Montgomery. There’s no way Martin Luther King Jr could have done all alone without the size of the people that attended his events. It would not have gotten attention without you. The outcome would have been different. They proved that you should never think you can’t do anything, that you’re small, because even with one person there, it can make a big difference. Martin Luther King Jr. may have died, but your pride and spirit didn’t. You keep fighting, so you see you all take an important role. Due to these actions, you won and without them, I would have never met any of my Black friends who I love and hold dear to me. Without the Black community, I would also have never heard their stories or tried their delicious food or participated in their unique culture. You have all proved to not just me, but to everyone the Black community is not to be messed with because they are strong and amazing people. Their will is stronger than steel.

Does it not tear your heart when you hear people criticize other cultures or people of a different ethnicity? For their eyes work fine but they still fail to see clearly. Sometimes perspective isn’t enough you can only truly know from experience. That’s what you have taught me. We should invite them to sit down with us, hear our stories, eat our delicious foods, try one of our cultures. Who knows, they can even fall in love with someone different from them. Things aren’t always what you think. The world is vast, wouldn’t you like to learn and experience something different? That’s what we have been trying to show them and hopefully one day our wishes will become reality. We don’t want

this to go on anymore. We don’t need other countries to cause us trouble because we are already in war against each other and with ourselves. We have been fighting against hateful remarks and stereotypical comments because they make us hate ourselves but then they wonder why we act the way we do. I want to make something clear, not all colored people have something against White people. All of us, people of color, love every ethnicity but we have learned White history and culture all our lives.

I’m a freshman at Theodore Roosevelt High School taking an Ethnic Studies class, have you heard of it? It’s a class where we learn not just our culture, but many others. My teacher’s name is Ms. Dueñas. Sometimes I even forget she’s an adult because she’s awkward but funny. She teaches in a way I haven’t seen. She didn’t get the opportunity to learn Ethnic Studies until she was in college. I have learned so much in her class. If she had asked me on the first day of school to write a letter to anybody who has been through oppression and resilience I would have been clueless. I would have been stuck on the words “oppression” and “resilience” but now I know oppression is an unjustified action and resilience is strong will so strong that you don’t give up. I’m so grateful for the opportunity of this class I have learned so many things and even stuff to prepare me for the future.

This letter is a token of my appreciation for all the people of color who had or will have a small or big part of changing an unjustified event. Whether we are Black or White, Christian or Buddhist, we are all human. We all live through our hearts, think through our brain, our blood is all red. I thank you through your hard work and sacrifice I was able to learn so much. We may not be perfect, but when we commit to something, we will stand together and fall together.

Sincerely,

Jovany M.

THE WORLD AND I

Dear Anyone,

Stop trying, I won’t let you in until I see that you’re worthy of my attention. If I don’t, then be content that I even addressed you without degrading your name in one way or another. I try my best to control myself but sometimes it isn’t worth the energy it takes to change my demeanor. Even if I tried I would still think of you as just another lost soul, finding your way through the world as I am doing now. That’s the way we live and the way we die.

My community is one that is driven by technology; TV, computers, and social media. It is driven by the thought that if we create something great we will survive. Great technological advances have been made in such a short amount of time, but we still speak to each other in tones full of hate, jealousy, and regret. Criticizing others for things that we cannot control- height, weight, race. We say things that can make a person humble or break them. This is not the community that I want to be a part of, but it is mine nevertheless, so it is my duty to change it.

Technology has shaped who I have become in a big way, it has given me the means to find out things for myself, to advocate for myself. To discover new music and forms of literature that can keep the cogs in your mind running even during sleep. I have found answers for myself that I wouldn’t believe at all when I was younger. I have been in rallies, most of them have been about gentrification and school reform. I volunteer anywhere I can because I feel the need to give back to the community. If I don’t give back, who will? Who will decide for themselves that it’s time to change things, for better or for worse?

But we are not who you think we are, we can stop armies with our words. Those who have the voice to do so are being held back by the superficial. Our youth are being controlled by the system that teaches them to hate themselves. That doesn’t mean we don’t help each other. We try to teach each other that all of these superficial things don’t matter because in reality we are fighting something bigger, the system itself.

Our technology has led to a revolution, a revolution of self-hate. This hate has consumed our world. It has led to us to know more about celebrities, comparing ourselves to the impossibilities found on the covers of magazines. It has led us to know more about who’s wearing what, than knowing of our own government. But if we did know, would it really be better? Would it be better to be kept in the dark thinking you’re living a full life or be exposed to whatever nightmares are out there? This is rhetorical for me, I would rather be told exactly what is happening, how it happened and why, instead of being blinded purposefully by those who claim they are here to protect me. Mostly because I have trust issues. Once upon a time, I was a kid with responsibilities that were thrust upon me because of reasons I didn’t quite grasp yet. Now I am a different person, no longer a kid but still with the heart to be one.

I have taken all that life has ever given me and I don’t give back enough to make up for it. It has come to my attention that I am barely doing anything compared to others my age. That isn’t my problem though, I could care less about what others do. They could win the Olympics and I wouldn’t bat an eye. Not because it isn’t impressive, it is because I have my own things to worry about. I have music to practice, people to see, and my life to live. There’s no time to worry about other people when you need to worry about yourself.

Sincerely,

Victor H.

DEAR MOM,

I want to take this chance to tell you how much I admire you and how I am thankful for having the best mom in the world. You are always there for me when I have a question or when I feel like talking to someone. Like when I get in an argument with one of my friends and I don’t know what to do or say to make things go back to how we normally were like happy friends. The argument between my friend and I was a rumor that I don’t know who started. The rumor was that I was calling her a fake friend which I never said. Apparently she believed them and got mad at me without even talking to me first. Then I got mad at her for believing them instead of asking me first. I told you my situation and you told me to be the mature one and to go talk to her to clear up things. Thanks to you I am now still friends with her till this day. When I feel too pressured in school like I have too much work to do, you take me out to places like restaurants or shopping places where I can take a break and bring myself together.

I remember the time when we got in a car crash it was you, my sister and I. You injured your arm, my sister injured her neck and I injured my back. Even though you were in more pain than us throughout those days, you took care of us and helped us recover fast by giving us medicine, teas, and massages. You are one of the kindest persons that I have ever met in my life. Like the time when we were at McDonalds and there was a homeless man asking for money so he can buy himself some food. You bought him some food and gave him money and you have done this many other times.

The hardest time in our life was when my sister, Marilue, had a miscarriage. It was really hard for everyone especially my sister. She was not stable mentally. She was very sad and needed some kind of support. That’s when you came in to support her the most; you took some time off your job to be with her. You talked to her to make her feel better, you cooked for her and did so many things for her. I saw that she was getting better thanks to you.

I have gotten inspired by you to spread kindness to other people. An example of when I did a kind act like you was when I saw a homeless women and I gave her some money. Her face expression made me want to help more people, it made me feel happy and proud of myself. You have made me want to help other people, not just physically or monetarily but also mentally like being a good friend and giving people advice. You have made me want to live a happy and positive lifestyle. Now I encourage other people to do the same. When I grow up I want to be a great mother like you.

I am thankful that you worked hard to make sure that I have everything that I need. Time changes. There is going to be a time when I am going to work to make sure that you always have what you need and more because I love you. I know that materials are not as important as love and kindness. I know that because you taught me. Thanks to you, I am who I am now and I know what I know. Thanks to you.

Sincerely,

Gisselle D.

MY DEAREST MOTHER

Dear Mom,

I just want to say that I am thankful for everything you have done for me such as giving me food, buying me things that I want or need, taking care of me when I’m sick even though you have my other brothers to take care of, and being there for me when I need you. I think that the only reason you push me to do good in school is because you want me to have a better life than the one you had, a better education. I know I never say it to you but I love you and I’m glad I have a mom who cares about me.

I admire that even though I don’t really like to tell you my secrets or how my day is going you still try and make an effort to talk to me. I admire that when you’re sometimes weak in the hospital, you are still strong and want to go home to go take care of your family, even though you need to rest for a while and not do anything. I admire that you are a very strong woman. You’ve shown me your strength by immigrating from Mexico to California with a child, spending months in the hospital taking care of my younger brother and trying not to burst out in tears in front, him. You show me your strength. You started working at a young age. When I hear you telling me all those things that you have gone through it makes me feel like I need to do better in school and be successful so that you can be proud of me.

I want to buy you the house of your dreams that you’ve always wanted. It will have a pool, a nice garden and a big backyard. Your large room will be decorated with pictures of everything you like. You’ll have your own bathroom so that you could take your long showers and relax, and a very big kitchen so that you have enough room to cook and place everything that you want. There will be a big living room so when

family comes to visit, you won’t have to worry about how they are going to fit. I want you to be happy and glad that you made a good choice coming to the U.S. and leaving your mom and your brothers behind. I want you to be proud of me and what I have become. One of my favorite memories with you is when you took me shopping to look for my culmination dress. It was the only time that we spent together without my brothers being there. It wasn’t that long ago, it was just a year ago, so I remember the dress. It was pink with a back that was see through, it also had a cutout that went through the sides of the dress and it was short. I know sometimes we argue about everything, especially when you lecture me about life. I get mad but I know you lecture me because you want me to have a good life and not make any bad decisions.

You lecture me about not doing drugs or getting involved in any bad situations. I hate that you compare me to my cousins all the time. Just because they got pregnant at a very young age doesn’t mean I’m going to do that also. Just because they didn’t make good decisions doesn’t mean I’m going to make bad decisions. Then again, we are teenagers so we don’t think things through when doing things. My cousin and I had a good bond, we would go out to different places and talk to each other about how our day is going and things like that. I don’t have that bond with you, I mean yeah we talk about stuff but we don’t talk about those kinds of things. Me and my cousin don’t hang out anymore or talk anymore because you don’t let us but I know that it’s because you think she’s a bad influence on me. Yes, I know you don’t want me to end up like my cousin and I’ve told you before that I’m not going to do anything bad, like I can’t even tell you about a boy because right away you start saying a lot things that I don’t even listen to anymore because it’s just the same thing every time. You make a big deal out of me just talking to someone but at the end of the day I love you.

Sincerely, your daughter Maribel

DEAR MOTHER,

This woman is abhorred by few and criticized by the wise, but the devout (blind) are willing to reside among the maggots in light of her favor. “Bruja! People are cursed to love her forever, so that their tongues become immune to the taste of her bitter personality!” She is enlivened by a personality as mysterious and mystical as the proposed origins of life in the indigenous culture. Her spirit cannot be contained and refuses to be restrained on sheets of paper. But its footsteps can tell a lot! Being easily swayed by external sources, she reorders her thoughts and makes a quick transition to the opposite state, similar to water. In Japanese culture, her countenance and anatomy are dead giveaways of the traits associated with the wood personality; being a hardworker and a mighty character with a tenacious will. Balancing impatience and self control comes naturally. Seemingly, without effort, her work will earn her whatever she yearns for because she will obliterate any obstacle in her path. When pushed over the edge, she heats up inside. Like water on the stove, she spits words that scald the skin. She bubbles and boils inside as she fidgets in place with thoughts in her head running as wild as the atoms do in boiling water. With the tips of my fingers, from a small distance away, her wrath is felt but it is transparent. As I make abortive attempts to comfort this woman, her anger finally disperses, but so does her presence and I am left talking to myself. When she is ice, I’m consoling a wall. Worse than a wall. There is a barrier between us, and her wood personality is stubborn. Since then, I’ve developed the unhealthy habit of masking my emotions. I’ve learned to be independent but I’ve learned the art of isolation. I’ve learned to be happy on my own, but I will never celebrate with others. I know I can work to achieve anything I yearn for. I can do it on my own. I never let anyone see me cry because I know it is a sign of weakness. I can coach myself because sometimes other adults can’t get the job done right. I learned this.

I recall a time when my heart would flutter in my chest when I heard that my family was coming over. My cousins and I would spend the entire visit formulating complex plans and backup plans that were sure

to convince my parents to let my cousins sleepover. Now I feel threatened when they set foot in my house and I get defensive when I hear my aunts call my name. I don’t show it, but the feeling is there. My chest aches when a man I admire and adore, the only man I would die for, lowers his voice on the phone and asks, “Why do you hate me?” I can’t reply. I feel like I am hugging a stranger. It feels even stranger when this woman kisses my forehead. It is the same uncomfortable feeling that makes your body react by flinching when someone pretends to throw something at your face. If I really try to control myself, I only cringe. What is the root of the problem? I don’t know about her roots and I have lost myself. She prompts the “American Dream” to motivate me, but what foundation do I have to build upon? I assume she has experienced hardships. Maybe she was a child, reluctant to abandon her home, everything that was once familiar and comforting had then inflicted a wistful impression. She travels to this place, where she is forced to memorize and recite someone else’s history. It is an essential value to live and breathe this foreign language, so that your native tongue can be tamed. An education isn’t a choice for someone of her background. She’s a child that has been so preoccupied with the fusing of herself and an uncultured, unlettered society of unlettered heritage, that her initial values have strayed. America has not been extra hospitable either and this child has digressed from the path of education, stumbling upon a road of hard labor. None of that slowed her down.

I recall that for a short time in first grade, the idea of going to school made me cringe. The names of each child in my class were scribbled from left to right, with each letter facing the same direction as the bold ones stapled above the whiteboard. The sentences were scribbles done by, in biblical terms, the hand held high in authority, but my own were reverse and written with a gauche hand, the perversion of nature. My teacher excluded me from activities that would otherwise call for the participation of the entire class. I was the first to complete assignments and tests, but among the last to approach her and hand over my work. My self esteem was dependent on those remaining five minutes

which I used to get myself mentally prepared for a scolding. This was the year my developing brain learned that not all teachers are fair. You cannot expect a teacher to give every student the same treatment because they will be critical of each of you. They will take that first impression, your looks,your smell, what other teachers gossip about you and they will collect all of that information. They will analyze all of that mess and make a judgment of you. Based on whether the negatives outweigh the positives, they will treat you accordingly, because they are human. Teachers are mere humans empowered with authority in an institution.

I learned a lesson, but I didn’t know how to deal with it. I threw tantrums every morning and stretched my sister’s clothes a mile long on days that I really didn’t feel like going. The school staff would have to tear me away from her. I felt sick to my stomach whenever I made my way to class. Not even my peers understood the nature of my misery. I was so far below the teacher, if I said a word, she needn’t lift a finger and I’d be held in office the rest of the day. Then this woman stormed in one day while class was in session, waved her hands in my teacher’s face and with a bit of profanity, in a forceful tone, she put an end to my suffering. In my little mind, she was perceived as an empowering and outspoken woman who was incapable of refusing the opportunity to speak out against injustice. If there was none, she’d force an opportunity. Over the years, she maintained the image I had of her. My sister and I were always just out of reach from the grasp of institutional oppression.

In my Ethnic Studies class, I recently learned about Doria Shafik, a woman who took part in the feminist Egyptian movement. She didn’t remind me of her at least not at first. But when I learned that her supporters had dubbed her the “perfumed leader” this conjured up images of her. She was influential and independent both at once. In her mind, she had the freedom to challenge whatever she found unjust. This woman embodied the attitude of perseverance, continuing in a course of action with disregard of any past failure or discouragement.

This creature has been overworked and her body has been neglected since early adulthood. Without knowing how to work an alarm, she shakes herself awake at six A.M. seven days a week and scraps up change for the bus that will take her to her eleven hour shift. It amazes me that her body would automatically rise, on the dot at six A.M. everyday. It really makes you wonder just how long she’d been doing that to her body. I’d watch intently as this woman drenched herself in perfumes. She had drawers full of them. She always sat when spraying herself, but when that bottle made its way back into the drawer, in the same manner each time, she stood up and looked herself up and down in the mirror in front of her. Her eyebrows were raised with authority, her nose propped up high with self assurance, bold red stained lips decorated an outspoken mouth, pasty pale skin and careless, assertive blonde curls. I look back on it now and wonder if I had confused leadership with beauty. She never glanced over at me, not a single time, but that didn’t matter because she was my “perfumed leader.”

Looking at her now stirred up a defiant and wild rage within me. It wanders in the small area behind me. Once in awhile he pricks my ear and though he never utters a word, I can feel messages; he speaks candidly. I live under the same roof as the woman who, to this day doesn’t allow me to wear pink. She’d once guarded me from strangers as a dog did its bone. I realize now that a dog only wants a bone to chew up and spit out. Perhaps it is America that has chewed and spit her out. A dog might even bury its bone.

Being a single mother, I assume, is a difficult journey to navigate, especially under a system where you are lost among the tired faces of working class citizens. Ignorance blinded her. She didn’t know why she heard gunshots every night or why her doctors never learned to speak Spanish. And she didn’t question it either. She avoided it and she made sure to lock the doors every night. If the problems didn’t really exist, how could she question it? This mysterious woman, is a conformist, a reactionary, self-defeating and transformative fighter all

together. I know why. She is the element of wood and behind the strengths of the given traits she had some deficits. You can tackle any problem head on, but only the problems laid out before you. With a measured amount of wit and deceit, she can undoubtedly be made anyone’s drudge. They have made a slave of this foreigner. Another timid soul has been hardened to stone from years of neglect and exploitation. When I am up she tears me down and when I am down she lifts me up. I’m in a cloud of bewilderment, in need of guidance she holds my hand. Sometimes when my mind wanders, she comes up in my unfiltered thoughts. My brain and I are two different people. And this is how can we make a change in our country if we can even make a change in our homes.

Sincerely, Kitty

D.

OPPORTUNITIES

Dear Mom,

When I walked into class today my teacher told me I had to write a letter to someone who exemplifies resistance, resilience, or re-imagination. At first I didn’t know who to write about but then I remembered that no one else but my mom can be the perfect person to write this letter to. I want to tell you that I admire how you are always on top of things. How, even if you’re tired and sometimes even sick, you make time for us. Like when you arrive from work and prepare one of those meals everyone enjoys. You motivate me to continue my studies because I know that’s an opportunity you wouldn’t have thought twice about. You arrived to the United States from Guadalajara, Jalisco, “tu pueblo querido” about twenty years ago with my grandparents and uncles to have a better life here; you didn’t continue your studies because you wanted to work. That’s just an example of how you really exemplify resilience. For me, you working at such a young age in the fields in order to help your parents with some of the expenses, you taught me that in order to succeed you need to help too.

I really hope you know I love you a lot, even though at home you say that I’m distant or always mad, in reality I’m just really tired because of school and soccer practice, because I want to make you and myself proud. You know that I’m always there if you need someone to talk to and likewise. Throughout my life, you’ve taught me that the two most important things in life are family, and a good education. I’m really

focused on getting the best education, and passing the first and most important year of highschool because in my head, that’s the only way to repay everything you’ve done for me. You’re my number one supporter.

When I feel like life isn’t making sense, when I don’t know what to do, you always point me in the right path. Whenever I need help with anything you always show me what’s best. Even when we argue you don’t stop looking after me. Like that time I accidentally made a hole in the bathroom door and you still helped me fill it out. You gave me a long speech about why I shouldn’t go around kicking and throwing things. But you saved me from being in big trouble with my dad that day, he would have probably made me buy a whole new door. Right now I know you’re worried that you might do something wrong on your driver’s test but I know you can do it. Just like you did all of the other things you thought you couldn’t do before. Even if you do something wrong you always have next time, just like you tell me.

Sincerely,

Naive O.

BLESSING TO HAVE AN OLDER SISTER

Dear Desiree,

It is a blessing to have an older sister in my life. If I never had an older sister to look up to while I was growing up, I would not know things I know now that you’ve taught me, like school, friends, life, struggles, boys, and basically life in general. It was cute when you called me nicknames when I was five and you always made me laugh. I’m glad we are still close, even though we don’t see each other lately, now that mom and dad are divorced. I know you will always have my back with anything; you always have since day one. It’s fun hanging out with you on Saturdays, when we would go to the mall, Starbucks, the park, movies, and also when we would go to your work and feed the fish.

You are very unique, gorgeous, funny, caring, and very special to me. Time will fly by and things will change, but my life will remain rooted in the memories I’ve shared with you, who has seen me through it all. I still remember the little fights we used to have when I was little, like that time when I would go through your closet, put on your high heels and walk around the house with them. Once you knew I took them you would get mad and tell me to never go into your closet again, even though I still would. We knew we can never stay mad at each other. All these years I have spent with you have made me realize that not only are you my older sister, but you’re my best friend. Growing up

with an elder sister is like taking shots on a practice pitch. She’ll pin you down for all the wrong shots you play each and every time, so that in real life, you can step out on the field like a rockstar. I know that people make mistakes but it’s ok because no one is perfect and we learn from our mistakes. I think that’s the biggest one that means the most to me. Thank you for everything that you have done in my life, love you to the moon and back, sis.

Sincerely, Your sister, Tiffany H.

AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ME

Dear Mom,

I’ve heard and seen all the things you’ve gone through because of all those talks we had about your past. Like when we went on car rides and we would talk as if there was no tomorrow. We talk about things like having your innocence taken away, having to grow up too fast because you had a baby at the age of sixteen, or the times people would tell you you wouldn’t graduate because you have a kid. You also told me you had to go to work, school and take care of me all at the same time. All by yourself, because my biological father wanted nothing to do with us. Then, so-called “family” would tell you I would never have a father because of you. Even that time I did have a dad, he cheated on you. But you still forgave his snake-like family for saying bad things behind your back.

I look up to you, Mom because of all the things you’ve gone through. When everyone told you you wouldn’t graduate because of me, you proved them wrong. You graduated while being a single mother. Yeah, you fell in love with someone who I now call dad. I know he cheated on you, in front of us. Everyone telling you it was your fault when it wasn’t. But being the understanding person you are, you forgave him and his family for talking behind your back. All of these things make me realize what a resilient person you are, the whole world puts you down but you never show it. You see the good in everything and you

showed me that it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. Not the neighbors, not family, no one. The only person you should listen to is yourself. The worst thing to do is to stop and let all those rumors and doubts become true.

You might think, “why are you telling me all this?” Well, just like everyone else, because you’re my mom and you mean so much to me. But besides that, you might not know that you are the one true person I admire. I know you had to go through so much and you forgave all those who doubted you. I don’t think anyone can go through the same things as you and to this day still be the happy mother you are now. I know that you will always be the most resilient person I have met. You motivated me by telling me I’m not who everyone says I am. We are the closest people anyone can meet. We can go anywhere and everyone says we seem unstoppable because of how happy we seem. I even remember that time when it was just us against the world and you said, “You don’t need a man in your life as long as you have me.” From that day on, I felt that I will always be independent.

Sincerely,

Jocelyn R.

LET’S END STRONG

Dear Sister,

Did you graduate college? Did you have trouble with your finals? Remember when we would play with BB guns, you would shoot me and I would start to cry. We would have so much fun. We would always end up recording each other on Snapchat, making fun of each other until someone would get mad.

We would always be eating at restaurants. We would go to BJ’s and pay around fifty five dollars for the two of us. While we ate, we would gossip about all the things that happened in school. Sometimes we would throw up the next day because we ate too much. We would go to Johnny Rockets and eat like we had endless money. We didn’t care if we had money or not, we would just eat something little but good enough to fill us up. My mom would always call and ask, “Where are you!” And we would say, “Mom we are eating.”

I needed my sister and she would always be there. She would be there like the sun is there for the plants. She has been my biggest supporter because she always knows when something is happening to me, even when I try to deny it. She alway makes me laugh when I don’t want to. She has been there when no one else has. I remember when she pushed me into my birthday cake and there was no cake left because my whole face was in it. I cried while she laughed.

When we were younger we would match, it’s so funny because I looked so unhappy while you were smiling. I know you, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to match and hate it when someone matches with someone else.

My sister is leaving to college and it has me thinking about what I am going to be left with. I’ll be coming home to just my younger sister, who is nine years old, but I get along with my oldest sister more because I can communicate with her. It hasn’t hit me yet that she is leaving but I’m very sure it’s going to hit me soon.

I’m afraid that our friendship as sisters and the bond we have is going to end but I’ll try my best for that not to happen because our relationship is very strong. I’ll never let that happen, mostly because you are the best sister. When I get older I’ll be going to your dorm and bringing you pizza just like when you lived at home. I don’t want to lose you because I have really grown up having someone to look up to.

Sincerely,

Leslie G.

THANKS TO MY MOTHER

Dear Mother,

You are the woman I love. First of all, I look up to you. Out of all our family members you are the one who struggles to maintain my sister and I. I am truly grateful for the times that you have told me, “Es por tu bièn.” Because you have experienced and know what is good and what is bad. Thank you for teaching me that there are less fortunate people, and also to be proud of what I have.

I adore you as my mother, because you have always wanted the best for me. By coming to the United States from Guatemala, and later by bringing me here, you have done a lot. You’ve told me that your life has been a struggle, because you would wake up early and go to sleep late. Telling me those experiences has changed my perspective. I’m grateful for you giving me the opportunity to get more sleep and feel comfortable on my bed, because I know that not everyone in Guatemala has one. You have given me this opportunity to make a change in life. In the future, when I become successful, I would like to buy you a house where you can live. I don’t want you to be working and worrying about the rent, because I’ll be paying for it. I just want you to finally be proud of my actions, even though some of my actions have gotten me in trouble.

I want to apologize for the hard times I have given you, like when a baby chick gives his mom a hard time. I’m sorry for not taking school

seriously, and bringing home bad report cards. I know that looking at them, they made you feel a big disappointment, because you have always told me I can do better. School wasn’t my priority at the time. Now that the years have gone by, I have matured in many ways and realize that grades are important. You know I can do well and I will show you that by graduating from high school and heading off into college. Thank you, I love you.

Sincerely, Gerson

G.

I WISH I COULD SHOW YOU MY PHOTO ALBUM GROWING UP

Dear Older Brother Alfredo,

Our journey growing up was difficult, being young kids with mother and sister in a two bedroom home with little money. Our dad was very sick in and out the hospital. We were clueless kids thinking there will be no way out. Only thoughts going through your mind was, “Mama is depending on me.” Seeing mama struggling caused so much pain.

You never had a childhood because at the age of thirteen you became the man of the house. You worked hard to provide for us. All you wanted was the best, no more struggles, no more suffering, no more cold nights. I remember once you told me and sister, “Don’t worry everything will be okay our lord will bless us one day.” Every time I would be sad you gave me the best advice.

Our Christmases were cold, no tree or presents laying on the floor even though you made us happy. Besides the fact knowing father wouldn’t be by my side I always knew I had a father which was you, the one who taught me from right to wrong. We knew mama loved us, she taught us respect, never left us alone.

Sincerely, Cristal

M.

DEAR ROOSEVELT STUDENT,

I feel like I have become someone who I never thought I would become because of this class. I have learned many new astonishing things and have become open minded with my surroundings. I question everything that comes my way. I make my own decisions now rather than following others. I realized that in high school everyone tries to fit in by following the newest trends and acting the way other people act, but you do not have to fit in with everyone else. I do not have to have the coolest clothes or the coolest shoes. I do not have to dress a certain way or talk a certain way. I do not have to think that drinking and smoking weed at kickbacks is “lit,” what people call it nowadays. I honestly think that this stage in high school is idiotic. Even people that I thought were friends, or close friends, think that these are the coolest things to do in order to be “popular”, well for me it is not. I would rather have no friends than these type of friends. I feel uncomfortable when someone talks about how much fun they have smoking at kickbacks. Don’t they think about their parents? Why do people want to fit in so much? Be yourself and be happy do not try to be like everyone else. Be different and make a change.

I have learned about police brutality, Chicano/Chicana rights, important people, racism, classism, sexism, core values, tree of life, white supremacy, walkouts and so many other important things. More than half of what I learned this year I did not know. I learned that because of the Chicano and Chicana walkouts the students now in low income families attending low incomes schools now have the opportunity to learn Mexican American history and are allowed to speak Spanish in class without being hit by teachers. The students who created the walkouts gave all of us who now sit in low income high schools the opportunity to achieve what we want. They gave us the opportunity to apply to colleges, which is important since before not many Latinos were given that opportunity. Many were seen as “not smart” and were also placed in classes that taught them how to cut materials or sew. Teachers and districts were racist when placing colored people into

classes. They were careful to not place them in a class where teaching was actually occurring. Classes that were meaningful in order to get into a university were only offered to white kids since they are the ones who are the most “important.”

Although Chicanos weren’t allowed to take classes that would help them become successful until much years later, some students take advantage of the new opportunities that these walkouts brought us.

Sincerely,

Brenda B.

DEAR ETHNIC STUDIES STUDENT,

Congratulations, you have made the best decision of your life enrolling in an Ethnic Studies course. The school year will strongly resemble a roller coaster with endless ups and downs and unexpected turns that will lead you to multiple realizations. Every lesson holds a great amount of power that will cause change in your life if you allow it to, do not be frightened by this it will most definitely be a positive change. The way you look at life and interpret different situations among society will change. You will become politically aware of the issues that surround us.

The course will contain a variety of artistic projects, and video analysis that will allow you to understand the material being taught. You will sit and watch documentaries about transformational figures that you never thought you can relate to. For example, you will learn about Malcolm X and how the oppression he experienced is not much different to the oppression we as Chican@ students experience. We are similarly oppressed like African Americans, we are not conscious of the injustice that we experience on a everyday basis. This course will awaken you and inform you about oppression and ways in which you can resist. There are lessons wrapped around popular artists such as Tupac and Kendrick Lamar that make learning desireable and fun. These are artists that us as students listen to on an everyday basis and have no clue that they can be incorporated into our academics. Personally, my favorite lesson throughout the year was “The Rose From The Concrete” inspired by Tupac’s poem because it was a powerful poem that loudly speaks to me and most students in our community. “The Rose From The Concrete” demonstrates the struggles experienced but moreover the resilience and desire we demonstrate to succeed and shine light upon our struggles. Tupac himself grew up in a minority where violence and struggles were a constant battle. As a student you will come to the conclusion that your life struggles are not alone. There are multiple other students that are living in the same environment and experiencing the same exact struggles. Not

only will you connect with people in the same ethnicity as you but also others that are classified as minorities.

Solely my advice to you is to stay open minded, this is not an ordinary course, allow it to impact your life. Good luck, enjoy the ride!

Sincerely,

Paola G. V.

PARA MI ABUELITA,

Quiero escribir esta carta para usted para agradecer todo lo que ha hecho para mi y la familia. Estoy muy orgullosa de usted. Una memoria del pasado que no olvido es cuando me enseñaba a cocinar. Uno de mis platillos favoritos eran su pozole, la birria, y los tamales. Uno de esos platillos que aprendí cocinar eran los Tamales. La primera ves que cocine tamales estaba muy nerviosa. Me ayudo echar el mole rojo y la carne en la hoja después de poner la masa en la hoja. Tambien me ayudo doblar la hoja porque era muy dificil para mi. Después de poner los tamales en la olla, usted hizo una avena y un champurrado. Usted era muy trabajadora. Me encantaba como cocinaba por eso me gusta cocinar. A mì me ayudaba mucho cuando necesitaba ayuda para hacerme un café para comer mi tamale en la mañana.

Siempre que iba a México nos compraba dulces, ropa, y huaraches. La última vez que fue a México pasó un accidente que nadie esperaba. Era un sabado, mi mamà estaba haciendo una carne asada con mi tìa. Yo estaba feliz, jugando con mi hermana y sus kieres. Después salimos afuera para jugar con una pelota. Estábamos jugando cuando le llamaron a mi tìa. Mirè a mi tía asustada y corrì adentro de mi casa y le dije a mi mamà que mi tía se miraba bien asustada. Mi mamà estaba platicando con mi tía cuando le dije a mi hermana que jugara con sus juguetes sentada al lado de mi mamà. Cuando mirè a mi mama y a mi tía, ellas se miraban triste. Le pregunté a mi mamà que era lo que estaba pasando. Ella me dijo que usted tuvo en un accidente. Le pregunté a mi mamà que accidente tuvo. Me dijo mi tía que se había metido a bañar y se resbaló porque el piso estaba resbaloso. Dijo que cuando mi tía escuchó que se cayó ella entro al baño. Mi tía la había encontrado en el piso con mucha sangre en el piso y en su cabeza. Mi tìa le grito a mi tío y mi tío se la llevó al hospital. En el hospital le dijeron que perdió su memoria por el golpe. Cuando me dijo mi tía me sentí bien triste. Estaba llorando y querìa ir a verla. Mi mamà me estaba abrazando. Después de dos horas mi tío habló para poder hablar con usted. Cuando hable con usted me sentí bien triste. Le dije que la querìa muchisimo.

Desde èste dìa usted ya no puede hacer cosas que le gustaba hacer. Tampoco ni recuerda a nadie. Unas cosas que se le olvido hacer es cocinar, lavar, còmo ayudar a la gente, cómo caminar, còmo comer y otras cosas. Los primeros meses usted peleaba con todos porque no conocía a nadie. Ahora como que conoce a uno ya no pelea. Su comida tiene que estar molida y tiene que comer mucho porque està bien flaca. Pero usted es muy fuerte y trata de seguir adelante. Nunca se de por vencida. Siempre tiene una sonrisa en su cara. Usted siempre era feliz.

Usted me ha enseñado muchas cosas. Aprendí que todo se puede cuando uno lucha y pone mucho esfuerzo. Otra cosa que aprendí es que nadie se debe de dar por vencido. Algo que me encantó fue que usted me dijo que cuando uno le ayuda a la gente ellos quedan muy agradecidos y algùn dìa ellos le harán un favor cuando lo necesiten. Ahora yo le ayudo a mis vecinos. Yo sè que no me llevo bien con una vecina de mi edad pero no le hago caso porque no quiero quedar mal con su familia. No quiero ser una persona mala. Gracias por estar conmigo en las buenas y en las malas. Ahora yo estaré con usted en las buenas y en las malas. Usted es la mejor abuelita del mundo. Me duele lo que usted tiene que estar pasando por. Usted era fuerte, es fuerte, y estará fuerte. Nunca se de por vencida. Te quiero mucho, muchísimo abuelita. Usted es única como un diamante.

De tu nieta, Jennifer S.

LETTERS TO FUTURE ETHNIC STUDIES TEACHERS

THOU SHALT EDUCATE THY HOMIE AS THYSELF

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Educator,

I must admit Ethnic Studies has improved my self-esteem in my personal as well as my academic life. Out of all the years I’ve been in school including elementary, middle, and even Sunday school I was never able to grasp on what I was being taught. Until now I have kept good grades and it started with one class. I hope you understand how much you can impact a student and it’s not just you as a teacher but it’s what you’re teaching and how you educate them into being critical thinkers. You teach others how to unlearn the vague history that idolizes slave owners and pretentious bigots instead of for lack of a better word, keeping it real. I understand that the job of the educator is on the line if their class isn’t passing exams but just teaching to the test isn’t the way to go. You want them to learn not to obey. Political activist Angela Davis once said, “When children attend schools that place greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development they are attending prep schools for PRISON.” The days of indigenous industrial schools are over!

We’re learning our true values in Ethnic Studies and it’s not about money, class, and social status but of patience, consideration, and many more genuine traits that many of us have forgotten. Students such as I have also learned more about ourselves and that we have the power to change not only ourselves but society as well. I remember when my Ethnic Studies teacher Mr. Lopez gave us a lesson about the Chicana/o Movement in the 1960’s and it left me thinking about how much the students and few administration risked a lot so we can go to college and get our education on. We’re the generations after and

knowing how much our people worked to get us here, we owe it to them to finish our education and better our communities. I’ve learned not let my anger out on those around me and that many conflicts between people go way deeper within each individual. If I hate another Chicanx, I hate myself, If I do harm to them I’m doing harm to myself. We are one and the last thing we should do is turn against each other.

This isn’t just about respecting just the brown community, but others too. We have to love and respect each other and unite with other communities. I love that we talk about this in Ethnic Studies because to be honest, I have witnessed anti-blackness in my area that is predominantly Latino and vise versa. We’re not going to let that slide. For decades we were set up to turn against each other when we should be involved with each other. If there wasn’t a Black Panther Party there wouldn’t have been the Brown Berets that was heavily influenced by the Panther Party. Also not dismissing the fact that there are black Mexicans, Asian Mexicans, and indigenous Mexicans and if we say “I hate you (other ethnicity)!” We’re basically saying we hate ourselves. We’re the people of every kind and we should learn to understand what is and what isn’t tolerated and how we can get together and change things that are hurting us. As the co-founder of The Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton once said “I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people”

I don’t understand the controversy on Ethnic Studies. One argument I’d like to respond to is that purely “American” history needs to be taught, meaning the white folks who sailed the ocean and talked about how they “built” this country. In Ethnic Studies we’re not only discussing the history of our different ethnicities and countries of origin but our history in the U.S. Mexicans have played a significant role in American history that most are unaware of. According to Sal Castro, a teacher who supported and helped lead the 1960’s East L.A. blowouts, not only does this include that George Washington received support from Mexicans during the American Revolution by taking the British

to Florida, New Orleans, Natchez, and Baton Rouge, which allowed Washington to have his Vally Forge. Mexicans even fought in the United States Civil War on both sides and were even officers in the Union Army. Why isn’t this talked about? Mexico is right around the corner there’s no ship you need to sail to get over there but the Anglos dare to say we’re trying to steal their land? Students need to know this WAS and in only the beautiful ways still is Mexico. Why can’t we talk about our history in the US? Why can’t other ethnic groups do so as well? Where are the text books of the indigenous people who were on this land before the white man? Since most people in these books are European, how about we call what is currently American History European History instead?

In the beginning of this letter I mentioned my self-esteem. It wasn’t the healthiest for many years. Especially in my early life, I remember complaining about my nose and my skin to my family when I was very young. I wanted to so badly to bleach my skin and be white. Oralé. I remember sitting in therapy hating myself crying telling my therapist how I not only didn’t want to be brown but I didn’t want to be Mexican. As of now I’m still learning how to love myself. Growing up getting tanner was seen as something ugly. Especially in the Mexican community if you were fair skinned you were pretty. In the U.S. brown women were poorly represented when I was younger. Don’t get me wrong, we have gotten somewhere in television nowadays but we’re not quite there yet.

Growing up you’d think if someone like me didn’t feel represented that I could have watched a Spanish channel instead. The issue is more complicated, even the Spanish channels fetishized the European standards of beauty. Almost every women in the telenovelas were caked up blondes. Unless it was La India Maria, but even she played as a joke to brown/ indigenous women. Added into the stereotype that brown women are so dumb it’s comical. In some ways I like La India Maria. To me it’s like a Mexican “I love Lucy” but the difference is that in our community “Indio” (Indian/Indigenous) is considered an

insult, insisting that who is being referred to that is dumb as how an the Indigenous people are labeled to be. It’s sad really, our ancestors have gotten through so much for us just so that generations after can mock them.

I’m just reflecting on how Mr. Lopez walked us through history. Literally, there’s a mural outside of Roosevelt that has a timeline of the indigenous people of Mexico from then to now. Something that will always stay with me that he said as we were walking and he was explaining is that we are the outcome of the 5%of indigenous people that survived the genocide from the European invasion. It makes me realize that each of us has a purpose. I may have Spaniard blood in me and a few years ago I would embrace that but the brown pigment in my skin reminds me of how strong my ancestors were and I would never want to be ashamed of that. I want to help end the cycle of self-loathing one’s culture and features that go with it.

Overall being in the environment of a typical Ethnic Studies classroom feels so comfortable. There’s usually posters of political leaders and smart individuals that challenged the cultural habit of putting people of color in a bad light. I believe this inspires students and makes them believe they can do great things. Representation matters, we usually see people that look similar to us being constantly criminalized so when young people are put into a setting and seeing people that look like them doing great things makes us aware that we do have positive role models and we are more than negative stereotypes. Some claim we’re victimizing ourselves, but we’re doing the opposite and learning what strong people we are. It’s like, here are strong people that look like you and even though the system was built to tear you down, you will rise up. These people left a legacy for us and we’re the future leaders, the students after us are as well, and so are you.

Sincerely, Liz R.

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today” -Malcolm X

THE EYES SHUT IN HISTORY

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Educator,

Focusing on both sides of the world, reality and fantasy, we have to conduct ourselves with humanity, accepting the truths and lies, able to agree and disagree on, the good and terribleness in the world. We are given a life and no one controls it but yourself. We must respect beauty inside out and be able to tell what’s right and wrong, comprehending the act of the world in the process.

In this world, we are held hostage for speaking the truth. We are treated unfairly, judged by our color, labeled for who we are and stereotyped by ethnicity. Will we fight with violence? Fighting back with violence will only make war. But if we surrender, it makes us think that we gave up and deep down we blame ourselves and feel useless. Don’t think about that because you’re not supposed to fear the world, we are supposed to enjoy it. Overcome fear by having confidence. If you are fighting for what you believe in, take action until your demands are heard. Fight against and observe the truths about society. Stand up for not only yourself but for others that are too afraid to speak. The best thing about it is having this strong feeling inside your chest, knowing that you accomplished something to help your community.

What if society is still unfair and brutal, what would you do about it? What will you be willing to fight for? What would you be willing to

sacrifice for? Coming from other people’s views, it wasn’t and still isn’t easy to fight back but you have the ability to speak and perceive how people surrounding by you are being oppressed. People including myself were too oblivious of what was happening. For others the world never stopped spinning and it was just another regular day. We should hope that future generations shouldn’t have to go through this twice. Living in a world where it is alright to discriminate against other human beings is a nightmare of violence. We have the right to speak, to vote, to fight back, and lastly to live life in peace. In order to make this happen, we need to do ourselves a favor by uniting as one, re-imagining the world without cruelty.

Everyone has been in a situation where they believe making the wrong choices is for the right reasons or rather than overcoming them. Resilience is the key to fighting your struggles. It is important to never give up on the things you believe in. We will cope with stress. I remember seeing myself hurt, remember my body quivering with fear, hearing people’s voices with outrage, my eyes monitoring my surroundings. I was trying to escape a dark place I was trapped in but something was holding me back, my past. I was too afraid to mention what was wrong with me because I didn’t think people would understand how complicated it is to explain what’s going on inside your head when you don’t even understand it yourself. My people were clueless and coming from me, please don’t shut out your people. Give them the opportunity to help you. If you can’t fight your battle on your own, stand with your people and never fall back. Overall I’ve worked overtime in building myself up. What helped me fight it? What helped me overcome? Asking for help. Also getting the love and support from my friends and family, the people who matter to me the most. I am proud of myself for surviving this hell of a road. I saved myself and waited to see the best of me.

I remember seeing students walking down the hallways, chatting with their friends and walking to class in order to be on time. The hallways I walked in when I was a student at Roosevelt High School. You are

entering the doors where you will learn the truth about history and where our roots came from. The answer to your true selves and the community you grew up in. You will learn from your community that just because you come from an area that’s not known to be great doesn’t mean you can’t aspire to greatness. You will learn about historical events and brave figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., speaking the rights for blacks, Audre Lorde who wrote poetry to get her message across; César Chávez, helping farmworkers get better working conditions, The Brown Berets being involved in their community and so on that fought for the injustices of equality. These courageous people that never gave up for their people and themselves. They deserve to be heard and be known for what they did. Your teacher will teach you the works of art, history, and your identity. We should take a moment and thank these people that brought fairness and justice to the world.

Thanks to my Ethnic Studies teacher, I got to experience how protests look like and events that occurred in my community. Getting to dig deep and discover the truths of past events is what changed my life around; I was able to open my eyes wide and see what our society is actually doing. Overall, going through this journey helped me acknowledge the fact that anything is possible if you believe. Staring at two different views of the world. So, future Ethnic Studies educator, I am here to tell you to please teach them how life is in reality and how much their creativity can be used; how they can be helpful in their community and their imagination evolving in time. I hope you inspire future students to understand oppression and people showing resilience for their hard work. Speak the truth, don’t put the lies in front of you.

Yours

Truly, Jacqueline R.

CONSCIOUS OF THE HORRORS

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Educator,

The education of our people’s hardships and successes are crucial towards the essence of knowing where we come from. The importance of our ancestors’ stories are buried and hidden under the priorities of the white man. Kids are pushed to learn and know about historical figures such as Christopher Columbus and how they lived their lives as “heroes”, when it really should be mandatory that they’re informed about people who did something that actually mattered. People such as Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Cesar Chavez, and so many more. Do they know all acts taken by figures like Columbus and Hernan Cortez in order to get them their pedestals? Are they aware of all the murders, rapes, and enslavements of native, Asian, and African people? Do they know where their race stands in the eyes of the government? The fight for humanity that should’ve been granted without a second thought? The information given to students today is life changing, they can think for themselves and form their own opinions. Allow them to understand that the world created and the world we live in today isn’t close to perfect.

Before becoming involved in this class, I thought oppression was normal, it was just the way things were and we couldn’t do a thing about it. To be clear, I didn’t even know I was being oppressed, let alone what oppression was. I was made to believe the Native Ameri -

cans had just given over all their land to the hands of the White man, and that Black and Brown people have always had a bad reputation and have been stereotyped against for a reason; they were just bad people who always caused trouble. When I found out the reality of America’s history, I was outraged specifically because I am Mexican-American and come from Aztec descent. If it weren’t for this class, I’d probably still be blinded from the truth. I believe it’s important that I continue to become educated in Ethnic Studies, particularly on topics such as Mexican-American history as well as Chicano/a culture. It’s of an even greater importance that students of all ages, older and younger, begin to learn and discover the truth as well. Forms of oppression have been present throughout history and still continue to ridiculously thrive.

Racism, sexism, classism, and heteronormativity are all forms of oppression towards a variety of people. Learning about each and every one of these concepts and how they’re in our everyday lives has opened up my eyes to the harsh place that is society. Any form of oppression can be used to make the oppressor feel superior. What I learned in this class that baffled me the most was the fact that oppression is used by teachers, police officials, and parents; people who we are supposed to look towards for guidance and a sense of safety. Racism is pointed at and flourished through Black and Brown communities. We’re stopped and searched randomly because we look “suspicious”, but it’s really because of the color of our skin. As a person of color, I feel that my people and I are made to feel ashamed of being who we are, simply because we’re not White. As a female, I’ve had the realization that women are made to feel like objects for a man. We’re made to be seen as inferior. Men being paid higher wages is proof of this. As an LGBTQ ally, I feel as though people of the LGBTQ community are seen as though they’re not normal because of the heteronormative world we live in. They’re made to feel wrong for being who they are when they can’t change. I became aware of all of the above because of this class. I can now say I’m no longer ignorant to the severe oppression around me.

As an American born and raised in this country, why is it that I feel as though I am and will always be a second class citizen in the only home I’ve ever known? Coming from an impoverished community that is notoriously gang filled and, for lack of a better word, “ghetto” I have become accustomed to the presence of police and can now recognize when racial profiling and police brutality is happening. When did “Protect and Serve” become an excuse to abuse their power? Honestly, I can’t say I feel protected by my government, knowing that kids as young as ten years old have been shot or beaten to death by law officials. Knowing that those who’ve committed the crime were punished unjustly and weren’t chastised at all. It’s disgraceful that events such as these had no media coverage. Thankfully I became conscious of these many horrors solely because of this course.

To conclude this all for you, future professor, I can only hope that I have provided you with valuable insight into my personal thoughts and views that have been directly affected by this class. I urge you to thoroughly choose the material that will best fit into the lives of your students. I also wish you and your pupils have the same realizations I had so that we all break away from the chains of tyranny. The only way we will truly overcome oppression is through the right education.

FIGHTING FOR MY SILVER LINING!

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Teachers,

Godspeed, Jennifer

M.

I just want to say that through Ethnic Studies I learned so much from either learning about recent culture, native ways or human rights. Finding out who we are and where we come from. In a way, Ethnic Studies is like history. The difference is, it says the truth and you get more information on who did what and why. You can understand the movement they did and the reason they stood up for it. In history, some people got killed for trying to have a better life, help others, or because they were seen as a threat. In Ethnic Studies, we have a choice and we can do things to be heard. We can embrace ourselves and show everyone our point of view on the world. We can give our intake and explain why we think that. It’s not a racist class, it’s not a sexist class or a homophobic class. You can be who you are and like what you like without being judged. Therefore, here’s what I have to say to the future of Ethnic Studies:

I am one of the few students that have Ethnic Studies and I have to say I had the best teacher, Mr. Lopez! He tries to relate to the kids. You should follow in his footsteps or at least try to because he cares for his kids. He works with them whether it’s getting us to pass the class or making things easy for some guys. We worked so hard writing this passage so it can be perfect just for everyone to read. It’s awesome that I can help make future teachers better at what they want to teach and

share my wonderful experience. The first thing you must know is don’t just do work from the textbooks. Make the way the class learns more interactive and fun. To me it’s a fact, kids learn better that way and when they actually like the class.

Right now I am a senior and my favorite class is Mr. Lopez’s class. We did activities like presentations and a pop up book. I share memories with my current boyfriend whether it was helping each other pick a historical figure or helping each other with work we needed to turn in. Future teacher take note: have binder checks. Binder checks are usually every chapter or every month. You may sit there and wonder why. The answer is mainly if you work with your students you won’t feel like you failed as a teacher just because the students failed your class. When you give binder checks, you are helping kids with the work to make sure they have everything so they can learn and study. Just listen to me and have fun activities like debates or skits. I remember when I did one- it was so much fun, even though it was at the beginning of the year. I can tell you what, why, where, and how we did it. When you have fun you remember things fast and easy. I loved our class. You know what, if you need help with class issues, find Mr. L! I’m sure he will be happy to adjust your way of teaching .

Future me, I am writing this letter because two reasons; for the future of Ethnic Studies and because I will go through the problems you went through when you were my age. I know I will go through struggles and face different obstacles. All of those struggles can be as hard as a jawbreaker but I will not give up. Everything will be hard on my way to success. I mean, how can you be the best ever if you didn’t face things along the way? Many of my struggles will make me want to give up from time to time. So I give you this letter:

Dear Future Me,

Years can do a lot to you. You will think differently. All the things you believe in might change. You still might be struggling through life or you might be doing great things. Did we go to college and leave a legacy? Are we finished with college? Have we gotten a promotion? Are we even a boss of our own company by now? Do we have a kid? Is he or she as cute as a button? You might even be the number one mom you always wanted to be. All you need to know is, you might have changed the traits you show off. For example, you might not always get 100% and you might not always be the best one out of everyone at everything you do. In life, there are going to be some things you won’t understand, just keep trying and don’t give up. I should warn you, in life good or bad habits will die and new ones will ignite. At times you will remember your bad past, you might regret things you did or didn’t do but I want you to keep moving forward. Don’t let that past define you, let it make you stronger.

Oh, how I hope we kept writing! After all, people said it’s what keeps you sane. It’s something powerful that you learned and use to have a voice. Whether it’s making them hear what you went through or just your point of view. For example, you write about those lonely nights where you slept in a car with your mom and little brother because your stupid nino and grandma took the rent and threw you guys out. All these stories, half of the people didn’t know how it felt but the way you wrote it made them think of all the pain it caused. All the stories of how you didn’t want to be anything like your family may pay off. Maybe you won’t repeat your family’s stupid mistakes. Maybe you are worth something. Maybe you’re not a good-for-nothing that gets pregnant at fourteen or fifteen. I hope you got over it and proved them all wrong. I hope you got past the conflict between you and your mom. I hope you gain that trust she never fully had for you. I hope you can treat her like a friend now and not like enemies. I hope you found ways to give back your community that did above average to raise you well. I hope you give to your mom; even though she isn’t perfect she

still stayed with you. If you haven’t done it yet, it’s great to show your resilient and show them you transformed over the years. Be the best mom and have the best family and be close, not like your family now. Now a letter to my mother.

Dear Mom,

We may not always be on the same page but I know what you do is what you think is best. But do you remember all the crap we went through when I was growing up? Do you remember all we did? I’m sorry I never thought about how you would feel but you have to understand I was a kid! Little kids only think about themselves and what they want. I know I made bad decisions in the past but like I said, I was a kid. Now that I’m older I will learn from my mistakes.

Maybe I shouldn’t have wanted to stay at my tìa ’s. Just maybe, I wouldn’t have gotten an attitude. I wouldn’t have made you take care of the kids because I wanted to be there. I am so sorry for everything, I am sorry I made you stay with my dad because I was a baby and was always with him. But Mom, I was a baby. If he beat you I couldn’t understand what was going on but I know you didn’t deserve it. But you can’t blame me, I was not capable of even walking that well yet. I know it got to the point where I did understand and I tried to hurt him. It’s sad that when I saw him do that, I tried something to protect you but I still get treated like dirt because I was his kid. That’s unfair but it was the only way I knew. I’ll forgive you but I’ll never forget. Because before high school and still to this day if anyone gets you mad, you get mad at me for the stupidest little things. You say there’s no favorites but in reality Julian gets away with everything, not to mention gets everything. He talks back and yells at you and he’s only seven. He even tells you bad lies about me and I get in trouble by trying to explain that he is lying. Remember when you even thought I stole your beer? How stupid is that! But I didn’t tell you this to fight. I just wanted to tell you that I love you and no matter how many times we got kicked out and bumped heads, we are still family and we still

need and care for one another. Thank you for staying when no one else ever did. I am the rose that grew from concrete and you are my roots.

Sincerely,

Klarissa M.

BLACK PEOPLE IS IMPORTANT TOO

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Educators,

These students at Roosevelt High School, they think just because you’re Black you come from Watts or Compton, you gang bang, and you’re loud. It’s very uncomfortable to be around that because they laugh and make jokes about it and it’s really not even funny. Things they say honestly, get me mad. I can’t stand people who think they know something but really don’t. They talk all this stuff but don’t understand not one fact about it.

Some White and Mexican people think Blacks or African Americans are so nasty; that we look like trash or something, we can’t be around them or live around them or anything. They act so stuck up that we feel as if we don’t matter and we have to change ourselves in order to fit in. Our skin color has to be a maximum of light brown; anything that’s darker is bad- it’s nasty. They act like Black lives don’t matter but we matter just as much as you matter to yourself and other people. They act so scared of us but don’t really understand that we’re really friendly and we won’t hurt anyone that’s not trying to hurt us.

As you can see, nobody cares about darker people except people that are also dark skinned. I think about things like this. Like why are we so different? As you can see, our hair is different, our skin color is different. We know we can’t fit in with some communities but almost the world is one community. You have to fit in where you look good, either gangs or heaven. There’s no other way because if you try to do

good, it seems like you’re failing every step of the way. When you’re Black you feel like there’s no hope, like you can’t live without another Black person by your side. It’s seems too messed up when you’re by yourself and you don’t have a person to be there for you that can actually appreciate you being Black and still in this world.

The only good thing about being Black is that everyone kind of wants to be you; they want what you have. They can’t help the fact that other races try to be you. People talk so much mess about Blacks but the second they get in your face, they’re jealous and so hateful of you. Or they just talk about how they like Black people food or our culture or whatever else. I feel like they try to be our friends just because. If I show my dislike to someone they try to be my friend because they feel like I don’t like them.

When I had gone to teachers expressing these things, we made a circle and it wasn’t what I wanted- it didn’t go well. The person who made it didn’t control it at all. I hated myself for doing that. People kept laughing at me and my other Black friend. I just didn’t feel correct in that situation but the lady who made the circle told me and my friend about this camp about race. When we went, I didn’t like it the first day. I wanted to go home but it was too far so I had no choice but to stay there. The second day we kind of had friends. We were making jokes and it was fun. We played games had a talent show and on the last day we hung out with people, took a gang of pictures, ate a lot- it was fun. Even though we only went for a weekend, it felt like we were there for a month or so. It felt like we knew these people all our lives. I want to go back but just with the people who were there when I went.

Taking Action is a program that helps the Black and Brown community by talking about it and trying to find a way to help things that are going bad for people. Taking Action is a great program to attend. It helps you get college credit and better classes for all your other years of high school. I rather you go there and talk about the community and have fun.

How do I feel about this? I feel like I’m putting a lot of effort and mind to this. I feel like I’m being honest and I need people to know I really feel this way about the community. I really have no other words for this part of my story. The only thing I could honestly say is, Black People is important too!

Sincerely,

Leana M.

DEAR FUTURE ETHNIC STUDIES EDUCATOR,

My name is Aurora and I attend Theodore Roosevelt High School. My class is one of the first few classes of students that have the opportunity to be part of taking an Ethnic Studies class in California. We are so lucky to be part of this because not everyone in the U.S. has this opportunity. By having this opportunity we are able to learn more about our cultures.

Taking an Ethnic Studies class has changed my perspective of view towards the history that they have been teaching us since kindergarten. For this past year I have learned the true history and a little bit more of my culture. I believe Ethnic Studies is important to me because it is important to learn about your own ethnicity and different perspectives in history. Learning different history will give you an open mind in how you see the world. It is important to everyone to learn about different histories, not just about your own. History goes more in depth than just a couple of pages in the American History textbook. Something that I recommend is to not teach based on the book that the school and the district gives you and go beyond that because there so many important events and figures that the books don’t have. The books don’t even mention nothing about that you as a teacher have the right to teach your students more than what the book has. We know that the book only talks about the good things and mostly talks about white history and it doesn’t really talk about Mexican or Black history. Also I recommend that you as an educator need to connect with your students, that’s super important. Understand your students to make them feel comfortable and also to teach the class with the real history and talk about what is happening now to make connections to your life or to them. Always make your students feel like they belong there.

Honestly I truly recommend that you take some of my advice because I’m a student and teachers go based on books and at the end of the day we don’t learn what we need to learn, we only learned what they want us to learn. Make your classroom feel like home but at the same time

like school where students can learn and they can identify themselves. It’s important for future students to learn where they come from so they can know that they belong somewhere and that they come from somewhere because everyone has a background. Educators have to teach students so that Ethnic Studies doesn’t die, to keep having these amazing classes, classes that teach the real history.

Sincerely,

Aurora F.

DEAR FUTURE ETHNIC STUDIES TEACHER,

There are words I do not yet have. Words that will be said but not heard. Words that are disregarded by those who do not agree. Words that have a meaning but they’re not understood and are chosen to be ignored. Words that explain what I feel but words are not enough. I have not yet found the true words that can describe what I feel or that can be perceived by others on what I’ve been through.

Sometimes when one sits and thinks about the negative things that are happening in their life, they realize that they need to make a change, that they can’t always keep their thoughts and feelings bottled up inside cause it’s hurting them. The fact that sometimes one believes that one cannot do anything about it upsets me. We have the right to speak the truth, we have the right to express what we feel, we have the right to stand up for ourselves as well as others. Not in a disrespectful way either but one must let the other person know that what they are doing or saying is not acceptable, even though one feels intimidated by the person.

Oppression is mental distress, “a sense of being weighed down in body and mind.” There’s oppression everywhere in this world. We are oppressed for our gender, our sexuality, our ethnicity, our class (poor), our color, etc. There are amazing people who have stood up to the oppressors and set their mind to make a change. Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Yuri Kochiyama, The Brown Berets and The Black Panther Party, etc. They stood up for what they believed in. They wanted equality and respect. They wanted others to hear their struggle, their suffering, their ambitions. They gave it their all to stop the oppression towards those who were being oppressed. It takes courage, a strong mind, and a lot of hard work to convince people to help fight for their rights. One must find a way to show them that they have the right to take action. One cannot stand alone without anybody else to support them because you won’t be taken into consideration and on the other hand if you have people to support you, the

oppressors will be aware that the people also want a change and what they are doing will trigger chaos. In my experience, I’ve been oppressed frequently, not only because of my ethnicity but for my gender as well. I’ve been oppressed by teachers, school staff, and others. There was once an incident where the teacher was cursing, disrespecting me, verbally abusing me, and being sexist. He would constantly pick on me and say inappropriate things that a teacher shouldn’t be saying. I don’t understand why there was a need to say sexist remarks. The one time where I decided it was time to stand up for myself, it went absolutely wrong and I had no other choice but to stay quiet and not continue with the argument, just to listen to what he was saying because if I would’ve said anything, the situation could’ve gone worse. There was no point in continuing with the argument because one must be the better person and realize that with yelling and using foul language will not solve the problem unless one can speak in a respectful manner and have proper communication. I was frustrated, unhappy, and confused inside but didn’t know how to react to something like this. I showed no emotion whatsoever. I never said anything because I never had the proper words to say and I don’t know how to express myself.

I just want you to know that it would be helpful if you’re there for your students, support them, show them the different ways to express themselves in a nonviolent way when they have a problem they want to fix. It is helpful when one knows how to manage the situation and knows how the system works. One should let the students know that they are being oppressed so they can make a change. You should teach your students about their culture because not every student knows about their culture and it feels good to know about it. It is interesting learning new things about it, learning the struggles and suffering of our people, that they not only struggled but took action and stopped the oppressors from oppressing them. They made changes that maybe nobody would risk their life for. They were brave like any superhero. They did it for their people, community, and themselves.

Sincerely,

Evelyn A.

UNITE WITH PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WANT

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Educator;

Teaching Ethnic Studies is the best decision you can make. You’ll get to learn so much from your future students. As an Ethnic Studies student I have learned so much from my teacher this year. Ethnic Studies is not like any other class, it’s more interesting. You get to learn what actually occurred in our past history. Students tend to get more involved and focused in what’s happening around in their community. To me, a regular class can be boring, but not Ethnic Studies. I am always looking forward to learning something new like a little kid getting a new toy. In this world you are taught to be independent, but in Ethnic Studies you learn that you need to unite with your people to achieve what you want.

Throughout our years of school we learn only what the government wants us to know. We are taught to think that Columbus is a hero, but in reality is he? They don’t tell us how he lied, killed, and raped. We mostly learn about whites and how they are heroes but you rarely see people of color getting recognized. In Ethnic Studies I’ve learned a lot about people of color and what they have gone through. All that they have struggled through to become free and for rights. Like Audre Lorde who fought and spoke upon the LGBTQ community. This has changed my perspective of how the system can really be. Ethnic Studies teaches us about latino history, black history and every other

race. Being in this class made me realize how brainwashed and blinded we can be to our own history. I’ve always been so interested in my ancestry and learning more about it and knowing what our ancestors suffered and went through makes me realize how far we’ve come.

Teachers should take into consideration the way they teach their class and not only go by using the book. The way you teach your class shows a lot of you. If you always teach the same way and use the same techniques students start to be uninterested and that’s when they stop coming to class. Figuring out students is like figuring the pieces to a puzzle. Having a connection with your students helps you know them better. Like getting along with them, making jokes and asking how they are doing. Many teachers tend to be harsh on a student on the way they are or simply because they have their head down but you really never hear a teacher asking if there’s something wrong. They automatically think that the student is just being lazy. I have learned and seen how even teachers oppress students. Don’t you think that’s wrong? Isn’t a teacher supposed to support and motivate a student to do better? Well I don’t think you would want to be that kind of teacher.

Oppression is a huge part in life. It has always been and seems like it will always be. I always ask myself why do we get put down if we are all humans. But now I know why, and it’s all because of our color, race, social status, etc. We are always getting oppressed one way or another. Also gentrification is happening now in the places you least expected. Ethnic Studies shows you to believe you should make a change in what the oppressors say. In Ethnic Studies it’s not only about learning but we see our teachers checking up on us making sure we are doing good. It’s about coming united and being like a family. Ethnic Studies shows you to believe you should make a change in what the oppressors say. In Ethnic Studies it’s not only about learning but also we see our teachers checking up on us and making sure we are doing good.

Sincerely,

Jocelyn M.

DEAR FUTURE ETHNIC STUDIES TEACHER,

Being a Latino student, the Ethnic Studies course completely revolutionized how I currently and will forever approach and perceive society. Learning about the subtle, oppressive methods of global institutions has made me open my eyes toward a harsh world that conveniently favors those of Anglo European characteristics. I am convinced that Ethnic Studies programs must continue to expand for the benefit of our culture, to empower and educate students about the injustices we are brought into.

One of the most astonishing things I learned within the course was that sometimes oppression may even come from our own people. Reading about articles and personally hearing students talk about how others from our ‘same race’ have occasionally abused them because of the small differences that exist amongst us will never cease to dismay me. Such remarks range from “Oaxaquita” to “you should be picking cotton in the fields.” It’s just mind boggling how people oppress and discriminate against others who are supposed to be from the same blood, the same hood. And you know what one of the most incredible things about this class was? That it was taught by someone who was there to live and experience all of the oppression. Everything we were being introduced to our teacher had experienced it.

I remember the first day I walked into his class, I walked in clueless expecting to be lectured and taught out of another completely biased textbook. When I walked in it was like one’s first time walking into a dense, tropical forest, incredibly full of vivid imagery and marvels. It was amazing the amount of information and great significance each and every visual contained. The depictions ranged from Aztec deities to feminine figures to oppression resistant artwork, every single piece an invaluable part of our culture. It was incredible how throughout the course of the school year we learned and covered material that connected with every single art work, even pulling off amazing projects that contributed to the scenery of the classroom. I feel that the envi -

ronment in which a student learns and interacts in plays a great part in their learning, it seeks to empower and inspire them.

Starting the school year I know I definitely was devoid of cultural knowledge, for all my life I had been taught by the institutional standards which purposely deprive students of their ancestral roots and history. I barely even knew who political groups such as the Black Panthers or the Brown Berets were. As the school year progressed, I felt my perspective on society changing. All of the documentaries, group projects, skits, assignments, the class curriculum; they all started opening my mind and enriching me with the knowledge of our culture, of the people who have constantly been oppressed and concealed throughout history. Mr. Lopez introduced all of us to a completely different world of teaching, it gave light to the oppression that has dogged people of color throughout history. Learning about the native people’s’ core values and of their obscured annihilation throughout Latin America has invigorated a new, intellectual world within me that sympathizes and appreciates those who have come before me. It was amazing how rapidly I became aware and proud of my roots, of how empowered and inspired I became through the teachings of Mr. Lopez, he opened my eyes to the world.

In my perspective, Ethnic Studies teachers should teach everything and conduct their class in every way as Mr. Lopez has done. I feel that there is not a better way to teach such curriculum. He encompasses all of the necessary attributes an Ethnic Studies teacher must have to fully understand the course material and students on a personal level. Such virtues are passion, apprehension, dedication, and inspiration among many others. I feel that such a teacher that can connect to students on very deep levels will without a doubt enlighten and influence students, eternally planting knowledge that will forever inspire and guide them through life.

The aspects that changed within my life through what I have come to learn have been how I view other people as well as the collective

society. Without a doubt I will dedicate myself to integrating these teachings for the better of my people regardless of the career I pursue. I now see myself as a human being that strives to connect to each and every person equally regardless of race or color of skin. The study of culture and ethnicity will be the road that decolonized students and holistically prepares them to combat the global oppressions we face as a community.

Sincerely,

Pedro D.

THE IMPORTANCE OF IMPORTANCE

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Educator,

Well to be completely honest when I first found out that I was going to be taking an Ethnic Studies class I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but let me tell you I’m glad I decided to stay because after the first week I began to love it. What I loved was how cool, straight up, and understanding my Ethnic Studies teacher, Mr. Lopez was. Since the first day of school he always kept it real. He’s one of the very few teachers here at Roosevelt that you can just easily talk to.

I learned so much with Mr. Lopez and being in his class. Not only Ethnic Studies wise, but also getting the chance to learn a lot about my classmates and their history of what has occurred to them. For example, if I remember correctly one of our first assignments was to create a hand of values. We all talked about what we valued, for example, family, respect, trust, honesty, etc. We came up with a pyramid and from that pyramid we had to narrow it down to the five most important things we valued. We all got the chance to share and we learned about what everyone’s values were, I feel that doing that assignment was important and existential because we all value different things and in some cases we might value the same. Another assignment where we got to learn about each other was a poem we had to create about ourselves. I had a lot of fun creating it because it made me really think about myself and how to describe myself. At the time I was still shy

and didn’t feel comfortable saying personal things but many of my peers did. Some got emotional in class and it was a really powerful moment because that’s when our true class bond began. Nothing but respect was given that day. A few of my classmates cried tears that day not only because they were telling their story but because we were hearing stories as well. There’s some things we would have never thought would happen to someone. I got to learn so much. I was nervous about that assignment but I’m really glad we got the opportunity to tell our stories because our stories do matter and do need to be heard. Not only that but I got the challenge to get outside of my comfort zone which is something that doesn’t happen so often.

Something I really enjoyed learning about was the empowerment of women. People shouldn’t treat women as if they’re weak or less than. I remember seeing a video where they would trick women into signing a paper where a women would get her tubes tied so that she wouldn’t have any more children. It was really sad because women in the video would say that they didn’t feel like a woman anymore because they weren’t able to give their husbands a family. Another topic I liked learning about was dehumanizing. For this topic it didn’t change how I viewed things it just made me realize how important dehumanization really is. It’s such a sad thing to go through, let alone witness. Hearing the broken stories on the ways people would dehumanize each other made me realize that if I were to ever witness something like that I would stand up for that person. People can be so cruel and it just isn’t right. Another thing we talked about in class was the fact that being dark skinned makes some girls feel like they aren’t pretty, compared to a girl who is light skinned. We seen a film where girls as young as five would cry to their moms saying why couldn’t they be light, they felt very insecure about themselves at such a young age. Society has it’s way of making people feel that they’re not good enough.

What I really enjoyed about this class is that it was always topics that us students can relate to and have an opinion on. A lot of our class discussions had to do with our culture and somehow it was always

relatable. Even when we didn’t talk about our culture it was just as interesting. For example like the Black Panther Party. Learning about Tupac and the poems he wrote were cool too because a lot of us today, still listen to his music and look up to him and his rhymes. If I could change the way the class was set up or organized I wouldn’t. Mr. Lopez’s class is one of my favorite classes I have taken at Roosevelt. His class is different and it gave me the chance to explore and open my mind more. As an Ethnic Studies student you should expect knowledge that will enhance the quality of your life, by expanding your knowledge and really considering how foolish stereotypical thinking is. As a student who has now completed the Ethnic Studies course I feel empowered by the studies of my family, history, culture, and even school history as well. I truly understand the value of ‘difference’ and I’m positive it’ll only help me have a successful experience in college and be able to interact with mixed cultural students.

Sincerely,

Raylene N.

WE ARE NOT THE MINORITY

In the world of sports, specifically in boxing, Muhammad Ali is considered to be one of the best and the most inspiring athletes to ever set foot in the ring. Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. or also known as Muhammad Ali, was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, KY. When Ali was reaching his prime moments in his boxing career, he was sent to prison because he refused to be drafted into the army to fight a war for the men and women of a country that did not like him only because of his color. As Muhammad said, “The draft is about White people sending Black people to fight Yellow people, to protect the country they stole from Red people.” As a fighter in his prime moments, he was stripped from his boxing titles, sent to prison and fined $10,000.

Now that I have your attention, what do you feel about the country you live in? The Country that promises equality and Freedom of Speech? Over the last hundred years or so, African Americans along with Latinos, have been discriminated in this “great country” we call home. Muhammad Ali was a fighter and a great one, but when the Vietnam war came around, he refused to fight for white people, for the same people that discriminated him because of his skin color. Muhammad Ali knew that he would be sent to the front of the line to fight the Vietnamese and get killed at one point. Ali was against that and fought for what many people who knew what the government was doing was wrong, yet no one stood up for themselves or others. With the actions he took, many African Americans as well as Latinos, stood

up and protested against the action that the United States was doing during time of war.

Muhammad Ali demonstrated guts, resistance and resiliency when he stood up against the government. That is what every man, woman and child must do. We must stand up to the government like Muhammad Ali did to the army.

This government is run by white people, composed of rules that should apply to all but that is not so. As we learn the course of history, people of color have always been discriminated. I myself, being from a community predominantly Latino, have been discriminated and have been put down with racial comments. My color is like a target to the police. For I am a young Latino boy who is trying to do something important in life but am constantly being judged by the white man.

We are not the minority, we are all one race, the human race and we should all be treated equal. Of course to some extent as well, for example, if you are a hard working person then you should be treated fairly and just. But if you are a criminal then yea of course you shouldn’t be treated fairly.

I come from a family that works hard everyday to live in this great country. I study to be someone in life but because of the racial injustice of this world according to the color of my skin, I am judged everyday. My goal is to be like Muhammad Ali and fight the injustice that we live in now in the 21st century. To create a safer and more peaceful community, environment and world, is the ultimate goal.

Sincerely,

Ruben E.

HOW TO BE AN ETHNIC STUDIES TEACHER

Dear Future Ethnic Studies Teacher,

I’m a student at Theodore Roosevelt Senior High and I’m currently enrolled in an Ethnic Studies class. This class has taught me a lot about the oppressions other students before me and students now face, the different type of resistors I can use to my benefit, my civil rights and my rights as a student. This class also changed my views on the school system and how many other systems, industries, and companies are corrupt in the country. I also learned how to be proud of my ethnic background and the history before me that my ancestors fought for and changed themselves; also the history that I can create and change as of right now.

As an Ethnic Studies teacher, there are certain things you should do for your students so they can have the best learning experience. You should interact with your students everyday and make sure every student in the class participates, because a wasted education is the worst thing a student can do. This is an important factor because it’ll change the way students view learning and help them evolve social skills that’ll benefit them later in the future. I recommend you to be yourself and be open-minded with your teaching. Your future students are going to need a leader and that leader will be you; connect with them, convince them to stay in school and help them get involved in their community by participating in community events.

There are also certain things you shouldn’t do as well. You shouldn’t lecture too much during class or make the students do too much activities, try to balance out the time spent interacting and talking in class so one of these won’t be dominating the other because both of these activities are important in a class. Also, you shouldn’t fail students, failing your students will bring them down and won’t motivate them to do good in class. But I’m not saying go ahead and give the whole class A’s, make them work for their grade, but if they can’t pass the class don’t give them an F instead give them a D so they still have a fighting chance of passing. Including, if there are students in your class that aren’t paying attention or always messing around, don’t ignore them or get mad at them. Instead help them change into transformational resistors, because a water education is the worst. One last thing, you shouldn’t categorize your students, instead treat them all equally and have them act the same with each other.

Overall, there are many more things you should do and shouldn’t, but these are some of the many important ones. Just be yourself, help the students and lead them to victory like a general. Good luck and I hope you have fun with your teaching experience!

Sincerely,

Andrew G.

LETTERS TO PUBLIC FIGURES FROM THE PAST AND PRESENT

DEAR CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,

Throughout my life, I’ve heard many reasons why you did the horrendous things you did to the native people, to my people. Very rarely is the history told from the perspective of the natives themselves, which is unjust, since we were the victims. I want to change things a little bit: this letter is not to praise you, but to condemn your actions and decisions. My family was nearly destroyed by the events that created America, and yet we have not been acknowledged. It is easy to say that someone is a hero; this letter will tell you that you are nothing like a hero. You are the “evil white-man” my people talked about during campfire at our pueblo, the man who murdered millions of innocent women and children and enslaved our warriors.

You might not realize how much pain you caused, but till this day there are millions of natives still suffering from that first encounter. We were human, not items that you can come and break, then leave it, just like you did when you went back to Spain and live life as a hero. How hard was it to talk, instead of murdering so many people. The first time I ever heard of you was through my grandmother and the chief of the pueblo. It was the first time I ever heard them talking with such pain and hatred, and somehow they tried to make you seem as the “evil white-man” consumed with greed and could not think straight. They were nice and smart people, they did not want to fill the minds of the children with hatred. Then, I moved to the United States and I learned more about you. Americans love you, the man who almost murdered an entire species, they love you.

Ask Americans why they love you, they will tell you because you discovered America. You didn’t discover America, it was already here and it was populated. You took something that did not belong to you and claimed it yours. The native for your first encounter were good people, they welcomed you to their land and offer you their respect, respect that they only offered to their gods. You took advantage of the fact that they were not educated and took what they loved and cher -

ished the most, their land and freedom. You treated us as less than humans when we treated you as a God, all for gold. You brought the idea that women are less than men, racism, white supremacy, and slavery. I always wondered, why does America celebrate such an evil man? That is because they took what you did as a teaching experience. What you did to the natives in what is now known as Mexico, they did it to the natives in what is now known as the United States. The Trail of Tears was a genocide to the natives in the northern side of America, hundreds of innocent people died. A hero breaks down barriers, you enforce them. Today, we have divisions of countries and states, people claiming land and killing for it.

For a Yaqui native girl, I felt like an outcast, like I didn’t belong anywhere, I feared making a mistake and society would take it out on my people. I started denying my roots, hating where I came from because I always heard people saying that the natives were cowards for not fighting back. I used to call my grandmother and she would always tell me to embrace my heritage, that good things would come out of it. How can I embrace something that I am constantly hearing as “weak and uneducated.” When I reached middle school, I met a great teacher who happened to be Yaqui, and he taught me to love my heritage and my roots. He used to sit down with me and tell me stories from our people, invite me to rituals and encourage me to use our values on daily life. It was then, and thanks to that teacher, that I learned to embrace my inner strength and the warrior inside of me.

The natives were free people,and they loved their land, now they are being caged in on reservations, away from society. The ones who used to run on green land and live a spiritual life, punished for something they did not cause. You caused it, we were the victims, yet we are paying for your mistakes. In a society where financial status is everything, the natives tend to stay behind. Unlike the people around us, we do not believe that money is everything, instead we believe that money is the cause of all pains. Then again, we are not normal people, we are spiritual and loving.

Now, I am going to attend college on the fall and break all the barriers around my people. Thanks to you, my people were known as the “ignorant indians,” but look at me now. I have done everything that society said I couldn’t do, that was thanks to the spirituality and connection I have with my people. Murdering millions of people was your conviction, achieving higher education and empowering future Native-American students to aim higher will be my goal. You are being honored as a hero, but I will be praised as an activist, that means more to people of my culture.

Sincerely,

Paola L.

THE WAY HOME

Dear Jackie Robinson,

By being the first African American to break the baseball color line, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, stolen base leader, batting champion, rookie of the year and MVP, you have inspired me. You were also the first and only player to ever letter in four different sports. You have shown me that being famous is possible no matter what race. To me, you demonstrated resilience because there was a lot of racism back in your time, but you still managed to get through all the hatred. The struggle that you faced to be in this position was a lot of racism and discrimination by a lot of people, so called “fans” and even your own teammates. But you still managed to be the best one out of the whole team. That shows that you didn’t care if they pity you like a quote you have said, “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” Something that I don’t understand is, why do people take the time to hate? I see no point to it, we are all equal and all human beings. Despite the tension and distractions, you managed to hit 340 average or higher.

I chose to write to you because I also play softball and you have inspired me to play this sport. The reason you matter to me is because you worked hard and succeeded in opening the doors to many African Americans who were scared to stand up for equal rights because they were afraid of what Whites would do to them. You have inspired many students and adults to stand up for what they believe in. Now you have accomplished equality, not only in baseball, but in every sport like

basketball, soccer, and football. If you would’ve never played baseball and stood up, all these organizations wouldn’t have let people participate because of their race and we wouldn’t have all these amazing players like yourself. Also, baseball wasn’t the only important thing to you. You were also a spokesperson for civil rights, black athletes and other causes, which were important.

My aspiration in life is to go to USC, become a known softball player and a doctor. I know there will be obstacles in my life, but I will manage to go through every obstacle that I encounter because “life is a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get.” Losing my mother at a really early age was one of the toughest obstacles that I had to conquer, but thinking of my mom makes me that much stronger and positive in making her proud. I don’t go one day and thinking I’m going to give up because it’s hard. I feel like my mom is the one that’s pushing me forward and giving me the strength. I have tried out for my high school and didn’t make the cut, but that didn’t stop me from playing and I will never give up on the ultimate passion I have for softball. When I was in Stevenson, seventh grade, my sister was actually in the Roosevelt softball team and when I went to her game, I thought it was really boring. Then eighth grade flew by so I tried out for softball and got in the team. My whole perspective on hating softball flipped and I was actually the MVP for bombing my hits down center field. I fell in love with this sport and now I am currently in a travel team. I have been playing second base ever since and I am trying out for center field. Throughout my journey with softball, which isn’t long, it has been rough because I get mad at myself if I don’t get or hit the ball I blame myself and put myself down but I have managed to stay positive, concentrate, and be in my own little world while I’m on the field.

Sincerely,

Sabrina M.

A LIGHT TOWARDS HOPE THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF MALCOLM X

Dear Malcolm X,

I have learned a lot from you through how your life was. You went through a tough time and some struggles in your past. I am sorry for the type of oppression you have been through. What would it be like if you didn’t speak up for your beliefs? You did some good things out here; why you had to go, I don’t know because haters hate change. There is so much oppression revolving around us like institutional, interpersonal, and internalized oppression.

You have taught me to be a leader, to never give up on your beliefs. You changed and transformed your appearance and the world. Change was for your appearance because you were a hustler that was thrown in jail. You met Muhammad and he taught you the way of Muslims and you learned how to read and write. Transformation of the people, mostly Blacks because Whites later saw you as a threat and not a person who wanted equality for all of us colored people. I know you faced a lot of oppression.

Institutional oppression was one of the types of oppression you faced because the police were always harassing people just for being a different color. We are all human, no one should be treated differently. You also experienced interpersonal and internalized oppression because you never loved yourself but you changed and that made you learn to

love yourself. Where would we be if you never changed this place? Oppression would still exist in a racist place, with people always getting attacked for not being the “right color.”

I wasn’t the best person in the world but I am transforming my life. I have never learned about oppression or what it was. Thanks to Mr. Lopez, he taught me what it is. I was lost for sometime, who was I? Where was I? What will I do? Those were questions I had. My Dad, he doesn’t live with me but I do talk to him. I guess he caused me to change. He left me when I was eight; it was hard because kids have their dad and I felt like something was missing from me. I would only see him on weekends and I would always appreciate the things he gave or offered me. Then he left to Mexico. It was hard because he didn’t live with me and now he is going to another country. Now he is married and has a kid with his new family. I still call him sometimes. I still love my dad because he is my dad; there is no reason to hate him for leaving me.

The person I was wasn’t the best. One of the reasons why I was this person was probably because of depression. I used to do things in the projects, I guess because my dad wasn’t there for me and my mom had to worry about my brother because something was wrong with him. I stopped when my mom caught me and started crying. I saw the damage I had done to her and I didn’t want that for my mom.

Now I am in football and it has helped me in a lot of ways like my health and my social life. If I had never joined football, would I have changed my life or would I still be the same and lost track of time? It feels nice to have changed and improved in some aspects of my health. I was so out out of shape! I remember my first practice, I was dead; I had a leg cramp for about a week! Now I have muscles and I have improved a lot in my lifting routines, I went from benching five pounds to forty pounds, that feels awesome.

One of the reasons I chose to change was for my mom because I love her and she loves me. I don’t get a lot of attention as the other kids. I guess that was one of the reasons why I did what I did. I was not thinking of others, just myself. My mom has taught me a lot, like how to cook and clean so I won’t suffer when I grow up. I at least know how to wash my clothes. You may ask, “Why do you need to know that? Hopefully she is alive for a long time and gets to see her grandchildren.” If they do take her, I know how to take care of my brothers and survive.

Thank you, Malcolm X. I will always appreciate what you left behind. You will always be in my heart. Like other activists, you have been an inspiration to me. You have proven to me that people can change. I can change, I am already changing things in my life. This should give people an inspiration, a way to view life, how to see your life and appreciate what you have. One must be with the Earth; inner peace, peace, love, and happiness. I have a lot of inner peace. I see the best out of situations. I want to change others’ lives, help them out, be an activist and inspire people like how Malcolm X inspired me.

Sincerely, Jesus L.

BIG SHOES TO FILL: THE LEGACY OF A LEGEND

Dear Sal Castro,

I was first introduced to you in my chicano studies class to get credit for high school and also units for college. We first learned about you and we had an assignment to read your book. I instantly fell in love with it because your ideas and beliefs were exactly right and it really didn’t make sense that school board didn’t help the Chicano/a’s out. I praise your ideas, and I really like them. You are my hero, and I look up to you a lot. You definitely demonstrate resistance because you had that strong mentality. You also demonstrated resilience by never giving up fighting.

An example of how you showed resistance is when you were getting death threats. You ignored them and still fought for what was right. You fought for rights students didn’t have back then. I respect you a lot because of the sacrifices you have given up for us. You were willing to give up your life to have the rights we have today. If I could, I would shake your hand because you make me proud of being a Chicano. I feel that you are the reason why I encourage myself to do well in school and get good grades. I want to go to USC and major in cryptography. Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. Cryptography is considered to be a branch of both mathematics and computer science. I would like to do that because I have always been interested in programming and math so I believe that could be a good career for me. Now, because of you, I want to show that I’m not just a ghetto kid from the hood but a scholar heading off to college.

An example of how you showed resilience is when you got fired. You still fought and found another teaching job and you still taught your beliefs there. You also told Chicanos that they have a chance to gradu -

ate, to go to college and have a good life, instead of living in the “hood” and working everyday. It’s crazy that you mentioned that back then, the school wouldn’t offer the classes to even go to college. They were placed into classes “ where they belong.” Women took cooking, and sewing classes. Men took auto-body shop classes because again “ that’s where they belong.”

I read the book “BLOWOUT!” by you and Mario T. Garcia and you were talking about the spirit of the Chicano which is very powerful. I also felt that it makes me feel like I have some big shoes to fill. I can’t say life is hard because I have options not like the Chicano/a’s back then. I have everything you asked for Latino students fifty years ago. For example, I would not be taking the class right now and definitely would not be learning chicano studies. You as a Mexican would not be teaching your class, and probably wouldn’t even be teaching in the first place. It is terrible that many people do not know about the past because if they did, many more will be taking advantage of their opportunities.

I have a better understanding of what the spirit of the Chicano movement was after reading your book. You discussed three main points that are taught to all the kids that attend your class and Camp Hess. The idea of educational justice was necessary to be taught because every student needed to have equal access to an education. The second idea had to with us believing that we could change the world. Finally, the spirit includes the concept that we should be proud of our heritage. A critical idea of the spirit of the Chicano movement is educational justice. You fought hard to make sure that classrooms in Mexican-American communities would have the same resources that schools in White Communities had. In your class, you mentioned that in Latino areas, our schools did not have enough textbooks and classes were overcrowded. In addition, the types of classes kids could take were mostly cooking, body shop, sewing and mechanics. Mexican students were not pushed to go to college, denied AP classes and were not even offered the required classes to attend college after graduating from high school. This was not fair and is a big reason why you and

others fought for everyone to have the right to get ahead in life.

The second idea that symbolizes the spirit of the movement has to do with feeling good and being proud of one’s heritage. In your class you discussed that you wanted Mexican history classes taught in schools. If these subjects were taught, Latinos would be proud of their accomplishments. If all that was taught was about white achievements, then brown people would think that they were worthless. You wanted Mexicans to know about their history and culture. Part of our heritage also includes language. It is sad that kids were taught that Spanish was bad. Today, we want people to speak as many languages as possible but back then it was English only.

The final part of the spirit of the Chicano movement has to do with believing that we can change the world. I think this is powerful because back then, it seems that Mexicans could not go forward because they depended on Whites to save the world. There were many restrictions that Mexicans had. Many freedoms were taken from us. It is hard to make a change when society keeps you down. Even our own families stopped us. In the movie, “Women Have Curves”, Ana is very smart and will make an impact on our world but she is held back by her parents who want her to be at home and be a regular Mexican woman. I think that the spirit means that each person has the power to make a change. Nothing can stop us except ourselves.

The spirit of the movement is a powerful idea that was born in the 1960’s. You and others fought hard to make things easier for us. It is sad that he faced so many problems for doing what he did. I was talking to my dad and he mentioned that my uncle Mike was a student organizer at Lincoln HS during the blowouts and that he got in trouble for being involved. There are lots of people who took a chance and did not know what was going to happen. I thank you and others for what you guys risked.

From Your Biggest Fan Aldo P.

EL CAPITAN Y MI IDOLO

Dear Rafael Marquez,

I love soccer and I greatly admire your accomplishments and commitment to the sport. My name is Valentin, I am fifteen years old and a huge fan of yours.You inspire me by how you were the first Mexican to play for the FC Barcelona and you were the first player to captain your national team in four consecutive FIFA world cups. That’s how I found out about you, since I always watch the FIFA World Cup and loved seeing the Mexican team creating history.

You never give up, like when you were with Barcelona injured and had to have a surgery. This inspires me to never give up on anything even if it is hard. Also, to work hard and accomplish goals in life. My future goals are to go to college and become a Doctor. To do this, I need to take AP classes and do well.

I also play soccer and I still don’t know if I want to be a soccer player but if I do then I want to lead my team to victory just like you did. I play soccer during the weekends with my friends. Sometimes I play good and sometimes I play awful but I don’t give up. I try my hardest to be good at soccer. I play defender or goalkeeper in soccer, my defending is alright but I am still trying to be better so I could defend better and not let the opponent team make a goal. I also want to improve my soccer skills and maybe join the school team. I also admire how you sacrifice and have discipline to be leader of your national team. It’s awesome that you have passion and love for soccer and you

want to be in another FIFA World Cup before you retire. I really think I connected with you because we both love soccer and I believe I have it in me to sacrifice and achieve goals in life, like you have.

You also remind me of my uncle because he had to sacrifice time to achieve his goals. My uncle lived in Mexico and he studied to be accountant. It wasn’t easy for him to become what he wanted to study. At first, he had to work in a library company in Mexico, helping place books in the library. He spent time doing that and after he went on to become an accountant. I think it’s cool how you achieve the goals that other Mexican players couldn’t, like Hugo Sanchez. You are an example of how Mexican people could achieve goals, they just have to take time and sacrifice. I wish you the best of luck! ¡Viva Mexico!

Sincerely,

Valentin S.

EQUAL PAY, EQUAL PAY

Dear U.S. Soccer and FIFA Associations,

You guys disappoint me, for so many reasons but most of all for your sexist actions. The U.S men’s soccer team has yet to win a World Cup or come up first place in the Olympics and yet they still get paid more than the women’s national team. Which, should I remind you, that the U.S. women’s national team has won three World Cup titles and are back to back Olympic gold medalists. For God’s sake they are the only women’s national team with three World Cups; they have the most World Cup titles within the other women’s national teams. The men got paid nine million dollars for losing in the elimination round and the women got two million dollars for actually winning the World Cup. Now that’s stupid! If I were to compare two veteran players one being female the other being male, we would see a big difference in their salary. For example, Carli Lloyd and Clint Dempsey. Carli Lloyd’s earnings in 2015 was $240,019 while Clint’s earnings were $428,022; almost $200,000 more than Carli. I don’t think it’s fair that when the women’s team travels they fly economy for the most part. Yet the men fly business class. They haven’t won a World Cup. They are not champions! They are far from that. You guys need to start treating women the same as men. We play the same sport why not pay the same. Girls are just as good as boys. Every player is good regardless of sex. I think you should start thinking about that. What examples are you trying to give this young generation? The USWNT has inspired a lot of girls throughout the country, myself included. I feel like the world hasn’t evolved much if there is still as much sexism as there was 100 years ago. I want to grow as a player and a person knowing that

women get valued as much as men. Patriarchy exists and it sucks that even a soccer association that “values” every player regardless of sex still pays more. If I were a journalist you guys would be the reason for a very scathing article. One day, you’ll grow old and you’ll regret what you did when you think about how you treated women. This doesn’t just affect girls, oh no, it affects boys too! You may ask yourself how it affect boys. Boys feel superior to girls in sports because of all the unjust treatment that the females get in the sports world and in actual life. They see how a soccer association treats women so they think it’s fine to treat girls how they do. My dad has always supported me in pursuing my soccer dreams. Even if it means driving for hours to get to tournaments, games, and practice. He’s always there to make me feel like I’m one of the best. He put me in a soccer club with boys and I’m the only girl. When he did that, I asked him why he put me with an all boys team, he said that he put me in that team to prove that girls are just as good as boys. I feel so lucky that my dad supports me with all this soccer stuff, there are some girls that don’t get encouraged by their fathers because their fathers support only the boys to play sports. I had an argument with a boy through the Internet about how women’s sports are just as important as male sports. He had said that female sports are trash. When he said that, I felt my gut drop, I felt so angry I wanted to slap the boy so bad. He said that he respected women yet referred to them as something that dehumanizes women. I got so mad yet so confused about how he undermined his own statement. The world needs to change in order for there to be equality between genders. I, myself being one of the only two freshmen on varsity, feel like I accomplished something really big, but I feel like boys don’t view it as a big deal. But a lot of guys are different, some ask me if I’m JV or varsity, when I answer varsity some of them are genuinely impressed and some just say, “Well that’s girl soccer”. What do they mean by, “It’s girl soccer”? Soccer is a sport without gender. Soccer is soccer and it should be viewed like that by people. I’ve played soccer for more than half of my life, I’m on three soccer teams, I’m captain in two and I’m the youngest. Soccer is one of my biggest priorities; I’m really committed to the sport, I’ve never missed a game.

When I was younger, I thought that everything was fine when boys would say you kick like a girl. But now as I am getting older, I’m realizing that kicking like a girl isn’t bad because kicking like a girl means kicking like a champion! But for you guys to actually continue to consider women to be less than men still shows that the “you kick like a girl” mock doesn’t go away, it just changes over time to other words or actions.

Sincerely,

Julia R.

TURNING A NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE

Dear Alex Rodriguez,

You are controversial. You’ve been called a cheater and worse, but you are my favorite baseball player and you are also on my favorite team. The reason why you are my favorite player is because you are a great example of resilience. You have always been criticized by people even your fans because you are a controversial person. One reason why people criticized you was because when you signed with the Rangers, you just went for the money. People say you went A-Rod for the money because of the ten year worth 252 million dollars. You weren’t loyal to the Rangers but instead you went for the money. Another reason why many people criticized you was because of the steroids you did while you were injured. You just wanted to go out there and play the sport you loved. Even though many people criticized you, you still play your best. Unlike other players accused of cheating, you’ve turned above it. You play each game like it’s your last game.

Do you regret doing steroids and other performance enhancing drugs? Was it really necessary? Was it worth it? I believe you did the steroids because you wanted to go out there and play because you love the sport a lot.

Even though you are controversial, you also do great things to help other people. You give a lot of money to charity. Also, you make many people feel happy like when you visited John, a very sick young man at

his hotel, making his day. Also you are still a great baseball hitter because right now you are the number one hitter in the Yankees.

You’ve responded to your critics by telling them to put the past in the past. You ask people to look at you in the present and not in the past. I’ve had teachers judge me on my past actions. Also I’ve had some people call me a loser. Yet, I don’t let that bother me because you taught me to turn a negative into a positive. I now do extra credit to improve my grades. I want to improve to show others they shouldn’t judge. We sometimes try hard and surprise others with our improvement. Like you, I want to prove people wrong about me.

Sincerely,

Diego D.

LOVE AND PAIN OF JIMI HENDRIX

Dear Jimi Hendrix,

Hello, my name is Fabian, I am fifteen years old and I go to Roosevelt High School. I want to get to the point. What was it like to be a really good guitarist, handling all the stuff that a lot of people go through? It must be really hard to be in your shoes, because you did a lot of drugs and a lot of fighting in the past. So, I like your music; I think your songs are really good and I love your singing, it’s so relaxing and it makes me go to sleep, in a good way. My brother and I always listen to you whenever we chill together to go eat something. Then when we go outside our house we put a big boom box and just play your songs, so everybody could know that you’re the best guitarist. We could relax and not get in trouble and just be at home eating all day when our mom is at work and get to do whatever we want in the house listening to your jams on the boom box. So that’s what I do when I’m with my brother not doing anything and we just put on your songs and just sing them.

I want to know, did you have a wife? When I did a little research, I read that you had a wife and you guys would always fight and didn’t care about each other and you always had another girlfriend. So would you do it for the music or the drugs because your music career could blow up all over the world. So you might stop taking drugs and focus on your music because everybody loved you and your music. My next question is, was it hard to make music when you were on drugs, or was

it easy? I hate drugs because it ruins so many people in the music industry and they die because of it, if you take it too much. So all I’m saying is, you would’ve still been alive if you weren’t taking those drugs or was it something else?

I really liked your song, “Hey Joe” that hit number one on the music charts. My dad told me all about it and I did a little research which surprised me because in that time you were taking a lot of drugs, so did you tell anybody about that? I wouldn’t because other people would mess up your music business, and you might just give up on your life. So I really hope you made good music in the past. Then you could sing the rest of your love life and wouldn’t have any problems with other people and wouldn’t need to worry about it too much.

So I hear a lot of songs from you and they are very emotional, the music really touches me in the heart. Most of your songs are talking about love or making violence to one another and I feel that way too, because some people make me mad but when I have earphones I put them on, relax and don’t think about the people that hate me. I have a lot of problems and I have to deal with them. Some of it is at home and I hate being mad, it’s one of my weaknesses because I’m always happy and always smiling. I heard one song about love and I have some of those feelings, I hate fighting and most of the fighting is about that love and I have to deal with it, so I handle it by listening to your music and following your words about love and violence.

Sincerely

Fabian M.

DEAR CESAR CHAVEZ,

You were resilient, fearless, and last but not least of all, powerful. These words can’t express the impact your act of resistance created for us Latinos in modern society. An over achieving individual who did not conform into being treated less than human. As the saying goes, “A strong man stands up for himself but a stronger man stands up for others.” If you have taught me anything, it is that borders and legal status mean absolutely nothing because we all bleed the same blood and breathe the same air, therefore no one is above another race and we must continue to fight for equality. Your legacy lives on to this very day and you are a hero and an inspiration to immigration movements including empowerment of the fight to end unjust laws all over the United States.

Without your strategic mind and determination all migrating Latinos would be working the fields exposed to harsh chemicals and stripped of their unalienable human rights. White folk don’t care about us brown folk. We live in a capitalist world dominated by gaining money at the expense of hardworking people. When people leave their home country, some Americans don’t understand that we don’t come here to “steal” anything. Major sacrifices are made daily to keep surviving and we feel the homesickness but we probably have a better life here than we do back home. In the end it is worth it. Working conditions have improved drastically and though life is still not an easy route, it has in fact gotten the hardworking families a little more home for the future.

The job I currently hold would not be possible in the earlier years. I work at a supermarket where it is clean and we get breaks every two hours unlike the workers back when you used to work the fields. This is one of the changes that has begun since your boycott of the grapes.

Youth are being encouraged to learn to advocate and become activists for problems they see in their communities. Ethnic Studies has opened my eyes to the oppression brown and black people endure in the 21st

century and it is unacceptable. The way you did not use violence but instead came up with a master plan, yet so simple, of protesting and boycotting and even filling up the jails. We use those strategies today. If we show aggressiveness and physical force the public will view us as the enemies with the intention to generate their rage and provoke the higher class people to strike back harder.

You took the hardest step of being among one of the first to step up to challenge and infuriate the agriculture corporations but with it came some of the best outcomes. For all your hard work we thank you.

Sincerely,

Diana T.

LETTER TO TUPAC SHAKUR

One historical figure that gave me a good impression in my life was Tupac Shakur also known by his stage name 2Pac. We learned that he had a journal that was filled with a lot of good poems. One poem that made a huge impact on me is called “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.” This poem has impacted me the most because he is saying that even though that he didn’t have much in life he still managed to survive with what he had. He described himself as the rose in his poem and if you read this poem you would acknowledge the fact that he indeed has survived through all the hate, he has made mistakes but to make mistakes is to be human.

This is important to me because when living in a community that has a lot of positive and negative it is hard to not get affected by it so this is relatable. Tupac mattered to me because he’s an inspiration to the music industry and to people who struggle with everyday life.

He lived in a life of poverty and managed to pull through, currently I am living in a life of poverty and his songs are inspiring and they make me feel like I can overcome my current situation and thrive in life. In one of his songs “Dear Mama” he talked about how his mom worked a 9 to 5 job and still hadn’t managed to make enough for food most days. He explained how his mom would pull miracles and managed to put food on the table. Also how his mom would be abusing substances and he would often witness her doing this. He would talk about the

struggles that he faced, and how he was living with a lot of negativity around him. He tried to stand up for his people and made people aware of some problems going on in his society that today you can notice.

As I see my parents struggle, I often dream about the day that I can afford to lift most of the weight of paying bills off their shoulders. I am only a teenager and I am only able to stand by and watch as they are being worn down by the constant hours of working and providing for me and my family. I want to help them but the only way I can is to receive a better education so I can afford a house or a time where they can be rid of all of their problems that have to do with money.

Some questions that I would’ve wanted to ask him are: What advice would you give to someone who is going through hardships that were similar to yours? How do you feel when someone tells you that your songs helped them through the hardships of poverty and violence?

Sincerely,

Hillary C.

ABOUT 826LA

AFTER - SCHOOL TUTORING

From Monday to Thursday, students rush to 826LA after school for free individual tutoring in all subjects. Once homework is completed, students read books from 826LA’s library and write stories based on a monthly theme. Students submit their writing for inclusion in chapbooks, which 826LA publishes throughout the year. To celebrate students’ hard work, 826LA unveils these chapbooks at book release parties, where students read their work to thunderous applause from their tutors, families, and peers.

IN-SCHOOL SUPPORT

Because not all students can come to us, 826LA brings specially trained volunteer tutors into under-resourced public schools. There, volunteers provide one-on-one assistance with writing projects. 826LA works with teachers to craft all projects, which are designed to engage students while targeting curricular issues. In addition to visiting twenty schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District each year, 826LA has a satellite writing center at Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles.

WORKSHOPS

826LA’s workshops bring students together with artists, writers, and professionals for creative collaboration. Whether the subject is journalism or preparing for the zombie apocalypse, our workshops foster creativity while strengthening writing skills. On Saturday mornings, 826LA’s ongoing workshop for reading development, Barnacle’s Bookworms, meets on both sides of town.

FIELD TRIPS

Weekday mornings, public school teachers bring their students to 826LA for a morning of collaboration, creativity, and writing. Whether the topic is Storytelling & Bookmaking, Choose Your Own Adventure, or something entirely different, these three-hour field trips are always in high demand. Every student leaves with an individualized publication of the finished story under his or her arm, complete with illustrations and an author photo! One hundred percent of teachers report that their students take a new excitement for writing back to the classroom thanks to 826LA’s field trips.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Henry Chase

Matthew Cherniss

Dave Eggers, Emeritus

Terena Thyne Eisner

Jodie Evans

Scott Ginsburg

Rebecca Goldman

DeAnna Gravillis

Claire Hoffman

Christine Jaroush

Susan Ko

Louis Lucido

Krystyn Madrigal

Sylvie Rabineau

Terri Hernandez Rosales

STAFF

JOEL ARQUILLOS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

CAROLYN GAN

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

KRISTIN LOREY

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS

MARISA URRUTIA GEDNEY

DIRECTOR OF IN-SCHOOL PROGRAMS & COLLEGE ACCESS

VICKIE VERTIZ

SITE DIRECTOR, MAR VISTA

LAUREN HUMPHREY

MAR VISTA VOLUNTEER MANAGER

LATESHA ADOLPHUS

IN-SCHOOLS

PROGRAM COORDINATOR

MARIESA ARRAÑAGA KUBASEK

ECHO PARK VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

ADVISORY BOARD

J.J. Abrams

Judd Apatow

Miguel Arteta

Mac Barnett

Steve Barr

Joshuah Bearman

Father Greg Boyle, SJ

Stefan G. Bucher

Mark Flanagan

Ben Goldhirsh

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein

Spike Jonze

Miranda July

Catherine Keener

Keith Knight

MIKE DUNBAR

MAR VISTA PROGRAMS COORDINATOR

ALEJANDRA CASTILLO

MAR VISTA PROGRAM COORDINATOR

PEDRO ESTRADA

ECHO PARK PROGRAM COORDINATOR

REBECCA ESCOTO

MAR VISTA PROGRAM COORDINATOR

CARINNE MANGOLD

TIME TRAVEL MART

STORE COORDINATOR

KENNY NG

ECHO PARK PROGRAMS COORDINATOR

EMMANUEL PORTILLO

ECHO PARK PROGRAMS COORDINATOR

Al Madrigal

Tara Roth

Katie McGrath

R. Scott Mitchell

Lani Monos

B.J. Novak

Jane Patterson

Keri Putnam

Sonja Rasula

Luis J. Rodriguez

Brad Simpson

J. Ryan Stradal

Sarah Vowell

Sally Willcox

T SARMINA WRITERS’ ROOM COORDINATOR

SHAWN SILVER EVENTS COORDINATOR

RACHEL MENDELSOHN DESIGNER

AMERICORPS VISTA MEMBERS

RAQUEL OLVERA COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING ASSISTANT

MICHAEL REYES

VOLUNTEER OUTREACH & RETENTION ASSISTANT