EL CAMINO COLLEGE| SPRING 2013
Ed Martinez CAMPUS LIBRARIAN RETIRES AFTER 29 YEARS
Modern Family
CHILDREN RAISED IN A SAME-SEX HOUSEHOLD
EDITOR’S PICKS THE MAKEUP DUPE LIST! DEPARTMENT STORE BRANDS VS. DRUGSTORE BRANDS
MAGAZINE
Editorial Staff
Letter from the Editor
Editor-in-Chief Viridiana Vaca-Rios
Staff Writers Elizabeth Aviles Cynnamon Baker Jorge Camarillo Claudia Huizar Monique Judge Erin Logan Philip Prins Mayu Kataoka Diane Vay
Photographers
Three years. That is how long I have waited to get my hands on this very magazine. I always imagined that the first publication that I would work on would be Warrior Life. So it is easy to say that when my time came to take over as the editor-in-chief, I was beyond thrilled. I thought that this would be the best publication for me to get started with in order to ease into the other publications, but boy, was I wrong! If it wasn’t for my many semesters as EIC of the campus newspaper and online publication, I wouldn’t have been able to make it through this production. I, along with my team of writers, designers, photographers and with the support of my advisers, wouldn’t have been able to produce this great publication and wouldn’t have had an amazing finished product—one
that would do justice to the many interesting stories of those people who walk onto this campus every day. While being a college student can be challenging, there are always those students who carry more responsibilties than one could ever imagine. I have a habit of glancing at the students in class or those who walk by me every day and wondering what their story is and who they are, because to me, everyone has a story. This magazine shares those very stories of the people who we see each day but fail to stop and take a closer look at. The people that we don’t take the time to get to know. I hope you enjoy reading this magazine, just as much as I have enjoyed putting it together for you.
Viridiana Vaca-Rios Editor-in-Chief
Warrior Life is published every fall and spring by El Camino College journalism students. The office is located in Room 113 of the Humanities Building at 16007 Crenshaw Blvd. Torrance, CA 90506. Single copies of Warrior Life are free to the campus community and visitors. Additional copies are 25 cents and may be requested from the office or by calling 310-660-3328 during the fall and spring semesters. To advertise, contact Student Publication Advertising Office: 310-6603329 or eccwarriorlife@gmail.com
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Adrian Agudelo Lowe Barry Kyle Borden Tracy Kumono Cary Majano Betty Rene Norman Amira Petrus Philip Prins Charles Ryder
advisers Kate McLaughlin Lori Medigovich
Design & Production Maurice Barnett Patrick Davis Sherida Jeffrey Jaekyu Lim Ana Martinez Amy Osbourne Linley Regalado Jessica Sanchez Amelia Soto Leala Stephenson George Torres Viridiana Vaca-Rios Eddie Vilela Professor Joyce Dallal
Table of Contents Lost in Translation 04
Same look for Less
cyber love horror stories 06
10 ed martinez 12 soaking in sea life 16 family firsts 20 Modern family 24 Cruisin’ Crenshaw 30 34 38 42 44 special delivery
38 Department store brands vs. drugstore brands. is there a difference?
Languages fading away editor’s picks What not to say learning with technology 3
Lost in Translation
STORIES OF STUDENTS OVERCOMING THEIR PARENTS’ LANGUAGE BARRIERS
Story by Elizabeth Aviles Illustration by Eddie Vilela
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ith the sound of the doorbell echoing throughout the house, he rushes over and finds his friend patiently waiting on the other side of the screen door. “Can you come out and play?” his friend asks. “Wait one second while I ask my parents,” Benny Barber, 21, sign language major, excitedly replies. With a huge smile on his face, he eagerly runs toward his parents to ask for permission, but they quickly turn his joy into disappointment as they tell him they have somewhere to go. Slowly walking back to his friend he tells him he can’t play, as he has to go with his parents. For some children, going somewhere with their parents means a trip to the store, a relative’s home or anywhere so they won’t be alone. But for Barber, going “somewhere” meant helping his parents communicate with others, as both his parents are deaf. “When I was younger I didn’t understand that I’m all they had, a person they could really trust instead of like
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some stranger as an interpreter,” Barber said. Barber is one of many students on campus who help their parents overcome their language barriers, becoming a language wizard for them and helping them get through the day. At age seven Barber was already translating for his parents at doctors appointments, signing to his parents as the doctor explained what was going on with their health. “The doctor would have to break it down for me in a little kid way for me to understand it so then I could explain it to them. It was like double the work for the doctor I guess,” Barber said. “Those types of situations were hard for me.” Barber’s parents weren’t the only ones struggling to communicate. Being so young, it was challenging for Barber to get the message across to his parents as he didn’t fully understand what some of the words meant but said he was doing his best to assist in anyway possible. Jane Kim, 19, computer graphics major, relates to the struggle of not knowing how to fully translate as she also had her own struggles to face. “‘Read this and tell me what it says.’ I’m reading but sometimes I can’t translate. I can’t summarize what it says because I don’t understand car insurance stuff. I don’t know what it means. What does this mean? What does that mean? I don’t know,” Kim said. Kim’s parents are from South Korea. Her family has lived in the U.S.
for more than 20 years but did not learn to speak English fluently. “I’m not fluent in Korean myself so I can’t pick out the right words to explain things,” Kim said. When her parents are home alone and she is away at college, there are times when they hesitate to take phone calls, as they sometimes find that they are unable to carry on a conversation with the English speaker on the line. “If I am not home and someone on the phone speaks in English they say ‘Sorry I don’t speak English,” Kim said. Similarly, Neha Qureashi, 18, biology major, has to translate English to her parents who where born in Pakistan and speak Urdu, a language she fluently speaks herself. “Some of the words I don’t know, I don’t know how to explain in my language so they are always like ‘What does this mean?’ and sometimes I’m like ‘I don’t know.’ I try to get it together, use different words and similarities and then they understand.” Throughout the years, they have found ways to help communicate to their parents, even when they are unable to find the exact translation. However, in situations involving wordy finance documents, finding the right words to use in order to translate or the right way to sign has been a constant struggle for them. “As a young person your vocabulary range is not so wide so instead of using the words they would use, if I knew what they meant, I’d have to describe
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what the word did or what effect it had for me, to get the words across,” Barber said. For Qureashi, translating for her parents is not as difficult as it is for the others, including her younger brother who is 14. “Even though I grew up here, they (parents) have brought me into my culture, I wear a hijab and I represent my culture,” Qureashi said. Her father a taxi driver, eventually became fluent in the English language as he was exposed to English speakers during work time. Qureashi’s mother, however, is not. Unlike her father, her mother has not been exposed to the English-speaking work environment, as she is a housewife and spends most of her day indoors. “It’s not like she doesn’t know English, she can understand it, she has been here for twenty-something years but when it comes to talking sentences and paragraphs and communication with someone, she wouldn’t be able to
do it,” Oureashi said. Qureashi and Kim weren’t always their parent’s primary translators, their older siblings translated for their parents until the time they had to leave to study at universities outside of the South Bay. Kim’s older sister transferred from EC to the University of California Irvine, where she now lives. Qureashi’s older brother left to study at a university in Philadelphia. Qureashi said to be confident that once she leaves her parents home, they will manage without her present to translate for them because she is certain that her father will be there to help saying, “they can do it, my dad knows how to talk (English) so I’m not worried about my dad.” Unlike Qureashi and Kim, Barber is the older sibling. With his seventeenyear-old sister still learning how to sign, he is the only person whom his parents have always trusted to be at their disposal. “It has its pros and cons. Before,
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when I was little it was more of a chore but as I got older, I realized that, that is how much my parents trust me, that is how much they depend on me,” Barber said. Although most children grow up depending on their parents, Barber knew his parents were just as dependent on him but never looked at it as being a negative thing. “It made me realize that no matter how much I depend on them, that area (translating) that they depend on me and trust me with, helps me be the best I can be.” The day that he leaves his home and his parent’s side, his sister will be the one his parents look to for help. Everything he has learned, everything he continues to learn he is passing on to her. “It’s kind of like tough love in a away but I know she will do good,” Barber said.
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Cyber Dating
horror stories BREATHALYZER’S, BIZARRE FETISHES AND BEING CATFISHED WHILE LOOKING FOR POTENTIAL MATES ONLINE. Story by Cynnamon Baker Design and Illustration by Ana Martinez and George Torres
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He seemed like everything she wanted in a boyfriend—he was great looking, he had a good job, he drove a nice car, he wore designer clothes, he had supportive parents and he had a nice network of friends. While it seemed too good to be true, her online correspondence with him indicated that he was the real deal. So after weeks of exchanging online information, she agreed to go out on a date. It was only after she went out with him that she discovered Mr. Right was really Mr. Wrong. In today’s Web-based world, millions of people have tried online dating services. While many of them have made a love connection, others only have online dating horror stories to share with their friends and family. Online dating is simple, can be fun and there’s no real risk involved, Sally Emery, psychologist, said. Many will use online dating to overcoming dating anxiety and, besides, “it’s easier to go shopping” online via the various dating services available than to find someone at work or at school. While online dating might seem easier and more fun at first, Lynn Gresham, 34, psychology major, learned the hard way that not everyone is who they seem when it comes to their online dating profile. “I went on flirtomatic.com and I met several guys,” she said. “I had an experience with a guy and every time he tried to use his car he had to blow into a Breathalyzer just to start the car.” Gresham said the interesting automobile accessory really got in the way of their romance after going out to dinner with her new friend. She said he began having a few cocktails along with his meal. After they finished at the restaurant, it came time to go home, but there was a problem. Since her date had some alcohol and since his automobile accessory was a Breathalyzer, her date asked Gresham to blow into the Breathalyzer for him so the car would start. She said the two argued about the situation, with Gresham not feeling comfortable about blowing into the machine, so she got out of the car, called a taxi and has never seen Mr. Breathalyzer again. “What you see isn’t always what you get,” she said. Online dating makes it practically impossible to know what you are getting yourself into or what you’re really going to find when you agree to meet up with someone you’ve communicated with only online, Gresham said.
“He had a lot of behavioral problems that I really didn’t like.”
She said the Breathalyzer incident made her realize that she needed to uphold certain standards to protect herself and her children from bad situations and that she only wanted a positive relationship, not something that was negative. According to Statistic Brain, of the 54 million people who were single in this country last year, 40 million used an online dating website. There are no statistics available for how many people actually find a permanent partner through online dating, although Match.com claims that in 2010, one out of six people who got married that year met through an online dating service. So far, Gresham has had no luck finding her soul mate online. In fact, she has yet another story about a questionable online dating experience. In this case, Gresham said she met a notorious “momma’s boy” online. She said that this man’s mother died before they met online, yet he asked her to wear her clothes and do all of the things his mother used to do, including going to church like she did. He made all of these requests while living in the home his mom had lived in. “He lived near my home so I visited him. And he said that the house he been living in was from his mom who had just recently died. He was like smoking in the house and he had a lot of behavior problems that I didn’t really like because I have children,” Gresham said. “He was bringing out all his mom’s dead clothes to me and I’m like ‘Uhh, I don’t want this!” Because of her experiences, Gresham said she is starting to rethink online dating and focus more on her education and her family. While some are looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right online, others are looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right Now. According to www.fling.com, the website is used to help individuals find sexual relationships. It allows individuals to seek fun and pleasure with locals in their area. There are also a variety of online dating sites geared just for college students, like datemyschool.com, universityloveconnection.com and studentlove.com Isiah Simon, 18, film major, said that while he uses his Web connections to find friends and not romance, he has discovered that sometimes he gets scammed by those who pretend to be something or better yet, someone they are not. “These women just come out of nowhere and just message me,” Simon said. “They comment on my status and they keep conversing with me. So I say stuff back.” What seemed like innocent friend chatter on
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social media sites ended up in Simon being the victim of a dating scam. This is what apparently happened to Manti Te’o, the Notre Dame football player who last year thought he was involved in a social media relationship with a woman who died, but found out later that he had been hoaxed and that the person he thought was a woman was actually a man who was very much alive. These hoaxes can involve men claiming to be women, men claiming to have lots of money or women claiming to be more beautiful than they really are. Some people may claim to be heterosexual when they are really homosexual and others may claim to be law-abiding citizens when they actually have a criminal background. For Simon, the hoax was similar to what happened to Te’o. “There was a gay guy actually pretending he was a woman and he finally let me know,” Simon said. “I was very surprised.” Although Simon is no longer interested in keeping in contact with the hoaxer, it does not stop the hoaxer from reaching out to him regularly. After finding out the person was a man, Simon said he tried to cut all contact with the liar, yet he said the person kept trying to contact him via social media, texting and even went so far as to send creepy messages and sexual photos online. “He still has my number and still texts me,” Simon said. “I do not respond because he’s gay. I should not have given out my number.”
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THAT’S SO “CHEERLEADER WHO LIKE, CAN’T LIKE, SAY SMART STUFF.” you Th ink tha t’s me an? Ho w do ? nds sou thi nk “th at’ s so gay ” Hu rtf ul. So , kno ck it off .
ThinkB4YouSpeak.com
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Special Delivery By Mayu Kataoka
A STUDENT’S CHOICE TO LOOK BEYOND A TRADITIONAL HOSPITAL BIRTH
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t was supposed to be like any other day. She was there to refill her birth control prescription as usual but all she could do was sit there in complete shock and cry as the nurse told her she was pregnant. Worried and confused, she took a deep breath. At the age of 19, Savannah Bruch, said being pregnant was the last thing on her mind. In the beginning she wanted to go to a hospital and have the doctors care for throughout her pregnancy. But then changed her mind after watching the documentary, “The Business of Being Born.” Produced by Ricki Lake, the documentary criticizes the American health system and compared different methods of childbirth. This was where Bruch learned that a natural at home birth was ideally the best choice for her baby. “When I first found out that I was pregnant I was like dope me up, give me an epidural and send me to the hospital because I don’t want to feel a damn thing,” Bruch said. “But after I watched the documentary and talked to my mom, I realized that would defeat the process of labor and birth.” According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, home births have a lower risk than hospital births with 6 percent preterm birth rate compared to an 8 percent preterm birth with hospitals. Additionally, the rate of home births has gradually increased over in 2004 to 2009 by 29 percent. “Home birth is not for everyone,” Bruch said. “But it needs to be taken into consideration because a lot of women don’t care, and I think labor and birth should be a whole new important transition to life and motherhood.” When Bruch’s mother Nina Weber first found out about her daughter’s pregnancy, she was hesitant about the news, but gave her some input that made Bruch rethink her options. “I just told her that if I ever became pregnant again, I would go with home birth,” Weber said. “I also thought having a midwife would be a more personal experience compared to going to a hospital to see a doctor.” Talking with her mom helped Bruch decide on what was really best for her baby and shortly after she spent numerous hours searching for the perfect midwife to take care of her. Weber recalls the first time meeting Elizabeth Bachner, Bruch’s current midwife who at the first sight of Bruch’s rounded belly, went up to her stomach and said, “Hey baby, it’s Elizabeth.”
“I nearly cried when that happened because it was so touching and rare,” Weber said. “I’ve never come across someone quite as amazing as Elizabeth.” Midwifery is a healthcare profession in which a midwife offers care to a woman during pregnancy and can also assist women in the postnatal period. “Homebirth with a midwife is truly individualized care,” Bruch said. “Every time I go visit my midwife, it’s almost like a therapy session.” After much preparation, on Oct. 20, 2011 at 11:55 p.m., Bruch gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Bella Sophia Hernandez. Although she and her family did everything they could to prepare for the baby, she said she was not ready for anything like what she had gone through once the baby was born. Aside from taking care of the baby, Bruch said she believes that having a home birth takes a strong, dedicated and committed woman to go through it and that shows like “Teen Mom” glamorizes the responsibility that comes with having a child at such a young age. The major challenges she overcame to give a home birth not only included the immense pain she endured, but the lack of support from her friends she cared about. Bruch admitted she valued a lot of her friends’ opinions at first and almost backed out on having a home birth, but looking back, she realized that those people were not an important factor in her life. Out of the people who did support her, Bruch’s boyfriend Jerry Hernandez, was ready to do anything for their baby, but was also skeptical about having a home birth. “I was like any other person at first because I didn’t know anything about home births,” Hernandez said. “I was worried, but after Savannah explained everything to me, she changed my perspective.” “I don’t know if it’s just me, but when I want something I’m going to go for it,” Bruch said. “I wanted to give my baby the best beginning of life I could and to me, that was at my home and not at a hospital.” When people ask if she was scared of the pain that she had to undergo, she said she was more scared about the aftermath of the birth. “I feel like I could have a million diapers and still not be prepared,” Bruch said. “I look at all the stuff I got from the baby showers and still feel like it’s not enough, but at the same time, I think that’s my motherhood and hormones.” Bruch plans on giving Bella the best life she could possibly give her and is assured that she will support her through everything. “I want her to know that she can do and be anything she wants to be as long as she’s happy,” Bruch said. “But of course within reason; as long as she doesn’t become a stripper, a drug dealer, or anything like that she has my support, no matter what.”
“When I first found out that I was pregnant I was like dope me up, give me an epidural and send me to the hospital because I don’t want to feel a damn thing,” Bruch said.
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The Man Behind the Desk
ED MARTINEZ, PUBLIC ACCESS LIBRARIAN, SHARES FONDEST MEMORIES OF EC, WHAT HE WILL MISS MOST AND
Story by Erin Logan Photos by Troy Tieuel
RETIREMENT
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ly bittersweet.” Martinez said. “I feel luttered with piles of paper and blessed to have been part of the staff knick-knacks, he searches through his here at El Camino.” Martinez says he office to find a piece of paper. “My will miss the memories of working office isn’t normally like this.” Ed with student organizations the most. Martinez, El Camino’s public access Starting his first year at El Camino he librarian said. “Wait, what am I saying? worked with a student group called My office is always like this.” Friends of the 3rd World that worked This year, Martinez is retiring after in highlighting issues and concerns of working in the campus library for 29 the 3rd world comyears. He started working munities. He also at EC in 1984 after workworked with the ing in Kauai Community “Retiring Future Disabled College’s library. is definitely Leaders organizaMartinez grew up in tion that was a club San Francisco and in bittersweet.” for special needs 1978 graduated from students, which Berkeley University with dealt with promota master’s degree in ing disability awareness and fun social library science. He first attended and outings like Dodger games. The group graduated Stanford University, earning he spent the most time with was the a bachelor’s degree in history in 1974. Alpha Gama Sigma Honor Society. While attending Stanford, Martinez Martinez was the adviser from worked as a duster in the campus 1984-1991. “We did a lot of commulibrary. Falling in love with working in nity projects everything from paper a library, Martinez decided to earn his drives to bake sales to participating in degree in library science. various fundraising and social awareNow, after a long career, Martinez ness programming,” Martinez said. feels he’s earned a break. “It’s definite-
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They proudly represented EC and won dozens of scholarships and awards at the conventions they attended. Martinez also won the state adviser of the year award. Not only has Martinez been involved in many of the organizations on campus, he has organized many fundraisers for the college. “If there is only a single event that I loved the best and would be considered most memorable, it would be working with Chris Montez,” Martinez said. Montez had enrolled at EC in the past and when Martinez found out about this, he contacted Montez to see if he would perform at EC for a fundraiser for the library and foundation. “The concert was great fun and Chris was joined by Al Jardine, his Beach Boy friend, who is also an EC alum. I was further honored to introduce him as a distinguished alumni in 2012. That was a great memory for me,” Martinez said. Another favorite fundraiser Martinez has hosted are the silent auction. The first silent auctions took place place in 1994, to help pay for major renovation done that year on campus. “The original intent was to have celebrities and notable personalities submit copies of books that inspired them. If they did not have a book that inspired them, then we would accept anything they wanted,” Martinez said. Since he has worked at EC for so long, Martinez has been a part of many activities on campus. He was a member of the Digital Project Task Force, which gave EC the ability to digitalize the campus newspaper and yearbook. He was also the member of the ECC Recycling Task Force, which ended in the ‘80s, and said he hopes that it makes a return. “I would still like to see recycling on campus,” Martinez said. “I’m really disappointed it was disbanded.”
While attending Stanford, Martinez worked in its library but said he prefers working at a community college. “I feel very blessed to be working at a community college because community college students have more struggles to go through, like working full-time jobs or being a single parent,” Martinez said. “Four year college students don’t usually have to deal with those types of issues.” Martinez said since he was fortunate enough to go to Stanford and Berkeley, he should give back to those who deserve the same opportunity at EC. Although Martinez is looking forward to retirement, he said he will surely miss the EC campus life. “I’ll miss the students and all the fun and exciting activities I got to participate in with them,” Martinez said. Martinez will still be working at the Redondo Beach Public Library part-time, but in his free time he plans on spending time with his grandkids, his son and watching Los Angeles Kings games as well as his hometown favorite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants “Retiring is definitely bittersweet.” Martinez said. “I’ll miss working on campus and I’ll miss the students but I am looking forward to spending more time with my family.”
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Soaking in Sea Life Story by Jorge Camarillo
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ith the warmth of the sun against their skin and the cool breeze blowing through their hair, a group of students quietly listened to their professor, Joe Holliday, lecture as the waves crashed against the shore. It’s just another day at the beach as students in professor Holliday’s Oceanography 10, Introduction to Oceanography class, study the sea. Holliday said the class focuses on the various components of oceans (such as geology, sea water, climate, coasts, biology and pollution) how they interact with each other and human life. Besides the usual required bookwork, the class includes field trips to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the ocean. “Their favorite ones are the alternate offsite activities, at the sea cliff or the beach,” Holliday said. “It’s rewarding to have a hands-on, visual experience with the subject,” Gregory Rednour, 19, business major, said. Holliday said he loved teaching oceanography because he enjoys talking about nature with his class. “My favorite is discussing the environmental aspects of oceanography, particularly the impact of global warming on every aspect of oceanography,” Holliday said. The oceanography class also comes with a lab for students which gives them the opportunity to explore nature and enjoy the beautiful view of the ocean outside of class. “We want them to come to all the labs because they make the learning come alive, particularly doing our four field trips or alternate offsite activities,” Holliday said. “One of our labs involved attending the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. We had to take notes on various species and observe man-made oceanic structures such as breakwaters and pier pilings,” Rednour said. “Seeing things off campus and in lab gives real insight and perspective into how we as humans affect our ocean.”
Left: A student searches the ocean water as part of her assignment. Photo by Cary Majano.
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Moises Torres, 26, Graphic Arts Major, is on the seaside rocks looking for hermit crabs as part of his oceanography lab. Photo by Cary Majano
Top left: Starfish in a tank that simulates their natural environment. Photo by Charles Ryder. Top middle: A sea anemone is in the rehabilitation tank where visitors are allowed to touch sharks, and other sea creatures at SEALab. Photo by Cary Majano. Center left: Marlen Lopez, 20, business administration major, is writing notes about the sea creatures that live in coves. Photo by Cary Majano. Center: Professor Joe Holiday has the class face out toward the ocean to find basalt rock stacks, at Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes. Photo by Adrian Agudelo. Bottom left: Students from Joe Holiday’s oceanography class search the tide pools for anything interesting. Photo by Adrian Agudelo. Bottom right: Sebastian Spencer, 21, journalism major and Ryan Mand, 22, undecided major, (left to right) make observations. Photo by Betty Rene Norman.
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Family Firsts STUDENTS WHO ARE FIRST TO OBTAIN A COLLEGE DEGREE
Story by Claudia Huizar Photos by Philip Prins
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or years, they have had the same routine. Quickly getting dressed, they sit down at the family table and enjoy the freshly made coffee and warm empanadas that their mother made for breakfast and catch up before it’s time for them to go. One by one, they exit the front door and make their way to work. But only this time around, it’s different, as Alejandro Arriaza, 21, biology major, leaves the home for a different purpose, to be the first in his family to obtain a college degree. As easy as it is for Arriaza to say, it was not as half as easy to accomplish. Both his parents struggled to support the family. Back in their homeland, having to pull open the refrigerator door every day and watch as the food was becoming scarce, they packed their bags and left Guatemala. While his parents knew that leaving their home was a difficult decision, the thought of staying and forcing their children to continue living in poverty, would be more difficult to watch. Not looking back, they got on the bus and hit the road and swore to look ahead as they moved to the U.S. to give their children a better opportunity in life. However, the journey to reach his academic goal of an education was not something that Arriaza, had as a No. 1 priority at the beginning. “As a junior in Morningside High school, I remember that my strategy there was to do the least
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amount of work possible but that was also enough to get me by and pass the class,” Arriaza said. “Once I got to senior year, I started to notice that if I didn’t start doing well in school and actually put some effort into it, I wasn’t going to graduate and the thought of that happening really did get me scared.” Arriaza eventually got his affairs in order and worked hard enough to graduate. He learned that hard work and dedication really did pay off as he walked the stage on graduation day. The fact that he not only graduated but graduated with honors showed him that there was more he could accomplish. As he reached out for his diploma, a loud shout from the audience got his attention. Looking over his shoulder, he scanned the hundreds of unfamiliar faces in the stands and tried to focus his sight through the bright sunrays. He finally zoned in on that voice that yelled for him and there he saw the main reason why he was up there, his family. At that very moment he thought to himself that he wasn’t the only one who worked hard to get him to achieve success, but his family worked hard too. “ I see how hard my dad works and he struggles because it is a physically challenging job. You don’t just sit at an office and get paid. He has to pick up heavy boxes and every day he comes home tired,” Arriaza said. “Having to see this on a daily basis while I was growing up made me realize that I just don’t want to do that for the rest of my life.” Virginia Arriaza, the 50-year-old mother of four, is proud and supportive of her youngest and only son attending college. Watching her son get closer to reaching his academic goal is something that is new and exciting to her and the whole family because after going through some difficult times, her son will finally graduate. “All my children have been very hard workers, and having the chance to see my son graduate will be a complete honor. Me and my children do not have a different view on education. We all believe that it is important and necessary in life to get a degree so life can hopefully be a little better because it will open up more opportunities in life for them,” shesaid. “To get a career that they will love and that will also help give them more financial stability is also very important for any person that is trying to make it in this world.”
Although some people might feel a bit different about choosing an alternative path than those in their family, Arriaza said that the support he receives from his family encourages him to keep achieving his dreams of obtaining a college education. “It doesn’t make me feel any different from anyone in my family, they just did not have the opportunity to do what I am doing which is attendingcollege and it makes me feel good,” Arriaza said. “I just don’t want to help my family, I want to help as many people as I can. If we all contribute and work as one then there is no reason for anyone to feel any different from the others.” Arriaza said his parents have been supportive of him attending college since day one. Although he lives a very budgeted life due to not working like most college students, he said his parents keep encouraging and supporting him in ways that he never imagined. “I did not have the money to be able to go out and buy myself a car to help me go to school. Everyday (my dad) would wake up a little earlier to have time to go out of his way to drop me off,” Arriaza said. “One morning he told me that he was going to stop driving me to school. I was shocked to hear that from him.” After having had supportive parents throughout the whole educational process, this type of news sent Arriaza in a panic as he never thought to be on his own, until his father explained why he wouldn’t be driven to campus anymore. With his father standing in front of him, the garage door slowly opened. His father’s serious face suddenly turned into a smile as a used car sat in the garage. “It was my own car for me to go to school. I was in tears and to this day I make sure he knows that I am truly grateful for giving me more than what I had ever hoped for,” Arriaza said. “If everything goes well, hopefully in ten years, I will be a doctor and finally have the chance to help people and return the favor to my family for giving me the chance to become someone in life.”
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family
Story by Diane Vay Photos by Tracy Kumono
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or a couple of minutes he stood there with the 6-week-old baby cradled tightly in his arms. Gazing into the boy’s big brown eyes, he softly runs his fingers through his darkbrown hair, which had already grown a couple of inches. With a big smile on his face, a wave of emotions came over him, and it was at that very moment that he knew he had to become a part of that child’s life. Jim Lemmon, architecture professor for 12 years, recalls the first time he met his biological great-grandnephew, Jaden. “I felt sorry for him. He would have no education. He’s doomed unless I could
take care of him,” Lemmon said. “I felt as though I had an obligation to take care of him.” Lemmon said he and his husband, Charles Mintz, had babysat Jaden for two to three weeks before bringing Jaden back to Virginia Beach, Virginia. However, they ended up caring for Jaden during the six following months. Knowing that he needed guardianship rights in order for Jaden to attend school and receive medical attention when necessary, Lemmon and his husband sought out Jaden’s mother for guardianship rights, which eventually brought them to adopting their son. “I definitely would say for
some gay people, they go seeking for a child,” Mintz said. “In our situation, we did not go out seeking a child and Jaden was put into our arms.” After two years of being Jaden’s guardians, the paperwork for the adoption of Jaden was signed. By deciding to raise Jaden, Lemmon and Mintz have become part of the growing number of same-sex parents in the U.S. In 2011, the Census Bureau released revised estimates of the 2010 Census. As stated in the report, in “the revised estimates from the 2010 Census, there were 131, 279 same-sex married couple households and 514, 735 same-sex unmarried partner households in the
United States.” For Jaden, 10, who is being raised by a same-sex spousal household, same –sex parenting is seen as a positive arrangement. “I am happy that it makes me different from some people,” Jaden said. “I have confidence and in the future there may be more people with gay parents who will have someone to look up to.” Although Jaden was raised in a same-sex household, he said feels as if he has grown up like any other child. “I know I have two dads and I know how hard they worked to get me (adopt), but I don’t think it affects me in any way,” he said. Like Jaden, his peers at school acknowledge the fact that he has same-sex parents. So far, he has not been bullied or treated differently than those around him. Especially when having same -sex parents could raise the topic of how he was raised. In terms of sociology, parenting techniques are no different regardless of whether or not a person is attracted to the same sex. “You kind of learn how to raise children by the way you were raised,” Akello Stone, sociology professor, said. “There is no straight way of parenting and there is no gay way of parenting.” Stone said if sexual orientation could rub off on children, it would result in a world where every individual is heterosexual. “Sexual orientation is irrelevant to parenting,” Stone said. “There is no way that sexual orientation affects the child.” Stone said a lot of
arguments that oppose samesex parenting are based on stereotypical and mythical beliefs that target those who are different due to their sexual orientation. “There are arguments that they are morally deficient, sexually promiscuous; some people still believe gay people will molest children,” Stone said. “That all gay couples perform heterosexual gender roles where one plays the role of the female and one plays the role of a male and vice versa.” Although some people in society have negative expectations from same-sex parents, it does not interfere with their choice of raising a child. According to a Williams Institute report by Gary J. Gates, “Same-sex couples who consider themselves to be spouses are more than twice as likely to be raising biological, step, or adopted children when compared
formerly in two heterosexual relationships before she began dating her first lesbian partner, Bahar Tahamtani, six months ago. From her past marriages, Parikh raised two children who are seemingly open to her relationship with Tahamtani. While her most immediate family may be supportive of her same-sex relationship with Tahamtani, Parikh’s sister is one family member who remains unsupportive. “It certainly wasn’t something I was raised with,” Parikh said. “I think my mom recovered much quicker and much smoother than my sister, given that my mother was born and raised in India.” At that same time, however, Parikh had other things to worry about. Although her children were aware of her sexual orientation, Parikh was concerned about how they would react once they found out that she had been dating
“It is good for a child to be raised by a male and a female and the next best thing is to have two loving parents regardless of sex.” to same-sex couples who say that they are unmarried partners.” On campus, however, there are those who are currently not married and are raising biological children while dating someone of the same sex. Janaki Parikh, anthropology professor since 2007, was
Tahamtani. In January, Tahamtani moved in with the rest of the family. “I was a little worried about how they would act toward whomever they met next,” she said. Although Parikh was uncertain about how her children would react toward
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Tahamtani, her son Kiyaan, 16, started to adapt to changes being made at home. He said at first he did not expect his mother to be in a relationship after being married twice. While Kiyaan was surprised by his mother’s relationship with Tahamtani, the way he was raised by his mother allowed him to become more accepting of the concept of a same sex relationship. “We were raised to fend for ourselves, never shoot something down (a topic), and we were raised to be openminded,” he said. “Questions
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were answered in the like and we would come up with our conclusions.” Even though he was raised in an environment where he was encouraged to be open-minded, his admittedly reserved character made the process of adjustment at home a little slower. “After a couple of months, I let my guard down,” he said. “It wasn’t a long period, but a period of adjustment. It wasn’t in a snap of a finger that a fourth person became part of the family and the household.” Even after moving into
the family home, Tahamtani was perceived by Kiyaan as a friend or a sister rather than a parental figure. For his sister, Meera, 11, Tahamtani has brought their family together and away from the family’s original time-consuming schedules. “Before, my mom was a single mom and was teaching all the time,” she said. “Now, Bahar (Tahamtani) is here and I am not so lonely anymore. I like to talk and I like telling inside jokes to Bahar.” While Tahamtani is still adjusting to this family setting, her experience
in joining Parikh’s family has presented itself as a something that she could learn from. “I definitely learned to stand my ground and I have learned to be very patient because the mind will change in the end of the conversation,” Tahamtani said. “I’m not going to let go of my opinions because it is not cool for them.” Prior to dating Parikh, Tahamtani had never thought she would find herself dating anyone with children. “I never wanted to give up my life to raise a kid,” she said. “I guess I just didn’t want the responsibility.” However, her attraction to Parikh made her reluctant to let go of their relationship. “I’m okay that I have come to this setting with the kids, but I am not sure if I want kids of my own,” Tahamtani said. “I don’t know if Janaki feels the same way or not.” While Tahamtani remains uncertain about raising a child in the future, there are other reasons why same – sex couples are not raising children of their own. Although Luukia Smith, 50, accounting technician, and her partner Angela Simon, 51, psychology professor, support same-sex parenting, they have decided not to raise children of their own. For Smith and Simon, both registered domestic partners of 11 years, having a child would mean sacrificing their social life, which includes weekend trips to Las Vegas and outdoor activities that include skiing and hiking. Even if the couple decided to become parents, Smith fears that her age may play a
negative factor when raising a child. “I feel like I am too old to have kids,” Smith said. “People my age are having grandchildren.” Putting aside the age factor and how it plays a role when raising a child, there are also health issues that prevented the couple from having biological children. For Simon who has been fighting breast cancer since her late 30s, raising a child became less of an option since she received chemotherapy to battle her illness. “Chemotherapy will kill the fetus. There is no way that I could go through therapy and get pregnant without effecting the fetus,” Simon said. “I couldn’t focus on that and I needed to focus on cancer.” Another thing that kept the couple from having children is religion. Raised in the Mormon Church, Smith felt that having a child would set her against her own mother. Knowing that her mother is an active member of the Mormon Church, Smith did not want to upset her mother by raising a child and going against her religious beliefs. She said the reason why she does not want to upset her mother is due to respect. “If I brought this baby into the world, then of course she would love it,” Smith said. “But I don’t want to put her through it; it would be an emotional struggle between her religious beliefs and what is happening in the family. Not having a child would eliminate all of that.” Smith said she has never opened up to her mother about being in a domestic registered partnership with
Simon. “Many may say that I should not be influenced by it (her mother’s opinions), but I do care about how my mom feels,” Smith said. Although Smith is influenced by religion in one way or another, there are others who take religious scripts word for word. As a liberal Christian who reads religious scripts from the bible, Roy Buchanan, 21, president of the Engage Christian Club, is rooted to his religious beliefs against same-sex parenting. “I’d say overall, being gay is an act of lust and a child should not be raised in that environment,” Buchanan said. “It’s my point of view religiously, but I’m not the one to condemn or judge people, so I don’t care so much.” Because Buchanan was raised in an environment where he was not exposed to same-sex parenting, Buchanan said he believed being gay or lesbian meant not having children. Another person who believes children should not be raised in an environment where they are exposed to same-sex parents is Unique Anderson, 26, communications major. In terms of parenting, Anderson believes that a child needs both a mother and a father and to approve of same-sex parenting would only encourage future generations to accept it as well. “How do you function having a mother who dates women and a father who dates men?” She said. “How do you identify yourself?” 27
However, there are individuals like Kevin Campa, 19, theater major, who believe sexual orientation does not affect a child’s well-being. “Sexuality does not matter, we are all meat inside,” Campa said. “It doesn’t have to be a man and a woman as long as the couple loves each other.” Campa, who is gay, said he plans on adopting a baby and having a biological child of his own from a surrogate. He said he has also put some thought into how he would explain same-sex parenting to his child. “You just have to sit them down and tell them ‘Sometimes some kids have two mommies and two daddies,” he said. Children who are born or raised in a same-sex parenting household, tend to form their own views and opinions based on their environment. Children are also influenced by dominant social systems they are surrounding them. “You have more patriarchal male-dominated systems than egalitarian systems: egalitarian meaning that the society is more equitable,” John McDermott, anthropology professor, said. “It just depends on who dominates that society.” 28
McDermott said society is under a patriarchal system, which also means the idea of same-sex parenting is offensive because it represents males taking on a feminine role. “If they can’t have children naturally, then raising a child in an unnatural environment is not natural,” McDermott said. “It is much more common in a male-dominant society.” On the other hand, there are those like Lemmon who believe that marriage in general provides stability in the household. Despite having to deal with the beliefs that go against same-sex parenting, Lemmon and his husband, Mintz, have attempted to raise their son in an environment where both parents are present and working in their own ways to support the family. In order to take care of his son, Mintz, quit his career and became a stay-at-home dad while Lemmon pursued a job as a professor on campus. “I was financially secure; that was important because it allowed Mintz to become a stay-at-home parent which helped Jaden,” Lemmon said. “I want Jaden to be an individual. I want him to know himself, realize his dream; just whatever will make him happy,” Mintz said. “He needs to know how to communicate and he needs to know that he will always be able to talk to his parents.” Aside from being encouraged to communicate with others, Jaden is put under a strict schedule where he is expected to read books, participate in extracurricular activities at school and
maintain a healthy diet. Despite the strict schedule due in part, to do well in school, he often spends his weekends with his parents. For Lemmon, allowing his son to spend time away from their schedule is all part of the parenting process. “You have to let them be goofy and silly because otherwise, they are going to crack,” he said. Whether it is different parenting techniques or a household based on sexuality, he said a child could learn different perspectives if put in different scenarios. “I think it is good for a child to be exposed to different perspectives,” Lemmon said. “It is good for a child to be raised by a male and a female and the next best thing is to have two loving parents regardless of sex.”
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Cruisin’ Crenshaw
Story by Monique Judge Photos by Philip Prins
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El Camino is Spanish for “the road,” and the road that the college sits on is Crenshaw Boulevard. Generations of Angelenos have been on the 23-mile stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard that makes its way through a juxtaposition of demographics and cultures that epitomize Los Angeles. Named in 1904 after real estate developer George Lafayette Crenshaw, Crenshaw has had song verses written about it, movies filmed on it and rap videos dedicated to it. It is a crossroads and a dividing line that separates two worlds in the city. It begins just south of Hancock Park, seeming to emerge from the historic Harbor Building as a concrete and tar pathway south through the city. It moves slowly through Country Club Park, tiptoeing past Koreatown spas and
bath houses before making a quick jaunt through Mid-City, where it passes the Craftsman houses of Lafayette Square (also named for George L. Crenshaw) that have been made into historical landmarks. In Jefferson Park, it spreads its wings, widening as it passes the newly built Expo Line train station and the iconic Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, where the city’s only Wal-mart currently resides in a three-story structure. On either side, the Japanese architecture of the 1930s and 40s still remains as a reminder of the city’s mix of culture and history. In front of Leimert Park it narrows again, but just briefly, as if to allow travelers a moment to catch their breath and reflect that Crenshaw is the unofficial symbol of the city’s black culture and community before moving on through the city.
As it travels through Angeles Mesa and leans in toward the area that is its namesake, Crenshaw Boulevard opens up like a freeway, gliding past Slauson and narrowing again at Florence as it passes slowly through the neighborhoods in Inglewood. At Manchester, near the historic Academy Theater, it expands as it leads the way into the South Bay, passing first through Hawthorne and then Torrance, past small airports, oil refineries, residential neighborhoods and El Camino before moving on to its terminus at Del Cerro Park in Rancho Palos Verdes. It symbolizes everything that the city has been and everything that it can be.
Top: The Mural of African-American Progress, located on the east side of Crenshaw Boulevard between 50th and 52nd (Streets) chronicles the journey of the African-American community from its roots in slavery to the current day. Bottom: A view of El Camino College from the corner of Crenshaw and Redondo Beach boulevards.
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Above: Steam pours from a cooling plant located at the ExxonMobil Oil Refinery located off of Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance. The refinery opened in 1929 and, according to Exxon, was the top employer in Torrance during the Great Depression. Right: A sign marking the divide between the cities of Hawthorne and Inglewood stands in the median of Crenshaw Boulevard at the southern edge of Inglewood, slightly north of the 105 freeway.
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Above: The Harbor Building scene through a gate in front of the building.
Left:A group of dancers and drummers turn the corner off of Crenshaw Boulevard onto West Vernon Avenue as they walk around Leimert Park in South Los Angeles.
A Vietnam Veteran stands on Crenshaw Boulevard asking for money from people driving by.
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LANGUAG STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SEEK TO REVIVE FORGOTTEN LANGUAGES Story by Diane Vay Photo and Illustration by Linley Regalado
I
n the suburbs of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, live the descendants of the Maya, who now reside in farms built from wood and mud bricks aligned with mountain slopes. Unlike the natural environment and its native people who are seemingly oblivious to time, the language may disappear. “I can say that I relate to Mayan ancestry because I have been among the people who are truly Mayan,” Jose Quijivix, 20, engineering major, said. “I experienced this since I was a child and this was the time that I was closely tied and exposed to the Mayan people and culture.” After moving to California at the age of 16, he and his family became accustomed to communicating in Spanish rather than in Mayan. Quijivix’s only source of exposure to the language is his father, who fluently speaks Mayan dialects such as Western Tz’utujil and South-Central Cakchiquel. Yet, he is learning K’iche, another Mayan dialect that values natural life. For example, terms are related to animals that feature similar characteristics described by the words. In this case, chikop (Chikop) defines the characteristics of a bird. K’iche is listed as a vulnerable language facing endangerment by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since the language is usually spoken within a household. As of 2002, there were 890,596 speakers. Like Quijivix, there are other students on campus
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GES FADING AWAY such as Amira Petrus, 19, film major, who lost exposure to her Blackfoot (Native American Indian) roots. Her 90-year-old great-grandmother, a full-blooded Blackfoot, had already lost some of her knowledge of Siksika (the Blackfoot language) after marrying outside of the tribe, eventually losing contact with them. After settling on a ranch on the open grasslands near Grand Prairie, Texas, her knowledge of the language grew smaller since she had no one to communicate in Siksika with. Sharing a distant relationship with the Blackfoot tribe, her four children couldn’t learn the language. “My great-grandmother’s children were trying to fit into society and valued their culture less,” Petrus said. Although her great-grandmother understood the language, she was not an avid speaker and relied on her limited knowledge and memory to teach bits and fragments of the language to Petrus. “My great-grandmother tried teaching the language, but she died from a stroke,” she said. “When she was alive, I had a direct connection to my native roots; but after she died, it faded away.” “The only word that stuck to me was ‘Oki (Ohkee),” which means hello,” she said. Siksika is listed as a definitely endangered language by UNESCO, with approximately 1,000 speakers in the U.S. by 1990. According to www. ethnologue.com, the language survives in an ethnic population of 5,000 to 8,000.
“I feel awful, really, because I could have been the only person in the family to know the language,” Petrus said. “I could have been the only one to keep the language alive among my family; it’s like a missed opportunity.” Her experience may be a result of a decrease in the Native American Indian population which occurred after European settlement in the Americas. “By the eighteen-hundreds, ninety percent of the Native American population decreased (due to disease brought by Europeans),” Emily Rader, history professor, said. “When you have a very huge population decline, sometimes they (Native American Indians) move in with neighboring tribes.” Another factor that possibly led to the loss of language among the Native American Indians is the fact that some of these languages were only spoken orally and never developed a written form.According to www.ethnologue. com, many Native American Indian languages such as Siksika have shifted their writing system to Latin script. On the other hand, UNESCO claims “The world currently has no systematic way to collect data on the number of communities which are developing their languages, what stage they have reached, whether existing writing systems are actually used, or whether attempts have been made to develop writing systems that are not in use.” The source also shares the idea that even languages that have relied on ideograms are represented phonetically.
“Recovering the language depends on whether or not the elders want to keep the language,” Rader said. “It does not always happen in time while there are still enough speakers alive.” While elders of certain ethnic groups have an option of choosing whether or not to speak their native language in public, there are also scenarios where a language is not being spoken or passed down among their families. During her family trips to Nîme, France (at ages 12 and 17), Anne Cummings, French and Italian professor, became exposed to Provençal Occitan, a dialect spoken along Southern France, Italy and Spain. However, her closest source of exposure to the language was her cousins. “I felt it was a cool relationship I had there,” she said. “It was my own flesh and blood that spoke the language.” Although her cousins are possibly some of the few remaining speakers of the French dialect, they have also chosen not to share or force their knowledge onto other members of the family. “There is a person in their eighties (in the family) who speaks the language fluently, but she doesn’t want to speak it with anyone,” Cummings said. “That’s the only cousin I thought would be the potential somebody to speak it with.” Another experience which exposed her to her native language was through a study group she had joined. Along with its creator, Robert Lafont, the
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group traveled to Montpellier, France to observe the Occitan language. “The goal was to revive the language,” she said. “It was when we went to record the language.” During the trip, Cummings, as well as the rest of the group traveled to the hills north of Montpellier to visit sheep farmers who also happened to be native speakers of the Occitan language. “They invited us into their homes and we would ask them (farmers) questions in their native languages and in French as well,” she said. “Because I was an invited member of the team as an observer, it was cool to listen to a language that was not taped or canned. It was a real, authentic language, which was exciting.” According to www.ethnologue.com, Occitan is spoken among the population of 1,940,000 people who speak different dialects including Provençal. UNESCO claims the language is severely endangered near the coastal regions including Barjols, Cotignac. UNESCO also states that north from the coastal regions of France and the borderline of Switzerland, are 200,000 Alpine Provençal speakers. Franco-Provençal, another Provençal dialect, is spoken along the north-western region of Italy with approximately 100,000 remaining speakers. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as definitely endangered languages. Bernie Rang, Spanish professor, has also traveled abroad to record another language that is possibly facing endangerment. “Ladino (also known as Sephardic Spanish, classical Hebrew for Spain) was the Spanish spoken in Spain for five hundred years until 1492 until the Jews were expelled from Spain (by Christians),” Rang
said. He said the Jews continued to speak Ladino in Turkey. While in Spain, the language evolved into the Spanish currently spoken everywhere in different accents. “Thousands moved to Israel, they were Jewish after all and had never given up on faith,” he said. To become citizens of Israel, they had to speak Hebrew and so generations of Sephardic Jews are no longer speaking Sephardic Spanish and are learning Hebrew.” Rang said while the Turkish government does not require the Jews speak Turkish, the language is required for enrollment into Turkish schools. “The younger generation can understand Ladino, but for the most part, don’t speak it,” he said. “Their children won’t understand it and the grandparents and the great-grandparents will have been dead.” With a recorder and consent from the Turkish government, Rang was able to visit synagogues and communicate with the Jews who spoke Sephardic Spanish. “I think every person that I spoke with who spoke Ladino was surprised that I was interested in their language,” he said. “When they found out I was an American non-Jew, it really fascinated them.” According to UNESCO, the language is severely endangered with less than 10,000 speakers. Also facing endangerment is Sanskrit, which has survived for thousands of years nearing the time the Buddhist texts were published. While some in India or other parts of Asia fall into other forms of religion such as Christianity or Catholicism, there are those like Ankita Arya, 18, biomedical engineer, who still carry the knowledge of the Sanskrit language.
“The language is usually spoken by those who are of high religious and of high authority who also read the Sanskrit texts which is the equivalent to the Bible in India,” Anya said. According to www.censusindia.gov, the number of Sanskrit speakers dropped from 49,736 in 1991 to 14,135 in 2001. Anya, who comes from both a prestigious and religious background (her grandfather was a high priest) said people in India tend to chant phrases from religious texts without any knowledge of whether or not they are reading Sanskrit. These texts include meditational phrases and lines of the Gayatri Mantra. “Aum bhur bhura svah, tatsah vitur rareh niyam, bhargo devah sahi mahi, diyo yonah pracho daya,” which translates to: “Aum is our life form, if we preach it every day, god is going to be with us, whenever you call him from the heart.” Anya said there are Indian families who don’t care about passing their language and culture and have chosen to live a more modern lifestyle with a concern for becoming more Americanized. “Between my cousins and I, I am told to learn every other language such as French, Spanish and any other language besides Indian,” she said. The sense of spiritual enlightenment keeps Anya
from putting down books with Sanskrit texts. “People who are upset usually go on YouTube to listen to music, watch videos and go out with friends,” Anya said. “For me, I would rather stay home and read old Indian texts.” Often dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, Quijivix was seen as an outsider for wearing clothes that were usually worn outside of his native village. It was not until the age of 13 that Quijivix started to gain interest in the purple, green and black tribal clothes that his friends wore. Gradually, he began to relate himself to his friends, filling in the gap between his culture, language, people and himself. “The idea of learning the language made me feel uncomfortable as a child because I had no understanding whatsoever of the culture and the language,” he said. Just as Quijivix began to learn more about his native language, he and his family moved not only farther from the natives, but the native land as well. “We (family) came here so we are no longer in contact with our traditions anymore,” he said.
UNESCO also states that north from the coastal regions of France and the borderline of Switzerland, are 200,000 Alpine Provençal speakers.
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Beauty & Style Editor’s Picks
Makeup on a budget
The DupeList
College. It can be quite expensive, and for students who seem to always be looking for a good deal, getting the same look for less can be important. Here are some of the same department store lipsticks that can be found at the drugstore, but for less! 1. For women who love the barely there look, MAC’s Honeylove is the perfect shade. Its nude shade with a hint of pink gives just the perfect amount of color to the lips. Wet n Wild’s Bare it shade gives the same color but at a much lower price. Only difference is that MAC’s brand stays on longer. 2. MAC’s Candy Yum Yum is the perfect shade of bright pink. However, women can get the same look for less by purchasing Wet n Wild’s version in Hot Pink. 3. Red is a must-have color for all women. The perfect, bright shade in Ruby Woo from MAC, gives a bold color. For a lower price, you can get the same color from Wet n Wild in Spotlight Red. The difference is that MAC’s has a matte finish as Spotlight Red gives a more glossy look. 4. For a softer shade of pink, there is MAC’s Pink Noveau and Wet n Wild’s Dollhouse. Both are very similar in color and texture. 5. MAC’s Rebel and Wet n Wild’s Sugar Plum are a pair that are spot-on in color. No one but your wallet would ever know the difference! 6. For women who desire a much darker and richer shade of red, MAC’s Underworld and Wet n Wild’s Cherry Bomb are perfect for that smokey look. Both very much alike in color and both available to fit any budget. 38
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MAC’s Honeylove Cost: $15 maccosmetics.com
Wet N’ Wild’s Bare it Cost: $1.99 wnwildcosmetics.com
3
MAC’s Candy Yum Yum Cost: $15 maccosmetics.com
Wet N’ Wild’s Smokin’ Hot Pink Cost: $1.99 wnwildcosmetics.com
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MAC’s Ruby Woo Cost: $15 maccosmetics.com
Wet N’ Wild’s Spotlight Red Cost: $1.99 wnwildcosmetics.com
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MAC’s Pink Noveau Cost: $15 maccosmetics.com
Wet N’ Wild’s Dollhouse Cost: $1.99 wnwildcosmetics.com
6
MAC’s Rebel Cost: $15 maccosmetics.com
Wet N’ Wild’s Sugar Plum Cost: $1.99 wnwildcosmetics.com
MAC’s Underworld Cost: $15 maccosmetics.com
Wet N’ Wild’s Cherry Bomb Cost: $1.99 wnwildcosmetics.com
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Beauty & Style Editor’s Picks
F inger
OPI’s $8.99
1
Milani $3.99
Rainbow opi.com
OPI’s $8.99
3
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milanicosmetics.com Wet n Wild $1.99
Big Apple Red opi.com
Spotlight
wnwbeauty.com Sinful Color $1.99
OPI’s $8.99
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Gems
Mermaid Tears opi.com
Open Seas
sinfulcolors.com
TIPS OPI’s $8.99
Wet n Wild $1.99
Pink Friday
2
opi.com
Tickled Pink wnwbeauty.com
OPI’s $8.99
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Sinful Color $1.99
Plugged in Plum opi.com
Fig sinfulcolors.com
OPI’s $8.99
6
Wet n Wild $1.99
Not Like the Movies opi.com
Gray’s Anatomy wnwbeauty.com
1. Both these colors are shimmery and colorful. However, Milani’s is a bit more difficult to remove. 2. These shades are exactly alike. In order to get the color of the bottle, you’d have to apply a couple more coats of the Wet n’ Wild brand. 3. Red is a go-to color. Both shades are bright, vibrant and amazing. The only difference is that Wet n Wild’s version comes in Fast Dry which dries in half the time. 4. O.P.I’s shade lasts longer. But at Sinful Colors’ price of $1.99, reapplying is no big problem. 5. While the shades of bottles might not look the same, they are as close as can be. Use an extra coat of Sinful Color’s to achieve O.P.I’s shade. 6.Both give the same great shimmery, metallic look. However, O.P.I’s lasts longer while Wet n Wild’s shade dries faster for those women on the go!
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MAC $15.99 maccosmestics.com
Maybelline’s Falsies $6.99 maybelline.com
Givenchy Noir Couture $32 givenchy.com
E.L.F. Cosmetics $4.99 eyeslipsface.com
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DiorShow Mascara $25
Maybelline’s Colossal $4.99
dior.com
maybelline.com
Benefit Bad Gal $10.99 benefitcosmetics.com
Lush Lashes
Maybelline’s Great Lash $4.99 maybelline.com
1. Mac Mascara gives fullness to your natural lashes, giving them a dramatic look. You can get the same look for less with Maybelline’s Falsies. 2. Givenchy Noir Couture is a great lengthening mascara that leaves lashes looking healthy. But for less cash, you can get the same effects from E.L.F’s brand. 3. If you want length, volume and thickness, then DiorShow Mascara is for you. But college students on a budget are in luck because Maybelline’s Colossal Volume offers the same great benefits as DiorShow. 4. Benefit Bad Gal isn’t as pricey as the other brands, but for those students saving their pennies, they can get the same look from Maybelline’s Great Lash in Blackest Black.
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What not to say... to your professors By Elizabeth Aviles and Amira Petrus
“I hate math!”- Susan Bickford, Math
“I don’t care... it’s a quick way to demotivate an instructor. If a student doesn’t care, then why should the instructor?” - Perry Hacking, Astronomy
“If it’s about their own life, they should never tell the teacher. Teachers want to know about their studies... teachers want to fulfill their duty.” - David Shan, Japanese 42
“Sometimes students tell mE why they need to pass the class...I need to pass this class so I can transfer. I’m not going to change the level of difficulty based on student need.” - Bob CALdwell, Math
"They Don't want to try" meaning they are not willing to PUT in the time into their projects.” - Aminah Baker Abdul-Jabbaar, Film
“‘I can’t write!’ Because everyone knows how to write.” - Jennifer Annick, English
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LEARNING with Technology Story by Philip Prins
DISABLED STUDENTS FIND SUCCESS WITH ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRAMS.
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The attackers came from behind and hit him in the head with a hammer, took his wallet, slit his throat and left him for dead. Rudy Ytuarte, 52, business major, had served in the Marines for eight years before getting out in 1988 and starting his own cleaning business in West Hollywood. The attack happened as he was walking home from work late one night in 2000. “I don’t remember much because my brain was knocked out, I went into a coma,” Ytuarte said. “I think I was in a coma for a couple of weeks before I woke up as a John Doe.” He said that after the attack, he had lost much of his memory and had to relearn how to read and write. He spent the next 12 years teaching himself and trying to regain his lost memories before deciding to enroll in community college. While college can be a daunting experience for anyone, it can be especially challenging for people with special learning needs, but advances in technology are changing the educational environment for students like Ytuarte and giving them new resources that are expanding their educational horizons. For Ytuarte, one of these resources is Kurzweil 3000. Kurzweil is a computer program that translates text into an audio format that can be played back to the listener in various ways to fit with the students’ speed of comprehension and is especially helpful for auditory learners and the visually impaired, Brian
Krause, Special Resource Center program coordinator, said. Krause specializes in helping students with disabilities identify technologies that can help them learn and training students how to maximize that technological potential. The subject of learning disabilities is near to Krause’s heart because he grew up with a disability, which wasn’t identified until he became a student at EC in 1994. It took an episode of “The Bill Cosby Show” to change his life. In the episode, Cosby’s son is having problems studying and finds out it is because he has a learning disability. “I associated with it (the episode) so strongly that I called my mom and I’m like ‘that’s me, I have a learning disability.’ I had never heard that before.” Krause said. After encouragement from his mother, Krause reached out to the EC Special Resource Center (SRC), and was found to have a reading-comprehension-and-processing problem. “It felt like ‘you mean I’m not stupid?’” he said. After receiving training on how to study effectively to overcome his disability, Krause was able to refocus and successfully complete college and now he is working for SRC that helped change his life, while trying to do the same for a new generation of students with special needs. When Krause attended school he didn’t have access to the technology that is available today.
I don’t remember much because my brain was knocked out, I went into a coma,” Ytuarte said.
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Krause said that programs like Kurzweil are opening up the doors of learning to students like Ytuarte, who in the past have had difficulty accessing the learning opportunities that most people take for granted. “That’s the thing about Kurzweil, it’s another tool that I can use,” Ytuarte said. “If I don’t have that person there to help me out, I have that other tool. I can go open up my computer and it’s there.” Ytuarte said it has been a combination of technology and SRC staff members such as Krause teaching him how to use it, that has given him the confidence to overcome the challenges of college. “I come in here, I am going to be able to learn something and I can walk out of here with some knowledge on my shoulders,” Ytuarte said. “I can say ‘hey I learned something today, it took me a little bit of time but I got it’ and the next day I’ll come back again.” Krause said that programs like Kurzweil that use voice activation, translate text into audio format and vice versa and that help students quickly organize large amounts of information, have created an environment that allows them to tailor education to their personal learning styles. Another student who has benefited from Kurzweil is Margaret Blacksmith, 62, child development major. Blacksmith has dyslexia, a condition that has been
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a frustration for her since childhood and has made the task of learning a difficult one. Dyslexia is a problem with the brains ability to associate letters and words with their meaning, which impedes reading comprehension for those who have it, according to the A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopedia. “Something that would take an average person maybe half an hour to read, I may have to take two hours to get through it because I read it in a different way and it takes a lot to get it in,” Blacksmith said. For Blacksmith the impact of finding Kurzweil 3000 has been significant. “I used to take only one class at a time,” Blacksmith said. After starting to use Kurzweil to transfer textbooks into audio format and listen to them, she is now able to take three classes at Cal State Dominguez Hills, as well as taking an assistive computer class at EC, all while maintaining a 3.5 GPA in the process. Computer programs are just a part of the advances in technology that are changing the special-needs learning environment. Krause said that the concept of universal design, which is the design of a product or service that can adapt to the needs of any user, has been one of the most important developments in technology for students with disabilities. A good example of universal design is the current line of products from Apple and Krause said that the company has done a good job of developing the concept.
Apple computers, tablets and iPhones all have similar operating systems and user interface, giving students the ability to jump from one device to another seamlessly and access services and programs without having to relearn a new user interface, Krause said. The portability of these devices is another important factor, he said. Students with disabilities can now access assistive apps and programs from school, home or on the move from easily portable smartphones or tablets. A few years ago this would have been much more difficult. Universal design is a concept that is not only being applied to technological devices themselves but is starting to be applied to educational systems as a whole and community colleges were some of the first organizations to start implementing the idea, Lyn Clemons, alternate media services technology coordinator, said. In a lawsuit filed by several California college students with disabilities in 1996, they claimed they were not being given equal access to educational content at the university level. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights picked up on this and after the lawsuit, decided to implement a program to standardize access to educational materials across California’s college systems starting with community colleges, a large percentage of which was accomplished through technology, Clemons said. She said that four-year colleges are now using the experience of community colleges to inform the push to modernize their campuses for students with special needs under the Accessible Technology Initiative. Clemons said another aspect of universal design that can help students is the shift that has been happening in the print and media world. Since the rise of the Internet there has been a gradual move towards digitizing content such as books, newspapers and magazines. Clemons said this type of digitized media is much more fluid then print and can be easily adapted for access by people with disabilities. A powerful tool that takes advantage of this shift is Job Access With Speech ( JAWS), a program designed to allow people with impaired or no vision to access computers and the Internet by making
every aspect of the process auditory. Tulisa White, now in her 50s, is a visually impaired student who said that JAWS has been an instrumental tool in gaining her independence. White was not always visually impaired. She spent close to 20 years as a nurse before being diagnosed with glaucoma in 2005, a condition that took the majority of her sight that same year, leaving her with only the ability to sense light. “I was shell shocked and didn’t know what to do,” White said. “No one in my family has gone through something like this so the entire process has been a learning experience.” A friend introduced White to a teacher specializing in training for the blind who encouraged her to get help. White signed up with the California Department of Rehabilitation and after being sent to the Braille Institute of America she was introduced to JAWS. “I used to have a photographic memory, all I had to do was see it once and that was it, so learning new things and hearing new information and for my brain to process it without the aid of proper vision has been a challenge,” White said. JAWS has given her the ability to overcome that challenge. “When I was able to sit in my home and have the independence of basically reading using the JAWS program I could see the light,” she said. “It was as if a turbulent storm had been raging and then, voilà , the storm was over and there was a rainbow and sun. I now feel as though I am on the same level as any other student on any other campus, not just El Camino.” Since returning to college at EC as a psychology major, White has been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA while taking between seven to 10 credits per semester. With the assistance of programs like JAWS, she plans to get her bachelor’s degree in psychology and work as a disability counselor for the Department of Rehabilitation, helping to guide people with disabilities through the turbulent process of coping with their situation and regaining their independence. “JAWS gives me the world,” White said. “It gives me the written world.”
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