El Sol XIV 2024

Editor-in-Chief

Nicolette Monique Luna

Associate Editor-in-Chief

Alexa Lima

Writers

Liliana Anguiano

Emily Esparza

Juan H. Estrada

Camila A. Gonzalez

Anahy J. Gutierrez

Diego Higuera

Emily Ingco

Alexa Lima

Nicolette Monique Luna

Miguel Nicolas

Briana Nuñez

Julio Rodriguez

Photographers

Emily Esparza

Camila A. Gonzalez

Alexa Lima

Yanelli Z. Robles

Contributing Photographer

Ko Inouye

Illustrators

Edmundo Godinez

Carla Labto

De Luna

Template Designers

Luz Maria Clayton

Anahy J. Gutierrez

Iyarie Murguia

Ivan Medida

Julio Rodriguez

Yanelli Z. Robles

Typography Trust Lead

Alfonso Julián Camacho

Color Trust Lead

Ivan Medida

Assistant Adviser

Kenneth Pagano

Faculty Adviser

Dr. Max Branscomb

El Sol Magazine

Southwestern College

900 Otay Lakes Road

Chula Vista, CA 91910

Editor’s Message

Asix-year-old girl once asked astronomy professor Dr. Grant Miller, “What is the most amazing thing in the universe?”

Expecting the wizardly Miller to launch into a wondrous description of epic black holes, blinding quasars and colliding galaxies, he stunned the room.

“The human brain,” he said. “Our remarkable minds allow us to contemplate the amazing things in the universe.”

Our minds house our humanity— our humanness and humaneness. Humanity at its most sublime was on full display in our community this year and captured in this issue of El Sol Magazine.

Southwestern College was sacred ground for some inspiring acts of humanity. Saintly teacher David Lynch used education to lift destitute children from the squalid dumps of Tijuana. Joyous Native Americans sang and danced on ancient land. A penniless transfronteriza learned volleyball at a high school for homeless children and became a college star. Talented women soccer players cheerfully absorbed beating after beating filling in as the college basketball team to save the program.

A young pitcher who came to Southwestern College to rehab from elbow surgery became an unhittable hero in the World Series.

Brilliant alumnus J. Michael Straczynski, America’s Superman of science-fiction, reminds us that “The human race has value. The common coin of our shared humanity is what will call us into the future.”

Being human is easy. Radiating humanity requires effort.

Nicolette Monique Luna Editor-in-Chief

Table of Contents

EL SOL SUMMER 2024 • ISSUE XIV

HUMANITY Stories of inspiring people.

5 WINLESS SEASON, FOREVER CHAMPIONS

Heroic women’s soccer team steps in as the basketball team to save the season and perhaps the program.

14 DRUMMING UP A NEW APPRECIATION

Inaugural powwow was a spirited celebration of Indigenous culture.

24 SPIRIT OF REVOLUTION ANIMATES CHICANO PARK

La Raza’s self-made corner of Tenochtitlan is a national treasure.

28 HUMANITARIAN NEVER DOWN IN THE DUMPS

David Lynch led a life of sacrifice to serve children who live in Tijuana garbage dumps.

34 AUTISTIC ACTOR’S SPECTRUM OF TALENT

Xavier Alston, written off as a child, is now a successful university theater arts student.

37 GUTTING FREE SPEECH IS A DANGEROUS IDEA

A proposal to replace the college’s strong speech protection policy is unwise.

42 MONARCH SOARS AS VOLLEYBALL STAR

Yesenia Garcia overcame homelessness to become a force on the court.

52 FIDDLER ON THE WORLD STAGE

Music historian Yale Strom has recovered essential Jewish music nearly lost to the Holocaust.

56 THE GENEROUS GENIUS OF J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

Southwestern alum overcame abusive childhood to become the Superman of American science fiction.

74 WORLD SERIES HERO ARMED AND DANGEROUS

Arizona Diamondbacks post-season star Kevin Ginkel got a second chance at Southwestern.

82 !VIVA EL MEJOR MARIACHI!

Globetrotting Mariachi Garibaldi is the planet’s best collegiate group and the South County’s toughest ticket.

86 COUNSELOR SHORTAGE CRIPPLES STUDENTS

College’s 1,700:1 student to counselor ratio is a serious problem that needs addressing.

90 SAN DIEGO PRESS CLUB HONORS FORMER EDITOR

Albert Fulcher survived AIDS, despotic president to become a San Diego County journalism icon.

THE COVER ‘Good Day To Be An Indian’: College reconnects with Indigenous community

Photo By Ko Inouye

Abe Photography

RECOGNITION

Associated Collegiate Press Magazine Pacemaker

College Media Association Pinnacle Award

American Scholastic Press Association Most Outstanding College Magazine

Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown Award

Western Publishing Association Maggie Award

Visual Guidelines

Visual Guidelines developed by the 2024 El Sol Design Team: Alfonso Julián Camacho, Cindy Gonzalez, Jose Guzman, Alexa Lima, Ivan Medida, Iyarie Murguia, Maritza Prieto, and Yanelli Z. Robles, with special thanks to SC alumnus Edward Herrera.

Mission

The mission of El Sol Magazine is to serve its campuses and their communities by providing information, insights and stimulating discussions of news, activities and topics relevant to our readers. The staff strives to produce a product that is timely, accurate, fair, interesting, visual and accessible to readers. Though El Sol is a student publication, staff members ascribe to the ethical and moral guidelines of professional journalists.

El Sol Magazine is produced by students enrolled in Journalism 200, 201, 202 and 203 at Southwestern College and by students enrolled in other related courses. Printed on recycled paper.

The first copy is free.

Graphic Designer’s Message

What is in a font? Style, beauty, and personality! For many, however, it is a world of content they cannot read. In this issue of El Sol typography focused on inclusion and neurodiversity. We consulted with disabled and non-disabled individuals to create an issue that is beautiful with improved readability. We invite readers to enjoy Museo Slab for the headlines, Raleway Bold for bylines and Avenir Book on the body. For readers with print disabilities, know we are thinking of you and appreciate your feedback.

Alfonso Julián Camacho Typography Trust Lead

Graphic Designer’s Message

Dear readers, Throughout this issue the colors feature a dynamic and playful palette inspired by the vibrant hues of spring. We meticulously chose each color to enhance the aesthetic appeal and readability. Just as spring breathes new life into the world, we aim to rejuvenate your reading experience with thoughtful design choices. We believe the harmonious blend of colors and fonts provides beauty and clarity. We hope you enjoy our spring-inspired publication and the fascinating stories of the people featured!

Ivan Medida Color Trust Lead

Soccer players took one for the team to rescue women’s basketball

HEROES ARE ETERNAL

By Emily Ingco

HARDWOOD SUPERHEROES

Southwestern’s women’s soccer team filled in as the basketball team and took beating after beating to save the program

Southwestern College’s women’s basketball team battled Mira Costa College in a season finale that was a nailbiter – but only for people who habitually bite their nails.

The Lady Jaguars absorbed another shellacking, 99-24, to finish a winless season.

For the packed house at the Jaguar Gym, that was not the issue. They came to honor the noble losers who will go down in Southwestern College history as champions.

Decked in good-guy white, the cagers were actually Southwestern’s talented soccer team in disguise. When illness, injury and crummy grades wiped out a rebuilding women’s basketball team, forfeits rained down like Hurricane Hilary and the season was on the verge of cancellation. Too often at Southwestern College a cancelled season precedes a cancelled program. Golf, wrestling, men’s tennis and men’s volleyball are already consigned to the sports graveyard. Women’s basketball seemed to be in hospice.

In dribbled the soccer team to the rescue, swapping cleats for sneakers and fancy footwork for dexterous handiwork.

Well, sort of …

WINLESS WINNERS, CHERISHED CHAMPIONS— Iliana Villegas looks to whip a bounce pass to Gialli Francisco during the women’s basketball home finale.

They came to honor the noble losers who will go down in Southwestern College history as...

CHAMPIONS

CHAMPIONS

The Lady Jaguars tossed more bricks than Local 4 of the Bricklayers and Craftworkers Union laboring on the Chula Vista bayfront project. At halftime they literally had more fouls (five) than baskets. Set shots looked like shot puts, many did not even draw net.

None of that mattered to the SRO crowd on the south bank of Southwestern’s cavernous gym. A moral victory was already in hand and the game itself was a raucous lovefest.

Unlike a typical high stakes season finale, the Lady Jags were crowned as champions at halftime with real crowns.

And sashes.

And roses.

Giddy players looked like a row of shoestring homecoming queens replete with shimmering tiaras framing their sweaty foreheads.

College president Dr. Mark Sanchez stood at center court to praise the team for “its outstanding courage.”

“These ladies saved our basketball season,” he said. “Thank you for what you did. You are all champions.”

Then, to the fans’ delight, an exciting second half of basketball. The Jaguars started to chip away at Mira Costa’s 48-10 lead.

Alyssa Pulido drained a 3-pointer, which rattled the rim and bleachers,

QUICK SIX— Isis Garcia (30) celebrates a 3-point shot by Gialli Francisco (10). The All-Conference captain of the women’s soccer team, Francisco recruited 12 teammates to save the basketball season.

Yanelli Z. Robles

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM (top, l-r) Camila Fuentes, Alyssa Pulido, Analucia Rosales, Fayth Perez, Madison Penrod, Iliana Villegas, Gialli Francisco, Ariana Lieras, Abigail Schmitz (seated, l-r)

Gabriela Rendon-Martinez, Isis Garcia, Katelyn Romo and Rylie Ewert.

if not their Mira Costa opponents. Gialli Francisco, a first team All-PCAC striker in soccer, struck again with another trey. She skipped back to play defense like a giddy third grader.

Southwestern’s 6-0 run against the dazed Spartans in barely a minute was more points than their other entire game against Mira Costa.

“They’re gonna shoot their way back into the game!” shouted an exuberant fan as he leapt to his feet.

Though that was hyperbole born of a burst of unbridled enthusiasm, the thought crept in that with practice this athletic, nimble team of elite soccer players might actually be able to master the hardwood.

Southwestern’s players were faster and better conditioned than the Mira Costans, and several times dribbled past the taller, more experienced Spartans. Jag players, with Messi-esque bursts of speed, consistently worked their way into open shots – but consistently put up wounded ducks that seldom were in any danger of actually going in the basket.

Never was heard a discouraging word. Whether it was the swish of the net or the silent flight of a ball falling three feet short, the women hustled back with smiles on their faces and pep in their step. Captain Francisco would have it no other way.

Fans generated a pair of organic goals for the team that spread through the stands like a fire in a dry palm tree. Score 20 points and hold Mira Costa to less than 100.

Modest, perhaps, but consider previous games:

Palomar 110 – Southwestern 0

Grossmont 119 – Southwestern 8

San Diego City 125 – Southwestern 12 and, in their previous matchup,

Mira Costa 112 – Southwestern 4

The Lady Jags cooled off in the garish light of reality, but the passionate crowd roared like a jumbo jet rumbling down the runway. Point number 17 came with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter. A free throw with 4:05 on the clock ran the tally to 18.

“Twenty! Twenty! Twenty!” chanted the crowd as it stomped like an off-tempo rendition of “We Will Rock You,” minus Freddie Mercury.

At 2:15 nirvana.

Guard Rylie Ewert rattled in a 3-pointer as the fans leapt to their feet as one. Strangers hugged and Johnny Jaguar hopped around like an onyx cat on a hot tin roof. 21 points! A barrier breached!

With just 35 seconds remaining Isis Garcia launched a line drive from the arc that skimmed the rim and dropped through for three more to run

the score to 99-24. Garcia spun like a top with both fists punching the frenzied air of the arena. She and the other four on the floor raced back for defense and set up a petite picket fence around the Mira Costa arc in an effort to keep the score under 100.

The Spartans never got off a shot. Mira Costa won by 75 points, but it felt like Southwestern College had just won the NCAA basketball tournament or the soccer World Cup. Parents, boyfriends and little sisters rushed onto the court to embrace their glistening loved ones. Abuelos, tios y profe’s held up posters with players’ names and photos.

Basketball coach Janet Eleazar was busy doing a TV interview, but soccer coach Carolina Soto stood on the court near the bleachers with a Cheshire grin.

“After the soccer season the players wanted to stay together,” she said. “Gialli, the captain, approached the basketball coach about using soccer players. The next thing they knew, 12 players had signed up.”

Soto gazed across the polylingual chaos of the basketball court.

“They look like they just won the conference!” she said. “They look so happy.”

“After the soccer season the players wanted to stay together. Gialli, the captain, approached the basketball coach about using soccer players. The next thing they knew, 12 players had signed up.”

Winning is something Soto and her players know how to do on the pitch. Southwestern College won the 2022 Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Championship and narrowly missed repeating in 2023.

“I think we can win conference in ’24,” she said, then a pause. “In soccer, at least. Not sure about basketball!”

Half an hour after the final buzzer few had left the joyous gym. President Sanchez did a TV interview as Steven Sanchez sang “I found love.”

Until the end of time the record books will show the 2023-24 Southwestern College Lady Jaguars basketball going 0-12, dead last in the PCAC. That is what it is.

Until the last granddaughter of the last surviving player disappears from this world, the memory of the selfless souls who took beating after beating to save the program will inspire young women and warm hearts. Basketball is ephemeral, heroes are eternal. n

‘GOOD

DAY

TO BE AN INDIAN’

By Alexa Lima, Emily Esparza and Briana Nuñez

ll Heaven was breaking loose. The Kumeyaay were home. It was a glorious late winter day, and the drums were as thunder as The People entered the circular performance arena on the manicured grass of a soccer field temporarily consecrated for a higher purpose.

From across the continent they came, Iroquois, Diné, Hopi, Apache, Crow, Yokuts, Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux, Kumeyaay and other Human Beings. Across the arena threshold they came, entering in a wave of joy. Draped proudly in vivid colored shirts and dresses, festooned with feathers, jangling with bells and footed in leather they danced to Mother Earth’s heartbeat.

“It’s a good day to be an Indian!” declared Master of Ceremonies Ral Christman, Sr.

It was a good day to be anyone within the sound of his voice.

For the first time in its 60 years Southwestern College hosted a full scale powwow. For the first time in at least 300 years the region’s Kumeyaay People were calling the shots on land atop the Bonita Mesa that for millennia had been a village or a seasonal transit camp.

“Welcome home,” said a tearful woman under a pop-up canopy fluttering with artsy t-shirts and Native-themed surf hoodies.

Credit on the program went to the office of Student Equity, Programs and Services – deservedly – but the spirit behind the day was first-year Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies David Salomon, a member of the Gabrielino/Tongva People, and Lucia Napolez, president of the Native American Students and Allies club (NASA). Salomon, a long-time advocate for local Indigenous People who performs with dancers and musicians on regional television programs, said the powwow was a source of great joy.

“This is the first annual,” he said. “I hope there will be many, many more.”

Salomon is an accomplished bird singer and a talented cedar flutist. Bird songs were nearly extinguished as Kumeyaay culture was denied to generations of children

‘DANCE IS A WAY BACK TO THE RIGHT WAY’— Native American dance is a philosophy, according to Powwow Head Man Robert Anderson. Dancing at a powwow is cleansing, empowering and a celebration of ancestors. It is also a training ground for young leaders and future leaders, including Head Young Woman Winter Begay of Southwestern College.

Ko Inouye

but have been making a happy comeback. So too gourd dancing, featured earlier in the verdant arena. Swaths of Kumeyaay culture were guarded and kept alive in the highland valleys of Baja California where southern Iipay speakers were cut off from their northern kin by the border during the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Language, songs, dances and other elements of Kumeyaay culture are now taught to young people on many of San Diego County’s 17 reservations.

CELESTIAL BLESSINGS

Chuck Cadotte, a senior spiritual leader from the Dakota Standing Rock Sioux, offered a prayer.

“Grandfather. Creator. Please bless our traditions,” he said. “Bless the young ones so that when they grow up they can pass on traditions to honor you for generations. Bless the old ones from whom we learn. Bless the drummers who sing songs to honor you and Mother Earth. Bless the dancers and the arena staff. Bring peace upon our land and to the lands across the Big Waters.”

Cadotte paused and slowly turned his steady gaze around the arena at the array of dancers –some 4, some 74 – whose flowing raven hair was tousled by the early afternoon breeze. Feathers tied to regalia by slender strips of leather fluttered. An occasional bell from a jingle dress clinked

‘WELCOME HOME’— Indigenous La Jolla and Kumeyaay People have lived in San Diego County for at least 10,000 years. Chula Vista has many archaeological sites that were villages and transit zones.

Ko Inouye

Camila A. Gonzalez

“Be your own tribe, be your own self, but always be aware of everything around you. Take care of everything around you and it will take care of you. Your leadership is needed in this community to strengthen this circle, a sacred place for everyone.”

ROBERT ANDERSON Head Man of the

Powwow

Camila A. Gonzalez

Camila A. Gonzalez

as the dancers stood reverently, some with sweat running down their cheeks.

“Thank you for our health,” he said a little more deliberately. “Thank you for our spirit guide. Thank you for allowing us all to be here.”

Bobby Wallace of the Barona Band of Mission Indians (the English designation for the Kumeyaay) alluded to the Kumeyaay People’s brush with extermination. Spanish conquistadors, Mexican expansionists and American settlers all treated the Indigenous Kumeyaay with stunning cruelty and barbarism, systematically driving down the population. Wallace said at its nadir about a century ago there were only about 700 Kumeyaay left alive. He said there are about 4,200 today.

“Thank you ancestors for watching upon us,” he said, his head bowed and his eyes pursed shut. “Thank you ancestors for being with us all the time. We are here. We did not go away.”

As Wallace spoke with more emotion the sun created an enormous circular rainbow in the veil of clouds overhead. A small cloud in the shape of a heart appeared in the circle, leaving mouths agape and arms tingling.

GOOD CHANGES

Orbiting the main arena was a circle of Native artisans and jewelry makers. Their shimmering silver and turquoise pieces were intermingled with t-shirts, dresses and blankets celebrating Native culture with colorful loom work, spiritual feathers or screaming eagles.

“It’s cool to be here, there is a nice vibe,” said Haseya Begay, a Diné jewelry artist. “The people are nice. I’ve sold several pieces. I will definitely come back next year if there is another.”

NASA President Napolez agreed.

“It’s amazing to be here,” she said. “Things are changing in our community. Good changes. This fall there will be the first ever Native American History class. I can’t wait.”

Drummers and dancers – rested

and rehydrated – were ready for another round of celebrating in the heart of the arena. Two drum groups alternated during the afternoon of dancing. Green River Drum Group was the Host Northern Drum, which performs the Northern Style of Powwow singing. They are based out of San Diego. Shakey Town is a Southern Style Drum based out of Los Angeles, whose infamous earthquakes are the inspiration for its name. Both groups played buffalo hide drums about a meter across featuring 5-10 musicians at a time.

Jingle dress dancer Winter Begay, a Southwestern College biology major, represented her college and her Diné People. Begay said she has danced at powwows since she was a little girl and adopted the jingle dress from the Ojibwe tribe. Jingle dress dance is meant to mimic the sounds of rain, she said, and promotes healing.

Philosophical Head Man

Robert Anderson of the Diné People is a Spiritual Advisor who lives and works in San Diego as Lead Counselor at Inner-Tribal Treatment.

WALK GENTLY ON MOTHER

EARTH— Southwestern’s powwow featured an array of Native American dance styles, including grass dancers, jingle dancers, turkey dancers and fancy dancers.

Ko Inouye

Ko Inouye

Native American Stars In The Southwestern Sky

Josh Calley (Apache)

As a child Calley split time between San Diego County and the Apache reservation in Southern Arizona. He was a Southwestern College super athlete who ran cross country and competed in a number of track and field events, including the decathlon. Calley was also Editor-in-Chief of The Sun and an award-winning photographer.

Albert Fulcher (Cherokee)

A U.S. Navy veteran, Fulcher was a returning student who became one of Southwestern College’s greatest ever journalists. He helped to lead The Sun through the hostile tenure of Raj Chopra, the notorious former president who tried to shut down student publications to cover up a vast corruption scheme. Fulcher was named National Student Media Leader of the Year and was an SC Student of Distinction Award recipient. He led his staff to the National Student Press Freedom Award for his dogged defense of student free speech rights. He is the Editor of the Chula Vista Star News and President Emeritus of the San Diego Press Club.

Sheilah Naajiibah Dasher-Green (Dine’)

A Southwestern College Student of Distinction Award recipient, Green was a Native American activist and journalist who won national awards at The Sun for her coverage of Indigenous People’s struggles in Flagstaff, Tucson and San Francisco as well as repatriation of Native American remains from Southwestern College to regional tribal leaders. She arranged a special campus event featuring a World War II Navajo Code

Talker. Green was honored by her Dine’ People as a Navajo Princess (for leadership and service) and was one of the most honored students in her class at CSU San Marcos. She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker.

Camila Alejandra Gonzalez (Yaqui)

A three-semester Editor-in-Chief of The Sun, she led the organization during the pandemic and brought home two collegiate Pulitzer Prizes. She was the 2022-23 National College Reporter of the Year. Gonzalez has earned more than 50 awards for her writing, photography and leadership. She is a Southwestern College Student of Distinction Award recipient and last year’s Native American Journalism Association News Writer of the Year.

Abel Silvas (Acjachemen/Kumeyaay)

Actor, mime, dancer, stand-up comedian, educator, historian and tribal leader, Silvas was a force of nature famously known by his comedy nom de guerre, Chief Running Grunion. He was a very popular comedian and teacher with a deep expertise of Coastal Native Americans. He studied mime with the legendary Marcel Marceau at the University of Michigan but was hardly quiet when it came to Native rights. Silvas led the effort to mark the burial sites of Native Americans in Old Town, scores of which were built on and paved over. He also battled government anthropologists who concluded that the Acjachema People were extinct. Silvas used a genealogy chart to prove he was Acjachema and his biting humor proved he was alive. Sadly, Silvas died last year at age 63.

“Ya’ ateeh! (Welcome!) Walk gently on Mother Earth,” he said softly. “Go down a good path. Music and drumming can get you back to a good path. Dance is a philosophy. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a way back to the Right Way.”

Anderson said he had addiction issues as a young man and has been on the “spiritual red road of recovery” for 26 years. Addiction, domestic violence and other maladies can be generational, he said.

“We need those brave cycle breakers,” he said. “It can take a generation or two to fix things up.”

Then a shout out to the locals. Latinos can be Indigenous, too, he said, if they have indigeneity in their ancestry.

“No matter what,” he said, “if you are Mexican you are not an illegal alien!”

An appreciative audience encircling the arena applauded and drew closer.

“Bless the healers,” said Anderson. “(Social workers) who bring people into the healing circle should make more money than any other kind of work. A true leader will be in the circle with the people and will suffer with the people. We all belong in the circle equally.”

Humans are social spirits, Anderson said, and need healthy connections to others.

“Be your own tribe, be your own self,” he said, “but always be aware of everything around you. Take care of everything around you and it will take care of you. Your leadership is needed in this community to strengthen this circle, a sacred place for everyone.”

The Kumeyaay were home.

All of The People were home.

It was a good day to be an Indian.

It was a good day to be a guest on Mother Earth. n

BEAUTIFULLY DIVERSE—

There may be as many as 1,500 distinct Native American tribes, bands and nations in North America.

Ko Inouye

SPIRIT OF REVOLUTION ANIMATES CHICANO PARK

Mario Solis could not believe his eyes on the morning of April 22, 1970 while walking to San Diego City College. Bulldozers were flattening ground underneath the brand new Coronado Bridge on land promised to the Logan Heights community for a park.

“What are you guys gonna do?” he recalled asking construction workers.

“Building a parking lot for a Highway Patrol station,” answered one of the crew.

!Chale!

Solis ran to City College and barged into a Chicano Studies class taught by Gil Robledo.

!Ya basta!

Rico Bueno, Josie Talamantez and David Rico “went on red alert,” according to an account published by the Chicano Park Steering Commit-

RECLAIM THE NAME—

The word “Chicano” started out as a slur but was embraced by the Pachuco subculture in 1940s Los Angeles. Today it represents activism and love of culture.

Yanelli

Anahy Gutierrez Maritza Prieto

Yanelli Z. Robles

Template Design

Luz Maria Clayton

¡VAMOS AL PARQUE!— Chicano Park’s creation was a spontaneous eruption of activism but today the National Heritage Site is managed with great intention by the Chicano Park Steering Committee.

tee. Bueno, a Vietnam veteran, sent classmates to other schools and neighborhoods to rally under the bridge. Solis climbed aboard a bulldozer and started flattening the land as others planted trees and cactus, the first landscaping of the nascent Chicano Park.

SDPD arrived and asked who was in charge. It was “Spartacus” in reverse. When police approached, activists pointed randomly to others. There was no violence, but there was resolve – notably from Jose Gomez.

“The only way to take that park away is to wade through our blood,” he said.

SDPD officer Al Puente, who had the Barrio Logan beat, warned his superiors against attacking the park lest women and children be killed or injured. Protesters were calm, but red-hot angry, according to Gomez.

“We are ready to die for the park!” artist Salvador “Queso” Torres shouted to a gathering of city and state officials.

Gomez agreed.

“Our community had already been invaded by junkyards, factories and a bridge built through our barrio,” he said. “Some of us decided it was time to put a stop to the destruction and begin to make this place more livable.”

Supporters poured in from around the region and the nation. The occupation of the park rolled on for 12 days. After some saber rattling and threats of imprisonment, San Diego city officials relented and agreed to buy the land from the state to establish a park.

One of the best ways to learn the history of the park is to listen to Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez and Los Alacranes Mojados perform their song “Chicano Park Samba.”

“A park where all the chavalitos could play so they wouldn’t have to play in the street and get run over by a car,” sang Chunky, the favorite troubadour of Cesar Chavez. “¡¡¡Órale Raza, Vamos al Parque!!!” n

Yanelli Z. Robles

By Camila A. Gonzalez

HUMANITARIAN WAS NEVER DOWN IN THE DUMPS

COLONIA

When David Lynch told a friend that the Tijuana school he taught in was a dump, his friend assumed it was a rhetorical flourish.

No. Lynch literally taught in the dump. A humble humanitarian and revered figure at Southwestern College, Lynch died recently but not before educating at least 12,000 desperately poor children in Mexico, Nicaragua and Uganda.

“Earth has lost a saint and Heaven has gained an angel,” said his friend Enrique Morones, founder of Gente Unida. “He is a hero. David Lynch, presente!”

Lynch’s “classroom” was a blue tarp that served as rudimentary shade on the edge of the municipal dump in Colonia Pan Americano. As goats, dogs and chickens meandered through his “school,” basuraros (trash pickers) scavenged through the dump for anything of value, including food.

“The smell is unbelievable and there are billions of flies, clouds of them,” Lynch said at a 1999 fundraiser attended by dozens of SC colleagues. “I remember being shocked that entire families lived in cardboard boxes in a massive city dump with no electricity or water. It was horrifying but the kids were just like any other kids, running about and trying to have fun in the dump.”

His first students had never been to any kind of class and did not know what a school was.

PAN AMERICANO, TIJUANA —

DAVID LYNCH

HUMANITY FINDS A WAY— David Lynch rescued thousands of Latin America’s poorest children from lives in garbage dumps.

“I was intrigued by what I heard about his school and wanted to visit. I am very moved by the people who work here, everyone who has dedicated their lives to work here with these children.”

SUSAN SARANDON, Academy Award Winning Actress

But they learned.

When the month was up Lynch left, relieved to be away from the squalor and filth. Philadelphia seemed like paradise after that, he said.

Lynch left the children of the dump behind, but they never left him. Tijuana’s urchins of Colonia Pan Americano had burrowed into his mind and heart. His view of life and the broader world would never be the same.

Each time he heard a Philadelphia parent or student complain he would think of the destitute but cheerful kids in El Dompe. Same when he took a new job in New York.

He returned to Tijuana for a second summer, then a third. After six weeks during his third summer he asked his New York school district for a one-year leave of absence. He was granted a second year, then a third but with the proviso that he had to return after that year or resign. Lynch did not wait a year. He resigned on the spot and decided to dedicate his life to the children of the dump.

An adjunct teaching position at SC’s San Ysidro Higher Education Center gave him enough income to pay for his $55-a-month Tijuana apartment and a meager existence. He also met his friend and great supporter Araceli Moreno, an ESL instructor.

“I was born in Tijuana, so I loved the project,” she said. “I immediately started helping him. One summer, I taught English and participated in tasks like providing clothes and occasionally toys.”

Moreno said she and Lynch were friends for 29 years before he died. She said his love and generosity were superhuman.

“He resigned from his job in New York as a teacher in a good school to do what he was called to do here,” she said. “He never left. That is the beauty of this remarkable human being. He believed in this project.”

Tijuana’s crushing poverty was not limited to Colonia Pan Americano. Not too far away los pobres who lived near Colonia Fausto Gonzalez, a sprawling dumpsite in Tijuana, worked as pepenadores (scavengers) to collect aluminum and glass. Children often would accompany their parents to the mounds of trash where oblivious dump trucks would

‘A

MIRACLE WORKER’— Lynch abandoned a teaching career at an excellent New York school to establish his school in the main Tijuana dump.

unload near them. Pepenadores were often injured or killed by the trucks or the falling loads of refuse.

Lynch convinced parents their children would be safer with him under the blue tarp than dodging dump trucks. His school was born and later his support organization, Responsibility. He had success writing grants and partnering with churches and charitable organizations, but his biggest support came from a Hollywood superstar. Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon visited Lynch’s school in Tijuana and was amazed.

“David asked me if I would donate something for an auction for a fund raiser he was holding,” Sarandon said. “I was intrigued by what I heard about his school and wanted to visit. I am very moved by the people who work here, everyone who has dedicated their lives to work here with these children. You can forget how much you have and it’s good to be reminded that there are others less fortunate.”

Sarandon said Lynch was one of the most selfless people she had ever met in all her years as an activist.

“He volunteered here and then came back,” she said. “And he inspired others to come back. This is a hard place, but there is a joyfulness here that these people have created.”

GIFT OF NEW LIFE— Countless students of Lynch left behind the poverty of the dumps to become successful, educated people.

Lynch also attracted support from an unlikely source on the other end of the political spectrum. Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly was also a financial backer of Responsibility and the Tijuana school.

Eventually, Lynch turned the elementary school over to Mexico’s Secretaria de Educación, the federal government authority that oversees the development and implementation of the national educational policy and school standards. Lynch and his team had by this time given thousands of Tijuana children an introduction to education and a roadmap out of the dump.

Lynch and his team followed a guidepost philosophy.

“If you want to help someone for a day, give them food,” he said. “If you would to help someone for a year, give them a tree. But if you want to help someone for a lifetime, give them an education.”

One the beneficiaries of the Tijuana school is Felipe Gonzalez, 52, a physical education teacher. He was a nine-year-old basuraro when he meandered into the school near the dumpsite and met Lynch.

“My parents did not let me study,” he said. “For them, work was the priority. I had to help them support and feed my younger siblings.

Education was not in my future. It was difficult to get to school, work, collect material from the dump, pay for my school supplies and to find something to eat.”

Gonzalez began his education late, but Lynch provided language and writing lessons to help him build an academic foundation. Gonzalez said Lynch transformed his life.

Morones said he met Lynch through his older brother Luis Morones, who volunteered regularly for Responsibility.

“He showed that children can blossom even in terrible situations when a loving adult helps them,” he said. “David was a miracle worker. He was also tireless and generous to a fault. He led a very ascetic life, sacrificing for others.”

Lynch and Responsibility opened a school in Matagalpa, Nicaragua in 2008 when he saw a documentary by filmmaker John Sheedy about a community living in a dump. Before he started the school, however, he determined that he needed to help the people of dump to secure clean water. He watched in horror as a mother with a days-old infant put the baby in a cardboard shoe box to carry it to work with her in the dump.

Soon his new school was booming with 560 students ranging in age from 6 to adult. Later he raised money to take them on field trips to museums and the beach.

“For a lot of them, it’s their first time leaving the dump,” he said at the time.

His next mission was to Uganda, where he worked with orphans in a war torn society with a kleptocratic government that did not adequately fund a school system, much less a social services safety net.

“Education is the only way to help poverty-stricken people help themselves and improve their lives,” Lynch wrote shortly before his death. “English classes, in particular, can teach important skills that can mean gaining entrance into institutions of higher education or gainful employment.”

Lynch saw horror and despair, but also redemption and joy during his 40 years of service to some to the world’s poorest people. He was never down in the dumps.

“He was special,” said Moreno. “There was no one else quite like David. He was a blessing from Heaven.”

Sarandon agreed.

“Imagination is the greatest gift we are given,” she said. “If you can imagine your life different, you can make it happen. Our ability to dream is what makes change happen. David can dream.” n

By Julio Rodriguez

SPECTRUM OF TALENT

Xavier Alston loves to act, as his friends in the Southwestern College theater arts program will attest. For years, however, Xavier had to try to act happy even when he wasn’t.

That is particularly difficult for someone on the autism spectrum.

At the age of four, Xavier was diagnosed with a type of autism that severely hindered his social skills and caused a long delay in his speech.

“He was just making utterances and sounds if he wanted something,” said his father, SC Professor of Finance Kevin LaVaughn Alston.

Xavier’s parents never gave up on him and he never gave up on himself. Today he is a 26-year-old Southwestern grad with a transfer degree in theater and a ticket to SDSU. Cum laude to boot.

He said he hopes to become the next Will Smith, minus the slap.

Xavier was born in Tokyo in 1997, but his family soon decided to move back to the United States due to the lack of support for Special Needs children in Japan. At age 6 he was written off by a school psychologist who told his parents Xavier would never speak complete sentences.

Xavier and his family battled the American public school system from the start. He faced abuse and neglect in elementary school, including schools in Chula Vista. Once when his mother went to visit Xavier’s school she found him strapped to a chair, alone in a room. A former teacher physically abused him by pinching him out of frustration. Bullies on the playground were a mocking constant.

“We had to put that in check,” Alston said. “We had to be behind the scenes and always be watching. We had to sue the school district because they were breaking the law.”

Xavier’s ever-supportive family pushed him toward academic successes despite his autism. Besides his professor dad, his mother owns two preschools in Chula Vista and his younger sister earned a Master’s degree from SDSU. Xavier said he is glad to join his family of degree holders.

“I feel relaxed that I graduated from somewhere,” he said. “ No drama. No drama for my momma.”

Alston said Xavier received academic support at Southwestern College and the San Diego Regional Center, a county agency dedicated to helping Special Needs students and young adults with tutoring and life coaching. He would spend three days a week with his coach, Alexis, working on homework and memorizing lines for plays he performed in. He frequented the SC Academic Success Center and the ADA Center. Some professors worked very hard to help him, said Alston.

“They went above and beyond,” Alston said. “If he didn’t do well in class (professors allowed him to) retake tests during my office hours.”

Alston singled out two instructors who made sure Xavier was successful in their classes. Geometry Professor Samuel Cortez encouraged Xavier to try hard in his class. He finished with a B. Gary Young came to Alston’s office to work one-on-one with Xavier, who earned an A in two of his classes.

Above all else Xavier said he wants to feel normal. Acting helps him. When he is on stage, he said, he is able to express himself.

“I like acting!” he said. “It’s fun to do filming, to act angry, happy and sad.”

While acting his autism disappears into his character. Sometimes it was challenging and he would forget his lines or break character on stage like other actors. Last year he was cast in the production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” as a Nazi soldier and got distracted when he saw his father in the audience.

“When my dad saw my face I tried to look angry,” he said.

“He fell out of character,” his dad recalled. “He was like, “Hi dad!” (I was thinking) Dude, don’t smile, you’re a Nazi!”

Xavier has more goals, like learning to drive a car and earning a Bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts from SDSU.

All the world is his stage. n

“I feel relaxed that I graduated from somewhere. No drama. No drama for my momma.”

XAVIER ALSTON

Free speech on the ropes

Southwestern College administrators are considering revisions to the college’s groundbreaking Free Speech Policy drafted by a team led by Honorary Degree recipient Angelina Stuart. This semester the governing board voted to limit oral communication to three minutes.

FREE SPEECH IS A DANGEROUS IDEA

By Liliana Anguiano

If it is true that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, our college may be doomed to repeat a major blunder from its recent past.

Brace yourselves for another attack on free speech.

College administrators are apparently considering explosive revisions to Policy 3900: Freedom of Expression, the 2011 document passed unanimously by the Academic Senate and the Governing Board in the wake of the autocratic Chopra/Alioto era.

A current draft of the re-write goes so far as to change the policy’s name from “Freedom of Expression” to “Speech: Time, Place and Manner.”

It is worse than it sounds.

Our evergreen top administrators cannot be blamed for not knowing everything about the colorful past of Southwestern College, but

we are alarmed by how little effort they make to learn even basic elements of our history and culture. (As far as we know former VPAA Isabel Sabor is the only college leader to visit the archives of The Sun and take some back issues to read.)

Here are the crib notes:

• Southwestern College has a history of corruption.

• Southwestern College has a history of abuse of power.

• Southwestern College has a history of squelching free speech.

This unholy trinity is inextricably linked.

We will be generous today and not assume malicious intent, but even at the most innocent level our leadership is guilty of utter cluelessness. Gutting the Freedom of Expression policy on this campus is like erecting a National Guard monument at Kent State. It is ignorant and insensitive.

Edmundo Godinez

Cynical lawyers have defiled the elegant and philosophical 2011 policy crafted by former Academic Senate President Angelina Stuart and a team of faculty. It has been splattered with page after page of red ink and strike-throughs.

It is a document any dictator could love. It returns the much-hated “free speech area” of the Chopra times and puts a clock on it. The First Amendment may soon only apply M-F 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. in an approved spot somewhere off to the side.

Here are a few highlights of the proposed new policy:

Time: Monday through Friday, 8-5, excluding holidays. Overnights or sleeping on campus is prohibited. Protests like the successful 2011 sleep-in at Howard University (like SC, a minority-serving institution), where students of color protested unsafe campus conditions, would be banned.

Place: Grassy areas, walkways and “similar common areas.” However, “The District reserves the right to revoke that designation.” So, at a whim, administrators could designate

any square foot of campus out-of-bounds for free speech.

Manner: There is a prohibition against “any means of amplification” and a vague declaration that “expressive activities shall not disturb the operation of the college.” That definition is left to “the discretion of The District.”

What could possibly go wrong?

A quick visit to The Sun’s archives provides some enlightening history that prompted the original “Freedom of Expression” policy.

Here are some lowlights:

• In 2008 Chopra and Alioto passed policies banning classified employees from publically criticizing the college.

• In October 2009 about 100 students protested Chopra’s decree to cut 439 classes while giving himself an 8 percent raise. Feeling ignored, the students left the designated free speech area and walked toward Chopra’s office. They were met by armed campus police. After 15 minutes the group peacefully dispersed because Chopra was not on campus anyway.

• That evening four faculty members received visits at their homes from armed

Our troubled past is hardly a secret.

campus police and an HR employee notifying them that they were suspended for marching with the students. (One of the suspended professors – the union president — was not even at the rally.)

There is so much more, but only so much paper and ink.

Our archives are not the only source for SC free speech hijinks. Stories of Southwestern’s First Amendment abuses can be found in Newsweek, CNN, San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post as well as our region’s ABC, NBC, CBS affiliates, KUSI and Telemundo. It is a case study in academic journals, to boot.

So our troubled past is hardly a secret.

In fact, in 2010 Southwestern College was awarded the “Jefferson Muzzle” by the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression as one of America’s worst First Amendment violators. Former university president Dr. Robert M. O’Neil singled out former SC president Raj. K Chopra and his henchman VP Nicolas Alioto “for promulgating and enforcing a policy limiting

even peaceful and non-disruptive protests to a designated ‘free speech patio’.”

There was more. SC was also hammered by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE), the national Society of Professional Journalists, both local members of Congress, both California Senators and our accreditation body. There were plenty of others, but again space limits constrain us.

So this is a serious matter.

We can only hope that this screwball draft revision somehow “slipped by” administration and was never seriously considered or that our Governing Board crushes it in open session like Chopra and his board supporters were crushed at the polls in November 2010.

If this abomination of a policy passes, expect more history to repeat itself. Expect the resignation or termination of any administrator who lacks the good sense and decency to spike this attack on the First Amendment. Expect the political death of any governing board member who votes to curtail free speech.

It happened before. n

Unlikely volleyball star overcame homelessness

By Juan H. Estrada

FLOATS LIKE A BUTTERFLY, STINGS LIKE A BEE

Yesenia Garcia is a compelling blend of power and finesse with unteachable instincts. She has a baffling serve and a thunderous spike.

onarchs start their early lives in humble fashion before a beautiful transformation.

Yesenia Garcia is a monarch right to her resilient core.

Once homeless and struggling to survive, Garcia has spread her wings as a volleyball star at Southwestern College whose magical passes and fluttering “dumps” cause opponents to mutter some of the words you can’t say on television.

“My dumps. I like them,” said Garcia with a laugh discussing her deceptive ploy.

She tricks opponents by cleverly setting up for a pass but at the last moment redirecting the ball to an undefended area of the opposing court.

Garcia had reason to be down in the dumps when she was a homeless teenager rescued by the Monarch School, a San Diego County Office of Education campus in Barrio Logan for at-risk students suffering housing insecurity and other trauma. Its volleyball team was started about 10 years ago by Southwestern College Professor of Architecture Dr. Diana Arredondo.

Things are better now for Garcia but remain challenging. A determined transfronteriza, Garcia travels three hours from her home in Tijuana to Southwestern College every day. She walks across the

A GREAT TEAMMATE— Garcia’s zigzagging serves, deceptive dinks and precise passing elevates her teammates.

international border, takes the trolley, then the bus to campus. All worth it, said the energetic starting setter on the volleyball team. Her agile hands and spatial intelligence combine for consistently marvelous passes to teammates. Her leaping ability and arm strength generate powerful strikes. She is also a serving wizard, hitting knuckling aces and topspin torpedoes that can fuel uncanny scoring runs.

Garcia confessed that volley at first did not appeal to her.

“I hated the sport to be honest,” she said. “I thought it was for girly-girls. But seeing my friends enjoy it, smiling and having fun, made me want to play. I feel like I have the hands. I was always the setter. I want to make it pro, then coaching after I retire. I really love the sport.”

Every summer hopeful student-athletes fill the courts and fields of college campuses for tryouts. Not everyone makes the cut. Garcia received no special treatment, enduring the eight-week audition process and surviving roster cut downs.

“The tryouts were a summer class,” said Garcia. “Towards the last days of the class, the coach will pull everyone aside individually to tell you if you made the team or not.”

Garcia made it. She said it was a joyful moment. The Monarch had landed.

Her coach Tyler Reeves said he is a big fan.

“Yesenia always brings good energy to the team and has a good time,” he said. “She is a great teammate. She is very supportive to the whole team.”

Einstein once said “genius is concentration” and Monarch School volleyball coach Jesse Piña said Garcia has excellent on-court concentration.

“Zoning in on her strengths is what really made her a very special player,” he said. “Her strengths are definitely her serve and her hands.”

Garcia is also known for her awareness on the court and spatial talent. As the setter Garcia passes with precision and sets up her teammates for success. When opponents least expect it, she pulls a cheeky trick shot that sends the crowd into a frenzy.

“She has great situational awareness,” said Reeves. Teammates call Garcia “John Cena” on the court. Piña said she has magical stretches.

NOPE!

RIGHT BACK AT YOU— Hevila Watson blocks a spike attempt for a

Lady Jaguar score.

BLOCK PARTY— (above)

Garcia knocks away a Cerritos College scoring attempt.

Abe Photography

“She goes on runs where she gets a bunch of points in a row,” he said. “We would say she is scoring because they could not see her.”

College competitions are typically scheduled late afternoons and early evenings. Practice, travel and games can stack up and pull student-athletes away from their studies.

“It’s hard because education is important,” Garcia said. “It takes a lot of time away from studying. Away games always get us home late, especially me, traveling all the way to Tijuana. I don’t always have enough time for my homework. But after practice I try to go to the library to study.”

Garcia is the youngest in her family but the first to attend college. She is a kinesiology major with aspirations to be a physical therapist. She said she hopes to play volleyball at the university level and then turn pro.

Reeves said he likes her chances. He is not alone.

“Every team we play, every ref and coach come up to me after games to say, ‘if that girl put everything in it, she could really go far!’ I think Yesenia can do whatever she decides if she puts (her mind to).

“Away games always get us home late, especially me, traveling all the way to Tijuana. I don’t always have enough time for my homework. But after practice I try to go to the library to study.”

She has great hands. If she does well (academically) I think she can play for any university.”

Monarchs are known for traveling far. Garcia is just spreading her wings. n

FIDDLER ON THE STAGE— Yale Strom, a professional ethnographer and passionate music historian, has made it his mission to track down and preserve traditional Jewish melodies and songs from Eastern Europe. Holocaust survivors, he said, have been a rich source of musical heritage.

By Alfonso Julián Camacho

MUSICIAN FINDS JOY REVIVING JEWISH CLASSICS

Musician Yale Strom enjoys playing oldies but goodies.

Like 4,000 years old.

A charismatic singer and violinist, Strom put on an uplifting concert of Jewish music at the PAC featuring his transcendent musicianship and charming personality. Much of the music had roots in the 19th and 20th centuries, though some may have its genesis in the times of David and Solomon.

Strom, a second generation American whose parents fled Eastern Europe, is working to resuscitate Jewish music largely lost to the Holocaust. The Shoah took the lives of nearly 6 million Jews and an estimated 75 percent of Europe’s talented Jewish musicians.

Trained as an ethnographer, Strom has music in his blood and bloodline.

Raised in Detroit and San Diego, his family practiced Jewish traditions and holidays. His father’s Hasidic Judaism influenced Strom’s musical upbringing.

“Singing is part of how we express ourselves,” he said.

Young Strom had planned to attend law school until the evening he stumbled upon a bar where 12 musicians played Jewish instrumental folk music typically heard at weddings and parties. Smitten, he approached the band about joining but was turned down.

“If you can’t beat them, form your own band!” he said.

“It opened my eyes up to this world that still existed in Eastern Europe. When I came home I formed a band with (great musicians) that I still play with today.”

YALE STROM

His passion ignited, he was motivated to learn and improve. He bought a one-way ticket to Eastern Europe to search for his musical heritage, combing archives and seeking out older Jewish musicians. Then he went 75 more times. His exhaustive research helped him create a vast reservoir of traditional Jewish music.

“It opened my eyes up to this world that still existed in Eastern Europe,” he said. “When I came home I formed a band with (great musicians) that I still play with today.”

Holocaust survivors were his best sources for traditional Jewish songs. In the town of Košice, Slovenia he met Eli, the caretaker of the synagogue. As they chatted, Strom found a violin on top of a cabinet. He asked Eli if he knew any songs he could share. Eli recounted that his father taught him the musical prayers and songs he sang at the synagogue, and his mother sang folk music. Eli said his mother often lost herself in the music to the point of burning the ironing and dinner. The last time Eli saw his parents, he said, he turned left and they turned right to their death at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

For almost four decades, Strom has been performing with his klezmer band, Hot Pstromi, wowing audiences worldwide, including Paris, Berlin, Prague, Hong Kong and Israel.

Strom said he and Eli cried, then Strom sang a lighthearted folk song about potatoes he had learned from his grandmother. Eli laughed along with Strom because he knew the song.

“That is a story that will stay in my memory forever,” he said.

Jewish culture is at least 4,000 years old and its music pre-dates the Old Testament.

“Klezmer is a Hebrew word,” Strom said. “Kle means utensil or tool, and zmer means music. This music generally comes from Eastern Europe (mostly) east of the Danube.”

In a polyglot of languages, music provided common ground in Europe, Strom said.

“The language of the people there is Jewish instrumental party music,” he said. “It was generally happy music.”

Western musicians struggle with old Jewish music, he said, which predates the European tonal scale used by most musicians today.

“You can’t play this music on the piano,” he said. “We play the gray notes (in between the piano keys). I am playing these quarter tones, notes that are not typical in the Western Scale. This music is older than the Abrahamic religions. It was music that people sang (and) prayed to. It was passed on generation to generation.”

Strom and Joe McNalley opened with a “Doyne” that flowed into

a melody titled “Svailava,” Strom’s violin transformed the room with incandescence reminiscent of Roma fire circles and festive gatherings. With McNalley keeping the rhythm beat in contrabass, Strom’s music hung in the air as if suspended by spirit voices of Klezmorim past. Playing songs of old sprinkled with his own compositions, Strom took the audience on a journey through pre-war Eastern Europe. When he sang in Yiddish his voice reverberated with the warbling style of a troubadour crooning tales of nights swapping wine for whiskey.

In “Kalarasher,” a piece from Moldova, Strom’s chiseling violin danced with McNalley’s contrabass to invoke happy feet thumping on a party floor.

“The only reason Yale sounds good is because I am playing,” McNalley said with a purposeful smirk.

The old friends burst into laughter. Even after 30 years of playing together their comfortable camaraderie brought a festive spirit to their music.

Strom sang the classic “In Odessa” in Yiddish, caressing a melody about an evening spent with a lady of the night. Its notes swayed like the alluring hips of a beautiful woman drifting along cobblestone streets. Strom’s voice captured the tantalizing atmosphere of the piece. Fluency in Yiddish was not required to feel the spirit of the song.

Showmanship and skill created magic as Strom coaxed his violin to sing out in what seemed like thin air during “Kolomeveke,” a song from Ukraine.

“(It is) one long horse tail hair,” he said. “Jews would do it as a trick.”

Strom took a moment to reflect on the war in Ukraine.

“Music, right?” he said. “That is what we need, more music! Miles Davis and Charlie Parker played Klezmer. If Klezmer is good enough for them, it is good enough for you.”

A 21st century Renaissance man, Strom has written 16 books, directed 10 award-winning documentary films, had photo exhibits and wrote a produced play. He lectures across North America, Europe and Asia. His band, Hot Pstromi, has toured the world.

Strom said he is working on a musical titled “Blue Cows, Green Jews, Red Goats: The Chagalls.” It is the story of Marc Chagall and his famous artistic family pondering a move as war closes in. His band just released an album titled “The Wolf and The Lamb.” It is available on the Hot Pstromi label. n

By Nicolette Monique Luna

Southwestern Superman JMS

Hugo, Emmy winning writer is a global sci-fi icon and beloved alumnus

JMichael Straczynski knows bullies.

On the mean streets across America the rootless boy and teen took the worst from the worst.

JMS also knows heroes. He has used his magical pen and boundless creativity to bring forth the Amazing Spider-man, the mighty Thor, Captain John Sheridan of “Babylon 5,” and Gerry Lane of “World War Z.”

Straczynski’s own hero’s journey began at Chula Vista High School and Southwestern College. After graduating from SDSU he worked briefly as a journalist before a long, successful stretch as a television writer (“Jake and the Fat Man,” “Murder She Wrote,” “The Twilight Zone”). His breakout project was his brilliant sci-fi classic “Babylon 5,” winner of two Emmy Awards and two Hugo Awards for best science fiction. “B5” ran for five years and spawned six motion pictures. He then became a comic book legend for his work on “Wonder

DC Comics

Character / Team titles include: Teen Titans Spotlight, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Babylon 5, Babylon 5: In Valen’s Name, The Brave and The Bold, The Red Circle: The Shield, The Red Circle: The Hangman, The Red Circle: The Web, Samaritan X, Superman, Superman: Earth One, Wonder Woman, Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan, Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, Before Watchmen: Moloch, The Flash: Earth One.

BREATHTAKING CREATIVITY—

Straczynski has excelled in multiple genres across an array of platforms. He moves effortlessly between television, comics, film and non-fiction.

Woman,” Superman” and “The Amazing Spider-man.” Later he developed his own sold-out series, “Ten Grand.”

Nimble as a 6’-2” gymnast, Straczynski swung over to motion pictures as the screenwriter for “Changeling” with Ron Howard, Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood, and “Ninja Assassin” for the Wachowski sisters. He was the story writer for “Thor” (directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh) and “World War Z,” starring Brad Pitt. Next he bounced back to TV as creator of the hit “Sense8.”

Elite actors elbow for parts in Straczynski projects because they love performing his edgy, poetic dialogue and unique characters. Pitt said he was excited to star in “World War Z” when he learned that Straczynski was adapting the

World War Z (2013)

Underworld: Awakening (2012)

Thor (2011)

Ninja Assassin (2009)

Changeling (2008)

Babylon 5: Third Space (1998)

Babylon 5: In The Beginning (1998)

difficult source material for the big screen. He imbued heroes who charged into action like John Wayne but spoke like Shakespeare.

In the late summer of 2010 Straczynski himself became a hero when he rescued the Southwestern College Sun from a cabal of corrupt administrators and governing board members. The student newspaper was about to publish stories about bribery and extortion related to college construction projects when the president and two vice presidents ordered the advisor not to publish until after the November election. Advisor Dr. Max Branscomb refused to comply and found a printer in Los Angeles willing to print The Sun after former college president Raj Chopra personally called San Diego County printers and told them not to print The Sun lest they lose college contracts.

Southwestern College became a national story and the attempt to

block the publication of The Sun became a firestorm of controversy. When Straczynski read about the controversy in a Hollywood newspaper he wired $5,000 to the printer and told journalism students and faculty to “go print your newspaper.” He said he hated bullies and would not stand by while bullies targeted the newspaper at his beloved alma mater. The September 2010 issue of The Sun broke what would become known as the South Bay Corruption Scandal. Just after Christmas in 2011 the San Diego District Attorney raided the homes of nearly two dozen Southwestern College and Sweetwater Union High School District administrators and contractors. They were charged with 264 felonies. Southwestern’s new governing board majority fired 22 administrators and directors and demoted about a dozen more.

Coincidently Branscomb, an SDSU classmate of Straczynski and a huge fan of “Babylon 5,” had an inspiring line of dialogue written by JMS taped to the cabinet above his computer when he learned Straczynski was paying to print the newspaper. “May God stand between you and all dark places you must walk.”

Straczynski has been a generous donor to SWC Cares, an umbrella of programs for low-income students like Straczynski himself was in the 1970s.

Branscomb nominated Straczynski for the Southwestern College Honorary Degree in 2013 and JMS delivered an inspiring commencement address encouraging students to take productive risks and embracing life’s failures as opportunities to learn.

College officials invited Straczynski to rejoin the Southwestern family. He has been a generous donor to the Southwestern College Foundation and SWC Cares, an umbrella of programs for low-income students like Straczynski himself was in the 1970s.

This year the library selected Straczynski’s “Becoming Superman” as its College Book of the Year. The critically acclaimed autobiography tells the story of his rags to riches ascendency from bullying, family dysfunction and poverty to one of America’s most successful and acclaimed writers.

The Sun had the opportunity to catch up with Straczynski for an interview about his book, his life and his future.

THE SUN: You are the first alumnus to author the College Book. How does that make you feel?

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI:

When I first got the news, there were a

lot of mixed feelings. My very first reaction was, why would you inflict my book on so many otherwise lovely people who have never done any harm to anybody to deserve such a penalty? Then, since SWC has always been like family to me, there was that moment when you discover that your parents have read your diary, and you’re not sure what to do about having revealed so much.

Once the various psychodramas had subsided, two things remained. First, obviously, was a sense of pride, for the same reason noted above: SWC is family, and that this family has elected to collectively read something of mine is a tremendous compliment. Second, and maybe more important, a sense of fulfilled purpose. I wrote the book to say that it doesn’t matter where you come from, or if you have an odd last name, or if you don’t have any friends or family or resources, you have the potential to achieve your dreams. The arc of my dreams ran straight through Southwestern College, and I think that makes the message even more personal and relatable. It can happen, it did happen, and it happened right here.

THE SUN: You have become such an important part of Southwestern College heritage. You are an Honorary Degree recipient. You have been very generous to the institution. Why is Southwestern College important to you?

JMS: In a way, that’s kind of like asking why is air important?

Marvel Comics

Character / Team titles include: The Amazing SpiderMan, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, The Sensational Spider-Man, Squadron Supreme: Supreme Power, Squadron Supreme: Powers and Principalities, Squadron Supreme: High Command, Squadron Supreme: Hyperion, Squadron Supreme: Ultimate Power, Squadron Supreme, Strange, Fantastic Four, Civil War: Fantastic Four, Dream Police, The Book of Lost Souls, Bullet Points, Ultimate Civil War: Spider-Ham, Silver Surfer: Requiem, Thor, The Twelve, Captain America.

Television

Sense 8 (2015-18)

Jeremiah (2002-04)

Babylon 5 (1993-98)

Walker, Texas Ranger (1993)

Murder, She Wrote (1991-93)

Jake and the Fatman (1990)

Nightmare Classics (1989)

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (1987-88)

Spiral Zone (1987)

The Real Ghostbusters (1986-90)

The Twilight Zone (1986-90)

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (1985)

She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985)

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1984-85)

My experience at Southwestern was absolutely essential to my success as a writer. I found the right instructors and the support they gave at exactly the right moment. It was Bill Virchis, head of the theater department at the time, who produced my very first one-act plays there on campus (and later commissioned a full-length play for summer stock). Mark Twain said you learn things picking up a cat by the tail. You can learn no other way. The same applies to seeing your work produced in front of an audience: you see the flaws, the weaknesses, the bits that don’t work...and what does.

But even more to the point: I attended four colleges: three community colleges (including SWC) and one university (SDSU). My experiences with the staff, students and teachers at SWC was nonpareil, totally unmatched by the other three. There was an individualism to their approach to teaching, a personal touch that was lacking in every other college I attended. You got the sense the staff and faculty were genuinely interested in you, and in seeing to it that you succeeded, rather than just being a degree factory that stamped your diploma and sent you on your way. More simply still: they cared. And that is unspeakably rare in the world of academia.

My experiences with the staff, students and teachers at SWC was nonpareil, totally unmatched There was an individualism to their approach to teaching.

And the thing is, they still do. That sense of care and investment with every student on an individual basis is as much in evidence right now as it was when I attended SWC. Which is why I’ve donated to – and urge my fans to also donate to – the JAG Kitchen, which is yet another way for the staff to demonstrate their interest in the well-being of the students.

(It should be noted that in addition to attending four colleges, I also attended four high schools, and only found that same positive, individualized attitude toward students at Chula Vista High School. That there’s a cycle of connection between CVHS and SWC reinforces my sense that there’s something kinda magical going on.)

THE SUN: When did you realize you wanted to make a living as a writer?

JMS: I always had that knowledge, even if only on a cellular level, for as long as I can remember. It concretized into a full-blown decision when

Straczynski first learned of the story of Christine Collins from an unnamed source at Los Angeles City Hall. The source had stumbled across case files regarding the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders among other discarded documents scheduled for destruction. Straczynski took the files and became obsessed with the case, doing extensive research over the course of a year. He tried to make it into a television project, but never found a solid way to do that. Virtually every event depicted in this movie appears as cited in legal documents, with dialogue often taken verbatim from court transcripts. Straczynski wrote his first draft of the screenplay in only 11 days. / IMDB

I was a kid in school and realized the impact that stories could have, to make something that wasn’t real feel that it was. It’s a little like sorcery. But I think there’s a difference between that initial desire to be a writer, and the notion of making a living as a writer. The latter possibility never even occurred to me until much later.

THE SUN: You started out as a journalist at San Diego State and you wrote for many local papers. How did journalism prepare you for your career as a fiction writer?

JMS: Being a reporter gave me my first experiences with seeing my work in print, and there’s something about having your name on a published byline that suddenly makes the idea of being a writer (or reporter) very real. Probably the most important part of that experience was that it taught me to hit deadlines, and how to shut down the world and just write. When you walk in the door and the editor says they need 18 column inches of material by lunchtime, there’s no time for self-doubt or waiting around endlessly for the elusive Muse to show up: you get behind the keyboard, make the world go away, and write whatever it is until it’s done. I suppose it’s a kind of muscle-memory that persists to this day.

THE SUN: Why do you love science fiction?

JMS: Writers write what gets caught in our filter. As a kid living in demonstrably horrific circumstances (as described in Becoming Superman), comic books and science fiction stories took me out of that situation into something far away. It was a form of escape. And to a degree, it still is. But that said, I also like to work in other genres, from mainstream (the movie Changeling) to police procedurals, historical drama and the like.

THE SUN: Your writing can be very philosophical. In our age of superficiality and voyeurism is it important to you to make people consider our better selves?

JMS: Very often you’ll hear someone say they just want to go out to see a movie or watch a TV show and “I just want to be entertained.” And that’s fair. By the same token, to be entertained is the absolute baseline requirement we can and should expect, or you’re being boring and didactic. The question becomes, what more can a story or a piece of art offer than simple entertainment? Art should be challenging, it should interrogate and inform, uplift, enlighten and ennoble. Showing humanity at its worst or its most dystopian is easy; it’s the low-hanging fruit of storytelling. It’s much harder – and hence less often done – to show humanity at its best without seeming corny or self-indulgent. But it’s absolutely necessary to remind people that the human race has value, that we are made stronger by our differences, and that our stubborn nobility, the common coin of our

shared humanity, is what will ultimately call us into the future. That is the proper role of art: to celebrate the human condition without looking away from our faults and flaws, to summon us to become something better and nobler.

THE SUN: Please talk for a moment about your favorite all-time writer.

JMS: That’s a very hard question to answer because the reply changes depending on what kind of writing we’re talking about. I will confess that I’m a Shakespeare nut. There’s a reason those plays are still being produced, analyzed and dissected hundreds of years after his birth. But that’s the popular, easy answer. Growing up, for me, that would probably be Rod Serling, creator and chief writer for the original Twilight Zone. His stories were solidly based on character, logic and relentless structure, and leaned into the ideas expressed in my prior answer. He wrote about prejudice and bigotry and violence and the threat of fascism, bringing those themes into the world of usually very sanitized television science fiction. But he also celebrated kindness, compassion, charity and strength. Rod could do things with language and form that I’m still trying to figure out.

THE SUN: Who is your favorite contemporary writer?

Art should be challenging. It should interrogate and inform, uplift, enlighten and ennoble. Showing humanity at its worst or its most dystopian is easy; it’s the lowhanging fruit of storytelling.

JMS: Up until his passing a few years ago, it would be Harlan Ellison, who was also a friend and long-distance mentor in the years before we actually met. His stories were excellent, but it was the person behind the stories that inspired me most. He would write essays that accompanied his stories talking about the necessity of courage in the life of an artist, the willingness, and the necessity, of confronting venality, stupidity, cupidity and corruption in government, but also in the arts themselves, in particular the ways in which people with money and power could control or censor that art. Harlan taught me to fight for the primacy of the work and for that I owe him greatly.

THE SUN: What is your all-time favorite television show?

JMS: The Twilight Zone, for all the reasons noted above.

THE SUN: What is your all-time favorite film?

JMS: I don’t know how or if this fits in with the definition of a film – though it was indeed filmed, and exhibited – but I have watched Hamilton, first on stage then via Disney+, more times than I care to admit. I think it’s about as perfect a work of art as I’ve ever seen. Flawless storytelling, performances and music. Just freaking stunning.

THE SUN: Do you have an all-time favorite JMS project? If so, please tell me about it and why you are fond of it.

JMS: It would have to be the TV series I created, wrote and produced, Babylon 5. It’s the first show I ever created, and I was able to write nearly all of it without studio interference. It allowed me the freedom to talk about some of the issues that I care about while at the same time letting me show the process of going from a state of peace, to war, and the aftermath. It dealt with a pliant media, political cowardice and corruption, diversity, and a ton of other issues. It’s a tad dated visually, but overall, yeah, that’s it.

THE SUN: In “Becoming Superman” you describe a nomadic existence as a child and teenager. For those who have not yet read your book, would you share with us why Chula Vista is so special to you?

JMS: As someone who was always the new kid every time

Joe’s Comics

Character / Team titles include:

Rising Stars: Born As Fire, Rising Stars: Power, Rising Stars: Fire and Ash, Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead/Bright, Rising Stars: Visitations/Untouchable, Midnight Nation, Delicate Creatures, Ten Grand, Sidekick, Protectors Inc, The Adventures of Apocalypse AI, Dream Police, Alone, The Book of Lost Souls.

I moved (21 times in my first 17 years) I was a prime target for bullies because I didn’t have a posse to back me up. I was always the loner. The only kids who ever noticed me were the bullies, everybody else either looked away, because you don’t want to associate with the kid getting beat up because you might be next or were simply unaware of my existence. I was to all intents and purposes invisible... until I came to Chula Vista, when I was noticed – in a good way for a change – by some of the students and teachers. For the first time I had friends and adults who believed in me. I can’t begin to express what a transformational moment that was. For the first time I was also being asked to write stories and little, short plays that were produced at CVHS and, later, Southwestern.

Non-fiction

Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer: The Artistry, Joy, and Career of Storytelling (2021)

Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood (2019)

The Complete Book of Scriptwriting (1982)

BenBella Books

Harper Voyager / HarperCollins

Chula Vista is where I started to become the writer that I am now, and the person I like to think that I am, and I will never be able to fully repay that debt.

THE SUN: Dr. Branscomb tells all his journalism students the story of the time in 2010 when you paid for the issue of The Sun that broke the story of the South Bay Corruption Scandal. Senior employees at Southwestern say that publication may have saved the college because it exposed so much criminal behavior and cleaned out the corrupt leadership that had so damaged the college. Did you know so much was at stake when you paid for that issue?

“I wanted some symbol for you, and figured ‘S’ was right because you’re a son of whatever world sent you here... just as you are a son of Earth... and my son.”

MARTHA KENT Superman: Earth One

JMS: No, I was only aware of a fraction of what was going on. All I knew was that the issue was being repressed and suppressed by the Powers at SWC for reasons of their own, to cover up their conduct and shut down the newspaper, and that was really all I needed to know. As hinted at above, I don’t like bullies of any stripe, whether they were other schoolkids, or adults in suits and ties who think they’re immune to scrutiny or penalty and were using every trick in the book to maintain that status. Watching the fireworks launched after the issue came out was one of my proudest moments.

THE SUN: Comic books inspired me to learn how to read and write in English when I was a little girl. In your biography you talk about how important comics were to you. Would you please tell me about the role comic books played in your life?

JMS: More than anything else they were an escape from a fairly brutal existence. I could go someplace far, far away from my life, into a place where the good guys and gals won (most of the time), and the characters operated from a moral center that my family lacked. When I got beat up, at home or at school, I’d force myself to believe that I was invulnerable, that nothing could hurt me. As I got older, comics (Superman in particular), taught me the importance of hope, and kindness, and fighting for a just cause even when the odds were against you. I still try to honor those lessons as an adult.

At every stage of my life, there has been someone to point the way to something better. A writer I admired. A teacher. Other students who befriended and supported me. Superman.

At every stage of my life, there has been someone to point the way to something better. A writer I admired. A teacher. Other students who befriended and supported me. Superman. Through these and others, I was able to learn, almost too late, that I wasn’t alone. A casual kind word or gesture, an expression of interest or belief in someone, and just this much charity can have outsized, profound effects on people in need, and I would tell one group reading this to remember that as dark as things can get at times, you are not alone...and I would tell the other group reading this to make sure the people in your life know this. You can do more than help create their careers. You can put on the cape and save their lives. And really, how often in life does that opportunity present itself? n

Baseball superstars can’t touch ex-Jaguar Kevin Ginkel in the post-season

SNAKE BITTEN

By Juan H. Estrada

‘BOYHOOD DREAM COME TRUE’

Former Jaguar mows down Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper during clutch NLCS and World Series outtings

FIRST JAGUAR TO PLAY IN THE WORLD SERIES

Ginkel was an SC Jaguar and University of Arizona Wildcat before becoming a top dog in the Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen this summer. He was nearly unhittable in the post-season.

evin Ginkel was warmed up and ready to go when he got the call from the bullpen. He sprinted to the mound as he had done more than 100 times before at El Capitan High School, Southwestern College, University of Arizona and for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Only this time it was the eighth inning of Game One of the World Series.

The D-Backs were in a tight spot as the Texas Rangers had the go-ahead runners on.

Ginkel looked like it was a Spring Training exhibition, confident and loose, trying not to betray the fact that this was a boyhood dream come true.

He nodded yes to the sign as Texas Rangers fans at sold out Globe Life Field roared. From the stretch Ginkel raised his left leg so high his knee almost brushed the Arizona logo across his chest. A 93-mph sinking fastball shattered the bat of Josh Jung, producing a weak grounder to the shortstop who made the routine play. Inning over.

Another boyhood dream come true.

“Looking back, this was a storybook year for me,” he said this month on a zoom call from Arizona. “(Pitching in the World Series) is a blessing.”

Back in late March Ginkel was not thinking of the World Series. He was focused on getting back to the Major Leagues after some arm ailments led to a pair of disappointing years. His 2023 began in the minors.

“From where I started this season--I was at AAA at one point—to playing World Series, that is incredible,” he said.

Ginkel took a long and winding road to the Major Leagues. A standout at El

“Looking back, this was a storybook year for me,” he said on a zoom call from Arizona. “(Pitching in the World Series) is a blessing.”

KEVIN GINKEL Diamondbacks Relief Pitcher

Capitan High in Lakeside, he graduated with arm injuries and was not drafted. Rather than enroll at nearby Grossmont College he came to Southwestern and its pitching guru/manager Jay Martel. Ginkel arrived with a good attitude but a bad arm, Martel recalled.

“Kevin had bone chips in his elbow,” he said. “Doctors wanted him to change his mechanics and Ginkel’s a perfectionist on his mechanics. He worked hard to make changes and as the velocity came up, I foresaw him playing pro baseball.”

Ginkel found his groove at Southwestern and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2014. He did not sign and accepted a scholarship to the University of Arizona. In 2015 Ginkel was drafted by the Boston Red Sox, but stayed for his senior year at U of A and had a memorable season. When the Diamond Backs drafted him in 2016 his professional career began.

His MLB debut came on August 5, 2019. He had a strong rookie season in 2020 but struggled in 2021 and 2022 before finding another gear in 2023. By mid-season he had become the Diamondbacks’ go to guy during late inning, high stakes situations.

Ginkel was nearly unhittable in the playoffs. During one nail-biting appearance against the Dodgers, he struck out All-Stars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman back-to-back.

One of the biggest moments of the playoffs came in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. Ginkel sprinted into the game from the bullpen to face a Phillies rally with the game on the line. Philadelphia had the potential winning runs on base and superstars Trea Turner and Bryce Harper coming to bat. In the legendarily hostile confines of Citizens Bank Park, in a winner-takes-all scenario, Ginkel prepared to face a pair of MLB’s best hitters. He retired them both and preserved the lead and the win for Arizona. The D-Backs were going to the World Series.

“It was a special run for me,” he said. “I was so locked in. I went out there with the mentality that I can beat these guys, regardless of who they are. (I told myself) I’m really good, too. It’s game seven, these guys are making a trillion dollars and I’m the huge underdog here. They were expected to beat me and that fueled me.”

Phillie’s fans were loud as a jet roaring down the tarmac for takeoff, but Ginkel tuned it out.

“Kevin had bone chips in his elbow. Doctors wanted him to change his mechanics and Ginkel’s a perfectionist on his mechanics. He worked hard to make changes and as the velocity came up, I foresaw him playing pro baseball.”

JAY MARTEL SC Jaguars Head Coach

“All these people don’t think I can do this,” he remembered thinking. “I believe I can.”

Ginkel prevailed over Turner and Harper to end the inning. He returned the following inning to strike out three hitters on 15 pitches.

“Reflecting on it now, it’s hit me a little bit more,” he said. “I’m just grateful (it turned out well).”

Ginkel said he tries to keep it simple.

“I just want to be recognized as someone that wins,” he said. “I take pride in that. I want to be recognized as someone who got the job done in crunch time.”

Martel said Ginkel was also a money pitcher at Southwestern.

“He threw a lot of big games for us,” Martel recalled. “He threw in the state playoffs and pitched a complete-game shutout against Rio Hondo College. He always wanted the ball. We had to practically force him out of the game sometimes.”

Rio Hondo is still a favorite memory, Ginkel said.

“That was a really cool game for me,” he said. “We were in the playoffs and the excitement of the first round on the road. It was fun. I went the full nine innings and we won.”

SC Athletic Director Ron Valenzuela said Ginkel is now part of the college’s legion of outstanding baseball alumni.

“We are extremely proud of the success and achievements of Kevin Ginkel both at and beyond Southwestern College,” he said. “Anything is possible at Southwestern College. If you want to play professionally, that can happen here.”

SC has sent almost 20 players to the Major Leagues, most under legendary former coach Jerry Bartow. Ginkel, though, is a trailblazer.

“Ginkel is the first Southwestern College baseball alum to pitch in the World Series,” said Valenzuela. “Him being on baseball’s biggest stage is a testament to the fact that Southwestern College is a place where a student-athlete’s dreams can come true.”

Ginkel agreed.

“If you have aspirations to do great things and go places, it’s all about the dream,” he said. “You must put in the time. Everybody wants to be the first-round draft pick, but there is a lot of pressure that comes with it. If you love it and want to pursue it, go for it. It is achievable.”

A brief pause, then one final pitch.

“I’d love to get another crack at the World Series.” n

Yanelli Z. Robles contributed to this story.

By Miguel Nicolas

¡VIVA EL MEJOR MARIACHI!

Dr. Jeff Nevin’s 1998 startup is now the best in the world

Former Southwestern College President Dr. Serafin Zasueta led the creation of the college library, Cesar Chavez Student Services Center and the late, great Student Center, but the college mariachi is his landmark achievement. That and his hiring of a Tucson trumpet virtuoso, Dr. Jeff Nevin, to run it.

Mariachi Garibaldi has performed on six continents—often at the invitation of the government—and SC’s program is the first in the world to offer a degree in mariachi music. That includes Mexico, mariachi’s homeland.

This year’s 25th Anniversary Concert was a borderlands rock concert that propelled a sold-out audience across a range of styles and emotions from sentimental to raucous. In other words, the kind of performance South County mariachistas have come to expect.

A San Diego Union-Tribune profile on Nevin called him “the Johnny Appleseed” of mariachi due to his tireless quarter century of launching bands in high schools and colleges across America. It would be no exaggeration to say Nevin wrote the book on mariachi because he did. His textbook, “Virtuoso Mariachi” is a music instruction classic. Virtually every academic mariachi in the nation has Nevin’s fingerprints.

Nevin is humble like well-worn huaraches and soft-spoken as a violin aria. His Mariachi Garibaldi is neither.

Blazing trumpets, pulsating guitarrons and soaring voices lit up the evening like lava escaping Popocatepetl. Planet Earth’s best collegiate mariachi announced itself like a trache-clad Arcangel Gabriel, calling out across the mariachi diaspora, then purring like a content kitten.

Nine-year member Omar Marmolejo said Nevin is brilliant and mariachi is essential.

“I think it’s really cool that Southwestern College has such a great mariachi,” he said. “It’s beautiful, especially it being in the United States.”

Nevin, of course, agreed.

“The thing that’s important is we have a degree (program) in mariachi music,” he said. “This was the first in the world and now there are other schools that offer a similar program, even in Mexico.”

Madre Mexico has completely embraced the pioneering transfronterizo band from Chula Vista. Mariachi Garibaldi has performed onstage with Mexican legends Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan at the Mariachi Encuentro de Guadalajara. Former Mariachi Garibaldi singer-guitarist Robert Bell described it as “playing at Woodstock with The Beatles.”

BETTER THAN EVER AT 25— Mariachi Garibaldi has played for kings, heads of state and thrilled Chula Vista audiences.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY MARIACHI— Nevin pioneered mariachi ensembles that included women and men performing together. Alumni of Southwestern’s Mariachi Garibaldi are members of the two-time Grammy winners Mariachi Divas, an all-female band.

“We have a degree (program) in mariachi music. This was the first in the world and now there are other schools that offer a similar program, even in Mexico.”

NEVIN

JEFF

Mariachi Garibaldi

Mariachi Garibaldi did something unprecedented at the Encuentro, performing Nevin’s punchy mariachi arrangement of the Johnny Cash-June Carter classic “Ring of Fire” in English.

“That was nervy,” said Bell, who sang the number. “It was kind of like Bob Dylan playing his electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, but with a much different result!”

Other than the dash of Cash, Mariachi Garibaldi plays it straight and honors Mexico’s rich musical heritage with classics like “Cielo Lindo,” “Tren” and “Por un Amor.” Ricardo Loera is one of several SC students who said playing in the mariachi keeps him connected to his ancestral homeland.

“I’m forgetting (Spanish) because I don’t practice every day,” he said, “but music and mariachi is so traditional to Mexico. It’s my roots. Mis raices. Mi pais. My connection to the cultural has become more personal.” n

‘PLAYING AT WOODSTOCK WITH THE BEATLES’— Southwestern’s Mariachi Garibaldi has performed onstage with legendary Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán at the greatest venue, Mariachi Encuentro de Guadalajara.

COUNSELOR SHORTAGE

PLAGUES STUDENTS

By Luis Zavala

There are an awful lot of students who have been at Southwestern College for an awful long time.

And that is awfully frustrating. Barely 10 percent of us successfully transfer from this two-year institution in three years. The average time to transfer or “graduate” is 5.5 years.

There are many reasons for this. One is that Southwestern College students work between 25-30 hours a week and cannot take a full course load of 15 units. Many of our students are parents or care providers. Some just want smaller loads because they are English learners or struggle with math.

One of the biggest reasons, though, is preventable and needs to be addressed immediately. Southwestern College does not have enough counselors. Not even close to enough.

Data from the American School Counselor Association indicates that in 2022 the average counselor-to-student ratio in higher education is 1 to 250. Southwestern’s ratios are dreadful.

Special population programs like First Year Experience, Puente, Bayan, Restorative Justice, Athletics and Umoja have ratios of 1 counselor per 437 students. SC’s ratio in general counseling is an abysmal 1 counselor to 1,700 students.

That is not a typo. 1 to 1,700.

Counselors cannot keep up. There is a waitlist that ranges from 800 to 1,200 with an erratic waiting period that can bounce between one week to six weeks. Three is the average.

It is easier to see the mayor, DMV or Taylor Swift than a Southwestern College counselor.

We need access to counselors. A lot of us, frankly, have no clue what to do. Southwestern College students are primary pioneering teenagers whose parents did not engage in higher education. Even if our parents did attend college mom and dad cannot tell us what classes to take to meet our goals. Most of our professors cannot either. The honest ones will not even try.

So, SC students take classes they do not need for transfer or certificates. They take too many units. Most transfer programs require 60 units. Too many Jaguars have more than 100 and still are not eligible to transfer.

This problem is fixable. Southwestern College needs to hire more counselors. Administrators will act sympathetic then say “Yes, but that is expensive.”

Yes, it is. It is also a matter of priorities. Now comes the sad part of this saga.

Our college spends millions upon millions of our taxpayer dollars on other things. We have too many administrators already and our college president is trying to create four more administrative positions, each of which costs more than $1 million a year for salaries, staffing, offices, creating a new division, benefits and other costs. That would buy 80 counselors.

We have bureaucratized and ballooned IT, Admissions and several other programs we will not name so as not to hurt people’s feelings. Maybe these new bureaucracies help the college, maybe not, but can it be argued that they are more important than counselors? Absolutely not.

Southwestern administrators and governing board members mindlessly drone on about how students are their #1 priority, but their actions do not match the rhetoric. Diverting money into empire building and making employees’ jobs easier does not help students.

Steven Baissa, dean of the School of Counseling and Student Support Programs, agrees that our college needs more counselors. Right now, SC has 24 full-time counselors, 17 of whom are for general counseling, providing guidance to all 22,000 students. The remaining seven counselors work for special programs.

We have too many administrators already and our college president is trying to create four more administrative positions, each of which costs more than $1 million a year for salaries, staffing, offices, creating a new division, benefits and other costs. That would buy 80 counselors.

“We are not looking too good,” he said. “Our ratio is one to 1,240. Best practice is to have one counselor for 350 students.”

We appreciate Dean Baissa’s candor and wish him all the best in his efforts to expand the counseling staff. He is already behind thanks to six retirements last year.

“We’re trying to figure out how we can get more hires,” he said. “I’m pushing on that with the vice president of student affairs, with my faculty, and with the department chair. Just two years ago, the state gave us a lot of money to hire more faculty. We hired almost 40 faculty. Out of that we got around five counselors.”

Since the pandemic SC has experienced steady enrollment growth which further dilutes the lopsided counseling ratio.

The status quo is simply not acceptable. Dr. Sanchez needs to cool his jets on hiring more administrators and reinvest in the foundation of this pyramid which is the students. We need our elected governing board members to steer this ship in a different direction, one that really does put students first.

Let us know when this happens. In the meantime, we will be waiting to see a counselor. n

By Diego Higuera

BOUYANT EDITOR CONTINUES TO LEAD YOUNG JOURNALISTS

Albert Fulcher, an outstanding EIC at The Sun, feted as Emeritus President of the San Diego Press Club

SUNNY FORMER SUNISTA— Albert Fulcher’s cheerful personality made him a popular editor in divided East County and at the San Diego Press Club.

Albert Fulcher had no idea when he stumbled through the door of his first ever journalism class at Southwestern College that two decades later he would exit the San Diego Press Club as one of its revered leaders.

Fulcher recently turned over leadership of the venerable club that has roots going back to the 1890s. He has been credited with making it a more studentfriendly, inclusive and service-based organization. The current San Diego Press Club was founded in 1973 and has included most of the region’s greatest journalists over the past 50 years.

Fulcher was recently honored as President Emeritus with lifetime rights and benefits.

A precursor to Fulcher’s regional leadership talents is still nestled in the creaky old newspaper lab ensconced in a “temporary” building since 2003. Among the program’s countless awards that line the walls and shelves of the newsroom is a little red one that stands out. A tennis ball sized shiny apple rests on a wooden base with a golden plaque that reads: ALBERT FULCHER, BEST STUDENT MEDIA LEADER.

The College Media Association named Fulcher America’s most outstanding Editor-in-Chief almost 13 years ago after he and his feisty

Accolades

The College Media Association named Fulcher America’s most outstanding Editor-in-Chief almost 13 years ago after he and his feisty staff fought off a dozen attempts to shut down the student newspaper and its website, defame and fire its advisor, and prevent student journalists from breaking what is now known as the South Bay Corruption Scandal.

staff fought off a dozen attempts to shut down the student newspaper and its website, defame and fire its advisor, and prevent student journalists from breaking what is now known as the South Bay Corruption Scandal. After The Sun reported on successful efforts by builders and architects to bribe college officials to obtain multi-million-dollar construction contracts, the San Diego County District Attorney raided their homes and charged them with 264 felony counts of extortion, bribery, perjury, falsifying official documents and myriad other crimes.

The Sun was later honored by the San Diego Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, National Student Press Law Center, Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Association, American Civil Liberties Association and several other national First Amendment and news media organizations. The battles endured by Fulcher and his staff were chronicled on CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS, as well as the Chronicle of Higher Education and many other national print publications.

Fulcher was honored by Southwestern College with its Student of Distinction Award and was presented a special award for courage and leadership by the governing board. His experiences at Southwestern changed the direction of the college and his life. Today he is the managing editor for Integrity Newspapers Incorporated, which includes The Star News, East County Californian and The Alpine Sun.

It all started with a Journalism 101 class at Southwestern.

“It totally changed my career path,” he said. “I went to Southwestern right after I had been laid off at the beginning of the recession. In 2007 I went looking for a job and since I had never gone to college nobody was hiring me. It was really frustrating because I had been in the Navy for 10 years and worked my way from the bottom to the top. I had worked for a dental laboratory in San Diego, starting out as a driver and working my way up to chief of operations. After that I worked for a multi-billion-dollar internet advertising company.”

Each time he applied for other positions he was stiff-armed for the same reason – no college education. Fulcher started taking classes at Southwestern, originally for a two-year certificate in Microsoft Office.

Fate intervened.

Journalism 101: Mass Media and Society beckoned.

“The reason I decided to take a journalism class was that people I had engaged with couldn’t write a simple email,” he said. “I always wound up in management, so I figured I needed to brush up on my skills in writing, to talk to people about how they write.”

Journalism 101 was more about journalism history and the industry than writing, so Fulcher signed up for Journalism 171: Writing for Publication.

It would be fair to say he exceeded expectations.

His professor loved an article Fulcher wrote about his experience surviving AIDS and encouraged him to publish it. Fulcher was thinking local newspapers, Dr. Max Branscomb was thinking “Newsweek.”

“I thought he was nuts because that was something audacious I would never have dreamed of trying,” Fulcher said with his native Mississippi twang and country boy humbleness. “But I submitted it like he said.”

On the first day of class the next fall, Fulcher walked in unannounced as Branscomb was going over the syllabus for his new Writing for Publication class. Fulcher told the students that the class had worked for him and that he had been published a few days earlier in “Newsweek.”

Branscomb joked that he should hire Fulcher to bust in on all his classes with great news like that, but instead encouraged him to join the staff of The Sun.

Like all good hero stories, Fulcher was at first reluctant to join because he already had a 21-unit schedule and a vision of a Microsoft Certificate.

“Max kept after me,” he said. “He can be a stubborn old boy when he homes in on something. I joined. Best decision I ever made.”

Fulcher swiftly moved into leadership positions on the Editorial Board and was granted a column – one of journalism’s greatest signs of respect. Branscomb also pushed Fulcher to freelance for professional media outlets to build his portfolio.

“I was working at a Subway Sandwich shop when I started writing for Patch (an online journalism site run by former San Diego Union-Tribune editors),” he said. “All the professionals I met told me to stay at The Sun until I got a job in the news media. I was still on the newspaper staff when I was hired at The Star News.”

The Human Chord

Fulcher’s national award-winning column, The Human Chord, was a clarion voice for human rights, equality and the borderlands community.

“I just think people in general are fascinating. There are these great moments in this profession when you talk to someone and as soon as they start talking, you can’t wait to write their story.”

The original job opening was for a staff writer, which, coincidentally, went to current Southwestern College Governing Board Member Robert Moreno. Fulcher was instead asked if he would come aboard as Editor of the East County Californian. He accepted.

He embraced the position and become a popular figure in the East County thanks to his rural upbringing and fondness for cowboy hats. The region was an intriguing mix of old, conservative White folks and a burgeoning minority population fueled by Chaldean immigrants from Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations.

“Albert has an innate kindness and respect for all people that made him so well-liked and effective in those East County communities,” said Branscomb. “Albert could have run for mayor of El Cajon where it not for the fact that he lived in Imperial Beach!”

Two years later Fulcher landed his dream job as Editor of Gay San Diego, the region’s best known LGBTQ+ publication. An outspoken

QUIET BUT FIERCE— Fulcher stood toe-totoe with hostile administrators and board members but never lost his cool.

member of the LGBTQ community, Fulcher brought a new energy and perspective to the punchy publication. He later added leadership of the startup Downtown San Diego to his portfolio of responsibilities.

The Integrity newspaper chain lured him back. He is currently Editor of The Star News, East County Californian and Alpine Sun.

“I had no thoughts about being a journalist,” he said. “It was all Max, I can tell you that. In my years of working with Max and The Sun he has this ability to see talent in people and encourage them to take directions where they can succeed just like he did for me. (Students may) have no clue that we have a talent or special ability until someone spots it and tells us. He totally changed my career.”

“(Students may) have no clue that we have a talent or special ability until someone spots it and tells us. Max totally changed my career.”

Journalism gave him the voice to advocate for people and issues important to him, Fulcher said. He remains a warrior for LGBTQ people, a passion that grew out of the AIDS crisis. An AIDS patient himself, Fulcher said he was blessed to survive HIV after becoming one of the early patients to enroll in an experimental drug cocktail program. It worked.

“Those are my most passionate things to write about,” he said. “I just think people in general are fascinating. There are these great moments in this profession when you talk to someone and as soon as they start talking, you can’t wait to write their story. Even as you are writing it you know it’s good. Even before you write it you start to write it in your sleep. I always love those interviews.”

Fulcher radiated joy during his appearances as President of the San Diego Press Club. He enthusiastically greeted students at Press Club events and told them that he was once a student journalist, too.

“That’s where it all started for me,” he said. “That’s where it starts for so many people who work in the news media. Your college newspapers have so much to offer, so much to teach.”

Fulcher said he left his student leadership award in the newsroom so future generations of journalism students would see it.

“Maybe it will inspire some young person to follow in my footsteps.” n