The SWC Sun, Spring 2021, Issue 6

Student of Distinction Awards

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A N A C P H A L L O F FA M E N E W S PA P E R

A N AT I O N A L PA C E M A K E R AWA R D N E W S PA P E R

SALVADOR BARAJAS 2021 HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT

CHICANO ACTIVIST POWERED BY PAINT Air Force veteran fought to save, restore Chicano Park’s worldfamous collection of murals

S EDWARD HERRERA / STAFF

BY JULIA WOOCK Editor-in-Chief

al Barajas has already painted more of the murals in Chicano Park’s iconic collection than any other artist. Legendary faces of heroes like Cesar Chavez, Frida Kahlo, Dolores Huerta, Herman Baca, Benito Juarez and Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez stare out from the park’s “Historical Mural” like Aztlan’s Mt. Rushmore.

Many Chicano leaders insist the vastly talented but famously humble arts legend should himself be a face on the park’s preeminent gateway mural.

“He is our Diego Rivera,” said Gente Unida founder Enrique Morones. “Salvador Barajas is one of the greatest San Diegans, Chicano or otherwise.”

Baca, the fiery chairman of the Committee on Chicano Rights, agreed.

“Sal deserves to be up here,” Baca said as he patted the mural on a cloudy morning in Chicano Park. “He is a great artist and an important figure in

Chicano history. The Historical Mural is the most important mural in the park because it is like a giant textbook. It is a portal into the history and heritage of our people.”

Upon hearing such adulation, Barajas, 77, blushed and changed the subject.

“I am blessed that I can be a conduit of history and help to tell the stories of Mexican and Chicano heroes,” he said. “For such a long time no one did. When I grew up, we were not mentioned in textbooks. We were invisible.”

Barajas joined Huerta, Morones and Baca this spring as recipients of a Southwestern College honorary degree, the institution’s highest honor. It was a popular decision, according to SC PIO Lillian Leopold. An article about Barajas on the college website generated more than 40,000 hits within days of its post – the most read post in college history.

SC President Dr. Mark Sanchez said honoring Barajas “is a surreal experience.”

“It’s hard to imagine that I’m reaching out to him as the president of a college that I attended,” he said. “I’m reaching back to someone who had an influence on where I grew up.”

Morones said many people know Barajas painted three of Chicano Park’s murals (a fourth is planned), but few know about his role in saving

PLEASE SEE Barajas PG. 3

Former student was a star sports anchor, is an Emmy winner, school trustee, author, philanthropist and speaker

TALENTED ALUM EMBARKS ON NEW ADVENTURE WITH FIRST LATINA SUPERVISIOR

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BY XIOMARA VILLARREAL-GERARDO Associate Editor-in-Chief

eto and Pablo ran into the Baja California surf like the happy 15-year-olds they were, splashing through the whitewater until they could plop down on their boards to paddle out past the breakers. The waves were firing and the water was good. Everything was good.

Until it no longer was.

At the end of a ride, Beto dove off his board with a flourish into the shallow water. He landed on his head on the ocean floor and felt pain...then nothing.

He could not move his arms or legs.

For interminable seconds Pablo thought Beto was clowning around again, playing dead in the churning water. Then he realized something was wrong. Beto was hurt. Badly hurt.

Pablo screamed for help as he dragged his motionless friend from the ocean. A bystander started CPR and a Red Cross ambulance crew loaded him for transport to a hospital.

Beto had broken his neck. He would never walk again.

Humberto Gurmilan was a quadriplegic that day forward. He was hospitalized for six months.

Six very long months.

“That is when my second journey started,” he said. “I started back to a ‘regular’ life, quote-end quote.”

Few people who know Gurmilan today would say there was anything “regular” about the 42-year-old polymath. He is an international news media star.

An author. A popular college instructor. An elected official. A motivational speaker. Emmy Award

winner. President of a foundation.

And this month the newly-hired Press Secretary for San Diego County’s first Latina Supervisor, Nora Vargas.

Also — best of all — once again a surfer.

GATEWAY TO TELEMUNDO

Gurmilan’s “second journey” began at Montgomery High School when he joined KMMI, the school’s highly-regarded multimedia news outlet. He dabbled in the television component of the facility and found he enjoyed print journalism, too.

Moving onto Southwestern College, Gurmilan joined The Sun and rose quickly to the position of News Editor. (His adviser wanted to promote him to Editor-in-Chief, but he transferred midyear to SDSU.) One day he told his adviser he was interested in becoming a television sportscaster and wondered what he should do to prepare. The professor suggested that in addition to continuing his journalism studies, he should develop his oral presentation skills by studying theater arts or joining the forensics team.

Drama’s loss was the speech team’s gain.

Gurmilan became an award-winning competitive forensic, successfully juggling that, the timeintensive student newspaper and his full-load of classes. He transferred to SDSU after six semesters at SC. Gurmilan wasted no time after earning a B.A. in Communication. He secured an internship at Univision and learned the ropes of broadcast news.

Six months later he got a job at Telemundo as a sports writer.

I am so happy that I got that opportunity to come back and see some of my old mentors and professors. I hope I can help my students like they helped me. I think I was given a second opportunity to be able to do good things.

— Humberto Gurmilan

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

COURTESY HUMBERTO GURMILAN

PIONEERING PRESS SECRETARY — Gurmilan was recently named Press Secretary for new San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas. He said it is an honor to work for the region’s first-ever Latina County Supervisor, though he confessed he will miss teaching journalism at Southwestern College and San Diego City College. Gurmilan is a gifted writer in English and Spanish, with 15 years of on-air experience at Univision and Telemundo.

One fateful day when the sports anchor was unable to go on the air, the producer asked Gurmilan if he would like to fill in. Gurmilan saw that a door had opened for him. He took a deep breath and went through.

It was, he said, a boyhood dream come true.

Soon his smiling face was on billboards, the sides of buses and benches at transit stops throughout the region. He became, arguably, Southwestern College’s most famous alumnus, a star on the mostwatched newscast in one of America’s largest cities.

His friends say Gurmilan’s fame never went to his head, not even for a minute. Ever the student, he continued to learn and grow, enrolling in a Master’s program at National University. He earned an M.A. in Communication while he ran the sports department at Telemundo.

PLEASE SEE Gurmlian PG. 2

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The mission of the Southwestern College Sun 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 newspaper that is timely, accurate, fair, interesting, visual and accessible to readers.

Though The Sun is a student publication, staff members ascribe to the ethical and moral guidelines of professional journalists.

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Julia Woock Associate Editor-in-Chief Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo Senior Editor Matthew Brooks Senior Staff Writer Andrew Penalosa News Editor Bianca Huntley Ortega Campus Editor Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo Viewpoints Editor Itati Faddis Arts Editor Aranza Gutierrez Cortes Sports Editor Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo Photo Editor Matthew Gomez

A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R S Itati Faddis Kaitlyn Greer Maria Herrera-Ibarra Paulina Nunez Edgar Ortega Kinya Savedra

S TA F F W R I T E R S Alexia Cano Jennielyn Cato Janae Earnes Yahir Ibarra Victoria Rietz Naylhea Serrano

Baby Bonane Ji Ho Kim Assistant Adviser Kenneth Pagano Adviser Dr. Max Branscomb

AWARDS/HONORS

Student Press Law Center National College Press Freedom Award 2011, 2018 National Newspaper Association National College Newspaper of the Year 2004-2020 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards 2003-06, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012-2017, 2019, 2020 General Excellence 2001-21 Best of Show 2003-21 Columbia University Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal for Journalism Excellence 2001-20 College Media Association National College Newspaper of the Year, 2020 California College Media Association Outstanding Community College Newspaper

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SHREDDING STEREOTYPES — Like the injured cowboy who stares down his fears to get back on his horse, Gurmilan decided he wanted to return to the waves. Gurmilan rides an adaptive surfboard his coach pushes into a swell. Once he is in the wave, Gurmilan is able to steer through the breaker and ride to the beach. Of his many talents, he said, surfing may be his favorite.

Gurmilan: Multitalented former sports anchor is now Vargas press secretary CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

Gurmilan spent 15 years as sports anchor at Telemundo when he decided it was time for another journey.

“I had a really great opportunity to do things that I dreamt about when I was young,” he said. “I have always been really grateful for people I have met along the way who believed in me and provided me with opportunities, especially (opportunities) to do things I love.”

CALL OF THE CLASSROOM ...AND THE OCEAN

S TA F F A R T I S T S

National College Newspaper Hall of Fame Inducted 2018

COURTESY HUMBERTO GURMILAN

San Diego County Multicultural Heritage Award California Newspaper Publishers Association California College Newspaper of the Year 2013, 2016, 2020 Student Newspaper General Excellence 2002-20 Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence 2001-21 First Amendment Award 2002, 2005 San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism 1999-2020 Directors Award for Defense of Free Speech 2012 Journalism Association of Community Colleges Pacesetter Award 2001-18 Newspaper General Excellence 2000-2021 American Scholastic Press Association National Community College Newspaper of the Year, 2020

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

Teaching beckoned and Gurmilan returned to Southwestern College to begin a new career. He was hired as an adjunct to teach journalism and communication classes. In a short time he blossomed into a popular profé at SC and San Diego City College, as well as other colleges across America where he taught online.

“I am so happy that I got that opportunity to come back and see some of my old mentors and professors,” he said. “I hope I can help my students like they helped me.”

Gurmilan also ramped up his schedule of motivational speeches. He said he feels blessed every time he is asked to speak.

“It is part of my mission and why I believe I am here,” he said. “I think I was given a second opportunity to be able to do good things.”

In 2012, Gurmilan wrote a criticallyacclaimed book titled, “From My Chair,” a narration of his improbable journey and philosophical musings on love, family and perseverance. Writing his life story led him to thinking again about surfing and the fateful day he was injured. For 18 years he figured surfing was something he would never do again.

Then he thought some more.

Perhaps it was possible after all.

While filming a documentary related to his book, Gurmilan returned to the exact Baja California surf break where he was so badly injured as a teenager. With the help of adaptive surfing professionals, he was strapped to a board and pushed into the breakers. His coach positioned him in a fourfoot left break and let go. Gurmilan carved the wave under the warm Baja sun, grinning boyishly as a GoPro mounted on the nose of his board captured the moment.

He had made it back.

“That was my first experience and once I did that I was like, ‘I can actually do this’,” he said.

“And it was fun, it was exciting. It was different than before, but at the same time it was the same feeling.”

Gurmilan bought himself a specialized surfboard with handles and adaptations.

He is, once again, a waterman free to live the excitement of riding the waves. Gliding through the water, he said, is a transcendental experience.

“At that moment everything else goes away,” he said. “There is no stress, there is no work.

There is no sadness, only a really great feeling of fulfillment and joy and excitement. It’s just amazing. I love those seconds I am on a wave.

It could be just 30 seconds, but those become the best 30 seconds of my life. It’s awesome.”

Inspired by his return to the surf, Gurmilan began to attack his once-dormant bucket list.

He even went skydiving.

In 2016, Gurmilan received an Emmy Award

COURTESY HUMBERTO GURMILAN

EBULLIENT ELECTED OFFICIAL — In November 2018, Gurmilan was elected to the San Ysidro School District Board of Trustees. An outspoken advocate for equal educational opportunities for students living in low-income communities, Gurmilan promised to advocate for higher standards and higher student achievement in the border community. San Ysidro educators struggle with very high transiency rates and students who enter school at different ages with little or no English, but the district has made progress.

events — including adaptive surf camps.

“The foundation is one of my favorite things in the world because I get to help other people just like other people helped me,” he said.

“My inspiration was that I wanted to give back to other people with disabilities and support them so that they can experience how awesome it is to feel the support of others.”

Gurmilan was elected to the San Ysidro School District board in 2018 and has been part of a progressive movement to improve educational opportunities in a challenged corner of the United States. Education was his ticket to the life he dreamed of, he said, and he is devoted to his community’s public schools.

ANOTHER DOOR OPENS

COURTESY HUMBERTO GURMILAN

POPULAR MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER — A popular motivational speaker, Gurmilan said he enjoys speaking to journalism students, educators and philanthropists, but he has a special place in his heart for members of the disabled community. He said he wants to be a living example of what people can do if they set aside fear and the limited expectations of others.

for Best Documentary. That same year, he started the Gurmilan Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to providing adaptive support to disabled people who, like him, are striving to reach their fullest potential. The foundation provides scholarships and hosts inspiring

When former SC trustee Nora Vargas was elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in November, she became the first Latina seated on the powerful board.

She asked Gurmilan to join her team as Press Secretary. He made the difficult decision to leave SC for the County Administration Building.

“It is bittersweet because I will not be able to see students and will not be able to teach, but it is for a great reason,” he said. “I’ve joined an awesome team, a group of people committed to helping their community. Everybody is so smart and so experienced. I feel humbled to work with them. I am very grateful for the opportunity to join the team and to work with Supervisor Vargas. It’s (already) been amazing.”

Gurmilan, ever the optimist, said he is still young and would not rule out a return to teaching later in life, perhaps as a full professor.

After all, he explained, if he could return to surfing, anything seems possible.

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Barajas: revered artist, ‘our Diego Rivera,’ restored park’s murals CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

the entire collection. In the 2000s Caltrans planned to destroy the murals for a seismic retrofit of pillars supporting the Coronado Bridge. The City of San Diego had also drawn up plans to pave over Chicano Park to create off-site parking for the new downtown baseball stadium.

FLASHBACK TO THE TAKEOVER

For Chicano activists, the Caltrans proposals were echoes of April 1970 when the city went back on its word to build a community park in Barrio Logan. When it began constructing a California Highway Patrol substation instead, Chicanos and their supporters poured in from around the nation to become human shields against bulldozers.

Loganistas with shovels and rakes started to scratch out their own park. After a weekslong standoff with a small army of peaceful but assertive protestors who refused to leave the area beneath the Coronado Bridge, the city relented. Chicano Park was born of rebellion.

That same spirit of standing up for the Chicano community permeates the park’s colorful murals, Barajas said. Just as Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera used their art in the first half of the 20th century to protest war and injustice on epic murals, Barajas and a small group of artists transformed dusty grey walls and pillars into statements of affirmation, strength, beauty and community.

“In 1973 we just got whatever paint we could get our hands on and started painting what is now called the Historical Mural,” he said. “We invited artists who were university professors from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno and all over the (state) to come and paint the pillars. We prepared the pillars for them, spending money out of our own pockets.”

After five frantic days, the first wave of murals was completed, Barajas said. They stood unthreatened until the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged roads and bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley. Quake damage spurred Caltrans to plan a statewide seismic retrofit project of bridges.

The Coronado Bridge plan included beefing up pillars with concrete, an action that would obliterate the park’s murals.

Barajas and members of the Chicano Park Steering Committee fought ferociously for three years against the Caltrans plan. They insisted the bridge could be reinforced without harming murals.

“It was an incredible battle,” he said. “Caltrans is in the business of building roads and bridges.

They did not care if the murals were destroyed.

We did.”

Science carried the day, he recalled, when UCSD seismologists hired by Caltrans reported that the pillars required reinforcement at ground level and the very top, but that the faces of the pillars did not need new concrete.

Chicano Park’s murals dodged destruction, but faced damage by the dirty retrofit work. Bowing to political pressure, Caltrans granted $1.6 million to the Chicano Park Steering Committee to restore the murals following construction.

Barajas created a manual to guide the process.

His “Chicano Park Mural Restoration Technical Manual,” a detailed study of each mural and a precise plan to restore it, was the first of its kind in the United States. He worked more than 500 hours to create the manual, but accepted no compensation. He preferred, he said, that the entire grant go directly to the murals.

JULIA WOOCK / STAFF

HARD SCIENCE, SOFT TOUCH — During his service in the U.S. Air Force, Barajas focused on technical art and learned about the science of painting.

His uncommon knowledge of the physics and chemistry of outdoor art led to his work with Caltrans to restore all of Chicano Park’s murals.

JULIA WOOCK / STAFF

COURTESY ERNESTO RIVERA

‘SALVADOR MEANS SAVIOR’ — Barajas was one of the Chicano leaders who fought fiercely against a Caltrans plan that would have destroyed Chicano Park’s murals. Later he developed a detailed manual used to restore the murals following a dirty seismic retrofit.

bellowed from the east side of Logan Avenue, Barajas and a group of his friends linked arms to form a human fence around his new mural honoring the human rights organization Border Angels. Asked if he was worried that the motley coalition of Klansmen, Nazis and Minutemen would damage the artwork, the normally cheerful septuagenarian and boxing champion grew somber.

“They will have to come through me first,” he said.

CONGRESS TAKES ACTION

Sal does it right!” said Baca. “He figured out where Caltrans was coming from and what they needed to hear. He then collected the evidence to carry the day. It’s a constant struggle. We were fortunate he was here to answer the call.”

Barajas said he felt he could finally start to rest easy when the U.S. House of Representatives declared Chicano Park a National Historical Monument in January 2017.

“Now the murals are finally protected and recognized for their cultural significance,” he said.

Morones said the role Barajas played in saving the murals is overlooked.

“Salvador, in Spanish, means savior,” he said. “Salvador Barajas is a savior because he saved our park by saving its murals.”

Barajas, as usual, deflected credit.

“There were a lot of people who fought against Caltrans,” he said. “That is the beauty of Chicano Park. It belongs to everyone and it has its own organic army of people to protect it whenever it needs protecting.”

Ironically, the National Historical Monument designation generated another threat. A white supremacist group, provoked by anti-immigrant rhetoric from former president Donald Trump, announced its intentions to swarm into Chicano Park and destroy its “un-American” murals.

Barajas, an Air Force veteran, bristled at the characterization. He was one of more than 1,000 counter protesters who showed up that morning in 2017 to defend the park.

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PICKING UP THE BAT

JULIA WOOCK / STAFF

TIJUANA BRASS — A proud product of Colonia Libertad, one of Tijuana’s oldest communities, Barajas meets with surviving friends periodically in Chula Vista. His childhood running mates grew up into an impressive array of Mexican and MexicanAmerican executives, businessmen, soldiers, athletes and educators.

Baca said every generation of Chicanos must consider whether it wants to “get into the game or not.”

“Each young person needs to decide if he or she is going to pick up the bat and face the pitcher,” he said. “Some people pick up the bat, but don’t enter the game. Some stand there with the bat on their shoulder and strike out without swinging. Sal picked up the bat and played hard, only in Sal’s case his bat is his paint brush.”

Barajas, who calls himself “a huge baseball fan,” smiled at the metaphor.

“We can all make a difference in our own way,” he said. “That’s why I like to speak at schools and colleges to talk about our art and heritage. Maybe there is a kid or a young college student who is an artist or a journalist or who has talents they can use to help people. That’s what I like about Southwestern College. I think the community college system is one of the greatest things about California. Southwestern College students can make a difference.”

(Barajas illustrated the cover of El Sol Magazine, creating an image to announce its theme, “Courage in the Time of COVID.”)

MURALISTA MARAVILLOSO

Chicano Park is not the only San Diego

STARTING SMALL — Barajas makes exacting miniature representations of his epic-sized projects before he starts. His detailed model for his upcoming mural commission featuring United Farm Workers legend Dolores Huerta (above) allow his patrons and members of the Chicano Park Steering Committee to see what a completed mural will look like on a pillar.

landmark to receive the Barajas touch. In 1974 he was one of the artists who painted the new Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park. Several local schools feature murals by Barajas, including an ambitious two-part tour de force at King-Chavez Elementary, which he admitted is his favorite. His motivational posters with a rich Chicano aesthetic resonate from walls of classrooms and offices across the Southwest.

“Education is the great equalizer,” he said.

“For Latino kids, and all kids of color, a good education is essential. We have to keep working hard and studying because it is the only way out of el barrio.”

Born in Nio, Sinaloa, Barajas grew up in the venerable Tijuana community Colonia Libertad. In 1961, he moved to San Diego with his father to work and send money to his family. He attended adult school at San Diego High to learn English. He joined the Air Force, where he worked as a technical artist illustrating manuals. He learned the importance of detail and about the science of painting challenging surfaces, knowledge that later informed the “Chicano Park Murals Restoration Manuel.”

He used his GI Bill benefits to attend Los Angeles Trade Technical College and subsequently SDSU. He had a successful 30-year career as a commercial artist working in advertising. All of his life experiences prepared him to become a prolific muralist in Act III of his life.

“Advertising art requires precision, which fine art may not,” he said. “It is good for me that I have experience in both.”

Baca said he is amazed by Barajas’ energy and productivity at age 77.

“We’re the same age, man, and I can hardly believe everything Sal does,” he said.

“Chicano Park has a lot of pillars left, so we got to keep Sal going.”

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

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VIRTUALLY BRILLIANT Coronavirus canceled awards ceremony, but not the achie vements of the Students of Distinction

Mara Paulette Alonso

Elayna Bagaporo

Jessica Bandejas Nursing

Allied Health/Liberal Arts

Mari Germono

Rachal Hamilton

Alexa Hornedo

Briana Jauregui Nanoengineering

Graphic Design, Multimedia, Photography, Animation

Shawn Khalifa

Jennyfer Laurent

Kiara Mora

Ana Paola Olvera

Santiago Rodriguez

Ricardo Suarez

Nathan Torres

Chemical Engineering

Nursing

Sociology

Anna Lee Sanchez Sociology

Sociology

Sociology

Accounting

Karina Sanchez

Business Administration

Communications

Sociology

Mathematics, Computer Science

Mia Mae Dacasin

Journalism

Psychology

Athina Louise Dumaran Liberal Arts / STEM nursing

Cassandra Jordan

Physics

Gian Marco Zuno

Recording Arts and Technology

The Student of Distinction Award (commonly referred to as the SODA) is the highest honor a student can receive at Southwestern College.

It is given each year to students who have displayed exemplary academic achievement and contributions to our campus and our communities.

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THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

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