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
Volume 63, Issue 3
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Two administrators demoted over ASO strife LEADERSHIP CHANGES l President Dr. Kindred Murillo demoted Dr. Malia Flood and Brett Robertson for “poor leadership”
Flood and Robertson were not mentioned in investigator's findings which cited Trishana Norquist and Richard Eberheart
l
Norquist and Eberheart were not punished
l
Flood, Robertson not blamed by investigator, but punished by Murillo By Pernisha Gaines Assistant News Editor
Two college administrators have been demoted and reassigned following the release of an investigation into racially-tinged controversy during the spring ASO election Neither was singled out for criticism in the 19-page Summary of Findings report prepared by Kelly R. Minnehan of the Erickson Law Firm. Two college employees found to have made missteps during the contentious election have not been punished.
Dr. Malia Flood, former dean of Student Affairs, was re-assigned to her previous job as director of Disabled Student Services. Brett Robertson, former Director of Student Development and Health Services, was demoted and re-assigned to Student Services Supervisor with a lower range of responsibility, but at the same pay rate. Robertson said Murillo told him he had poor leadership skills. He said he disagreed. “I enjoyed that position,” he said. “I know my worth and have done good work for this
please see ASO pg. 2
Dec. 12, 2019
STUDENTS QUESTION NEED FOR POLICE STATION HOLDING CELL By Julia Woock and Nicholas James
Campus police officers have said they are very happy about the opening of a new police station in January. Some students on campus have said they are not happy that it will include a holding cell. Members of the Black Student Union expressed concern over the inclusion of the holding cell, a small jail-like room, that SC has never had before. BSU President Monte Clark said “it’s a
Stranded in Tijuana
bad look for the college.” College president Dr. Kindred Murillo and SCPD Chief Davis Nighswonger both said holding cells are standard on most college campuses. Nighswonger said the holding cell is something he hopes he does not have to use. “We’re looking at a very short period of time where somebody is continuously under observation while we process (paperwork),” he said. Nighswonger said holding cells may be please see Cell pg. 3
ACCREDIT LEADERS PLEDGE SMOOTHER PROCESS SC put on probation in 2010, followed by warning in 2015 By Matthew Brooks Copy Editor
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
Refugees so close, yet so far Central America refugees stranded in Tijuana by the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” rules often faced certain death in their native countries and survived a harrowing journey to el norte. Two refugees living in a border migrant shelter share their remarkable stories of suffering, sacrifice and hope. Section B
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SCAPES GOATS College president inexplicably blames two employees for her missteps in ASO fiasco. VIEWPOINTS, 5
LOWRIDERS RIDE HIGH New Sal Barajas mural honors Amigos Car Club. BACKPAGE, 20
SC FUMBLES AWAY BOWL
Jags lose SoCal Bowl against Long Beach City College. SPORTS, 17
KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Child Development Center also develops new teachers, better parents. CAMPUS, 9
It is time once again for Southwestern College to look in the mirror. Next year it will be time for the college to hold its breath. Hundreds of SC personnel are preparing for the college’s upcoming accreditation evaluation that will play out over the course of 2020. Conducted by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), these evaluations focus on the integrity, effectiveness and quality of community colleges to ensure they are meeting academic standards and continually improving. Dr. Jessica Posey, faculty co-chair of the Accreditation Oversight Committee, described the process as a “self-reflection.” “It’s supposed to be a time for the institution to look at itself and then evaluate how we are meeting standards that we’ve actually set for ourselves,” she said. “That’s sort of a misconception where people think that the accrediting body is this distant overarching dictatorship looking at how we’re supposed to run things, but in reality, it’s us.” SC’s self-study will be reviewed by the ACCJC. California community colleges have
please see Accreditation pg. 4
Strategic plan points the way into the future By Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor
Southwestern College knows where it wants to go. Now it is time to figure out how to get there. Staff, the board and members of the community are working on a plan. It is called the Strategic Plan and a new one is drawn up every few years. The next one is scheduled to be in place by July 2020 and run through 2025. Bill Abasolo, director of Institutional Research and Assessment, is heading up the planning process. “The college is driven by its mission, vision and values,” he said. “It’s the motivating factor. You want to accomplish a goal, you align your goals with your mission and you start driving yourself towards that mission.”
please see Strategic pg. 2
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NEWS
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
news@theswcsun.com
“I don’t think that the blame should have went to them. What happened to Brett was really sad. He was my mentor and he was there for me in my worst moments. What happened to Dr. Flood is, especially when compared with the consequences that the faculty involved faced, was very severe.” Juan Carlos Sandoval-Rodriguez, ASO Vice President of Club Affairs
ADMINISTRATORS DEMOTED MURILLO BLAMES FLOOD, ROBERTSON FOR ASO STRIFE INVESTIGATOR CRITICIZES TWO OTHER EMPLOYEES
JUAN CARLOS SANDOVALRODRIGUEZ
TRISHANA NORQUIST
RICHARD EBERHEART
BRETT ROBERTSON
DR. MALIA FLOOD
DIMITRIUS LOA
ASO: Murillo said two
demoted admins showed poor leadership skills
Continued from pg. 1
college for the last five plus years. Students can vouch for me all the way.” Scores of staff and students have expressed surprise and disappointment about the demotion of Flood and Robertson. Some administrators have called for a protest at the December 11 governing board meeting in support of Flood. Robertson said Flood did not deserve to be demoted and was blameless for the ASO issues. “Dr. Flood helped students in their darkest hour of need,” he said. Flood was always an energetic advocate for students, he said, connecting them to the resources they needed to survive. Two college employees were singled out in the summary of findings report, though their names were mostly redacted. Minnehan concluded that there was probable cause to sustain allegations against Assistant Professor of Biology Trishana Norquist and Student Activities Coordinator Richard Eberheart. Norquist was criticized for falsely accusing four students of creating or posting a racist Instagram message and raising her voice during a contentious May 2 ASO election board hearing. Eberheart was cited for allowing election board meetings to proceed without 24-hour notice and showing bias towards the all-African American Team Elite. Eberheart and Norquist were not demoted or sanctioned by Murrillo. Robertson said Murillo has no grounds to demote Flood on lack of leadership when she has shown outstanding leadership for 20 years
Fernando A. Martinez/Staff
LAYING THE BLAME— President Dr. Kindred Murillo demoted two administrators for the racially-tinged ASO controversies.
in areas such as sexual assault, homelessness, hunger, domestic violence, mental illnesses and others. Flood and Robertson were interviewed by Minnehan regarding the tension and infighting by student government candidates and their supporters in the run up to the May ASO
STRATEGIC MASTER PLAN GOALS Southwestern College goals filed with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office:
Completion Increase by at least 20 percent the number of students annually who acquire associate degrees, credentials, certificates or job-oriented skill sets. Transfer Increase by at least 35 percent the number of students system-wide transferring annually to a UC or CSU. Unit Accumulation Decrease the average number of units accumulated by students earning associate degrees from approximately 87 total units to 79 total units, a decrease of nine percent.
Workforce Increase the percent of existing students who report being employed in their field of study from the most recent statement average of 69 percent to 76 percent, a 7 percent increase. Equity Reduce equality gaps across all the above measures through faster improvement among traditionally underrepresented student groups, with the goals of cutting achievement gaps by 40 percent within five years and fully closing the achievement gaps for good within 10 years.
elections, but did not mention them at all in her findings. Murillo interrupted a contentious meeting organized by the Jones & Associates consulting firm that devolved into a raciallytinged shouting match. Murillo dispersed the meeting and cancelled the ASO election. She authorized an investigation that continued
Strategic: New goals
AYONA HUDSON
through the summer. During the summer, Robertson approached the presidential candidates of both tickets with the idea to form a coalition government. They agreed and Murillo publicly announced the plan at the August 18 opening day employees event at the start of fall semester. The November 12 investigation report concluded that a series of contentious events prior to May 2 did not affect the outcome of the election. Vote tallies were released shortly thereafter and Christian Sanchez became 201920 ASO President. Though Minnehan’s report placed most of the blame for the ASO tension and the contentious meeting on Eberheart and Norquist. Murillo said she had no plans to discipline or re-assign either employee. “Faculty is really hard to move,” she said. Murillo said she does not want students to be impacted by the transfers, but ASO students and students served by Flood and Robertson said they were saddened by the moves. “I don’t think that the blame should have gone to them,” said Juan Carlos SandovalRodriguez, ASO VP of Club Affairs. “What happened to Brett was really sad. He was my mentor and he was there for me in my worst moments. What happened to Dr. Flood is, especially when compared with the consequences that the faculty involved faced, was very severe.” Flood declined to be interviewed for this story. A number of college administrators, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said Flood did not deserve to be demoted. “She was definitely scapegoated,” said a senior administrator. “What was done to Malia is not right. It could happen to any of us. It sends a dark message.”
Previous plans were designed to cover three years. Abasolo said the next one will encompass five years. “The idea behind that is that it takes a little while to put new changes in place,” Continued from pg. 1 he said. “When you’re implementing decisions and making new changes at a T h e c o l l e g e v i s i o n s t a t e s t h a t college, there’s a substantial process of “Southwestern College is the leader in going to various committees and getting equitable education that transforms the people involved.” lives of the students and community.” In fact, the drafts will be scrutinized by Abasolo said he anticipates the new approximately 35 committees. Input is Strategic Plan will include some or all of being taken from the community and the the goals outlined in a college document governing board will have final approval. called the Vision for Success and Student Abasolo said California state law Equity Plan. requires all community colleges to draw They include increasing the college up and follow a Strategic Plan. completion rate, increasing the student Besides following the law, SC President transfer rate, decreasing the number of Dr. Kindred Murillo said making units a student accumulates to earn an a Strategic Plan is an institutional Associate Degree, increasing the number of responsibility. students getting jobs in their field of study “We have a vision, and so in order to and reducing all equity gaps by 40 percent. make that vision happen, if you’re going
include a 20 percent success rate increase
DR. KINDRED MURILLO
to be a provider of equitable education for all students, then you need to know how you’re going to do it,” she said. “So, you set your vision and you need to put together a strategic plan so you can lay out strategic missions and goals to accomplish that.” Professor of English Andrew Rempt was Academic Senate President when the 2016-2019 Strategic Plan was finalized. He also served as co-chair of the Shared Consultation Council, which acts as the voice for all of the committees that worked on the plan. Rempt said the Strategic Plan serves a vital purpose. “The desire to close the equity gap and focus on student success and retention are the things I’m most concerned about,” he said. “That’s always been my chief concern, the quality of the teaching and learning and the ability of the students to get the service they need to succeed.”
campus@theswcsun.com
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
deny ‘plans’ to meet at new police station
Continued from pg. 1
used for individuals who have committed misdemeanors or felonies that require transport to a city jail. Minors who commit a crime may have to wait in the cell until a parent or guardian picks them up, he said. Domestic violence is the most common felony committed on campus, Nighswonger said. “Somebody that was arrested for domestic violence would be going to jail,” he said. Clark said he was surprised to learn about the holding cell. “I’m not sure what kind of look the
school is trying to get out of this and I would like to know what their reasoning is,” he said. “That is something that definitely triggers people of color.” Clark said the college should have had a broad discussion with the community about the design of the police station and the inclusion of a holding cell. “We would like to know why the college felt holding cells are necessary,” he said. “This is something that speaks to transparency, something students are really fighting for and deserve given the climate and history of this campus.” Appearances are important, Clark said, and building a holding cell sends a message about what college leaders think of students. “It’s not a good look for our campus,” he said. “Why do we need something like that for our students?”
Murillo said other colleges have had holding cells for years. “Sometimes you do need them,” she said. “You got to have a place to hold somebody if there’s a situation. It’s not for a very long time, but sometimes you need a location.” Murillo said members of the Black Student Union are planning to hold meetings at the police station to “break down barriers.” Clark said that was not true. “No one has approached us about that,” he said. “I just feel like any students would feel uncomfortable having a meeting in a police station with a holding cell and a police officer with a gun. Now you throw a student of color, given the climate of the school, it’s not really something we are ready for.” Clark said African American students
are still upset about a recent confrontation where a black student was wrestled to the ground by four officers. Murillo said that incident is under investigation. She also said she did not know any students had expressed discomfort about the holding cells. “I hadn’t heard that they were feeling uncomfortable about the detention centers,” she said. Nighswonger has been meeting with the ASO and with Black Alliance to discuss the holding cells, according to Murillo. Clark said the BSU has met once with the police chief, but did not discuss the holding cell. Murillo said she wants the college to focus on unifying police and students of color, which she described as “isolated.” “We saw that the police department felt isolated, too,” she said. “The students
are afraid over here and then the police department is feeling really isolated over here.” African American students would like to have a better relationship with campus police, said Clark. “We are not anti-police or anything like that,” he said. “We are happy that they have a new police station. They deserve one. In no way, shape or form are we trying to start any more drama. We believe that fighting for what we believe is definitely a priority and definitely our right.” Campus police and college administrators will need to accept responsibility for the past and work hard to show that the SCPD is moving towards community policing or other 21st century law enforcement philosophies, Clark said. “Trust isn’t just something that’s given,” he said. “It is something that is earned.”
Ex-Telemundo anchor still a ‘roll’ model for disabled community
H
umberto Gurmilan does not spend a lot of time telling people who use wheelchairs all the things they could do. He is too busy doing them. Gurmilan is a San Ysidro Renaissance man and South Bay superstar. For 15 years he was sports anchor at Telemundo and had an audience in the multimillions. He is an elected official who serves on the governing board of the San Ysidro School District. He teaches journalism at San Diego State and Southwestern College. He founded the Gurmilan Foundation in December 2015 in an effort to support people with disabilities. He recently hosted the Foundation’s third annual “Walk and Roll San Diego” at Marina Park in Chula Vista. People of all abilities gathered for a 5K or 1K run/walk to raise funds for scholarships for students in disability programs. “Walk
and Roll” generated a spirited atmosphere that featured familyfriendly performances, a carnival, children’s activities and plentiful food. Walkers and rollers had an enjoyable day, but scholarship recipient Eva Quijada may have had the best time of all. She was awarded $500 to help her to learn to drive an adaptive car that will put her on the road again, Gurmilan said. Money could not buy what young ballerina Yerly Villalobos got out of Walk and Roll, said her ebullient father, Nerino Villalobos. Yerly’s company, Dance Ability, were featured performers. “Dancing has shown my daughter that she is not defined by any limitations,” he said. “We acknowledge her physical realities, then try to push them aside so that she can be what she really is, a very special person.”
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Caleigh Goldman/Staff
ONE STOP COP SHOP — Students expressed general support for SCPD’s new station, but raised concerns about a holding cell.
Cell: BSU students
NEWS
Caleigh Goldman/Staff
STAR POWER— Former Telemundo sports anchor Humberto Gurmilan created a foundation to help others with disabilities. Gurmilan teaches journalism at SDSU and SC. He was elected to the San Ysidro School Board last year.
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NEWS
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
news@theswcsun.com
Accreditation: After
probation, warning, team promises smoother 2020
Continued from pg. 1
124 standards they must meet or justify not to stay accredited. Colleges that lose accreditation can face dire consequences, such as losing state and federal funding, the ability to award degrees and the ability to grant and receive financial aid. Some colleges have even been closed. Southwestern College faced loss of accreditation in 2010 during the presidency of Raj Chopra. Accreditation officials placed the college on probation and threatened it with “Show Cause” status, the final step before shut down. SC became a case study for mismanagement. Former Academic Senate President Angie Stuart led the team that saved the college in 2016. “We narrowly missed that bullet, which we were really happy about,” she said. Stuart said that Chopra’s administration had done none of the required work to prepare for the 2010 accreditation process. “It was time for our report and Chopra had done nothing,” she said. “We had a whole year to do the report and his administration had done nothing at all.” To make matters worse, Chopra and others in his administration subsequently pleaded guilty to more than 60 felony charges in the South Bay Corruption Scandal. They had gutted many internal processes and created an alarming lack of transparency which undermined college accountability and institutional effectiveness, according to accreditation findings. This lack of accountability and transparency would lead to the ACCJC putting SC on probation, and on the path to closure. “Program review, for a lot of other processes, internal committees, and the way we do business — all of those processes were dismantled by Chopra over the years,” Stuart said. Accreditation officials excoriated the college in its report and accused Chopra and VP of Finance Nicholas Alioto of creating a “climate of fear.” “Morale was really low when Chopra was here,” Stuart said. “The faculty and atmosphere at that time were very stressful for everybody.” Chopra and Alioto attempted to shut down The Sun in September 2010, which led to national scorn and the expulsion of the governing board majority during the November 2010 election. Chopra resigned the day before the new board was seated and could fire him. Stuart and Interim President Denise Whitaker spearheaded a campus wide push in 2011 to get the college back on in line with accreditation standards. SC was granted extra time for ACCJC and was granted accreditation in late 2011. “With (Whitaker’s) leadership and with the leadership of a lot of really dedicated faculty, staff and classified personnel all over the campus, the campus really worked hard that semester to put back into place the pieces we already had for accreditation,” Stuart said. “The good thing is that we had most of the pieces and Denise helped orchestrate and helped us get in the right direction.” Stuart said that Whitaker was an important boost to campus morale as well. “She brought a breath of fresh air,” she said. “And she brought a sense of security and family that we had not felt since the early 1990s at the campus. That was something we really needed. We needed that morale booster. She was wonderful that way.” Stuart said that it was a proud moment for the campus and its staff. “I have never seen the campus work that hard, and I was so proud of each and every individual at Southwestern College for that,” she said. “We were the reason that the campus remained opened.” Despite Whitaker’s important work on accreditation and digging SC out of a budget catastrophe left by Chopra and Alioto, the SC board decided to hire Melinda Nish as president in 2012 instead of Whitaker. Nish led the college off the accreditation cliff again in 2015. SC was found deficient in 15 areas identified by the ACCJC and placed on “Warning.” Six of the 15 areas in need of improvement were in regard to fiscal accountability and money handling policies. The evaluation found that campus morale suffered during this time as well, and was listed as an area in need of improvement. Several of the problems were holdovers from the Chopra/Alioto era. Nish was allowed to resign before being fired in 2016. Nish was replaced on an interim basis by Dr. Robert Deegan, the highlyrespected former President of Palomar College. Deegan was hired via a program that allows retired presidents to serve distressed institutions for six months on
Congratulations! You are accredited for seven more years!
Karen-Alleluia Agbuya, Michelle Phillips, Dan Cordero, Stephanie Garrido, Victor Santander, Blake Tomczak
“All of those things that we had to work on I know that we have, and we’re in a much better place than we have been in the past. I really feel like we’ve done a good job of lifting up our carpets, sweeping things out from them, and starting to unpack and deal with it. We really have.” Dr. Jessica Posey, Accreditation Oversight Committee Faculty Co-Chair a temporary basis. Deegan led the college to full accreditation status. VP of Academic Affairs Dr. Minou Spradley is the administrative co-chair of the Accreditation Oversight Committee with Posey. “My job is to make sure this college goes through accreditation without warning, sanctions or anything else,” Spradley said. “That is my job. I am confident that’s what’s going to happen.” Spradley and Posey both said they feel confident about the 2020 accreditation evaluation. “We’re in a much better place than we have been in the past,” Posey said. “I really feel like we’ve done a good job of lifting up our carpets, sweeping things out from them, and starting to unpack and deal with it. We really have.” Posey, who has worked at SC since 2009, said the college has improved under recent leadership. “In my time here, I have seen the biggest shift recently under Dr. Kindred Murillo, and with Minou Spradley, and our current leadership,” she said. “I just really see a big shift in administrators, not only being
open, but willing to work with faculty to make true changes for our campus. I feel like even though there’s been a lot of drama in the news lately that shines a negative light on some issues, what really doesn’t get shined on is the positive things are happening. It really does feel like a time of hope and moving forward for us.” Posey said she felt there has been a marked improvement in campus culture and moral under Murillo. “So, at the time that Nish was the president here, there was very low campus morale,” Posey said. “It just really felt like there was no trust between administrators and faculty. It felt like an authoritarian regime under Nish. I’ve really felt that change dramatically under Murillo.” Spradley and Posey said they are organizing accreditation efforts with h u n d re d s o f e m p l oy e e s . Fa c u l t y, administrator and classified employees are contributing to the process, they said. Spradley said SC has dedicated and passionate employees that want to see the college and its students succeed. “Compared to my prior institution, where we had a really hard time getting
people to work on this, this campus is amazing,” she said. “People have been pitching in, they care about the process, they want to do it right. They don’t want to be in the spot they were before where we got warnings. People are genuinely working hard on this document.” Spradley compared SC favorably with San Diego City College. “I spent 23 years at City College, that’s where I came from,” she said. “That was my family for 23 years. What I saw there was the same thing I see here. People left City College and came back because they loved that institution so much. Because the institution had done so much for them, they wanted to be part of it and pay back. And I see the same thing here. SC has engendered loyalty in its South Bay Community. “People here see this college as their family,” she said. “They come back. There are so many former students that come back. They’ve gotten their degrees, and they’ve done whatever they wanted to do out there and they come back to teach to be part of this institution. This institution made a difference in their lives and they want to be part of making a difference in somebody else’s life.” Posey said SC is part of a pilot program with 20 colleges trying a new approach to the accreditation process. Its accreditation team will work with an ACCJC liaison to draft the college’s accreditation document and ensure that accreditation standards are met. “ I t ’s b a s i c a l l y a n e w w a y o f comprehensively reviewing a campus where we get a chance to work with our accreditors (and) they get to look at the draft of our report and then notify
us ahead of time of any areas that they see that might need more review, more information,” she said. Posey said the process will be far more cooperative and less antagonistic. Rather than looking for fault, she said, ACCJC will help ensure a successful evaluation and continued improvement. “In the past having the ACCJC visit was nerve-wracking because you’re under scrutiny,” she said. “But now it really is a working relationship where it’s like ‘Hey, let’s take a look at this and see what could be better improved.’ So, it just feels like it’s more in the spirit of what it was initially designed to do.” In February an ACCJC liaison will conduct an onsite inspection of the campus. Next the liaison will assist in drafting the accreditation document scheduled for reviewed by the Academic Senate and the governing board in September. Final approval of the document by SC leadership is scheduled for December of 2020, said Spradley. Once approved, SC’s accreditation plan will then be submitted to the ACCJC in January 2021. ACCJC will assemble a committee in March 2021 to review the document and ask the college for any clarifications. SC’s accreditation committee will issue a response and will have six months to address any concerns the ACCJC has raised. In October 2021, a second on-site inspection is scheduled to ensure that the college has responded to ACCJC concerns. ACCJC will announce its accreditation decision in the early part of 2022. Spradley said if all goes wells, SC will retain its accreditation through 2027.
Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
VIEWPOINTS
The Southwestern College Sun
Editorials, Opinions and Letters to the Editor
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 Brittany Cruz-Fejeran News Editor Julia Woock Assistant News Editor Pernisha Gaines Assistant News Editor Manuel Gonzalez Campus Editor Gamaliel Carreno Assistant Campus Editor Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor Caleigh Goldman Viewpoints Editor Brittany Hernandez Assistant Viewpoints Editor Kathleen Blankenship Arts Editor Karla De Alba Sports Editor Justin Dottery Assistant Sports Editor John Ceballos-Brodie Assistant Sports Editor Solé Ruiz Production Manager Marty Loftin Multimedia Editor Jahaziel Valencia Assistant Multimedia Editor Stephanie Aceves Photo Editor Nicholas James Assistant Photo Editor Fernando A. Martinez Copy Editor Matthew Brooks Assistant Copy Editor Colin Grylls Circulation Manager Andrew Penalosa
Senior Staff Writer JoseLuis Baylon
S TA F F W R I T E R S Ryan Calderon Kamron Davis Isaac Garcia Kiara Miranda
Hanna Noriega Rosa Noriega Ana Paola Olvera Faith Perez
PHOTOGRAPHERS Aide Valdez
Marissa Romero
I L L U S T R AT O R S
Jaime Ramirez Victor Santander Ever Parmely-Den Herder
Advisor Dr. Max Branscomb Assistant Advisor Kenneth Pagano
AWARDS/HONORS Student Press Law Center National College Press Freedom Award 2011, 2018 National Newspaper Association National College Newspaper of the Year 2004-18 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards 2003-06, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012-2017, 2019 General Excellence 2001-19 Best of Show 2003-19 Columbia University Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal for Journalism Excellence 2001-19 California Newspaper Publishers Association California College Newspaper of the Year 2013, 2016 Student Newspaper General Excellence 2002-19
San Diego County Multicultural Heritage Award Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence 2001-19 First Amendment Award 2002, 2005 San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism 1999-2019 Directors Award for Defense of Free Speech 2012 Journalism Association of Community Colleges Pacesetter Award 2001-18 Newspaper General Excellence 2000-19 American Scholastic Press Association Community College Newspaper of the Year San Diego County Fair Media Competition Best of Show 20012003, 2005-2017
THE ISSUE: President Dr. Kindred Murillo has unfairly scapegoated Dr. Malia Flood for the ASO debacle.
OUR POSITION: It was Murillo who micromanaged and mishandled the ASO mess, and she needs to accept responsibility.
SCAPEGOATING FLOOD IS SHAMEFUL Southwestern College is in crisis. What the governing board does – or fails to do – in the weeks ahead will effect this institution for many years to come. Dr. Kindred Murillo’s increasingly disturbing behavior and mystifying decisions have reached a point of no return. Her cowardly move to scapegoat Dr. Malia Flood for the ASO debacle is a bridge too far. If anyone deserves a demotion, it is Murillo. The ASO mess was largely of her making. Murillo has foolishly micromanaged the ASO for months. It was one of Murillo’s series of expensive consultants, the Jones & Associates Consulting firm, whose titular head bills himself as a “transformational facilitator” and “phenomenal organization effectiveness consultant,” that made a series of ill-advised decisions that led to the racially-charged ASO blow up of May 2. It was Jones & Associates that decided to call a meeting and pack a small room full of students and employees with big frustrations. It was akin to bringing together the Hatfields and McCoys, Montagues and Capulets, or the Turks and the Kurds. It was not going to end well. It didn’t. It was not Dr. Flood’s fault that Murillo demonstrated one of her now-classic examples of Seagull Management. Once again, she flew in from far away, shrieked incoherently, crapped on everyone, and then flew away. After an hour-long food fight the Jones folks lost control of, Murillo flew in like a seagull, cancelled the ASO election and flew off without offering any useful ideas. Ironically, it was former Director of Student Development Brett Robertson, the second person Murillo scapegoated, who came up with the idea of a peace-making coalition government that Murillo has praised to the hills. Like a good soldier, Robertson took not one bit of credit for the plan, instead allowing the students to have a public moment of redemption and a way forward. Dr. Flood, in her role as Dean of Student Affairs, had the ASO under her chain of command, but three steps down. Student Activities Coordinator Richard Ebertheart had (and still has) day-to-day supervision of the ASO. Robertson supervised Eberheart. Flood supervised Robertson. Dr. Tina King supervises Flood. Murillo supervises King. The governing board supervises Murillo. Murillo, as she is often does, subverted the chain of command and thrust herself into a situation that Robertson and Eberheart should have managed at their level. Dr. Flood offered advice and support to the ASO leaders, which is exactly her job. It is not her fault that some students bypassed her and ran straight to Murillo. The college president had told them it was okay. There are so many troubling issues to unpack here.
Subversion of HR Process Murillo has once again subverted the college’s Human Resources policies and processes. This is the same president who appointed 60 percent of her vice presidents and a legion of college directors and managers by calling them “acting,” “interim” or “temporary.” Despite her sunshiny New Age rhetoric, Murillo has shown that she is undemocratic and will not brook dissent. She appoints whomever she wants wherever she wants, which is very unhealthy for the organization and squelches ideas contrary to hers.
No Due Process Murillo completely ignored college discipline policies. Dr. Flood did not receive due process. This is a veteran administrator who has two decades of sterling evaluations and an honorable
EDITORIAL POLICY
Opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Sun Staff, the Sun Editorial Board or Southwestern College.
Victor Santander/Staff
record of service to this institution and its students. She has been a tremendous improvement over her incompetent predecessor, Mia McClellan, who left Dr. Flood a massive mess to clean up.
An Effective Dean And clean up she has. Dr. Flood helped to drag Southwestern College into the 21st century in many important areas. Before Dr. Flood became the dean, SC denied it had a sexual assault problem and covered up assaults in its crime reports. Dr. Flood, herself a victim of sexual assault, has led the college into a healthy (and legal) new direction that acknowledges the problem, provides an accountable avenue to report, and provides students medical, law enforcement and counseling support. Dr. Flood helped to modernize the college’s Disabled Student Services programs and made this campus a more welcoming place for students on the autism spectrum. She is working to help homeless students and students with housing insecurity. She has advocated for more mental health counselors, and has used great creativity to expand mental health resources. She has – correctly – argued that SC needs a real, honest-togoodness, well-trained, full-time Title IX Director. She is a good listener who always makes time to meet with students and staff who have concerns or need her advice – even if it means working well into the evening.
Culpability for ASO Mess Blaming Dr. Flood for the ASO debacle is like blaming Taylor Swift for the war in Syria. Do not take our word for it, read the report of the investigators Murillo hired for $120,000 to study the ASO meltdown. We did. Despite the college’s ham-handed attempt to redact the names and titles of the players, it is not hard to sort out the who’s who. The investigation assigns most of the blame (deservedly) to Student Activities Coordinator Eberheart, who was caught red-handed playing favorites, manipulating the election process, allowing illegal meetings and other transgressions of process. Investigators were also very critical (deservedly) of the role of Assistant Professor of Biology Trishana Norquist, who acted unprofessionally by stirring up already-emotional students, making unfounded accusations, and pressuring a student to stand up and point out four classmates for a reprehensible act none of them committed. Neither Eberheart nor Norquist were demoted or terminated by Murillo. It appears they got off scot free. For the record, the Editorial Board of The Sun is not calling for firing or demotion of these two employees. Eberheart has always
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Send mailed letters to: Editor, Southwestern College Sun, 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910. Send e-mailed letters to viewpoints@ theswcsun.com. E-mailed letters must include a phone number. The Sun reserves the right to edit letters for libel and length and will not consider publishing letters that arrive unsigned.
been a kind and helpful force at the ASO. Norquist is a talented young faculty member who seems to care about students and could, with a dash of seasoning, become a positive force at Southwestern College. They did, however, make mistakes. The point, however, should be obvious. Eberheart and Norquist had their fingerprints all over the worst parts of the debacle, but it is two leaders up the food chain who got whacked. We are hoping against hope that Murillo did not cave into the campus’s fraught racial politics when making these decisions, but the appearances are not good.
Campus Support for Dr. Flood We have fanned out across campus this week and spoken to most students involved in the ASO situation. Not a single one blamed Dr. Flood. In fact, each and every student said they were upset she was punished. Not one single administrator, faculty member or employee has said to us that Dr. Flood deserved blame and demotion. Getting anyone to agree about anything on this campus is nearly impossible, but there seems to be unanimity that Dr. Flood was mistreated and wrongly demoted. We hope her fellow administrators have the courage to tell their boss Murillo that what she did was wrong and unacceptable. Murillo seems to think The Sun is angry with her for hiding documents, but we wish it were only that. We have lost confidence in her and we are concerned by her erratic behavior. The juvenile opening of her recent to letter to the editor is troubling. Much more troubling is her behavior at recent meetings of her management team where she has been shrill, abusive and completely unprofessional. We are concerned about the mental wellbeing of our sensitive and fragile president. It may be time for her to take a long break from the admittedly difficult job of running Southwestern College. It may be time for Dr. Murillo to step aside. The only problem with that is there is virtually no bench and no one on our campus management team qualified to take her place. Our governing board should consider bringing in a competent, experienced former president in the mold of Denise Whitaker or Dr. Robert Deegan for a year. Otherwise, SC should seek help from the California Community College Chancellor’s office and invite a conservator in to manage the college until we can get through accreditation and back on our feet. Dr. Malia Flood needs to be immediately restored to her rightful position of Dean of Student Affairs. She deserves a public apology from Murillo and this college for falsely blaming her for something that was clearly not her fault.
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The Sun reserves the right to republish web comments in the newspaper and will not consider publishing anonymously posted web comments or comments that are inflammatory or libelous. Post web comments at theswcsun.com.
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VIEWPOINTS
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
viewpoints@theswcsun.com
CA students are casualties in UC’s crusade for more money California’s grandest thefts are not diamond watches, luxury cars, technology, art or credit cards. None of these come close to the pilfering of our seats at UC and CSU campuses by craven universities like UCSD and SDSU. Southwestern College students, their parents and taxpaying members of this community have been ripped off blindly in the past decade by greedy administrators from the University of California system who whine to members of the California legislature that they are underfunded. Get in line, folks. Have you been to Southwestern College recently where we cannot afford competent senior administrators, clean bathrooms, decent carpets and modern classrooms? But that’s another story. Poor UC system. It must be tough to scrape by on $37 billion. So, in an act of chicanery that has malignant social and racial implications, the UC system began selling seats at its prime universities to foreign and out-of-state students who pay $44,000 annually to attend. That is $30,000 more than California students – about three times the normal tuition of $14,000. UCSD, UCLA and Berkeley are selling off between 35-45 percent of all their enrollment to students from Saudi Arabia, China and other American states not named California. Problem is, they are not their seats to sell, they belong to us – or at least they were originally created for us. About 55 years ago the California Higher Education Master Plan created to three-tiered system that for a while was the wonder of the
Victor Santander/Staff
world. The University of California system would educate the top 10 percent of students from the Golden State. The California State University system would educate the top 25 percent. The California Community College system, as our journalism professor likes to joke, educates to top 100 percent. Not anymore. Pouty UC leaders have tried for years to put the arm on the California governor and legislature for a hefty funding increase. When they did not get everything they wanted, they declared war – except it was students for low-income, minority communities who got killed. UCSD, which regularly pulls in multi-million and multi-billion dollar gifts from philanthropists is nevertheless a philanderer. Last year and for
“It’s really accessible, unless you fly down a flight of stairs. I’ve done that.”
Tommie Stephenson, 24 English
How accessible is Southwestern College to you?
“Sexual harassment. People stealing students’ books.”
Richard Young, 55
Crime Scene Investigator
the last several years UCSD has auctioned off 41 percent of its enrollment spots to foreign and outof-state students. That’s about 4,000 seats. This starts a destructive chain reaction for South County students. Those hard-working 10 percenters with 4.something GPAs, lettermen’s jackets, science fair championships, ASB titles and lead roles in the high school musical are no longer a lock to go to UCSD. So, tails between their legs, they trudge off the SDSU where they take a seat from a 3.0 student. Honor students rejected by UCSD and SDSU end up dazed and confused at Southwestern College, even though they did everything their parents, teachers and older sisters told them to do for 13 years. SDSU brags about taking only 1 in 13 applicants. Those rebuffed by San Diego’s two major universities are estimated to be between 75-80 percent students of color and about 70-75 percent low income. Education – the great American equalizer – is no longer even close to being equal. Norma Cazares, the recently-retired director of the SC Transfer Center, has been outspoken about this problem for years, but got little support at Southwestern College or anywhere else. “It’s always been a struggle, like pulling teeth,” she said. “International students pay a whole bunch more that out-of-state students and certainly way more than local students. That is a way the (UC and CSU systems) make money, but to the detriment of our local students.” UC and CSU officials scold low income students for not applying to universities far from home. Many South Bay students are considered
“It’s pretty accessible to me. I have other friends that are disabled that might say some other different things. I know that sometimes— especially with all the construction that’s going on right now—I know that they might have blocked off one or two paths that’s a bit hard to get around. I got late to class today because those spots are no longer there because they are renovating. I hope they put some more handicap spots. That’d be great.”
Jose Estrada, 24
“I’m happy with the various accommodations that the school offers such as large print and braille, as well as extra time on tests and projects for example. Also, the instructors are very helpful and understanding. Many instructors will reserve a front row seat for me and will sometimes allow me to record a lecture. And if that’s not the case, students often volunteer to take notes for me.”
“place bound,” meaning that they lack income to move, work to help support their families or care for ill or elderly family members. Research shows that low income Latinas and Filipinas have the most pressure to remain and the fewest opportunities, regardless of their academic achievement, which generally outstrips their male classmates. Thus a societal malady perpetuates. Besides the underlying racism and classism fueled by this seat selloff, there is the fundamental issue of who owns the seats to begin with. The UC and CSU systems are both taxpayer funded, meaning a lot of hard-working dads, moms, grandparents and neighbors have worked for decades to pay into a system that their children are now locked out of. This is a class action suit (pardon the pun) waiting to happen.0 The UC and CSU leadership, by the way, have done just about everything they can think of to make us feel like this situation is our fault. UC raised its GPA requirement from 3.0 to 3.5 and now claims to only consider the top 7.9 percent of California’s best and brightest. UCLA was caught red handed throwing away a third of its applications without even reading them. When confronted about this, UCLA officials were surprisingly nonplussed. “Way too many applicants, not enough seats,” shrugged admissions officials. No refunds, either. Where have you gone, Norma Cazares? Southwestern turns its lonely eyes to you. We need more people like our 619 Chicana warrior to help fight this battle or else a lot of us are going to spend many, many years as Jaguars – then many more in retail.
“I feel like it used to be accessible to wheel chairs, but now they introduced a two-story structure to classrooms, and I feel like due to modern design aesthetics it doesn’t really comply to a person with disabilities. Again, there are multitude of obstacles that I have to go through to get from point A to point B.”
Cindy Sison, 23
Plant Biology
Jordan Arguila, 22 Arts
Film, Television and Media Arts
“It’s good. I like it a lot. I feel like this school really accommodates us. It’s a good environment for us.”
Yenni Rivas, 25 Art
“I think the people at SWC are great. The atmosphere is inclusive. I love that. It has been challenging finding clean and accessible restrooms at times during breaks. As a wheelchair user I have encountered barriers because of construction, but have worked arround them.”
Tania Azevedo
Tutor
“It’s very accessible, including the parking. The DSS got me a special chair and a table I can work with because some of the classrooms have small chairs. There’s nothing I can use to sit down because I’ve got problems with my legs and my knees, so it’s very uncomfortable to sit in one of those chairs. So, I always ask for these kinds of chairs, so I can sit down and interact with the class.”
Victor Escalante, 62 Languages
“I’d prefer if there were a cart service to help me and other disabled students because we take double or triple the time to get from Point A to Point B. I don’t think there are enough handicap parking spots. The handicap parking nearest the elevator by the library building is the fastest way for me to pass through campus. Also, it frustrates me when someone without a disability abuses the use of someone else’s disability placard just to get a “convenient” parking spot on campus.
Zaira Simones, 29
Communication
viewpoints@theswcsun.com
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
VIEWPOINTS
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Paying rent fuels debt, stress, delays transfer
Victor Santander/Staff
By Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Editor-In-Chief
Black men need understanding, support to fight depression By Justin Dottery A Perspective
I
never thought depression was real, until it hit me. The world can be a cold place and things can feel just a bit more frigid when you are a black man. Being a black man means dealing with racism at every turn, working to provide a life for yourself and possibly a family, and having to work twice as hard as the next man to be at equal footing. The weight of the world can feel like too much of a burden. As the load gets heavier with time, the strain deepens and it feels like there is nothing to alleviate the pain. I was diagnosed with depression in May 2018 and have struggled with it since. At times nothing seems to lift my spirits and I lack the energy and/or motivation to do things I previously enjoyed. During that summer I stayed in the house smoking my days away and watching time pass me by. I resorted to marijuana to uplift my spirit and fight the negative thoughts that ran rampant through my mind. THC suppressed my negative thoughts for a while, but they would later resurface worse and louder than before. While struggling with my inner demons I hit my lowest point mentally and I felt I had no one I could turn to. After a few months, I spoke with a therapist who taught me to prioritize my mental health, which I never thought much about. He taught me useful strategies. When you go through life simply ignoring your mental health and never learning to deal with the emotions you feel, you rely on unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol, drugs, excessive eating and sex. Those habits can lead a person to dig his own grave. Black men are often told that we have to be strong and should not show emotion. That thinking is toxic, has
crippling long-term effects, and should not be passed onto future generations. In our community we have begun to prioritize mental health a lot better. Step one is accepting that mental illness is real and our loved ones deal with some form of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide is the third leading cause of death by black men ages 15-24. That number has doubled since 1980. Black men can feel as if there is no one to talk to about our problems without judgement. I understand that struggle too well. I never talk about it much, but at my lowest point I began to understand why people take their own lives. You want the emotional pain and torture to come to an end because it feels lonely and eternal. When you come from a culture that does not believe depression is a real thing, it is hard to find a support system. I attempted to talk about what was ailing me with my mother and brothers when they came to visit from Los Angeles. My brothers laughed it off as a joke. I fell deeper into the hole and shut down. Black men worry about sharing too much lest it be used against you later. Without trust there can be no meaningful communication, so people with depression just hold on to the trouble until the storm eventually passes. If it ever does. That is a slippery slope. If you hold on to trouble for too long, it can drag you to a dark place that can be difficult to escape. If we ever hope to reverse the trend of depression in our people, we must prioritize our mental health and lend a listening ear to our brothers and sisters. Until we begin acknowledging that depression is real, we will be stuck in a vicious cycle of losing our people to things we cannot see and only they can hear.
Letter to the Editor College president refutes paper’s charge of secrecy To the Editor, The Sun is angry. We get it. For some time, the relationship between the College’s student-run newspaper and the administration has been uneasy, occasionally veering into bitterness, distrust and lawsuits. As the leader of the College, I am responsible for letting the relationship disintegrate into one that is quickly defaulting to being managed by attorneys. I also take responsibility for a series of missteps by the College, and for the lack of transparency in adequately communicating the background of those situations when asked by The Sun. In The Sun’s recent unsigned Nov. 21 viewpoint, the writer/s listed a number of issues and accused the
College of keeping the results of investigations secret, including the incident involving former Chief Michael Cash, who resigned from the College in 2017. The article also mentioned the hiring of lawyer Felix Tinkov. We are already working with Mr. Tinkov and have conveyed to him that Southwestern College does not oppose the disclosure of the Cash records requested in The Sun’s petition to the court. The College is prohibited by law from disclosing the records without a court order because the disclosure of police officer personnel records is governed by the State of California’s Peace Officers’ Bill of Rights (POBR) and other related statutes. Mr. Tinkov is aware of the College’s position and he and the College’s general counsel discussed it several times. POBR is such an important element of the case that I wanted to reiterate it here. As is standard procedure for the disclosure of peace officer personnel records, the records will be submitted to the court
for review. If the court determines the records are disclosable, the records will be provided to the Sun. The viewpoint mentions many past administrations that have appeared to avoid The Sun. The current administration, most notably me, must deal directly and in a timely fashion with The Sun’s reporters and editors. This is an area where I can and will do better. I now meet monthly with The Sun’s news editor. In my four meetings with The Sun this semester, I have pledged to do all I can to improve our relationship and to make sure we are able to have a respectful, more open dialogue going forward even though we know it is inevitable for the paper and the College at times to be on opposing sides. In addition to my personal meetings with Sun editors and reporters, I have encouraged my leadership team to undertake similar meetings. I have also extended an invitation to meet with The Sun’s faculty advisor monthly
to see how we can best support our students in their journalism experience. Our student journalists have competed (and won) with the best across the nation. I am very proud of their accomplishments and the many more they will achieve in the future. The Sun has a powerful voice and we respect the work that you do. Since it is certain that we will have divergent interests going forward, we need to work together and navigate those situations with respect, patience and the understanding that one or both of us will probably be disappointed by some outcomes. If we achieve this goal, we will be demonstrating that civility of discourse is possible in today’s highly charged media environment. It’s never easy to embark on a new way of doing something, but I am committed to doing so to make this a better, more productive relationship. Dr. Kindred Murillo Superintendent/President
A friend of mine is required to pay $500 a month to live at home with his parents. They told him he needs to move out by July and he must pay his own way through school. It is absolute sabotage and sets him up for failure. If a parent can afford to provide for their household, they should not drown their college students in debt and anxiety. College students should be spending their time studying rather than laboring through an 8-hour shift at Target, Ross or Taco Bell. Students should take advantage of community college to save money to transfer to a university. A four-year university is a six-figure monster that follows years after landing a degree. Southwestern College has many resources to help students who are financially unstable, but if students are hardly making payments at a community college, they do not stand a chance at four-year universities. I lived with my parents my first year of college after moving here from Guam. I was not required to pay rent and not because I was spoiled. My dad told me he purposely let me live with him for free for a year so I could save up enough money to move out on my own. That is what I did and now I’m out. Not all students are afforded this luxury. Too many are required to be financial contributors. Students living on their own are required to work an exorbitant number of hours to make rent. This takes away from their education, social development and self-care. So much time is put into working, some students often derail from higher education. They just do not have time. If parents want to see their children succeed in college, we need time for self-care. This time is essential for success, though many underestimate its impact. Anxiety and depression run rampant in college students because of financial strain and exhaustion. If students must work, the money needs to be directed at financing their educations. Textbooks can cost up to $300 each and tuition can cost around $600 for about 14 units. This is just at “affordable” Southwestern College. San Diego State University typically costs $30,522 annually for tuition, housing and food, transportation, books, supplies and other miscellaneous costs, according to its office of student affairs. Most young and inexperienced students make $12.50 laboring in retail of the service industries. It will take me almost two years to accumulate $30,522 if I worked 20 hours — maybe with time to do schoolwork — at $12.50. This, of course, does not include rent parents may ask to pay, phone bills or other living expenses. That adds another year if you’re paying $6,000 more in additional expenses a year. But it does not matter if you are asked to pay more or less. The point is that any expenses that are deterred from those that go towards education are setting you back. There is a reason SC students typically take 4.5 years to finish a “two-year” degree. We come from low-income families and work an average of 32 hours a week. We pay ruinous rents that can exceed the mortgages wealthier homeowners pay. We may not have cars, so we have to take expensive (and slow) mass transit. We have no health insurance, so if we get sick or injured, we may be screwed. There is a good reason university students from this region take 6-7 to complete a “four-year” degree. (See preceding paragraph). Most SC students are the first in their families to attend college. Most of our parents do not understand about study time, reports, group projects, term papers, seminars, conferences, competitions, performances and other time-consuming requirements. Students living on their own without support have little hope of traveling with professors and counselors to see universities, completing honors projects, serving internships, doing community service, competing on athletic teams, participating in performing arts, serving in student government or working on SC’s national champion newspaper. Southwestern College students are a good investment. Invest in us. Let us live at home while we are in college. We will finish faster, spend much less money and start our careers sooner.
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The Southwestern College Sun
CAMPUS
Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
n PROFILE: Homeless student Cesar Garay finds satisfaction serving others P9
Nursing student saves life with CPR skills learned in Southwestern College program By Aide Valdez Staff Writer
It was just another September shift at Chick-fil-A. Until it wasn’t. SC nursing student Tauya Nenguke, 22, was taking orders at the drive through when he saw a young man unconscienced in the parking lot surrounded by his panicked friends. Tauya’s training kicked in. He directed one of the man’s friends to call 911 as he began CPR. Tauya said the man had no pulse and was not breathing. Tauya said he knew he needed to stay calm. “I said, don’t worry guys I know CPR
Culinary program cooking up piping hot future
and started chest compressions on the man on the ground,” he said. Tauya said he administered CPR while shouting the address and directions to the person on the phone with a 911 operator. “I taught the man’s friend how to perform CPR to help me if I got fatigued, which he did for a few minutes before paramedics arrived,” he said. As Tauya performed the critical procedure, the unconscious man began to breathe. When an EMT crew arrived, Tauya briefed them, then stepped aside. “I just got back to do my regular job and continued taking food orders,” he said. Paramedics said Tauya saved the
man’s life. EMT Noemi Nava said Tauya’s fast thinking was crucial. “It is essential to begin the CPR as soon as possible because after 4-6 minutes the brain is starved of oxygen and starts to die,” she said. Tauya said the experience confirmed his desire to work as a nurse. CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) emergency procedure is well known for saving lives, but to be able to use it so soon after training is something not many people experience, he said. “I learn CPR at the Southwestern College Aquatic Center, where they taught me the skills that gave me the confidence to jump in to this situation.”
Courtesy Tauya Nenguke
DRIVE-UP HERO — SC nursing student Tauya Nenguke revived a man who collapsed in the parking lot of a nearby Chick-fil-A. Chula Vista EMTs say Nenguke saved his life.
Turtles Find New Home at SeaWorld
By Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor
After more than a decade of delays, plans for a dedicated, state-of-the art kitchen and classroom facility for Southwestern College’s Culinary Arts Program are beginning to take shape. Administrators hope the move will be a recipe for success for students looking to cook up a career in San Diego County’s competitive hospitality industry. Dr. Mink Stavenga, dean of the School of Business and Technology, oversees the Culinary Arts program. He said its expansion comes at an important time of rapid local growth. “This now gives us an opportunity to have a daytime program and a nighttime program, so we’ll basically be able to double the number of students coming through our program at a time of greater demand with the development of the Chula Vista bayfront,” he said. “It will be one of those few professions where there’s a great demand here in the South County.” SC’s planned $96.5 million central complex will house the new culinary arts facility, along with an expanded student union, cafeteria and bookstore. Health services, a veteran’s resource center and a home for the Jag Kitchen/Cares closet are also targeted for the space. Funding for the project is from the $400 million Proposition Z taxpayer bond, passed by voters in 2016. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2021, with a planned completion date of 2023. Culinary Arts students now share kitchen facilities with the cafeteria and attend other food service classes elsewhere on the campus. There are 479 declared Culinary Arts program majors, but only 65 students enrolled in lab classes, where students get hands-on cooking experience. “Our classes are impacted,” said Assistant Professor of Culinary Arts Laura Gershuni. “Pretty consistently every semester we have long wait lists, and you can’t just let students into these classes that are lab courses just for safety reasons and for equipment and space reasons we can only allow a certain number of students in each class. Some students need to wait.” Gershuni, a graduate of The Cordon Bleu in Paris, has worked at SC since 2016. She is coordinating with architects and other planners to make sure the new culinary arts facility can match strength with other programs in the area. They have already toured
please see Culinary pg. 12
Courtesy Ernesto Rivera
STICKING THEIR NECKS OUT FOR TURTLES — Director of the Veterans Resource Center Johnathan (JD) White wishes Little JD the best as SC’s beloved turtles move to Sea World. Their pond was demolished as part of campus reconstruction.
ALL SHELLS END WELL By Fernando A. Martinez, Assistant Photo Editor
S
outhwestern’s turtles and fishes are gone. But they are okay. In fact, they have successfully transferred. SC’s turtle pond was demolished along with the 300 buildings in October. A new IT data center and classroom complex will be built in its place. The turtles were transferred from SC to SeaWorld in April. A bigger pond was planned for the new science building, but was scrapped at the last hour, according to biology instructor Dr. Megan Eckles-Estrela, the last caretaker of the pond. She said the turtles were hard-shelled ambassadors for peace. “For me, the story of the pond is one of collaboration and teamwork among not just staff and faculty, but administrators,” she said. “The pond has brought together divisions of the campus that would normally not interact directly with each other.” Peace-by-Turtle had many supporters, Eckles-Estrela said. Jonathan White, director of the Veteran Resource Center, was one. “I offered to help where I could,” he said.
“I would just help to keep an eye on it. If the water level was low, I would let her (EcklesEstrela) know.” He also fed the turtles, he said. Caretakers worked together to relocate the turtles, said Eckles-Estrela. “Everyone had the same goal, the turtles needed to be fostered,” she said. “We needed to work together to find a place for them.” Relocating the pond to the new MSE building was considered, she said. But a late redesign eliminated las tortugas. “The spot where the pond was going to be lacked enough depth for the turtles to survive,” she said. SC’s Botanical Garden was also considered, Eckles-Estrela said, but nixed. Botanical Garden ponds have fish, she said, and the presence of turtles in these ponds would effect the ecosystem. Turtles may have eaten the fish and their waste would change water quality. Eckles-Estrela said college officials decided SeaWorld would be a safe home for the turtles. please see Turtles pg. 11
TURTLE TRANSFERS Eight turtles and 25 goldfish were moved before their campus pond was demolished as part of reconstruction. Turtles moved to SeaWorld and the goldfish were adopted by an SC student. Biology instructor Dr. Megan Eckles-Estrela was the last caretaker of the pond. She drove the turtles to SeaWorld personally and released them into their new home. Acting Director of Facilities Aurora Ayala said there are no plans to build a new pond, but did not rule out “something beautiful” in the future.
campus@theswcsun.com
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
CAMPUS
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PROFILE
Courtesy Ernesto Rivera
FINDING HIMSELF IN SERVICE OF OTHERS — Cesar Garay, who lives in his car, works to help other homeless students.
Homeless student finds home at college By Caleigh Goldman Assistant Campus Editor
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE —An aspiring young photographer decides to see what happens if the camera is backwards.
Nicholas James/Staff
Child Development Center serves students and their kids
SPACE FOR FUN By Gamaliel Carreno Arango, Campus Editor
s. Aleska is here! M That is what preschoolers of the “Sunflower” classroom at the Child
Development Center yell when they see teacher Aleska Doten in the morning. Doten’s favorite part of the day is the warm greeting, she said, when the children run towards her with open arms ready to hug. Southwestern College has a Child Development Center that aids students, staff and community members. It provides a safe environment where children and SC
students can learn. Grants and resources to cover costs are available for students navigating school and parenthood. Isabel Carrasco, the acting director, said CDC is a lab school that takes care of children ages 2-5 and prepares SC students for child development careers. Students enrolled in child development classes are allowed to attend observations required for their assignments, she said, and can work with mentors to complete practicum hours for Associate’s degrees or certificates. “We are not just a preschool, we also serve
our students,” she said. Carrasco said the center is inspired by the Reggio Emilia teaching approach which allows children to explore and create according to their passions and abilities. A garden and art studio encourage children to try new activities, she said. “The environment indoors and outdoors is set up as a third teacher,” she said. Doten said the educational program is different every day. She recently added yoga
“We do a lot of art, that is part of the philosophy.” Aleska Doten, Child Development Center teacher
please see CDC pg. 12
Cesar Garay was just a child the first time his dad was kidnapped. Garay’s home faced a bridge where the crime cartels hung bodies to send a message. His family worried that Señor Garay would be one of them. Garay’s 22 years have never been easy. He crossed the border nearly every day and started working full-time at 12. He also tried to find time to help his family. Garay lived in Tijuana until middle school. His dad—the sole provider for a family of six—ran a 30-year-old business importing and exporting supplies for ranches. It was a good business, but also provided a gateway for extortion and dangerous criminals. Tijuana was already a hostile place to own a business and raise a family when his dad was kidnapped by a criminal cartel the first time in 2006. “My family was threatened with murder, the (cartel members) knew where we lived, where we went to school and what time we got out,” he said. Garay’s mother decided to leave Tijuana for her children’s safety. Tension developed in the family and once his dad was returned unharmed, his parents divorced. Garay’s mother and three brothers crossed the border to start a whole new life in the United States. It was a very different transition. “We moved here with nothing, my mom had no job,” he said. “The only thing my dad gave her was a little bit of money to rent an apartment.” With little money and little English, Garay’s mother opened a catering business. Garay and his brothers were the staff. He went straight from school to work all through secondary school, missing out on sports, clubs, extracurricular activities and developing friendships. Garay said high school was especially difficult because he was bullied for the way he spoke and his appearance. He also struggled with his sexuality, unsure if he was gay or bisexual. His conservative upbringing added to the stress. At first he felt it was wrong to consider himself a member of the LGBTQ community, he said, or at least that is what he had been taught. He kept his sexuality private until recently when he met a young man in a class at SC. They began a relationship and Garay came out to his family members. They did not respond well to the news. “I was called every single thing you can imagine,” he said. “I was called a faggot, I was gonna burn in hell, you’re a disgrace to this family.” He also lost people he thought were friends, he said. He was pushed away by peers from his church, who mysteriously accused him of sexual harassment. He said he was surprised by the level of hate he received from so-called Christians.
please see Homeless pg. 11
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The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
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Communications team wins college’s first-ever PR award Public Relations Society honors SC team for Career Ed marketing By Ana Paola Olvera Staff Writer
Southwestern College’s communications department brought home the gold—then some silver, too. A reboot of the marketing for SC’s Career Education Department stimulated sharp enrollment increases.The community noticed and so did the Public Relations Society of America, which presented SC’s communications team of Lillian Leopold, Alexandra Demontaño, Brenda Mora and
Ernesto Rivera its Edward L. Bernays Mark of Excellence Award. With the help of the marketing and consulting firm 3fold, the college is now able to reach a wider audience and direct students towards profitable careers, Leopold said. Many of the Career Education courses had been underenrolled, she said. “We want to encourage the community to look at Career Education,” she said. “There are a lot of job opportunities in those areas.” A plan was created that included content analysis, surveys, resource planning and goal setting. Rivera, a Marketing Communications Associate, said market research showed
SC has one of the top enrollments in the county, but the lowest advertising budget. “3fold has really pushed us and made us think in different ways,” he said. Rivera said his team decided on photos that showed students in action such as nurses attending to patients, architects overseeing building construction and police on duty. “We didn’t want pictures of someone just reading a book,” he said. “We wanted students to visualize what they could achieve.” Leopold said she and Rivera felt like they had hit the mark. PRSA officials agreed. SC was presented the Marketing Consumer Products and Services Silver Bernays
LILLIAN LEOPOLD
ERNESTO RIVERA
Award. Featured programs also benefited. Police Academy enrollments went up 14 percent, business management 21 percent, and Medical Assisting went up 555 percent. “The college is trying to sell
opportunities,” Rivera said. “That’s our product. Better opportunities and better futures. It gives this whole department great purpose.” It was the college’s first ever PRSA award. Leopold said winning was professionally rewarding for the department. Demontaño, the newest Marketing Communications Associate, said the team was just getting started with SC’s marketing revamp—the voice of its message is still developing. She described that voice as “bold and strong.” “The school has a lot to give and a lot to offer, and that’s what we’re trying to say when it comes to our CE programs.”
“Students should remember that this (stressful) part of life is temporary.” — Dr. Clarence Amaral, SC Mental Health Counselor
Personal wellness counselors ready to help By Faith Perez Staff Writer
Suicide is final. Now the second leading cause of death for college students, suicide has become a bonafide American health crisis. American College Health Association data reports that 11.3 percent of college students say they have considered suicide. In 2018, one in five students have considered suicide, with 9 perecent making an attempt and 20 percent inflicting self-harm. Health care experts report that American students struggle with finances, grades, maintaining a healthy social life and sometimes mental health issues. Southwestern College students are not immune. An estimated 80 percent of SC enrollees suffer from anxiety, food or housing insecurity, PTSD or financial stressors. Crisis counselor Dr. Clarence Amaral said each of these factors can individually or together exacerbate anxiety and depression. He said stress is the root of most student mental health ailments. “They are so stressed about getting the good grade,” he said. “Jobs, relationships and family issues are other struggles that could be worrying them.” Amaral said many students come to dreadful and apocalyptic interpretations of their situations based on past traumas. Some stressed students believe that for the rest of their lives they are doomed to feel as badly as they do today. “Students should remember that this part of their life is temporary,” he said. SC Personal Wellness Services staff is there to support students feeling stress and dispair, Amaral said. Services include crisis intervention, initial psychological assessment and case management. Counselors, workshops and disability support are also available. Janel Barrientos, 19, a film major, said she struggles with depression, insecurity and anxiety. These conditions effect schoolwork and it causes her to procrastinate. “School is not the root of my depression, but contributes to it,” she said. “It makes my anxiety build and I get so overwhelmed sometimes I feel like I can’t finish my work.” Stress leaves her questioning herself, Barrientos said, which often leads to overthinking everything else. “I want to do well in school, but sometimes it’s hard to even care,” she said. Natalia Munoz, 18, said poor mental has taken a toll on her education. “It gives me unnecessary stress and baggage,” she said. “I begin to stress over every little thing, but I try to put it in the back of my head so I don’t have to think about it.” Munoz is also working a part-time job. “Even right now, I am thinking about all the things I need to do for school and it haunts me,” she said. Personal Wellness Services is located in the Cesar Chavez Student Center. Students may walk-in without an appointment.
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If you know somene who is in crisis, seek professional help immediately. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
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The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
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Courtesy Ernesto Rivera
Turtles: Caretakers say Courtesy Ernesto Rivera
SHELL GAME – (clockwise from top) Biology instructor Dr. Megan Eckles-Estrela gives an impromptu lesson on turtle anatomy with the help of Big Mama. SC’s former “protozoan pond,” once home to eight red-eared slider turtles and 25 goldfish, was demolished to make way for new buildings. The rambunctious reptile known as Little JD signals his approval of the spacious new pond at SeaWorld. Eckles-Estrela launches a successful SC transfer into its new forever home.
Homeless: Student who
lives in car advocates for disadvantaged classmates
Continued from pg. 9
“(Because of ) my sexuality I got to know the real side of people.” he said. His once-loving mom gave him an awful ultimatum. “Either you change who you are or you don’t come back,” Garay recalled her saying. He moved out. Poverty and homelessness ensued as he struggled to pay for classes, supplies
Courtesy Ernesto Rivera
and food. Garay resorted to living in his car and dumpster diving. That is when he finally decided to ask for help. During a visit to the Jag Kitchen he received an SC Cares Grant. He also thanked friends who helped him with supplies for classes and professors that helped him with textbooks. SC, he said, was his light of hope in a deep dark tunnel of despair. Garay, less worried about starvation, became involved in the ASO last year. He worked with Dean of Student Services Dr. Malia Flood on issues, involving EOPS, Veterans Services and Disability Support Services. Flood said
Garay has a huge heart, is altruistic and eager to help students. Flood said she sees him doing great things in the future. “He definitely has a passion for living,” she said. Garay also took advantage of the SC Cares Closet, which provides students with business casual clothing. Academic Senate President Emily Morissette, director of the closet, said Garay is a good spirit and helpful. “He has been an absolute professional and delight to work with,” she said. Garay’s newest project is MAJA, the Mexican American Japanese Alliance.
Courtesy Ernesto Rivera
“The (Southwestern College) Foundation was able to connect me with SeaWorld’s animal care department,” she said. “They were thrilled to have the turtles.” On the day they were transferred, Eckles-Estrela took the turtles out of the pond, put them temporarily into plastic drawers and drove them to SeaWorld. “The turtles got the warmest welcome at SeaWorld,” she said. “It was incredible.” Eckles-Estrela gently marked the turtle’s shell with a circular file in case the college wants them back, and to identify them in case someone wants to visit them at their new home. “Gently, I set it (the file) up against the edge of the shell, and just spun it with my fingers so it ground away a little
bit,” she said. “It’s just like filing your nails. It’s an established way of marking turtles in the wild.” Marks can last up to a decade, she said. All 25 goldfish taken out of the pond were fostered by a student, said EcklesEstrela. Plants were also adopted. “All the plants that were around the pond are being fostered by either faculty or staff,” she said. “Nothing that was in the courtyard with the pond died during the demolition process. The pond didn’t die, it just dispersed.” The pond was sustained by volunteers and donations. “Resources for the fish and turtles were always donated,” Eckles-Estrela said. Acting Director of Facilities Aurora Ayala said there are no contingencies to building a new pond on campus. “To build a pond for the turtles is not in our plans,” she said. “But neither was the turtle pond and it turned out to be something beautiful for the campus.”
He said the U.S., Mexico and Japan have a special bond in the San DiegoTijuana borderlands that people should celebrate. MAJA is a “learning community,” he said, where students can learn Japanese culture, philosophy, folklore and arts. Garay said he has Japanese ancestry he wanted to share his enthusiasm about the culture. It is also cathartic, he said. “I wanted to take all that hate, negativity and pain and turn it into something beautiful for students and the school, not just for me,” he said. Garay has earned an Associate’s degree in Art History, and is now studying
communications and French. UCSD, UCLA and the University of British Columbia are his transfer targets. He would like to major in Asian Studies and work with the United Nations as a translator or a professor in another country teaching Spanish. “No matter how hard things get, how bad it hurts, how much you cry, you have to keep running, you can’t stop,” he said. “That’s what I did.” Garay lives in his car, but he said it is an improvement. “Even though I sleep in my car, I don’t feel homeless because I’m always really busy.”
move to new SeaWorld home went swimmingly
Continued from pg. 8
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The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
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Fernando A. Martinez/Staff
THINGS ARE PANNING OUT — (l-r) Culinary Arts students Irina Ortiz and Kimberly Lopez, with instructor Laura Gershuni, prepare alfajores from scratch. Culinary arts will move to a larger new facility by 2023 adjacent to the Jag Kitchen. (below) Culinary arts student Irina Lopez sieves powdered sugar over the alfajores.
Culinary: Tasteful SC
“Students can gain knife skills and culinary arts techniques they would never gain in a classroom setting.”
program outgrows its half-baked facilities
Continued from pg. 8
facilities at Mesa College and there is a specialized food consultant working on the project to ensure the SC program will have enough square footage and equipment. A preliminary architectural plan for the new central space dedicates just over 6,000 square feet for two kitchens, two classrooms, a small office and a mock-dining area. Plans for an expanded culinary arts facility were first drawn up in 2010 by BCA Architects as part of a Proposition R contract, but SC’s 2011 Governing Board cancelled the contract and several other important campus projects after a widespread corruption scandal. BCA CEO Paul Bunton pleaded guilty in the case, along with eight SC employees or contractors. Besides a lack of space, previous culinary arts instructors complained the program suffered from underfunding and inadequate equipment. Gershuni said that is no longer the case. Recently, her small office was stuffed with boxes of new equipment and utensils, purchased through grants she wrote. Funding for other needs comes from the college, if she submits her needs in advance. “We have mixers, we have food
Laura Gershuni, Assistant Professor of Culinary Arts
Fernando A. Martinez/Staff
WORK IS PLAY IS WORK— Teacher Aleksa Doten guides children between the ages of 2 to 5 at the Child Development Center. The CDC provides support for SC students with children and an academic laboratory for child development majors.
processors, we have new pans, we have scales, we have small wares,” she said, looking around. “I could go on.” Just before Thanksgiving, Culinary Arts students were invited to join the Jag Kitchen in marking Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week by cooking a meal. On the menu were fresh tomato soup and assorted rolls, as well as round butter cookies filled with dulce de leche called alfajores. All food was made from scratch, then refrigerated. Before the meal, folding tables set up in a room off the cafeteria kitchen served as a prep area. Students dressed in white chef ’s coats and hats chopped basil for the soup and piped on the sweet and gooey filling for the cookies. Then they packed up the food on a rolling cart and wheeled it across campus to the Jag Kitchen. Before coming to Southwestern College, Russian-born Irina Ortiz worked as a lawyer for 15 years in her home country. She started classes to become a paralegal, but switched gears to follow her heart into culinary arts.
CDC: Center provides safe haven for children
Continued from pg. 11
Nicholas James/Staff
exercises and meditation to her class. “We do a lot of art, that is part of the philosophy,” she said. “Exploring nature and music.” Doten is in charge of the “Sunflower” classroom funded by a Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grant, which helps Pell Grant students with children. “(CCAMPIS) gives the students and military families the opportunity for free child care,” she said. SC student Fatima Cervantes, 37, a nursing major, has her daughter attending preschool at the center, which she said helped her to eliminate time wasted when driving. Parents can study and catch up on
Now she said she hopes to study at The Cordon Bleu and become a pastry chef. “I was always so interested in this,” she said. “I thought, why wouldn’t I try this? Here is more about art, it’s about creating.” Student Vivian Mercado came from the Philippines and has already worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Now she wants to have her own catering business. “I wanted to try something else, so I am here,” she said. “I like to bake rather than cooking, but we’ll see.” Over in the Jag Kitchen, the students ladled out the soup and passed out bread and cookies. Gershuni said events like and lab time are extremely important in preparing students for the workplace. “There are certain skills that students cannot gain from lecture-based classes alone. They gain knife skills and specific culinary arts techniques that they would never gain in a classroom setting. There are things they need to practice and hone and really become skilled at in order to become competitive in the workplace.”
assignments at the CDC while their children are playing or sleeping. Carrasco said there is a clothing pantry that children can access. Cervantes, as a single mother, said she appreciates extra services available at the CDC such as free printing, coffee and mini food pantry. “We have more responsibilities as single parents,” she said. “Not only we are trying to get ready, we are trying to get the little ones ready.” Carrasco said CDC staff members love what they do and like to encourage SC students to persevere. Cervantes said the staff is friendly and approachable for children and parents. Staff members know every child’s name, she said, a detail that makes them feel welcomed. “I see a change in my daughter,” she said. “She is brightened up, she is more vocal and friendly.”
SC CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER SC students pursuing Child Development careers can visit the center to do observations and practicum hours. Students and community members are able to use the child care services and leave their children in a safe space. For additional information call (619) 216-6695
ARTS
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Latin America art show is worldly wonder Barrio Logan’s Bread & Salt gallery hosts a marvelous intercontinental exhibition
Marissa Romero/Staff
By Stephanie Aceves Staff Writer
Picture Perfect Dance performance draws on painting for inspiration By Marissa Romero, Staff Writer
a great painting can be a moving experience. V iewing In “The Art of Dance” concert the paintings themselves were
moving. SC dance professor Dana Maue said faculty choreographers used paintings that inspired them to create dance pieces. Dance students performed the clever choreography with inspiration, depicting the visual art through performing art. “I think the audience is going to feel they are in a gallery with moving art,” she said. “We want people to know that we have a flourishing dance program and be inspired by it.” please see Dance pg. 14
Art aficionados had a chance to travel the length of Latin America and see some of its greatest art – all without leaving Barrio Logan. Latin American Art Fair 2019 dazzled at Bread & Salt, a dynamic contemporary art venue and transborder a multicultural hub. Nuria Bac and her team curated a world-class exhibit of provocative art from many of Latin America’s greatest museums. Bac collaborated with Latin American art stars Torres Pacheco Triplets, Belen Islas and more than 100 other artists to promote cross-cultural exchange, she said, and promote peace through the arts. Bac paints fauvist and expressionist works showcasing bold colors with a distinct Mexican style. She wanted a degree since education was valued in her household, but also to get insight into the concept of a university. Bac studied law at the Universidad Auótonoma de Baja California in Tijuana, but today she prefers to make her case with art. She brushes aside brushes and paints almost exclusively with her fingers. Her raw and organic aesthetic harnesses unexpected colors that evoke warmth and beauty. “Smile While You Are Making Me A Sandwich” is a Neo-pop painting of a woman that shows her sadness and anger. She said the painting honors her father, who asked for a lot of things and demanded they be done with a smile. Women are a favorite subject of Bac, who uses soft feminine lines and bold colors to show the grace, strength and courage of a cancer survivor. “What you see in my artwork is me,” she said. “Me celebrating after beating the odds, me telling a family story, me after every heartbreak, every hardship, me making Lemonade with lemons. Hence the title of my latest collection: ‘Thanks For the lemonade!’” Good things come in threes. Great things, too. Three gifted brothers – Leonel Alfonso, Lorenzo Antonio and Luis Alberto – are known as the Torres Pacheco Triplets. Los hermanos grew up in a low-income family in Nayarit, but later settled in Tijuana. Their artistic talent helped them to survive.
please see Artfest pg. 16
Legendary sci-fi writer returns to home world Emmy-winner J. Michael Straczynski encourages students to embrace failure to find success as writers By Marty Loftin Production Manager
One day, in a pique of rage, J. Michael Straczynski’s alcoholic father ripped up all his comic books. He said they were worthless. He was wrong. Straczynski is one of America’s most successful and versatile writers. He has excelled in journalism, television writing and screenwriting. And comics. Straczynski returned to his Southwestern College alma mater to talk about his new book, his life and the writing industry, and to thank those who helped him when he was young and desperate for validation. In his new memoir “Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty
to Hollywood,” Straczynski shares how comics helped him escape the reality of his broken homelife and fueled his lifelong desire to write. Just like Superman, Straczynski has a troubled origin story. Raised by damaged adults in abject poverty, he moved 21 times before he was 17 as his family escaped the serial debts his father would accrue. Straczynski said his family skipped town about every six months. Straczynski was a smart kid stifled by abuse. His father was physically and verbally abusive, a drunken con man and void of love, he said. Straczynski said he broke off all contact with his father in 1986 and never spoke to him again. Since then Straczynski has always taken issue with bullies, he said, and he was incensed when he learned a malevolent SC administration and board was attempting to block The Southwestern College Sun from breaking the story of construction contract corruption involving college officials. He personally wired the full cost of an issue to
a secret printer in Los Angeles so the story could run before the next election. The board majority was ousted, 22 administrators were fired or resigned, and 20 South Bay school officials were charged with more than 60 felonies. Straczynski knew early in his life that he wanted to write, he said, but it was not be until his time at Chula Vista High School that he would find the support of adults who believed in his abilities. His family came to Chula Vista from Inglewood in 1972 and it was there he got his chance to start writing. “I really wanted to write, but nobody said I could,” he said. “No one believed me when I said I wanted to be a writer.” When he told his parents about wanting to write, he said “they would just laugh.” At CVHS, Straczynski got the opportunity in JoAnn Massie’s Creative Writing class and Rochelle Terry’s English class, but it was a rough start. During his first three days he accidentally
please see Superman pg. 15
SUPER SCRIBE — Southwestern College alum J. Michael Straczynski powered Superman, swung with SpiderMan and hammered out Thor. He is considered one of America’s greatest and most versatile science fiction writers and comic book creators.
Nicholas James/Staff
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The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
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Drumline on a roll, musicians beat path to compete By Nicholas James Photo Editor
At a college with a rich musical heritage, some students have drummed up support for a new team from an old tradition. Southwestern College has an emerging drumline and students hope it sticks. Stephen Novobilsky said he got the idea for a Jaguar drumline from his old coach, Nestor Gonzalez. He had been working to establish the team for a couple years, he said, but it took Dean Dr. Cynthia McGregor and music instructor Deborah Nevin to put some skin in the game. “Ms. Nevin coordinates a lot of this,” he said. “She got us the equipment and she’s doing all the admin stuff on the side.”
Nevin, a conductor, and McGregor, a classicallytrained French horn virtuoso, helped get the new group together double time. Drummer Felipe Leyva said it is just the beginning. “We would like to develop into a competitive drumline and compete in Los Angeles and other circuits,” he said. Competitive drumline events in California are organized by the American Drumline Association, which puts on competitions for secondary schools and colleges. Novobilsky said SC’s drumline musicians need to start pounding the pavement for financial support. “Members (of a drumline might pay) between $700 to $3,000,” he said. Drummers can compete in two seasons, one starting in September and a springtime season that
counts off in April. Novobilsky said he hopes SC can start competing next year, but it has been hard to get a rhythm because there is currently no budget, no class and no place to practice. “We’ve been taught to practice on our own,” he said. “It’s a lot harder because there’s no class for us.” Nevin said she is hopeful the Jaguar drumline can “become its own animal” and snare some gigs available to other students. “If they transfer they can go into marching band,” she said. “There are opportunities for drumline (musicians) at the university level or venues like Disneyland.” Drumline experience is hard to beat and can also help students who want to become music teachers, Nevin said. “And it’s fun, right?”
Nicholas James/Staff
DRUMMING UP SUPPORT — Drumline musicians CJ Clemente and Stephen Novobilisky.
Museum is free at night for SC students By Ryan Calderon Staff Writer
Ben Stiller and his crew are not the only folks who like to spend a “Night at the Museum.” Now we all can. The San Diego Museum of Art is hosting Art After Hours every Friday for people who work and go to school. SDMA’s normal hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., but Art After Hours allows visitors to stay until 8 p.m. Museum visitors can view 20 galleries that include American Art and German Expressionism, Modern and Contemporary Art, and the art of East Asia and India. College students can enter for free. Hiberto Louisa said he is a fan. “We were just walking around Balboa Park and happened to stumble across Art After Hours,” he said. “I did not really think much about it until I realized how cool it is that the museum was still open because the other museums at the park are not open this late.” Louisa and other visitors were treated to a live performance by the San Diego Opera. Singers Roberto and Charlize performed five songs on the Spanish concrete steps of the museum’s lobby. Louisa said the opera sample was a bonus. “I was definitely not expecting the opera, but it was quite enjoyable despite the fact it was surprising,” he said. Student Estevan Canizalez said he was thrilled by his visit. “I was really interested in the art (displayed in the) galleries,” he said. “Today was a great opportunity for me to come here because it was free and I am on a student budget. Normally I cannot (afford) to come here, so I am trying to take advantage of the museum being free after 5 p.m.” Anisah Encefio said the museum was much more relaxed in the evening. “It is a lot quieter at night and a lot less people inside and outside the museum compared to the daytime,” she said. “I think people want to view art in a more quiet environment and with this event there is not too much stress on the viewer to hurry up at looking at a painting and moving on to another. People have more time to analyze what they are looking at.” Salvador Dali’s painting “Spector of the Evening” was the star of the Modern and Contemporary Art exhibit. The oil-on-canvas painting was pure Dali, replete with peculiar shapes compellingly portrayed. Art of Asia exhibits featured handson activities, including one that showed visitors how to write their names in Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters. Other interactive pieces included an area where visitors could open an array of drawers containing smaller Asian styled paintings. Art After Hours was a timeless treat and a nocturnal wonder. And the price was right.
Nicholas James/Staff
SKULL SESSION — Maya expert Dr. Mark Van Stone has traveled the world sharing his insights on hieroglyphs, language and culture. In 2011 he was busy debunking the so-called 2012 Mayan Prophecy.
MESSENGER OF THE GODS S
STORY BY STEPHANIE ACEVES, STAFF WRITER ome people just can’t read the writing on the wall. Dr. Mark Van Stone can, even if it is in Mayan hieroglyphics. A brainy and bubbly professor of art history, Van Stone is the Indiana Jones of Southwestern College, just without the fedora. Like Dr. Jones, Dr. Van Stone travels the world lecturing and providing expert testimony on the ancient Maya and their mystifying hieroglyphs. He trotted the globe in 2011 debunking the so-called 2012 Mayan Calendar Prophecy, which doomsayers claimed foretold the end of the world. Van Stone circled the planet assuring humanity the planet would still be here in 2013. He was right! The celebrated Mayan hieroglyphic writing system is a sophisticated combination of pictographs directly representing objects and ideograms (or glyphs) that expressed more abstract concepts such as actions or ideas and even syllabic sounds. Van Stone recently gave an audiovisual lecture at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park that explored the mystery and beauty of Maya hieroglyphs. Only deciphered since about 1980, the ongoing translation of this unique writing system has revealed insight into the Maya, from the victories of kings to names of demons
please see Mayan pg. 15
Dance: Choreographers
created master class from painting masterpieces Continued from pg. 13
“Copasetic Chair Dance” was created for Archibald Motley’s painting “Saturday Night.” Choreographer Mary Jo Horvath visualized a chair lineup at the front of the stage with nine dancers sitting down and tap dancing, depicting the American nightlife of the 1930s. Rapping tap shoes augmented the propulsive rhythm of Ernest Brownie Brown and radiated energy. “Man, It’s Hot,” from the Broadway revival of “Kiss Me Kate,” was inspired by Mark Kazav’s “Paint Jazz.” It was a musical theater style performance full of dynamism and color choreographed by Maue. Barely touching the floor,
the soaring dancers combined athleticism with artistry. “Light and Shadow” was a baile folklorico choreographed by dance instructor Manuel Chavoya, inspired by the iconic Jose Maria Velasco painting “El Popocatépetl y el Iztaccíhuatl desde el lago de Chalco.” It created a festive Mexican atmosphere fired by dance couples stomping and gliding through “Luz y Sombra.” Colorful skirts waved like fields of wildflowers as the men in traditional sombreros parried and escorted their partners through their patterns. They nailed their alegre dance, setting the audience alight with thunderous applause. “Watercolour Variations,” an elegant ballet choreographed by Colleen Shipkowski, was inspired by Frank Schubert’s classical music and the painting “Dancing Through Art”
Nicholas James/Staff
ALL EARS — SC Professor Dr. Mark Van Stone designed panels for the campus library. This glyph translates into “house of the god of learning.” The large ear represents an interest in listening to others.
by Erin Henderson. Powerful yet graceful, the ballerinas floated through a stylishly performance. Maue said she was delighted by her student’s performances. “I feel we accomplished a very creative concept of a dance show,” she said. “Our students work very hard day in and day out to put on an amazing show.” Dance student Jovani Chavez said he had a wonderful learning experience. “We become different people when we perform a story through movement,” he said. “We dedicate so much time and effort to show choreography that gets better throughout the years.” Physical therapy major Serena Abaroa said she is inspired to dance. “I want to portray with my body the motion that I feel as I dance,” she said. Dance major Christina Hernandez agreed.
“I wanted to show the audience how hard we worked without actually showing it,” she said. “I wanted (the dance) to look effortless and that we really enjoyed it.” Maribel Rosales, an elementary school teacher of visual and performing arts, said she came back to SC to continue dancing. “It was a very happy feeling to be out there doing what I love,” she said. Audience member Norma Solomon said she was inspired. “The dances were fantastic, they were all amazing,” she said. “The quality was incredible, man, they worked hard. Top, top production.” Brian Munich, father of one of the dancers, agreed. “I was pleasantly surprised at the skill level of all the dancers,” he said. “More people should come out and support the arts.”
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Superman: Über sci-fi writer JM Straczynski got start at CVHS, SC
Continued from pg. 13
Nicholas James/Staff
“Being passionate about your subject makes you a better teacher. I talk about what I love and I hope I communicate that. There are always some students touched by that art and (art history) becomes their new favorite subject.” Nicholas James/Staff
Dr. Mark Van Stone, SC Professor of Art History
Nicholas James/Staff
WINDOW INTO THE PAST —(clockwise from top) SC Professor Dr. Mark Van Stone presents one of his two books, Reading the Maya Glyphs. Van Stone decodes a glyph. Van Stone and his colleagues have made great progress understanding Mayan culture and language since the 1980s.
Mayan: SC Professor is a global expert on hieroglyph language
Continued from pg. 14
to personalized chocolate drinking vessels. Fabiana Hernandez, a student in Van Stone’s Art and Cultural of PreHispanic Mexico class, attended. “I thought the topic is really interesting,” she said. “I wanted to learn more about Mexican history.” Alanis Escalera is also in Van Stone’s class. “I also thought the idea of taking art history to be interesting,” she said. “We learn about the Maya, the Olmec and Teotihuacan, but we also get to see how diverse it is and similar it is within all Mesoamerica, so we have that perspective.” Van Stone did not set out to be a rock star, he wanted to study stars. He earned a degree in physics in 1973 and worked in a gamma-ray astronomy laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. He was lured away from the ancient skies to the ancient Earth, and became a calligrapher and carver.
“I was an independent self-employed teaching calligraphy,” he said. “Calligraphy literally means beautiful writing and for me the study was how and why people make writing good.” In the world of calligraphy and type design, Van Stone established himself as an expert in paleography and the evolution of written forms. He lectured widely on the subject for the next 20 years. He eventually focused on the most complex, most beautiful and least understood script, Mayan hieroglyphs. “I got started in the mid-‘80s,” he said. “I studied the writing of other ancient cultures before that. I was really into calligraphy and hieroglyphs.” A lifelong autodidact, he relentlessly seized opportunities to study in the reading rooms and storerooms of libraries and museums around throughout the world. He also learned by doing, making Mayan-style artwork. “Being passionate about your subject makes you a better teacher,” he said. “I talk about what I love and I hope I communicate that. There are always some students touched by that art and (art history) becomes their new favorite subject.”
Van Stone’s friend Michael Code was an American archaeologist and anthropologist, epigrapher and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya, and was among the foremost Mayanists of the late 20th century. He invited Van Stone to illustrate the book “Reading the Maya Glyphs.” “I didn’t want anybody else other than Van Stone because I wanted the best,” Code said. In addition to his work as an academic, Van Stone is an avid artist. He designed the Maya glyphs on the SC library, the new wellness complex and most recently the Math and Science building. “In 2002 I was hired here [and] in 2004 the president of the college asked me if I wanted to design the library extension,” he said. “A design on the left side of the library says ‘house of the god of learning.’ The god of learning is Itzamnaaj. He wears a little mirror in front of his face on a headband like an old-time doctor.” The hieroglyphs Van Stone designed for the Wellness Center translate as ‘first health place.’
“I like the idea that someone will enjoy these buildings I did,” he said. “I designed 10 hieroglyphics descriptions on the north side of the building. One design looks like a flower and that is the number zero.” Maya mathematicians invented zero, the absence of value, Van Stone said. This brilliant innovation is celebrated on the new Math and Science building. “I actually designed five or 10 things that went on that building,” he said. In 1982 Van Stone went to Japan to study netsuke, the first non-Japanese scholar to do so. “I really love the carving,” he said. “It’s a very miniature, delicate detail that I really wanted to do.” His dual background in science and art is essential to his unique understanding of Mayan hieroglyphics, he said, as well as the development of all writing systems. His comprehension of these glyphs gives him a rare ability to interpret the Mayan calendar in an authoritative and trustworthy manner—a great relief to humanity in 2011.
assassinated not one, but two typewriters. Rather than write him off as an oaf, they encouraged his talent. Straczynski said he felt his early writings were “wretched,” but Terry said “You weren’t wretched, you just liked to pun.” Straczynski said he got the validation he needed to commit to writing from a satirical play he wrote at CVHS that parodied teachers and administrators. He said he knew he had made the right choice when, at the climax of the play, the principal shot him with a starter pistol and he sprayed fake blood on the stage. The powerful reception from the audience validated his choice of career and changed his life. His family continued to move after he graduated from CVHS, but eventually they returned and Straczynski was able to attend SC. He connected with theater professor Bill Virchis when he submitted a one-act play. Virchis said creative types require outlets to practice their craft. “Actors and writers need a place to fail,” said Virchis. “If you can’t learn to fail, you can’t learn to succeed.” “And boy did I fail!” replied Straczynski. “One of the things that impressed me was your tenacity,” Virchis answered. “You just kept writing and writing.” Straczynski began regularly submitting plays to be performed at SC, and eventually SDSU and Marquis Public Theater. At SDSU Straczynski was a star columnist at the Daily Aztec newspaper. After graduating he struggled, but made money by writing short stories, novels and articles for newspapers and magazines. In 1984 Straczynski attempted to make the switch to television. After more than a year without income he got a job writing for “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” He sold them a few scripts on speculation, then was hired on to their writing staff. He picked up writing credits on 14 TV shows over the next decade, including “Twilight Zone” and “Murder She Wrote.” In 1994 Straczynski created the science fiction masterpiece “Babylon 5,” considered one of the best five sci-fi programs ever. He was the showrunner and executive producer, and wrote 92 of the 110 episodes. “Babylon 5” won two Emmy Awards and two Hugo Awards. The Sun’s faculty adviser was and remains a huge fan of “Babylon 5,” and was rewatching the series on DVD during the period from 2009-10 when former SC president Raj Kumar Chopra promised “to destroy The Sun” and “crush” the adviser. During a memorable episode, Straczynski’s Captain John Sheridan embarked on a dangerous mission and evoked the Egyptian prayer “May God be between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk.” The adviser hung the quote above his computer, he said, to find strength to fight Chopra and his cabal. It is still there. Little did he know that it would be Straczynski who stepped between him and harm. From 2001-07, Straczynski worked with Marvel Comics as the voice of “The Amazing Spider-Man.” He wrote the BAFTA-nominated film “Changeling” in 2008. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, it grossed more than $100 million. Straczynski’s next project was his graphic novel “Superman: Earth One,” which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2013 he created the comic “Ten Grand,” which sold out in its first week. He also wrote the screenplays to the hit movies “Thor” and “World War Z.” In May 2013 J. Michael Straczynski, one-time rootless boy from a criminal family, was awarded SC’s highest recognition, an honorary degree. Straczynski remains an extremely productive writer. He recently he wrote a pilot for a USA Network series, a novel to be published by Simon & Schuster and a movie to begin production in Germany in June. Straczynski offered some words of advice for writers: “Cut every third adjective.” “Don’t let them stop you from telling the story you want to tell.” “You don’t make art happen, you let it happen.” “Get to know your characters so well you know what they will do.” Straczynski said he takes pride in coming into success from an unimpressive background. “I should be by all rights unemployable,” he said. “If you have the talent, it will carry you.”
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ARTS
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
arts@theswcsun.com
Nicholas James/Staff
Artfest: Exhibition celebrates
creativity of Latin America
Continued from pg. 13
Nicholas James/Staff
Nicholas James/Staff
Nicholas James/Staff
Nicholas James/Staff
“It was so hard for our parents to make a living and as brothers we helped out to cover part of the family expenses with the drawings that we managed to sell when we were kids,” said Leonel Alfonso. His brother Lorenzo agreed. “From childhood we’ve always been attracted to everything that had to do with creating,” he said. “We never cared about spending time with friends, the only thing we wanted to do was to stay at home, grab a piece of paper and drawing while we watched TV in our surroundings”. Los hermanos were accepted to a scholarship program offered by the Culture Institute Baja California. As a collective of artists, they worked together, but each developed his own techniques and style. Torres Pacheco Triplets eye-popping painting “La burbuja del arte contemporeano” uses watercolor and colored pencils to embody trade, consumerism and contemporary life in Mexico. Their art represents the cynical romance between capitalism and the art world through an economic lens. Belen Islas, a co-curator of Latin American Art Fair, grew up surrounded with art supplies because her father was a sculptor who encouraged his daughter to create constantly. In Mexico she studied painting, photography and drawing, then earned a certificate in communications arts at UCLA Extension. “I’m a student for life, I am always trying to learn new things and improve my skills,” she said. “I depict powerful women as well as symbols of strength, such as the monarch butterfly. Another symbol that appears continuously in my work is transparent birds that represent the freedom of the mind.” Islas’ captivating painting “The Crown” depicts a blue sky with stars flowing around the background as a woman sits with the constellation of a crown over her head and two stars in her hands. It is a message to women that they can be anything in life, including a queen. Women can always make their own crown, she said. Islas’ surreal paintings rely on acrylic paint and gold leaf. They are colorful and cheerful celebrations repleat with powerful women, birds, flowers, butterflies, space and water. “In all my paintings I use gold leafs because gold is the only material that doesn’t lose its radiant quality,” she said. “And it is just a reminder that even in the darkest there is always light.” ARTE BUENAZO – Latin American Art Fair at Bread & Salt Gallery in Barrio Logan was a breathtaking collection of cutting-edge art from the whole of Latin America. (top) Open architecture of the Bread & Salt Gallery housed a broad array of art. (l) Painter/sculptor Enrique Alvarez and four of his creations.
SPORTS
Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
Athletes get a fair shot at marketing likeness
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
“I’ve coached against these girls in high school. So I know what they can and can’t do, which is helpful.” Louie Lingaza Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach
NCAA ruling not expected to have much impact on community college students
Lady Jaguars starting from scratch
By John Ceballos Sports Assistant
Community colleges were exempted from the “Fair Pay to Play Act,” which allows students-athletes in four-year universities to make money off their name and likeness. One Southwestern College athlete however, said he is happy about the law in principle. Defensive tackle Jailyn Dickerson started his collegiate football career at the University of Indiana, then transferred to SC to continue playing football. He said the law is long overdue. “The NCAA gets paid off our name, so we might as well get paid, too, and take care of our family and do what we got to do,” he said. “Like professional athletes, we play on TV sometimes, we sign autographs and kids look up to us. This new law is really going to make a statement not just in California, but in every NCAA school.” NCAA officials reacted quickly. Two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill, the NCAA board voted unanimously to allow student athletes to make money off their likeness and image. Board chair Michael Drake issued a statement. “We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes,” it read. SC Dean of Athletics Jim Spillers said he supports the law, but predicted it will put smaller schools at a financial disadvantage. “I like the concept, but in practice it is going to be extremely difficult and it will divide California universities and teams from the rest of the country,” he said. “We have so many different levels of athletic institutions in the country. Unfortunately, for the San Diego States and San Jose States, it is going to be such an imbalance for them. When sponsors are looking for people to be the face of their product, they are looking at Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State.” Dickerson said the California law will force athletic bodies in other states to pass similar legislation. “California will have the advantage of being able to recruit better players, to have better teams,” he said. Dickerson said college athletes who generate large amounts of money for their universities should benefit from their hard work and talent. “Kids like Duke basketball star Zion Williamson, that is the brand,” he said. “Players like him are great athletes and they should get paid. They are making millions of dollars off his name—tickets, jerseys all that stuff so at least give us athletes a percentage.”
FIVE FORMER JAGS NOW PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYERS By Kamron Davis Staff Writer
San Diego’s new women’s professional soccer team has a distinctively Jaguar swagger. Five former Southwestern College players were offered spots on the Albion San Diego soccer team, a franchise in the new Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL). Another plays for San Diego Parceiro Ladies. Jaguar alumni Aletse Camacho, Bianca Mora, Andrea Camacho, Kimberly Mederos, Damaris Aguila, and Veronica Rome are now pros, thanks, they said, to please see Soccer pg. 18
The Southwestern College Sun
Former HS competitors have to learn to work together at the community college level By Solé Ruiz Assistant Sports Editor
Nicholas James/Staff
CLEANING THE GLASS — Freshman guard/forward Diego Edwards drives for a layup against Saddleback College. Edwards scored five points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Jaguars’ home opener.
COSENTINO WINS IN HOME DEBUT Swarming Jags defense leads to dominating win in season opener By Justin Dottery Sports Editor
Anthony Cosentino is undefeated at home this year. Okay, he is 1-0, but it was an impressive debut. Southwestern College won its season home opener, 82-66, over Saddleback College. Cosentino and his crew slowed things down to speed things up. Success came on the defensive end of the floor as the Jaguars kept the visiting Gauchos uncomfortable throughout the game with their full court press. Cosentino said the team used defensive pressure to speed up the Saddleback offense and make it hard for them to get into their style of basketball. “We knew they were a team who wanted to get you into the halfcourt and run their sets,” he said. “So we tried to pressure them and milk the clock to make them run their sets at 18 seconds to speed them up and force mistakes.” Their plan worked. SC forced Saddleback into 39 percent shooting, 11 turnovers and five blocked shots all from the sophomore front court duo Isreal Seales and Dejon “D.J” Jackson.
Sophomore forward Nathaniel Pearson raved about what their defense and energy do for the team. “They’re big defenders,” he said. “They help us a lot in the post and we know if we get beat, they’ll be there to help us. It’s an extra drive for us.” Jackson made his presence felt on both ends of the floor with 14 points, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Jackson said he knew the team needed him. “I already knew I had to bring the smoke,” he said. “I’m just trying to be there for my teammates and give them all the effort I can to help us get GAME SCORE the win.” Defensively Jackson and Seales SWC 82 provided a sense of security. Saddleback 66 Offensively they played off Pearson, who had his first 10-assist game at SC. Pearson tallied 16 points and 10 assists as he played conductor and helped orchestrate the Jag offense. Jackson said Pearson’s playmaking ability Pearson is consistently impressive. “During my redshirt year last year playing with him was fun,” he said. “I saw what we could do and his passing ability is great.” Cosentino agreed. “That’s the Nate we all know,” he said. “I think Nate has the highest I.Q of any player I have ever coached.”
Last fall, the women on the Southwestern College basketball team were competing against each other in high school. Now they are trying to bond at the collegiate level and take on the season together. The Jaguars are striving to coalesce and have a pre-conference record of 2-3. They will have to wait until January to play in The Den. Sophomore guard Malia Talavera is the only returning sophomore on the roster. With an inexperienced team, she said her leadership approach will have to evolve. “I try to get everyone disciplined and be as vocal as I can, on and off the court,” she said. Assistant coach Louie Lingaza said the new season is a harbinger of change. “It’s hard when you only have three returners and two redshirting,” he said. “We only have one returner and the rest are freshman. It’s like starting all over again.” Lingaza said he believes his experience as a former high school coach will help him with the incoming freshman. “I’ve coached against these girls in high school,” he said. “So I know what they can and can’t do, which is helpful.” All seven freshman played on Sweetwater Union High School District teams. Many remember playing against each other. Freshman guards Jaylean Arenas and Destiny Gilkes, recalled finding out they were teammates after battling as seniors. “I remember guarding her in high school, she was nothing. I’m big body out here,” joked Arenas. “Now we have a bond and friendship.” Gilkes said her first impression of Arenas at SC was not positive, until Arenas was able to break the ice. “I didn’t like her at first, because she used to be my rival,” she said. “Then she made me laugh one day during practice and then we became friends.” Lingaza said freshman guard Stephanie Cosio has motivated members of the coaching staff to learn how to improve their Spanish. “Stephanie is a Spanish speaker so we expanded our communication,” Lingaza said. “Simple things go along way. Like instead of saying guard number three we translate in Spanish to make sure she understands as well.” The Jaguars will compete in the L.A. Harbor Round Robin Tournament during winter break. Their first league game will be on January 10 at Mira Costa, followed with their January 13 home debut against Grossmont College.
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SPORTS
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
sports@theswcsun.com
Nicholas James/Staff
JAGUARS POUNCE —Freshman defensive lineman Brian Williams (99) and sophomore defensive back Atoatasi Fox (6) go in for a tackle against Long Beach at the Southern California Bowl.
JAGUARS FUMBLE AWAY BOWL GAME Davion Johnson’s big game for naught as Jags lose close one to Long Beach By Nicholas James Photo Editor
LONG BEACH — The Southwestern College Jaguars lost a nail biter to the Long Beach City College Vikings, 20-16, in the Southern California Bowl Game. SC entered the game 8-4 after winning its season finale against Orange Coast College, 41-0. Long Beach came in with a 7-3 record following a GAME SCORE loss to Ventura. Coach Ed Carberry Long Beach 20 said before the game that SWC 16 Long Beach was a tough team with gifted players. “They have a lot of speed and a pretty big offensive line,” he said. “They also have a really good defense and very talented linebackers.” A field goal by Dino Del Fiero put the Jags up 3-0 in the first two minutes of the game. SC added on when defensive back Braelen Bettles intercepted a pass with 4:35 left in the first
Nicholas James/Staff
ALL-STAR — Sophomore receiver Davion Johnson was named SC’s Player of the Game after putting up 210 yards on nine catches, nabbing one touchdown.
Soccer: Six former SC
soccer players sign with professional futból league
Continued from pg. 17
SC’s rigorous program. Mora played for SC in 2017 before joining Parceiro Ladies. She said she hopes new SC players see her trajectory
“I gave it my all out there, but it wasn’t enough. They were the better team and we couldn’t pull out the win.” Davion Johnson SC sophomore wide receiver quarter. Davion Johnson snarled a 33-yard pass to put the Jaguars inside the 5-yard line. Omari Green punched it in from the three. The Vikings scored on a touchdown pass by Derrach West to Julian Woodward, but botched the extra point to make it 10-6. Minutes later Derrach West found Zion Bowens on a 42-yard touchdown pass to put the Vikings up 13-10. West threw for only 125 yards, but two touchdowns. Talaun Patton led the Vikings in rushing with 119 yards on 24 carries, and Bowens led
SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE FOOTBALL 2019 STANDOUTS Passing Leader JOSHUA OWEN 1,964 passing yards, 19 Touchdowns Rushing Leader KEYLAN CHAPMAN 557 rushing yards, 3 Touchdowns Receiving Leader DAVION JOHNSON 888 receiving yards, 10 Touchdowns All-purpose yards leader DAVION JOHNSON 1,285 total yards
as inspiration. “I believe when girls see that a girl like me that played one season at SWC was able to make it into the next level it’s possible for anyone,” she said. “I think it will be a great motivation for any players that are on the SWC team and have them pushing for more out of themselves.” Camacho agreed. “I think that knowing it is possible
to continue playing after being a part of the Southwestern College program is very much something that can attract other players and potential students in general,” she said. SC coach Carolina Soto said hard work and preparation paid off. “The structure provided at Southwestern College is really what got the players to prepare to play at the level they are now, and that our program
Tackles Leader Interceptions Tackle for Loss Sacks
in receiving with 69 yards on four catches. Johnson found the end zone for the Jaguars when he caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Joshua Owen late in the second quarter to put them up 16-13. SC missed the extra point. The turning point came when Jaguar wide receiver Terry Wright fumbled a punt and the Vikings picked it up in the end zone for a 2016 halftime lead. That was all the scoring. Johnson led the Jaguars with 210 receiving yards on nine catches and was SC’s Player of the Game. West was named Player of the Game for Long Beach. Josh McCurty led SC with 12 tackles. Despite the loss, Carberry said he was satisfied with the season and his high-achieving team. Johnson said he was humbled to earn Player of the Game honors for the Jaguars. “I gave it my all out there, but it wasn’t enough,” said the sophomore wide receiver. “They were the better team and we couldn’t pull out the win.”
JOSH MCCURTY 67 total tackles ATOATASI FOX, TYQUAN COLEMAN 2 ANDREW SCHASA 11.5 TFL ANDREW SCHASA, BRIAN WILLIAMS 5.5 sacks
really emphasizes empowering these young women to follow their dreams,” she said. Mora agreed. “All the extra training we did off the field really prepared me to succeed in the next level of soccer,” she said. “Being able to go the extra mile that other players normally do not make allows you stand out at the next level. We trained months before the season
started and we had fitness days to better prepare ourselves for game days. Even during the season we kept up with fitness so we never lost our momentum.” Soto said the players would represent SC well. “All six players were hard workers and even with many challenges they faced with everything going on around them, they were all able to overcome those challenges.”
backpage@theswcsun.com
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
BACKPAGE
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Nicholas James/Staff
Nicholas James/Staff
Nicholas James/Staff
Amigos: Lowrider
car club members are border philanthropists
Continued from pg. 20
Nicholas James/Staff
Nicholas James/Staff
LOWRIDER IS A REAL GOER – Chicano Park hosted una fiesta de honor to celebrate the dedication of the new mural featuring Los Amigos Car Club painted by the legendary artist Salvador Barajas. (Clockwise from top) Aztec dance troupe Calpulli Mexihca offered a blessing with drums and sage. A 1937 Plymouth owner by Antonio Herrera. Dancers with shell rattles to create the rhythm and honor the divinity in everyone. 1936 Dodge Ram owned by Rafael Palacios. Amigos Car Club president Rigoberto “Rigo” Reyes tells celebrants that Amigos Car Club is a product of the borderlands born of both Mexico and the United States when the border was easy to cross and relations between the countries were friendlier. Barajas has painted three Chicano Park murals by himself and significantly contributed to two others, including the world-famous Founders Mural at the south entrance to the park.
own communities during World War II by rednecky sailors and Marines from other parts of America. Chicanos in Los Angeles were on the brunt end of the Zoot Suit Riots when marauding military men and their racist allies invaded their communities to beat up the men and assault the women. San Diego County Chicanos suffered much of the same abuse, and worse, had their communities slowly gobbled up by Navy bases in Logan Heights, National City and Imperial Beach. Hard-drinking sailors would stumble out of establishments along National City’s “Mile of Bars” and accost Latinos who lived and worked in the area. Lowriders started out as a pushback against the invaders and their disrespect of Mexican-American culture. A sight to see and a marvel of creativity, lowriders are customized vehicles that have been lowered, enhanced and glittered with colorful paint and automotive art. Mexican-American youth lowered blocks, cut spring coils, z’ed the frame and dropped spindles. An American classic was born. So was a Mexican-American message. Reyes said the lowrider was a statement of pride and individuality. Like snowflakes and fingerprints, each lowrider is unique. “Lowriders, for us, were very, very important for our identity,” he said. “It was our community trying to develop something of its own, to develop our own identity.” “Amigos” shows a stream of cars flowing from Las Playas in Tijuana up the coast highway to Chicano Park. Barajas did not
paint the border in the mural, he said, because no border can separate the reality that the Tijuana-San Diego region is one great, unique and beautiful community. In the 1940s and ‘50s the border was a rather humbled checkpoint that was not always staffed. Today’s militarized, heavily-fortified barrier is a very recent development, Barajas said, and not a part of the heritage of the area. Reyes agreed. “San Diego and Tijuana are sisters in a unique region,” he said. “The so-called border was never really a border. We don’t see it as a border, per se. We have so much in common. We go back and forth across that border.” Our borderlands are unlike any other border region in the world, Reyes, said, due to the robust interchange and an emergent culture that other Americans are just beginning to see and do not understand. “It’s very important that we celebrate our shared history,” he said. “Ours is a very rich culture that the world is barely beginning to tap into.” “Amigos” reminds viewers that the Amigos Car Club is more than a collection of dazzling cars. It is a philanthropic organization of generous men and women who serve the community they love. VIA Transportation, Inc. sponsored the mural, Reyes said. Barajas, an Air Force veteran, boxing champion and gifted professional artist thinks big, but starts small. He makes miniaturized versions of all his murals and projects before he starts on the real thing – his creative process that allows him to be tremendously creative, but also cost effective. Most of his models – including “Amigos” – are smaller than a shoe box, but as detailed as a Da Vinci. “I brought over this small display to
show them what the final product would look like,” he said. Barajas has become the essential Chicano Park artist, and is a foundational influence on its look and character. He helped to paint the original “Founders Mural” in 1973 after members of the Logan Heights community staged a massive, weekslong protest in April 1970 to block the construction of a Highway Patrol station on land under the brand new Coronado Bridge that had been promised by the San Diego City Council as a badly-needed park. Protesters came from all over the United States to join the rebellion and help build Chicano Park. Barajas and a team recently repainted and updated the Founders Mural, adding Chicano heroes Chunky Sanchez and Herman Baca as well as muralist Michael Schnorr, a former SC art professor. He also painted the murals “I Am Somebody,” “Border Angels” and “La Virgen de Guadalupe No Olvidados,” which includes a tribute to the Southwestern College Sun. He has also painted murals at schools and created a series of motivational posters for students among his many projects. A Raza Renaissance man, Barajas is also the author of “Chicano Park Mural Restoration Manual,” an exhaustively detailed academic study of each mural, how it was painted and requirements for restoration. Caltrans used the manual during its seismic retrofit of Coronado Bridge pillars and left the murals virtually intact. Amigos Car Club, like Barajas, is a cultural giant in the borderlands. Besides transforming cars into moving works of art, the award-winning club supports artists, students and philanthropic endeavors on both sides of la linea. “Los Amigos are a great bunch of people,” Barajas said. “It was an honor to paint a mural that reflects their story.”
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The Southwestern College Sun
Amigos Forever
Newest Salvador Barajas Chicano Park mural stands tall and proud Salvador Barajas was a lightweight boxer in his youth. He is a heavyweight artist in his golden years. Chicano Park’s most prolific muralist has unveiled his latest towering masterpiece, “Amigos,” a vertical tribute to the venerable Amigos Car Club, the highminded league of lowriders. Barajas honored two pillars of the community on a pillar propping up the Coronado Bridge. Beloved Chicano heroes Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez and Rigoberto “Rigo” Reyes soar across the top of the mural like angels guardian watching over the iconic park and the border-spanning Latino community. “The mural is not just art,” Barajas said, “but a representation of something bigger, something greater. The history of lowriders is richly ingrained in Chicano culture and the culture of this region.” “Amigos” evokes the MexicanAmerican youths of the 1940s who were slapped around in their
please see Amigos pg. 19
BACKPAGE
Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
MIGRANT
CARAVAN
ONE YEAR
LATER… B1
Special Edition • Dec. 12, 2019 • Volume 63, Issue 3
Stranded in
Tijuana
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
SCHOOL’S OUT — Refugee children stranded in ramshackle Tijuana shelters are not allowed to attend school in Mexico. Shelter volunteers and NGOs like UNICEF provide occasional lessons and activities.
‘REMAIN IN MEXICO’ RULES PREVENT REFUGEES FROM WORKING IN THE UNITED STATES OR MEXICO
Central Americans face certain death at home, stark poverty in Tijuana STORY BY JULIA WOOCK, NEWS EDITOR
ne year after snaking processions of Central American refugees populated international newscasts to all corners of the globe, they are largely forgotten in a fetid corner of Tijuana. Streams of indios dressed in the cheerful colors of their Mesoamerican textiles forded rivers, trodded empty roadways, and clamored aboard flimsy buses during their fleeting moment on the world stage thanks to NBC, BBC and Reuters. Today they wait in hand-me-down Knott’s Berry Farm t-shirts in tumbledown sanctuaries in crime-infested pockets of Baja California — meters away from Alta California, U.S.A. Barely eight miles from Southwestern College an international drama has hit pause. The Trump Administration has overturned decades of American policy and practice related to refugees. Instead of allowing them to wait in the U.S. prior to administrative hearings on their refugee applications, migrants must remain in Mexico, where they are no more welcome than they are in America. La familia López Velásquez El Paraíso, Honduras
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
A POX UPON THEIR HOUSE — Santos Catalino López Velásquez and his refugee family waited two months for an asylum hearing only to be dismissively sent away when U.S. immigration officials saw that his baby daughter has contracted chickenpox. Honduras criminals shot him, burned his house to the ground and stole his coffee plantation, possibly to grow coca and opium poppies for drug manufacturing. U.S. agents told him to come back when his daughter was “healthy” and refused to give him a new appointment.
This year Santos Catalino López Velásquez was shot in the face by criminals and engaged in a shootout with pistoleros at his home while his family hid behind furniture. His arm and nose were broken by thugs, he nearly lost an eye and has glass embedded in his face. He lost his farm to gangsters and had his house burned to the ground. He traveled 3,500 torturous miles to la línea, where he is forced by the U.S. government to live in a hovel. He said it was one of the best years of his life. His wife survived the horrors to give birth to a precious new daughter and his family is alive. That, he said, is a good start for a new chapter in his life. López Velásquez and his family are refugees from Honduras stranded in Tijuana by the Trump Administration’s “Wait in Mexico” policy. The 42-year-old former coffee farmer suffered another cruel turn this week when U.S. immigration officials took one look at his baby daughter and cancelled his asylum appointment with a dismissive wave of the hand. “Chickenpox, no puede pasar.” López Velásquez and his family waited two months for the appointment. Immigration officials refused to give him another one. “They just said to come back when your daughter is no longer sick,” he said. American officials swiftly rejected a note from an American doctor that sought medical help for the sevenmonth-old. Safety and hope beckoned less than 100 yards away. On the other side of la frontera López Velásquez’ nephew was waiting. He had traveled all the way from Wisconsin to pick up the Honduran refugees and sponsor them in The Badger State. “No puede pasar, varicela.” News that might devastate most people was just another setback for the remarkably optimistic López Velásquez. Even as he recounted fear, pain and bitter disappointments, please see Migrants pg. B3
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The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
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SPECIAL EDITION
The Southwestern College Sun • Dec. 12, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 3
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Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
I PAINT FLOWERS SO THEY WILL NOT DIE — Where wealth is absent, creativity has blossomed at Tijuana’s migrant shelters. (clockwise from top) Refugees prepare El Salvadorian pupusas, which they sell on the streets to create a revenue stream to buy food for others in the shelter. Children are encouraged to express themselves through art, which NGO social workers said can help them come to grips with the traumas they have endured. Refugees help to maintain the shelters they live in, often with scraps they find. La cocina de Movimiento Juventud.
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
Migrants: Refugees
are fleeing the violence of their native lands
Continued from pg. B1
Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff
a persistent smile insisted on coming through as he described a harrowing narrative. “They told me they couldn’t let me through because my daughter was sick,” he said with his speckle-faced little girl on his lap. “I told them that was an important reason to allow me to go through. My baby needs medical attention. They showed no humanity and turned me away.” Chickenpox and measles can get loose in refugee camps and shelters, according to UNICEF personnel visiting the Movimiento Juventud shelter in Tijuana. Forcing stressed, cold, exhausted and underfed people into a small area can encourage the spread of childhood diseases easily preventable in industrialized countries, said a visiting UNICEF official who asked not to be named. The planet’s richest industrialized country is just yards away and so are vaccines for the diseases los niños López Velásquez contracted while waiting dos meses en Tijuana. López Velásquez smiled reflexively and pledged he would continue his arduous quest to find a safe home for his family. He would love to live in the United States and work in the Wisconsin dairy industry powered by migrant labor, he said, and he would be okay settling in Canada, too. Just some place safe. Mexico and Latin America are no longer options for the López Velásquez family, he said, because of the power and reach of the delincuentes that drove him off his five-acre coffee plantation in El Paraíso, Honduras. Drug cartels are forcing coffee growers and other Central American farmers to plant coca or opium poppies to produce cocaine and heroin. López Velásquez said his brother sold his adjoining farmland to the death squads at gunpoint. He refused and has paid dearly. The first attempt on life occurred while he was driving a rural road. He was ambushed by cartel gunmen who somehow missed him, but shattered the window inches from his face. He lost sight in one eye and bled profusely. Miraculously he escaped execution. “I remember thinking I had lost my eye
because I could no longer see out of it,” he said. “It turned out to be all the blood that was running down my face. I stumbled out of my car and collapsed. The last thing I remember was seeing a car pull up, not knowing if the people were there to help me or finish me off.” He regained consciousness in a hospital. A broken arm and shattered finger were not set correctly and are now deformed. Painful shards of glass remain embedded in his face. Criminals returned. They shot at his house while López Velásquez and his family were inside. He had a new gun and managed to fight them off, but knew los maleantes would return in greater numbers. It was time to flee. As the family escaped for el norte, los malandrines burned his family home to the ground. They fled on June 9, one month after his daughter was born, and traveled through mysterious Mexico for four months. Their first stop was Zacatecas, he said, where the family stayed for two months in a church. Parishioners offered shelter and helped López Velásquez find a construction job. Ciudad Juárez was next, then a place he called Sonoyta for three weeks. He presented himself to American immigration officers at San Luis Rio Colorado, a small city in the northwest corner of Sonora, about 75 miles east of Mexicali. Mexican immigration officials demanded bribes throughout the trip, he said. Las mordidas added up, siphoning off hardearned money for food, water and shelter. “They let us continue our journey because of the bribe money we paid them, not because they had any humanity or cared that we had kids,” he said. López Velásquez had previous experience with crooked government officials. Police in Honduras are among the most corrupt in the world. Murder is a cottage industry, he said. “In Honduras, if someone wants to murder someone else, the first thing they do is contact the police, because the police are in control of everything,” he said. “After bribing the police the criminals can easily grab anyone and kill them. If you pay a little more, the police will kill them for you.” Worried that he still may have a price on his head, López Velásquez said it is essential he and his family leave Latin America. “Mexico is not a safe country because people from Latin America can come and go,” he said. “The United States is not
the safest country, but people from Latin America cannot just come and go. It would be more difficult for the criminals to come look for us.” López Velásquez said he and his family long to live in any safe country. “If the United States gave us the opportunity to ask Canada for asylum, we would do it,” he said. “Just not Mexico or another Latin American country where the police are owned by the cartels and the criminals. It is easy for them to find someone. If there is money involved, it moves everything.” Despite his daily travails, López Velásquez defied the stereotype of a dirty, desperate refugee with his clean clothes and wellgroomed appearance. “I want to look as best I can to be ready if an opportunity comes my way,” he said. “Maybe work, maybe an appointment with the Americans. I must be ready and I want my family to see I am hopeful and have faith.” He has no idea when he will meet again with U.S. immigration officials, he said. First his baby daughter’s face must clear. Yesenia Ardon Ortiz San Martín, El Salvador A loving mother abandoned her children to save them. She traveled north to look for work so she could send money back to povertystricken San Martín, El Salvador. Today Yesenia Ardon Ortiz works for free. She is helping others in Tijuana, but not her family in San Martín. At least not yet. “What motivated me to come here was a friend who told me there were many job opportunities in Tijuana for people who are driven,” she said. “So, my motivation was to work and provide a better future for my children.” Her friend was half right. There are job opportunities in Tijuana, but not for Salvadorians without work permits from the Mexican government. Ardon Ortiz worked for a cleaning company in Tijuana until the Mexican National Guard and immigration officials flooded the city like an El Niño deluge. Refugees without papers could not work. So, like many a clever American who loses her job, she created a business. Ardon Ortiz started making pupusas, a traditional Salvadoran food similar to the Mexican
gordita. She and other residents of the Movimiento Juventud shelter sell them to raise money. “I told the director of the shelter my idea,” she said. “Since we are no longer receiving government aid, we should open a little pupusería to raise money for cooking oil, rice, sugar and other items because we offer breakfast, lunch and dinner (to refugees). We do not make a lot of money because we have to reinvest in the ingredients for las pupusas, but what is left over we use for things we need around here.” Pupusas Power feeds scores of refugees daily. Pesos earned by Ardon Ortiz and her puffy treats are the revenue stream that keeps penniless refugees from going hungry. Like any loving mother, Ardon Ortiz works hard to make sure her cares eat well. “For breakfast they have bread with café con leche for the adults,” she said. “For the kids we have things like cereal and milk or arroz con leche. For lunch we have rice and beans. Usually accompanied by things like chicken, wieners or meat. Sometimes we have soups or salads. We have aguas frescas, made with different fruits like papaya, watermelon, or apples. For the last two months an organization called World Central Kitchen has donated dinner, typically consisting of rice and beans as sides and dishes like albóndigas or chilaquiles.” Ardon Ortiz said shelter residents take turns in the kitchen. Children do not attend school, she said, but can go to a government program three times a week for reading and writing. NonGovernmental Organizations like World Vision and UNICEF also hold periodic workshops as well as outdoor activities and sports for the kids. Ardon Ortiz said she has heard allegations that people use children that are not theirs to cross the border. At her shelter families require documentation that show which refugees are parents. Children are clearly identified. Children are further protected by el DIF (National System for Integral Family Development) to ensure minors are not unaccompanied. “When we intake a family, we ask for identification and birth certificates to verify and establish the kinship,” she said. Movimiento Juventud is a shelter geared towards families, Ardon Ortiz explained. Single men are redirected to a sister shelter a block away which is also under the
leadership of José María García Lara, 52, who said he opened the shelter because of his own experience immigrating to the border from Puebla. People would notice that he spoke with a different accent or that he was not from there, he said, treated him differently. “I understood the need for a place for people that may have never left their hometown,” he said. “They need a place where they can learn to adapt and it is not easy. You are met with indifference and even discrimination. If these are issues that face Mexicans who immigrated between states, imagine what foreigners feel.” Ardon Ortiz said many of the 2018 refugees have dispersed. Some of their journeys were successful, some were not. “Most of the people that arrived in the caravans have since scattered,” she said. “Some decided to remain in Tijuana. Others moved about two hours away. Some made it into the United States, but many were denied asylum. Many returned home.” Movimiento Juventud is a multinational shelter, Ardon Ortiz said. “We have people from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador,” she said. “We also have Mexican nationals from places like Chiapas or Guerrero.” Ardon Ortiz made her journey on her own. She said it was hard not knowing where to go and not having a guide. She traveled from El Salvador to Tecún Umán, Guatemala and then crossed el Río Suchiate into Mexico on a raft. She took a taxi to Tapachula where she said she heard they would give humanitarian visas in three days, only to learn it would be three months. She said she joined a caravan in Tapachula that embarked in March. “We walked for an entire day,” he said. “Later a friend and I, and a few other people, branched away from the caravan, avoiding checkpoints and sleeping on the street. There were many risks, but we had to take them.” People leading the caravans made promises they could not keep, she said. She did not know who organized the caravan, but just joined when she saw many people gathered. Many different nationalities were traveling together, she said. It was a polyglot rumor mill. Exotic people from faraway lands had vastly different estimated times of arrival. They promised humanitarian visas, without evidence. A once-buoyant caravan grew
please see Migrants pg. B4
I AM MY OWN MUSE — Refugee children are encouraged to draw pictures of their journeys. (above) López Velásquez’s son does not let a case of chickenpox spoil his day.
Tijuana
Yesenia
Tecate, B.C. San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora
Starting Point: El Salvador
Sonoyta, Sonora
End Point: Tijuana Ciudad Juarez
Journey: 1 Month
Santos Starting Point: Honduras End Point: Tijuana Zacatecas
Journey: 4 Months
Mexico D.F.
Ciudad de Puebla, Puebla Ciudad Serdán, Puebla Orizaba, Veracruz Tapachula, Chiapas Crossed Suchiate River
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
San Martin, El Salvador El Paraiso, Honduras Courtesy Jaime Pronoble
Miles to go before I sleep Santos López Velásquez and Yesenia Ardon Ortiz each traveled at least 3,000 miles from Central America to the Mexico-U.S. border. They forded rivers, faced bandits, bribed corrupt officials, hopped trains, broiled, froze and endured exhaustion to reach Tijuana. There they wait.
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LOOKING FOR ÁNGEL GUARDIÁN— Santos López Velásquez, a cheerful former coffee grower who escaped death squads in Honduras, at a mural near his family’s Tijuana shelter. The López Velásquez family lost its asylum hearing due to their baby daughter’s chickenpox. Yesenia Ardon Ortiz (below) fled poverty in El Salvador to work and send money to her family. Mexican officials will not issue her a work permit.
Migrants: Refugees
face brutality, death in their native lands
Continued from pg. B3
stagnant and weary. Frustration finally made Ardon Ortiz branch away. “The feeling of despair and separation from your family,” she said. “The blisters and ulcers on your feet from walking all day. Being sunburnt. The heat. The fact that you need to carry water to survive, but that same weight is pulling you down and makes your body ache. Your body weakens. You’re carrying your luggage and your water. You feel you can’t carry on. It makes you feel like you simply can’t do it anymore. Your options are to turn back, let immigration catch you, or you keep fighting.” Women do not usually make the journey alone, she said. It is not safe. Refugee women are frequently raped or robbed. She said she and her comadres stayed in abandoned homes they would encounter to rest and recover from oppressive heat and humidity. Or bitter mountain cold. During a brutal mountain blizzard all they had to cover themselves were pieces of plastic. “What really kills you is the cold,” she recalled. “The rain that fell would burn your face and skin as it hit because it was almost like hail.” Beastly men and brutal weather were mild compared to the brutal La Bestia, a migrant train Ardon Ortiz said surely came straight out of the Mouth of Hell. Migrants hop the notorious northbound train, often with catastrophic results. Thousands of migrants have been killed or maimed by falling from the moving train. Refugees have lost legs and arms, or been dragged across rocks and rails. Ardon Ortiz said the train hit a vehicle in Orizaba, but was allowed by Mexican authorities to continue because the driver was drunk. Terror ensued when police used a flashlight to inspect the train for unauthorized passengers. Ardon Ortiz said it was impossible to sleep or relax on La Bestia due to the risk of rolling off and being smashed like an egg under the train. “You dare not fall asleep,” she said. “You must remain awake. You have to tie yourself to something to sleep.”
Jahaziel Valencia/Staff
“The feeling of despair and separation from your family. The blisters and ulcers on your feet from walking all day. Being sunburnt. The heat. The fact that you need to carry water to survive, but that same weight is pulling you down and makes your body ache. You’re carrying your luggage and your water. You feel you can’t carry on. That despair makes you take a different path.” Yesenia Ardon Ortiz, El Salvadoran refugee
Finding something safe and sturdy enough to strap on to the beastly train was nearly impossible, she said. Refugees literally held on for dear life. Her overweight friend struggled to hop on the moving train. Ardon Ortiz said her amiga fell three times and avoided death or amputation when another migrant pulled her out from La Bestia’s path. She fell and broke her nose in Ixtepec, Oaxaca. A good Samaritan took her to the next train stop to catch up with Ardon Ortiz. Catching up to a moving train is challenging for a young, athletic person. It is a death-defying act for middle aged mothers. She said that you have to run at the same pace as the train and grab the bars tightly or risk falling underneath and dying or losing limbs. Most times when they jumped abroad, they were left dangling and had to pull themselves up. Shins and thighs smashed violently against the relentless train. In Arriaga they hopped a cargo train that took 12 days to reach the state of Veracruz. In Orizaba they were caught and kicked off. “When we reached Veracruz, it was freezing cold,” she said. “We did not know where to go. We did not know where we were. The was a freight yard where they disconnected trains. We felt like those trains disconnected.” Ardon Ortiz said she hopped six trains. It was exhausting and dangerous. There were two nights they did not sleep while waiting for trains. Five went by, but they were too fast and the women could not hop aboard. “I just could not do it anymore,” she said. “It became increasingly harder to hop on. The trains travel too fast. My friend and I decided to continue our journey on the bus.” They boarded the bus in Ciudad Serdán that took them to the City of Puebla and then Mexico City. From there it was a three-day bus trip to Tijuana. On their way, they had their first brush with Mexican immigration. “We ran into immigration in Sonora,” she said. “They asked where we were from and told us to step off the bus. We did not know if the bus would wait for us or leave without us. We were afraid we would be left stranded there without a single peso because we spent all our money to buy the ticket. We hoped for luck and the grace of
God.” They told the Mexican immigration officials they were going to work in Tijuana. It worked and the women boarded the bus just before it rolled out. They brushed paths with immigration a second time in Tecate, but got lucky. La migra had already detained a group and were occupied. She said after a month they arrived in Tijuana. “I am alive thanks to God and was able to survive La Bestia,” she said. There were places in Mexico that denied service to refugees. Some restaurants and food stands posted angry handmade signs that read NO MIGRANTES. Proprietors would spot them and slam their doors, even though they had money to pay for their food. “They tell you no migrants or simply ignore you. They can tell you are a migrant because your hair is messy or you are sunburned. The sun is not the only thing that burns your skin. The wind and the chill burn it, too. They can see in your face that you are not from there. They can tell that maybe you have not bathed in a couple days.” Ardon Ortiz said she understood why some people may have disliked migrants. Previous caravans had come through and “practically left all of Mexico dirty.” They met kind and considerate people, too, who gave them drinking water and let them bathe. Refugees got different looks along the way. Loathing. Compassion. Disgust. Pity. Curiosity. Fear. Ardon Ortiz said she saw caravans on the television, but never thought she would be part of one. “I used to say, I’m never joining one of those migrant caravans. I’m not crazy.” She paused and shook her head slowly. “They say sometimes you end up swallowing your own words.” Leaving her children was very hard, she said, but searching for better opportunities was imperative. Despite her unsavory surroundings and derailed plans, she said she remains optimistic that someday she will be allowed to work and send money home to her children. Until then there are pupusas to make. Brittany Cruz-Fejeran, Fernando A. Martinez, Jahaziel Valencia and Matthew Brooks contributed to this section.