Anna Melgoza
A student’s
Journey
School has taken up 13 years of my life, I remember thinking, “what’s the point
of going to school? We’re all going to end up working anyways. Why not start
now? I’ll just start working with my mom cleaning houses. My room is
always clean so I think I’m good at that.” I was only ten years old and I
wanted to work because I couldn’t stand being at school. I wanted to help my
mom, I always saw her tired after work and I wanted to help her so she wouldn’t
be tired anymore. Years went by and I didn’t think about that anymore. I
started to like school after I started going to Newark Memorial High School.
There, I learned that you need to finish going to school in order to get a job
you want, to become a doctor, a nurse, an architect, many things were possible.
But I never saw those things in reality for me. Growing up the media portrayed
people of color as no goods that never amounted to anything, and that’s what I
thought was going to happen to me-I was scared. But going through the years in
high school I realized I could do good, get a good job and have a house; I just
needed the education to get me there. Now in college it’s more real to than
ever before and I know I can make it. Self-determination, opportunities, and Right
family help me keep going in college, or anything I set my mind to.
When I was growing up I was only taught Spanish.
And when I started pre-school I felt out casted, and alienated. I remember
dreading going to school, but I never spoke of it because I really didn’t have
a choice. Later when I was moved to kindergarten, my English was fairly good
but I still had like an accent the way I seemed to mix my words in sentences
was like the term “Span-glish”. My teacher then told my parents to stop
speaking to me in Spanish at home so I could learn English better. But my
parents did not listen and they kept with their usual ways. My dad used to
always say “huh, querían que no te hablarámos en español, pero eso es como
queriendo quitarte la cultura, quierndo, mira cuantos muchachos hoy en día que
son Latinos, son morenos como tu y
yo y no saben nada de su lenguaje.” When my parents told me that story I was
glad because I liked speaking two languages because sometimes it made me feel
like a secret language between my family y los Amerícanos. Within 5 years I was
in the 4th grade and I spoke English almost like everyone did. That winter
break my family and I went on vacation to Mexico in my parents’ hometown of
Aguilillia, Michoacán, Mexico. I was confident in my Spanish because I felt it
was my strongest language I knew. But soonly I was about to be proven wrong. In
the US my Spanish was pretty good for an 8 year old, but when I got to Mexico I
felt like I was in pre-school all over again. My family joked around about it,
I know, but it still hurt. Then it got me thinking what was I supposed to do?
Who I was supposed to be? But what I know that I didn't know back then, was
that I hadn't really developed code-switching. So when I came back to
California I paid a little more attention in Language arts, class and when I
got to high school I wanted to evolve my Spanish speaking and go further and
learn to read and write better than I already knew. I worked hard and even got
to Spanish 5 AP.
The way my parents work, made me realize that I didn't want a life like that.
Don't get me wrong, I love my family and my parents say they love their life
but I have seen their struggles with their jobs, and money. My father came to
the United States when he was 14 and graduated high school here in California.
He had jobs ranging from working with foster farms pulling out all the insides
of a chicken out to now being a mechanic at apartments in Los Altos,
California.
My mother's story on the other hand was the most interesting. While in Mexico
she had to go to school behind my grandfather's back because he didn't believe
women had to necessarily finish school because there was work to be done at
home. My mother and her identical sister switched off going to school without
my grandfather ever noticing. Her life was like those of TV shows where the
twin sisters would switch off when one was in trouble and would go out while
the other stayed home covering for her and ridiculously didn't get caught. But
without my mother's and aunt's self-determination they could have just stopped
their schooling when my grandpa had told them to do so, and they would have
never completed school and get their diplomas. And if it where up to them they
could have gone to college but that was more complicated to get away with.
“She’d become
sick and tired of how her brother and all the men were acting so superior just
because they knew how to drive. She headed back to the shiny black truck.
She would teach herself how to drive right now.”
-Victor
Villaseñor, Rain of gold
But when I
see my parent's hands and feet I can tell they did a lot of work with their
hands. Their hands are hard with calluses, parts of their body ache like there
is no tomorrow. Knees need to be given a good sobada –massage- because they
can't bare walk on it any much longer. Hands hurt with arthritis from wrists to
the tip of each finger. One of my uncles works two jobs from day and night to
get food on the table for his family of 8. I can't imagine myself working like
that and I don't plan to. The thought of ending up like this is my motivation,
my drive; it’s what keeps me going when I want to give up on school. The
stereotype of Mexicans are only good for making babies before reaching the age
of 18, or working at Taco Bell, mowing the rich man’s lawn, constructing homes,
and working at Home depot. Those fears are the ones that keep me working past
the hills and mountains of the education system. And the thought of what it has
cost to get to where I am today.
“I happen to
be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made
about me. I became an English major my first year in college, after being
enrolled in pre-med.”
-Amy Tan,
“Mother tongue”
Anna Bertha
Melgoza Oseguera
Opportunities
are everywhere; you just need to know which to take advantage of.
At age 14 my
Dad had come to the US to work and go to school. He became a citizen, graduated
from high school, and had a job. He thought he was doing really well as he
would say “en el otro lado”- the other side. But then my grandfather got sick
but didn’t have enough money to afford medical attention in the United States,
so they moved back to their hometown of Aguilillia, Michoacán, Mexico. Moving
back my dad wasted all of his money and desperately needed a job to support his
family. My uncle Pancho asked my dad if he could help him out building a house.
Because most of the men couldn’t take the heat of the sun, at first my dad said
no, because the job was out in the open and people knew he had jus came back
from the States so he was supposed to be ballin’ with money people would say
“Mira, ¿que no es esé Adan Melgoza el que se fue al otro lado? Y ahorá anda
trabajando aquí” –isn’t that Adan Melgoza the one that went to the other side
and now he’s working here? But he soon changed his mind and went to work. He
started working on a little house where the family business was connected next door;
the store name was called Abarrotes Oseguera. My Dad worked well almost a year
on the house and he had noticed a beautiful young woman that would sweep
outside the store and bring them water. Then on the last day of the job
he asked the young lady out, little did he know she was the woman whom he was
going to share the rest of his life with. If my Father had not taking the
opportunity my uncle Pancho had given him, maybe I would not be around to tell
their story.
Opportunities
come in many shapes and sizes, some you don’t see. Being a Mexican-American I
had the chance to learn two languages. Because of this ability it has opened
many doors for me, seeing that more and more Hispanics are moving to the US
each year. Since this is occurring it’s creating more jobs for translators.
Opportunities can come by joining a program to better your self. Puente is a
program they most community colleges, it’s a program that helps us the students
become more comfortable in college and also give us the tools to succeed in
college.
"A scholarship enabled me not only to attend college, a rare enough feat in my circle, but even to study in a University..."
-Scott Russel Sanders, "The Men We Carry In Our Minds"
Mi Familia
I wouldn’t
be in college if it weren’t for my family. My parents would always tell me to
do well in school or I’ll end up working like they do. Throughout Jr. high and
high school my mom always tried to keep my grades in check, anything lower than
a B was unacceptable. I usually kept my grades good but in senior year I had a
really bad case of “senior-itis”. At every family gathering my uncles and aunts
always asked the same question what are you going to study in college? And I honestly
didn’t have a clue. But then my cousin Fabian started telling me about his job,
and I soon began to have an interest in radiology. He’s helped me out very much
in what I need to take and what he had to do to complete the program.
With
out my family and self-determination and organization college can be a big
obstacle in succeeding in. Right now I am a freshman at Foothill college, and
am proudly enrolled in the Puente program, and have all A’s and B’s in all of
my classes.
