Interview Transcript
Salome Ramirez
Q:
A: It's great; I mean this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. I've always wanted to come here, ever since I was in high school. I see my friends, they were so enthusiastic of getting here and I said, maybe sometime I'll get to go. I made the mistake of dropping out in '98 in my senior year in which I would have graduated. I decided that work was a lot better than school. I started working, minimum wage was $5.15, I traded jobs to jobs because nobody would pay very good. The thing that made me realize is that I am married, I've got a little boy, he is 3 months old and I thought to myself, if I keep going like this from job to job and not doing anything with my life, I am not going to be able to give anything to my family. And so I made a commitment last year to return to school, an alternative school, Westview High School. They received me with their arms wide open and said, if you want to learn, if you want to get back in school, this is the place, get enrolled. And I would like to thank one teacher, which I think she is one great teacher. She helped me out a lot.
Q: And she is Hispanic or Anglo?
A: No, she is White. She has helped everybody ever since I've been there.
Q: What is your family situation in terms of education?
A: Well, I would like to thank my parents, they're great persons. My mother, I think she only completed 3rd grade. My dad, I think it was lower than that. I've got an older brother and an older sister and a younger brother. I want to set a good example for them, especially for my little brother, to keep going, to succeed in life, make something of his life.
Q: What do your parents do?
A: My mom works in a potato warehouse so does my dad. I am not ashamed of that because they are hard-working parents. I thank them for everything and they are just great.
Q: What do you see as some of the big challenges for Hispanic youth right now? What do they need to be doing and what kind of stereotypes do they need to be overcoming?
A: Well, one of the things that we are faced with right now is a lot of racism. A lot of other people look at you for what you are wearing and that's not the way to judge somebody. The way to judge somebody is to go out to them, talk to them, get to know them, and try to be in their shoes before you judge somebody.
Q: The lady at the hotel felt that there more crime because of increased Hispanic population.
A: One of the things that I think about, it's just not Hispanics. Yes, we are I guess a little bit of trouble, but we are not all of it. How they see it is they see that Hispanics are bad. That's not right. They shouldn't judge us like that. We are here, we are hard-working people, we work out in the fields, potato harvest, anything so that we can succeed, so that everybody can succeed. [brief interruption] One of the main reasons I came to the United States, and I thank my parents for bringing me here, was to get a better education, to succeed in life, to be somebody in life, somebody that they could be proud of, somebody that could succeed more than they did.
Q: You are doing this in a way to thank your parents?
A: Yes, I think I am doing this to tell them how much I appreciate how they have supported me, to thank them for everything they have done for me. For being there good times and bad times.
Q: What do you like about this conference?
A: The thing that I love about this is that we are all one big family, that's what we call our groups, and we don't stereotype. If we see somebody walking around, we say, "Hey, how are you doing? Where are you from?" It's just a great big family, it's wonderful.
Q: And you are getting a lot of education in the different areas?
A: Yes, we have some speakers like Lena [Benavides], she is from Harvard, it's a great honor meeting her. Idaho State University, Albertson's College, ITECH.
Q: What do you hope to do and be?
A: My dream is to become an auto mechanic, go to college and have degree in auto mechanics. Then hopefully work for one of the big companies, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, hopefully I can do that.
Q: How do you respond to be people who feel jealous about the Hispanic kids getting this conference and the White kids not having this?
A: Well, I think that in the past, we were a minority and now we are growing a lot, and we want to succeed in life. That's why I thank everybody who put this program together and I mean everybody because it's a lot of hard work. I thank them a lot for giving us this opportunity to come here and participate in every project that we doing in class, to get somewhere in life. They are just here to help us out, and I don't know why they will feel jealousy. I think and I believe that they can do the same thing.
Q: Have I missed something that you want to say about this conference or about issues that affect Hispanic youth?
A: I just like to, like I said, thank everybody who put all this together. It's a great honor for me to be here. I will graduate and hopefully I can get a scholarship so that I can start college and do something with my life and later come and represent one of the colleges that I go to, because I see a lot of people that have nice stories. They come and tell us their part of the story that they messed up, too, they've gone the wrong way but now, they are on top. I want to give that inspiration to the younger people, the younger grades to keep going that anything can be done. Quiero decir para todos los Hispanos, no lo más todos los Hispanos, sino que para todos los que hablan español, que nada es imposible. Todo se puede. Teniendo ganas. Todo se puede. Nada es imposible. Siguen adelante, si se puede.
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