|
|
And I also became involved in a big way with Raza Women as a leader. That was very difficult because what I found, something that was mentioned here earlier in the last panel, was the continuity. The women that were here before us it was really hard to have them sit down and talk to you and tell you this is how it was done and this is what Raza Women is about and you were just kind of expected to know the history of Raza Women. So we had to do a lot of reading, a lot of research, talk to other women that had already been here before and that had graduated bring them also into the picture and sit with them and talk. But it was a learning experience. It was difficult but it was also a learning experience.One thing that I remember a lot is just I think there were a lot of women that needed to be supported in the University. As it is there is a very low number of us at here UCLA and being in this University I remember back when I was here, I think the retention rate was something like 50%. And that was alarming and that is sad. And a lot of us wanted to do something about that. With Raza Women what we tried to do is create a supportive environment where people could have rap sessions and talk about many things. There were women who wanted to talk about feminism. So we would have discussions about feminism, Chicana feminism. There were also discussions about spirituality, the mind and body experience. A lot of us come from backgrounds where our parents are working-class parents and they can’t support you financially so you have to get students loans or get scholarships or what have you. And sometimes it would get really difficult and I remember there were some women where the father would not allow her to move out to the West side area because he just didn’t want her to leave the house. And I remember this once person she would actually sneak out the back window just to get on the bus to come to school. We had women that had support systems and other women that didn’t have them at home. And I think somebody mentioned that too, that parents just don’t want to let their kids go to school. So we tried to provide some support there for these women. We also had forums on health, sexuality, or whatever it was, issues on health, issues on mental health because there are a lot of people, I include myself, that sometimes it would get kind of depressing here or it would get really frustrating. Or people would just feel lonely in this huge University. You come and sit in one of these classrooms and it is jammed packed. It was packed with people. And a lot of times you just didn’t know a lot of people here. Also people had the chance to express themselves to really talk out these issues. There were also issues of racism in this University. I remember feeling like people were giving me messages or looks like we don’t want you here. And that was very discouraging. I think that as a Chicana coming into the University you are dealing with multi-issues. You are dealing with financial issues. I remember getting jobs here on campus. I got a job at the geophysics library. I didn’t know anything about geophysics but I was there and I remember people there would even talk about well AAP students, like they shouldn’t be here because they don’t have the GPA. Or that the University was doing favors for us. You confronted people with that kind of an attitude because you are a minority there is something about you that got you in here, some favoritism or they did special favors for you and that shouldn’t happen. So again the financial issues, getting jobs on campus, working through the summers. And other people didn’t have the family support system that encouraged them to stay in school. If you had to live closer to school than you tried to find housing. And then again you come here and there are a lot of political issues, like affirmative action. Later on in the 80’s even the Chicano Studies Library was in jeopardy. But it used to be here in Campbell Hall. AAP was here [Campbell], the counselors were here, the peer counselors, tutoring was here. So everything that was here in this building across from Rolfe it was like a second home because you would walk in the hallways and you would see people, you would say hello. You would stop and talk. You would go into the library and you would see people you knew there. And everybody was studying so that it was a supportive environment. And little by little that starting disappearing. And I think that when I left the library had been moved down to the basement of Haines. And so that was discouraging to see these places, these institutions where we could gather, where we could study together, where we could see each other, and where we could support one another got a lack of support. I want to move on to Latinas Guiding Latinas because it is very important that I mention that in Raza Women there were a lot of women who wanted to participate and that had a vision . They wanted to give something back to their community. And they did. Some people came with a lot of motivation, a lot of creative energy and I thought that that was really exciting to be a part of or to see the process of building Latinas Guiding Latinas. I heard that Raza Women helped out a lot with this conference so I just want to commend and congratulate you . I am happy to see that that spirit is still going on. Getting back to Latinas Guiding Latinas the three founders were Virgina Torres, Martha Jimenez and Esperanza Trujillo. And they did a lot of work. I did want to recognize and highlight Virginia because when I met Virgina she was not really a part of Raza Women. She was a math major and she really wanted to do something with that degree. She wanted to give meaning to her experience here at ULCA and just going to the classroom, going through the process of being an academic, it wasn’t really fulfilling for her. And so she had wanted to do something to give back to the community. One thing that she had thought of was some kind of a mentorship program for younger Latinas/ Chicanas in elementary, junior high or what is now called middle school, and high school. And so I remember Virgina coming to the Raza Women’s office and start reading on Raza Women and the retention rate. She did research basically and I got to see the planning of Latinas Guiding Latinas. And it was very planned. She had a vision. She did her homework. And I saw how she prepared to write the proposal because remember for everything here you need to go up for funding. If you want something to happen you need to do the work. You need to get the budget. That was very exciting to see how she presented the proposal. She got the funding. And she got commitments from women not just from our year. She graduated my year. She also got support from younger women in UCLA that would continue that would provide that continuity for Latinas Guiding Latinas. It was a very practical way of looking at things where you try and build in continuity. Somebody also mentioned earlier continuity and sustainability. SO if you want something to last a long time you have to sustain it somehow. And what she did was she basically trained younger women at UCLA to take on the leadership positions. She did not want to own the program. She did not want consider herself the leader. She wanted to train and mentor other young women here at UCLA so that it [LGL] would continue. That is why we have that legacy now of Latinas Guiding Latinas. And I am really happy to hear that it is still going on. And for myself I was basically one of the mentors for a elementary school girls. That was a very enriching experience because we actually brought the girls on campus. We would give them a tour of the campus. We would provide parent student or parent youth conferences. So that the parents and the children could dialogue about the University experience and also for us to demystify all of the myths about going to the University and going away from home. That was something that I was really honored to see here at UCLA that something so creative could take place among Raza Women and than with Latinas Guiding Latinas. It was really important to recruit women from UCLA to also become those mentors because when you give something away, give your knowledge and experience you get something in return and there was that reciprocity. I think also Latinas Guiding Latinas really strove to work with Raza Women and with MEChA with SOLES. They opened themselves up to network and communicate with other Raza groups here on campus. And I think that is something very important to network with people. I know back in the day even some of us here on the panel did have differences. We have differences of approaches. We had the same goals in mind and that was to do something about the retention rate and do something about the recruitment. I think all of us here would agree that we need to do more about recruiting more Chicanos and Latinos to come on campus and to also retain them. That is part of the sustainability. We need to put those systemes in place in University so that people don’t fall out don’t fall through the cracks. Another thing I wanted to add about Latinas Guiding Latinas is that it did provide community service because we weren’t working in a vacuum. We weren’t just here at UCLA. We actually extended ourselves out to working with the community, to address the problems of lack of Latinos, lack of Chicanos in the University. And think of it the Latino population here in UCLA is 40% it is growing. It is going to grow and grow. We are a young population. Most of our population is young it is not that old. We are in the working force and so it is important that we all try to strive, like somebody said earlier, to train someone in high school or junior high school or even elementary or even preschool. Start talking to them about the University. You can do it. A lot of times you are taught or other people send messages that you can’t or that you don’t have the grades or you should take other classes or maybe you should just go to the community college. It is what we hear a lot of times. I remember when I was in high school one of my counselors told me to take two P.E. classes just so I could feel my slot of classes. I thought, "Two P.E. classes what do I need that for?" That’s when you would go to somebody else and luckily I had my older brother there and he could kind of mentor me and tell me don’t take that class take this one. And that is what we need to do we also need to be mentors to our community because remember we have a community here at UCLA which you are all a part of and I was a part of and a lot of us here were a part of. We also have our greater community which is our Raza but also where we live or where we are at. Or if you go out of state some of our companeros or companeras have gone out of state to live and work out there. So there you create another community. You have to set roots there, too. And that is where you can share your experience, share your knowledge, share your leadership and your organizational skills. That is something I have learned if anything. If I want to leave you with anything I want to leave you with one of the things that I learned here at UCLA was that I wasn’t very well balanced in the sense that I was juggling the academic work, trying to get the grades to stay at UCLA. At the same time I was juggling the political and organizational and all these other activities that meant a lot to me that enriched my experience. I talked to my other colleagues and they say the same thing, "I wish I would have had that balance where I would have done better at school and at the same time have been involved". A lot of times some of us just burned out. It is not a good place to be when you are burned out you don’t have any energy to give to yourself, or to other people. So just something to keep in mind, the balance. And you can do both. You can do both. And also to ask questions and to seek information and to be as learned as you can not just in the classroom but also in your political activities, in your social cultural activities. It is very important to have balance. Have the lines of communication open and know that you may disagree with [others]. You can still have dialogue if you have that dialogue it’s good. And respect one another. Keep the lines of communication open, respect, and balance. |