Writer, Boxer Tell Students to Stay in School

The Latino drop-out problem at Santa Ana High School took a one-two punch on Thursday when a Latino playwright and a champion boxer teamed up to talk to about 1,000 students.

The message they delivered was simple: “Things get rough,” Paul Gonzalez, the North American flyweight boxing champion, told the mostly Latino audience. “But don’t drop out because you’ll regret it years from now.

“If you have a dream, live it, because if it dies you’ll die with it.”

The assembly featured music and a short play by Jose Cruz Gonzalez, who coordinates South Coast Repertory Theatre’s Hispanic Playwright Project. (The two men are not related.)

The program was organized by the school’s MEChA club, a Latino organization that aims to inspire students to explore their Latino heritage while furthering their education. Principal Andrew Hernandez said the school has a 40% drop-out rate and 70% of the students are Latino.

Latino students have complained that the assemblies often fail to address their concerns, said MEChA club adviser JoAnn Aquirre, a business teacher. The students took a field trip in December to South Coast Repertory, where Latino actors told them that with education, they can succeed in any career. Remembering how successful the trip had been, Aquirre called Jose Gonzalez. Paul Gonzalez was contacted by students who had seen him in a parade in Santa Ana.

“We called on them because they both overcame so many obstacles to get where they are,” Aquirre said. “The students really look up to people who can motivate them.”

“I was one of these kids once,” said Jose Gonzalez, the son of Mexican-American migrant workers. “I didn’t have a role model to follow, so my heart goes out to them.”

In the short play he wrote for Thursday’s assembly, Jose Gonzalez played the role of a Latino high school dropout named “Lizard” who spends all his time standing on a street corner with his friend “La Fat Girl” (played by Ruth Arzate, an 18-year-old Santa Ana High senior).

“Man, this is a drag,” says La Fat Girl. “I feel like a pinche (damn) statue.”

“Hey esa ,” said Lizard, “That is the price you pay for being cool.”

At one point in the play, Laura (played by Cecilia Jarduno, an actress at Rancho Santiago College’s acting conservatory) tells Lizard and La Fat Girl that she wants to study and make a career for herself. “I want to do something with my life,” she says. “I don’t want to be known as a stupid Mexican.”

After the assembly, Jose Gonzalez said the play was well received because the students could relate to the characters. “They laughed at the line about the ‘stupid Mexican,’ ” he said, “because they have heard the insult many times themselves.”

Paul Gonzalez said he too could relate to the characters. He was raised in the Aliso Village Housing Project in East Los Angeles and got involved with gangs at an early age.

“By the age of 11 I had been shot. By the age of 13 I had been stabbed,” said the 23-year-old boxer. “But when the door (of opportunity) opened just an inch, I stuck my foot in and then pushed my whole body through.”

The winner of a 1984 Olympic gold medal in the light flyweight boxing division, he told the students that Latinos always have to fight labels and stereotypes that others put on them. “Prove to those people that they are wrong,” he said.

“If you want to be a teacher, go for it. If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer or a cop or whatever, go for it,” said Paul Gonzalez, who has been involved in many programs designed to keep youngsters in school and away from drugs and gangs. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t do it.

“I made it. And now I want to make believers out of all of you.”

Some students said they believed that the assembly would make a difference.

Steve Gonzalez, a 17-year-old senior, said, “I think (the advice) will get some people off of the streets,” but he doubted that “the hard-headed people” had listened.