SAN CLEMENTE : Assembly Features Latino Pride Talks

At a San Clemente High School assembly on Latino pride Thursday, Ben Villa sobbed as he told 100 Latino students about the death of his cousin--a gang member who died of drug abuse many years ago.

Villa, San Clemente’s city engineer, said he and his cousin had been much alike, hanging out with gang members and carrying knives in their hometown, Oxnard, until he decided to go straight.

“You can be like him or be different,” Villa told the crowd. “Each day you make decisions. You make a decision to get up, to go to school, to study or not to study. That’s what life is--making decisions. The best decision I ever made I made when I was 12 years old.”

Villa was one of 15 Latino business leaders, educators, professionals and police officers from south Orange County who spoke at “Yes You Can,” an assembly about how to succeed in life.

“These are Hispanics who have made it in an Anglo world, people just like you, with the same roots, who have decided to do something with their lives,” Jim Miranda, a San Clemente real estate agent, told the students. “Our purpose here is to provide positive Hispanic role models.”

A common thread among the speakers was the importance of education. Catalina Senkbel, a Saddleback College instructor, said that she was a homeless orphan with nowhere to go until she learned to speak English at San Clemente High School.

“Education is the key to overcoming obstacles. It gives you power over discrimination and racism. But to empower yourself, you must have an education,” Senkbel said.

David Barron, media relations director for Southern California Edison Co. at the San Onofre nuclear power station, told the audience that some of his aunts and uncles used to tease him because he studied so much, except for one of them.

“He was a carpenter and he told me to look at his hands,” Barron said. “He had callouses that were bigger than my hands. He told me he worked hard so that the younger members of our family wouldn’t have to. He said there is nothing wrong with being a carpenter, but with an education you won’t have to work hard. I remember that every time I’m typing into my computer.”

Some students said it was important to them to see members of their race who have succeeded. Maria Manzo, a 15-year-old sophomore, said she did not speak English when she came to the United States from Mexico two years ago. She said she was impressed by Senkbel’s success as a professor.

“Some of our parents tell us that all we have to do is get married and have babies,” Manzo said, “So you need somebody else to tell you and show you what to do.”