East Meets West South of the Border : Unity: Diary entries of Asian and Latino students on Mexico trip reflect a meeting of the minds.

They come together in the name of unity--wary Anglo, Latino and Asian students from San Gabriel Valley high schools--at the Ghost Festival Parade in Kee-Lung, Taiwan, at the Huntington Library in Pasadena and, most recently, at the pyramids of Teotihuacan near Mexico City.

The exchange trips, organized by the Chinese American Parents & Teachers Assn. of Southern California, bring together students of diverse ethnic backgrounds in an effort to defuse racial tensions and promote understanding of other cultures. Students, who pay their own air fare, stay with host families for two weeks. Several use their experiences to act as formal peer counselors, specializing in racial conflicts.

The association organized the first trip to Taiwan in August, 1992, after widely reported fights at San Gabriel High School involving Latinos, Anglos and Asians. This summer, six Mexican students from Celaya, Mexico, visited the San Gabriel Valley, and, in turn, six local high school students flew to Celaya.

Local students who visited Mexico from Aug. 10 through Aug. 24 kept diaries about their experiences. The following are excerpts from two of those diaries, edited for space and grammar:

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From Elysabeth Nguyen, 18, who was a senior at San Gabriel High School and is attending UCLA this fall:

Aug. 10: My flight went well, as it departed LAX; my thoughts of Mexico come thundering through me. My nervousness and anticipation couldn’t, however, overcome the happiness and excitement that has been building up inside of me. . . .

(Nguyen proceeds to wonder why her host family assignment was changed at the last minute).

As one of two Asians in the exchange program, I fear prejudice or discrimination, but I refuse to jump into any accusations until further light is shed. As an inhabitant of the Greater Los Angeles area, I sense the tension between Hispanics and Asians, and I feel that I am a victim instead of a contributor.

Aug. 12: We had classes in Spanish in the morning. We went to a kindergarten school and looked at how they teach the children. All the toys they had were handcrafted. There are no Legos, Hot Wheels, Barbies or stuffed animals. Even little dolls are handmade. These are sold by housewives of poorer families to support themselves. . . .

Afterward, we went strolling in central park, the center of town. There are markets and vendors. Inside a building would be different stands that sell one thing (ex: just meat, or just tomatoes). Each is owned by a different owner, and you can perhaps bargain. It’s nothing like Alpha Beta.

Aug. 13: . . . Life is very simple for ordinary folks. They live slowly and never rush. They are content with their positions and with the little money they make. They lack a lot of the ambition of Californians--we always have something to do. I’m talking about the majority here, not everyone. The people like the host family here is very rich and ambitious, but others are not. Only my third day, but the tension between Hispanics and Asians does not exist here in Celaya, Mexico, mainly because I’m a visitor, very foreign, and very exotic. The tension we have in Los Angeles stems mainly from immigrants (that we all are), trying to be the owner of the land that is not even ours.

. . . Went dancing. Kids here of all ages go dancing, they drink and smoke, but there seems to be no problems with gangs because everything is SO available. So it’s not a big thing, so there are less delinquents.

Aug. 23: . . . The going-away party was a success. We watched little kids perform folklorico dances and ate tacos and hot dogs (what a combination, heh?). We laughed, we danced, we cried. I guess everyone realized that the fun will soon end. I’ve never seen so many happy crying faces. . . . All conflicts we solved. . . . We exchanged addresses and promises to write and see each other again. We acted like fools, but we were happy fools.

Aug. 24: . . . It’s strange how the two groups of people, with a language barrier between them, suddenly feel so much the same, so much as one, when they have to part. I never felt closer to my host family as today, I never felt so much a Mexican until today, and I never felt so human--after all, that’s what we are, if we strip ourselves of our skin color and our features that make us physically different.

I started out two weeks ago having (one) mentality about Mexico, and two weeks later, leaving with a different mentality. It’s amazing how I understood them and they understood me in only two weeks. It makes me wonder--people aren’t that hard to understand, no matter how different they are, if only one would take the time to do it!

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From John Paul Cabrera, a Cuban-American, who is a junior at San Gabriel High School:

Aug. 11: I really love it here. Life is simple--either you go to school and learn or go to work and/or take your chances living off the streets, like selling things or washing car windows. You don’t see beggars here in Celaya. I see why many Mexicans have pride in their country. I thought Mexico was just a bunch of beggars and people selling gum, but it’s not. People do work hard here and study hard, and I would be proud if I were Mexican.

Aug. 25: By far, my most (amazing) love for Celaya, Mexico, was and always will be its peacefulness . . . . I loved walking down the street alone, breathing the fresh air and not having to worry about being shot at or stabbed. It was very hard for me to let down my guard and to not worry about other people giving me, or my other friends with me, trouble. I mean, when you’re in L.A., or even S.G., you, or at least I, always have to watch my back, and/or my friends’.

I finally stopped worrying about our troubles in L.A. and in S.G. and began to enjoy Celaya. I realized how friendly the people were, and out of a population more than 10 times S.G.’s population, everybody in Celaya knew of everyone, and almost everyone was friends with each other!! The respect for each other in Celaya was something I had never seen before.

The families in Celaya seem so perfect . . . their togetherness is so genuine and so respectful. My (host) family was above all others. My family will always be in my heart. They are like the family I never had. My (host) father actually cried when I left to board the plane. I didn’t want to let go of him, but I knew had to. . . .

I fell in love with a beautiful city and country which I had never imagined to be so great. . . . I never cried so hard as before I left. . . . I know I will return!