At a Crossroads : Eleazar Hernandez Must Choose Between College or a Return Home

Eleazar Hernandez likes to do his thinking on the move. His mind wanders while his body strides purposefully, enabling him to withstand the ache in his gut and the burn in his legs.

Cross-country runners endure considerable pain, and they have considerable time to think. Hernandez, one of the nation’s best high school runners, has been deep in thought lately during his training runs through the dusty agricultural fields around Camarillo High.

After taking a clear and direct route to becoming a champion, he is a runner at a crossroads.

One direction points home, to a small town in central Mexico where after graduating from Camarillo in June, he can rejoin his family and begin a career as a mechanic or carpenter. These thoughts are comforting yet uninspiring.

The other direction points to a certain Division I cross-country scholarship, a college education and four more years as enriching as the past four. These thoughts are exciting yet intimidating.

Which will be best in the long run?

“I miss my family and they expect me back. But everyone here says I have a great opportunity and that I should go to college,” says Hernandez, who lives with his oldest brother’s family in Oxnard. His parents, three brothers and a sister remain in Mexico.

He whistles softly through his teeth as if to underscore his anguish. “I don’t know,” he says. “I have to think some more.”

Only crossroads cause Hernandez discomfort. When he knows where the finish line is, gangway, he’s comin’ through with a trademark bandanna on his head and determination in his heart.

Hernandez, 17, placed fifth in the Foot Locker national championships Dec. 10 to cap a superb senior cross-country season. He finished first in the Southern Section Division I championships and also won the team sweepstakes race of the prestigious Mt. San Antonio College Invitational in October.

He also finished second in the state Division I final and was fourth in the West regional to qualify for the nationals.

“He is the most consistent runner in California without a doubt,” says Mike Smith, Camarillo’s cross-country and track coach. “He is tremendously courageous. He runs well whether he feels good or not.”

Hernandez, 5 feet 6, 130 pounds, will take a trip to the University of Texas, San Antonio, in January and Smith says several other schools are hot on the runner’s trail.

But where does the trail lead?

*

Hernandez is on the move once again. The familiar pain is present. Still, he puts one foot in front of the other in a graceful cadence, running, running, running.

He reaches Camarillo High and checks his watch. Eleven miles in 75 minutes, not bad carrying a backpack full of books, he says to himself. He removes the hefty pack from his shoulders and notices welts caused by the chafing straps and bouncing books.

Hernandez shrugs and ducks into his first-period class. His perfect-attendance record remains intact.

“Hey Coach, you’re not gonna believe what Eleazar did this morning.” A Camarillo sprinter informs Smith how his top runner made it to school after missing his usual ride.

Smith examines the welts on Hernandez’s back and tells him to skip practice.

“No, Coach, I want to run,” Hernandez insists, and he takes off with his teammates on a seven-mile run.

Running, running, running. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

“He is such an honorable person,” Smith says. “His courage is incredible, and he has kindness that you just don’t see in people anymore.”

Adalberto Sanchez of Capistrano Valley High, another of the state’s top runners, will never forget Hernandez’s graciousness.

At the West regional meet in Fresno last month, the starter’s gun did not fire correctly, causing Sanchez to stumble beyond the starting line. He stood there bewildered, unable to squeeze back into the surging pack of runners who had pushed forward to the front row.

Before the gun went off, Sanchez felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull him back across the starting line, right into the front row. Hernandez stepped back into the second row and released his grip on Sanchez.

“Eleazar had only beaten him by one second in the CIF finals two weeks earlier, and here he is helping the guy by giving up his spot on the front row,” Smith says.

Hernandez is perfectly willing to sacrifice his own best interests to do what he considers honorable. He will forgo a college education if he believes his family needs him in Mexico.

The brother Eleazar lives with, Victor, has managed well during his nine years in the United States. Victor is 27, married with two young children, and works full-time in an Oxnard factory.

“I think my dad maybe would want (Eleazar) to go (to college),” Victor says, “but I don’t know about my mother. I do know they expect him back after high school.”

Eleazar reflects on his family and his whistle is barely audible. He realizes he has outdistanced his expectations.

“This was always my plan, four years here then I go back,” he says. “But now, there are questions.”

*

It was simply family tradition. After finishing eighth grade in Mexico, Hernandez was to work full-time in a factory like his father and two brothers had done. No one in his family had attended high school.

But a visit from Victor brought Eleazar to the first crossroads of his life. Victor had lived in the United States for five years and he urged his younger brother to return with him and attend high school.

“I was curious, so I went,” Hernandez says.

He enrolled at Fillmore High, a pudgy 160-pound freshman who spoke no English. His role models were gang members. Hernandez didn’t even know how to run from trouble, let alone run cross-country.

Two of the gang members were also runners, so Hernandez tried out for the team. To his surprise, he enjoyed it. And as he ran off excess weight, he excelled, finishing the cross-country season as the varsity’s No. 3 runner.

Hernandez had found a sport, a home and some homeboys. The United States was all right.

During the summer, however, Victor married and moved to Camarillo, dragging with him a very unhappy Eleazar.

“I told my brother to send me back to Mexico, but he didn’t have any money,” Hernandez says, scowling at the memory.

Hernandez enrolled at Camarillo and decided to do what he does best: Run through the pain.

He grew close to Smith and assistant Charlie Carranza, taking long runs with Carranza after school. Hernandez left his gang affiliations in the dust.

His English improved rapidly, thanks to Pasqual Campos, a Camarillo teacher. Hernandez now speaks nearly fluent English and takes a full schedule of English-speaking classes.

As his running times went down, his grade-point average went up. Hernandez, who has a personal best of 9 minutes 10.96 seconds in the 3,200 meters, currently is earning four A’s and two C’s. “Math and biology still give me trouble,” he says.

Victor and his family moved to Oxnard last year, but Eleazar chose to remain at Camarillo High, a decision that was a jog around the block compared to the one he faces now.

*

Hernandez was honored on a recent evening by the Mexican-American Forum of Camarillo. He met a judge, an attorney and several businessmen who, like Hernandez, became more educated than anyone in their families.

He was encouraged to give college a try, a refrain he heard from all sides. Part of his reluctance is a fear of the unknown. It did not stop him from coming to the United States, but it might keep him from staying.

“I hear in college you have to do homework until midnight,” he says.

The trip to San Antonio should help him get a clear idea of what college life holds.

Hernandez will take the Scholastic Aptitude Test in January and if his score is over the 700 required for an athletic scholarship, “I think he will go to college,” Smith says. “I think it is looking more like that every day.”

If so, he will be able to visit his family first. To attend college in the United States, Hernandez must return to Mexico and apply for a foreign student visa. The fact that he has been offered an athletic scholarship makes approval of the visa a near certainty.

“I’ve encouraged him to go to college,” Victor Hernandez says. “It’s a great opportunity that none of us in our family has had. I would be so proud.”

So would Smith, although he will support any decision Hernandez makes. He points out that returning to Mexico for good does not spell an end to the runner’s career.

“There are club teams that train in a very competitive track and field environment,” Smith says. “Many great runners come from Mexico.”

Hernandez being one of them. Now he is being told to stop . . . and make a choice that will transform his life.

More than likely, he won’t stop at all. This decision will be made on the run, somewhere along a flat road on the Oxnard plains, with Hernandez running and thinking, thinking and running.