Overcoming Barriers to Find Success : Honors: El Concilio del Condado de Ventura will present its youth leadership award to Rocio Soto, 22.

Some of Rocio Soto’s earliest memories of school are the kind that she would just as soon forget.

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She remembers Border Patrol agents sweeping through her Oxnard elementary school, a scary sight for a grade school kid who had just slipped into the country illegally.

And she remembers struggling with her schoolwork, hobbled academically by her lack of English skills and by a learning disability that she wouldn’t discover until college.

But those experiences shaped her life. They showed her the value of hard work and education. They taught her to ask for help when she needed it, and demand a fair shake when she wasn’t getting one.

“There have been a lot of barriers,” said Soto, 22, who tonight will receive El Concilio del Condado de Ventura’s youth leadership award.

“But there are a lot of people out there who will help you,” she said. “You just need to know where to look, because nobody is going to come knocking on your door.”

Soto is among six civic leaders who will be honored by the Oxnard-based Latino advocacy group. The awards banquet starts at 5:30 p.m. at Seaside Park, at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

For the past six years, the organization has recognized those who have made outstanding contributions in education, community service, youth leadership, culture and business.

But in this day of troubled youth and anti-immigrant sentiment, El Concilio officials say Soto’s community contributions stand out.

“Her personal story, I think, definitely speaks to the fact that immigrants, whether they come here legally or illegally, do contribute to our society,” said Marcos Vargas, El Concilio’s executive director.

“Rocio has a strong commitment to her country and to what she can do to make it better,” Vargas said. “I think she exemplifies the kind of leadership that is coming out of our Latino community.”

The daughter of packinghouse workers, Soto came to the United States with her family when she was 7.

Immediately, Raul and Maria Soto taught their children to be wary.

The children were told not to peek through the curtains, for fear that la migra was lurking outside. They were warned that a stroll to the grocery store or the morning trek to school could earn them a bus ride back to Mexico.

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If asked where they were born, they were to say the United States.

“All our lives, we thought we were criminals just because we were here,” Soto said. “We feared that if we just walked down the street, Immigration would pick us up.

“I think now that it was mostly my parents exaggerating. They themselves didn’t know what was going on.”

She made her way through Hueneme School, E. O. Green Junior High and Hueneme High School, making mostly Cs while trying to get a grip on the English language.

It wasn’t until after the family won legal status, under the amnesty provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, that Soto’s community activism took off.

It was born, in part, through a series of questions about her own life.

She wanted to know why immigrant students were prohibited, and sometimes penalized, for speaking Spanish in the classroom. And she wondered why students like herself--those with mediocre grades but plenty of potential--were not pushed on to college.

“I think a lot of times in the school system, counselors only choose the students who they know will make it,” Soto said. “They don’t want to take chances on students like me.”

She began working with at-risk teen-agers in her neighborhood, putting together video projects to keep them off the streets.

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In recognition of her efforts, Soto was selected to meet with President Clinton in Washington in 1993, where she served on a youth advisory committee to develop a nationwide community service program.

Now in her third and final year at Oxnard College, her commitment continues. She has served as president of the college group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan and is a graduate of the student leadership program.

She works for the school’s disabled student program, a job that enabled her to discover her own disability. She suffers from dyslexia, a reading disorder.

Soto has applied to a handful of universities, where she plans to pursue a career as a youth counselor in the criminal justice system or a related job where she can help youngsters stay in school and out of trouble.

“I want to show the youth that there is another way,” she said. “It’s not so much that I want to have a big house or a nice car. I just mostly want a job I enjoy doing and that helps people.”

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FYI

El Concilio will hold its sixth annual Latino Leadership Awards banquet tonight at Seaside Park, Ventura County Fairgrounds. Other award winners are Robert Borrego for community service, Pete R. Placencia for education, Jaime Estrada for cultural arts, and Juan and Nina Duarte for business. Dinner and the program costs $40 per person or $70 per couple. For reservations, call 983-2336, Ext. 236.