Through a Glass Clearly : Teacher Wants to Correct Distorted Images of Latinos

Frank Javier Garcia Berumen, educator and author of “The Chicano / Hispanic Image in American Film,” lives in a world of mirrors.

As a child growing up in Lincoln Heights, he saw the movie screen as a mirror reflecting a distorted image that defined his people for a hundred years. But on summer trips with his family to Mexico he saw in the people and on the screen a different reflection--of pride in culture, family and history.

“I saw film and television as a mirror, and the reflection I saw was distorted,” he said. “What happened when I went to Mexico was a different thing coming back at me. It was positive.”

Berumen is the mirror maker of Lincoln Heights. His first book chronicles the film portrayal of Latinos from the silent screen days through 1995.

“If art reflects life, then American film reflected the prevailing images of people of color within the context of the times, periodically racist and frequently stereotypical,” he said at a recent book signing at Cal State L.A. “Thus the Latino was inevitably portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, oversexed, criminal and foreign.”

Later, elaborating on his point, he cited the film “The Rookie” as an example in which “a Latina is seen as a promiscuous sex object, a garden of evil.”

“It is images like this that degrade Latinas and undermine the pride in our culture,” he said.

In 1982, Berumen obtained a dual bachelor’s degree from Cal State L.A. in history and education. He also completed graduate work at Oxford University in England and received a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

Berumen, 36, returned recently to Harvard to pursue a doctorate in education. He is on leave from his alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School, where he has been a history teacher for six years.

Berumen says his barrio experiences have influenced his dissertation theme--to develop a curriculum for Chicano students involved in or susceptible to gang activity. The academic plan includes classes that emphasize Chicano history, leadership and conflict-resolution skills--themes that Berumen has incorporated into his teaching agenda.

“In one class where the students were studying the genocide of Jews, he had them discuss racial injustice,” said Gloria Salcido, a Lincoln High counselor. “He asked them to look at racial barriers in their own lives.

“He motivates them to think critically, to relate the issues in the history books to issues today,” she said. “He is strict, but all the kids love him.”

David Sandoval, educational opportunity program director at Cal State L.A., said Berumen “is not afraid to look outside the traditional realms. He is dedicated and challenges conventional wisdom.”

During the early ‘70s, “he didn’t have to turn tables and break windows as many of us did to make ourselves heard” in protesting the Vietnam War, Sandoval said. Instead, Berumen was effective in analyzing and documenting the demonstrations in a campus Chicano newsletter.

Sitting inside the single-story white house in which his family has lived for more than 30 years, Berumen traced his roots and influential events in his life.

Behind him in the dining room, covering a long mirror, were black-and-white photographs of Rita Hayworth (whose family name was Marguerita Carmen Cansino), Anthony Quinn, Lupe Velez and other Latino film stars.

Berumen, born in Mexico City, moved to the United States with his parents, a sister and four brothers when he was 6. His parents sought a better environment in which to raise their children.

Berumen’s father was a machinist and a union activist in Mexico, but after moving to Lincoln Heights, he repaired railroad cars for Southern Pacific. He died about three years ago from a heart attack. Berumen’s mother, a onetime seamstress who now works at son Hector’s restaurant, enjoys reading Mexican history texts from the tall bookcases in the family room.

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“From my father I learned the importance of a strong political conscience. From my mother I learned the importance of education,” he said. “There was a town called Morelos where my mom grew up and where my grandmother used to live. I would bring back books from Mexico that my mother and father bought for me about Mexican history, about Benito Juarez, the revolution. . . . That really opened my vistas to read about history.

“But often I remember being ashamed in a sense because we were accused, for example, in the [American] history books of massacring people at the Alamo and being treacherous and bloodthirsty. I didn’t see my people’s story being told,” he said.

Berumen said he wants to correct these distortions. At Harvard, he will continue to create a curriculum that perpetuates the values of Chicano history.

He said he wants to hold a mirror up to young Latinos who will see what he sees, a reflection of pride in their culture.

“I want them to see that there is something great in their history, and through this, a reflection of something great in themselves,” he said.