Return of a Native Son

On most days of the year, the talk at Lolo’s Barbershop on Santa Catalina Island ranges from raising money for the Little League team to keeping wild boars from rooting up the putting greens.

Not today. For more than a week, the gossip has centered on the return of the man they now call “the Prince.” From barber chairs and bar stools to council chambers and city streets, the 3,000 residents of Avalon are celebrating the homecoming of Matt Saldana, the new school principal, with the kind of affection usually reserved for royalty or sports heroes.

And, in a sense, he is both.

For Catalina schoolchildren and community members alike, the first lesson of the new school year has been this: You can go home again.

With the appointment of Saldana as principal of the Long Beach Unified School District’s Avalon School, the town is buzzing with news of the return of one of its favorite sons, a native islander and a member of the Saldana clan, Catalina’s biggest and best-known family.

Saldana isn’t only directly related to about 150 people in town and distantly related to dozens more, he’s the star of a new generation of Saldanas who left the island for college and are returning with professional skills.

As Saldana strolls down Crescent Street toward the pier, a man weaving visors out of palm leaves spots him.

“Hey, Prince! Prince!” retiree Harry “Cap” Conover bellows. “Welcome home!”

A group of teenagers notices him from the beach. “Mr. Saldana!” they call. “Mr. Saldana! Mr. Saldana!”

*

The new principal, a man of 37 who wears cowboy boots and an aura of assurance, greets each by name and offers high-fives all around.

As he heads up the street, the driver of a golf cart pulls over to shake his hand and invite him to dinner.

“It’s a dream come true,” Saldana says of his return. “It’s the highest-visibility job on the island. There’s a lot of responsibility. . . . But I don’t want to dance on egg shells. As my Uncle Frank says, ‘If you can’t be yourself, who can you be?’ ”

To understand Saldana, an educator whose previous jobs included serving as vice principal at Poly High and activities director at Wilson High in Long Beach, one must go back to the days the biggest name on Catalina was Wrigley.

In 1919, Saldana’s grandparents immigrated to Avalon from Mexico to work as gardeners for William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum magnate.

Today all but one of Papa Martan and Nana Margarita’s 11 children and their platoon of offspring still live on Catalina. Saldana’s mother and father raised him and his four siblings on a remote ranch where they worked for the Catalina Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that owns the bulk of the island.

Uncle Richard is the island’s famous one-handed golfer, a man who has shot 17 holes in one although his right hand was blown off in Vietnam. Uncle Frank and Uncle Lolo are the town’s barbers, Aunt Lidia its postmistress, cousin Gilbert, a former mayor, cousin Lolo, a coach.

Then there are the relatives who make the tacos, bake the bread, operate the machinery, feed the animals, run the bank, rent the bikes. Avalon School alone employs eight Saldanas--four teachers, a couple of playground aides, a cafeteria cook and the Prince.

*

Saldana’s wife, Valerie, works at Leo’s Drugstore when she isn’t taking classes “over town”--on the mainland. Aunt Cookie waits on customers and stocks shelves at Leo’s too.

As principal of the 654-student Avalon School, Saldana is responsible for the welfare and education of almost every child on Catalina--grades kindergarten through 12.

This year, there are a whopping 32 seniors. When Saldana graduated from the school in 1977, he was a member of a class of 27. Then as now, he was a natural leader whose many interests included music and drama, wrestling and football, history and English, math and government.

The opportunity to try everything and be somebody are among the many pluses of going to a small school, he says. “There’s a feeling of belonging. The downside is that there’s no one to date in high school. Dating a local girl is like marrying your sister.”

As he strolls through the playground, he is surrounded by children who are genuinely delighted to see him. “Mr. Saldana! Mr. Saldana! Mr. Saldana!”

*

A fourth-grader asks if he’d like to sneak into line and take a turn jumping rope. He accepts. To a chorus of “Carne! Chile! Mole! Pozole,” he jumps and plays with abandon.

When Saldana was in high school, he never dreamed of going to college. His mother encouraged him to become an air-conditioning repairman. He went to the mainland to take courses in industrial arts and wood shop and eventually earned a degree at Cal State Long Beach.

“After me, some of the other Saldanas started to believe they could do it,” he says. “I tell the kids, ‘College isn’t just for the rich people up on the hill.’

“I think my return to the island proves to people that anyone from Catalina can succeed.”

When he was in high school, Saldana was president of what he calls the Standing Committee for Getting a Swimming Pool in Avalon. There’s still no pool, but the committee survived. He says he’s determined to get one built. He also promises to develop more programs for accelerated students, expand sports programs and offer adult education classes and counseling services to members of the community.

“Catalina is no different from any island,” he says. “There isn’t much crime, but drinking and partying are a problem. People move to islands to get away. There’s no smog, no metal detectors, no traffic, one library, one post office, one major grocery store, one school, one hospital, one stable--and one hundred bars.”

In his office, Saldana displays hundreds of pictures of former students. He loves kids and animals, music and food. He also keeps a collection of 60 initialed belt buckles, reminders of the days he spent dealing with kids in gangs.

He’s glad to be back in a place where friendships last a lifetime, the speed limit is 30 mph and the term “online” refers to fish. There are no graffiti, Saldana points out, no bulletproof vests.

“I use to pray to live to the next day,” he says of his life in Long Beach. “The real difference between Catalina and the mainland is that our kids here are given an opportunity to be good. We make each person count.”