1 County, 2 Worlds

They were exchange students, nervous teenagers who ventured into foreign territory: ethnically different, economically disparate, two distinct cultures--within 20 miles of each other.

This student exchange program took place in Orange County, where youngsters from the two most ethnically homogenous school systems in the county--Laguna Beach, which is about 90% white, and Santa Ana, about 90% Latino--acted as cultural emissaries in an effort to view familiar and unfamiliar surroundings with new eyes.

In small groups, teens from Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach and McFadden Intermediate in Santa Ana discovered common ground--a shared love of hip-hop and shopping, and an aversion to country line dancing.

And they were wide-eyed about their differences. Some of the Santa Ana kids whispered among themselves about the number of blonds who got off the bus visiting their school.

These kids are exposed to so much crime, the Laguna kids said of their hosts. “They talked about people being murdered so casually, like it was just nothing,” said Mahri Barnes, 13. And many of the Lagunans had never ventured farther into Santa Ana than Planet Hollywood at the Costa Mesa border.

But the Santa Ana kids looked at the coastal city--many had never been to a beach--and said it’s beautiful, but so isolated. Where can teenagers possibly go to do something interesting?

The students visited one another’s campuses for the first time as part of the Bridges program, a collaborative project by the Orange County Human Relations Commission, the Laguna Beach Unified and Santa Ana Unified school districts, and UC Irvine. The goal was to expand their horizons and shrink their prejudices.

They prepared for their visits by first examining the character of their own communities. Furnished with instant cameras, the Thurston Middle School students photographed Laguna Beach, and the McFadden Intermediate students took snapshots of Santa Ana. Both groups interviewed people in their neighborhoods and tried to look at the familiar streets and shops with new eyes. Then, in a mini-exchange program, they were to come together for three meetings.

During the first encounter, in Santa Ana, both groups stood and stared at each other with the social nervousness typical of the age. Minutes before their 15 guests arrived, the 30 Santa Ana students had discussed what lay ahead. “What will they be like?” asked Rene Ramirez, 13. “Kids are kids. They’ll be just like us.”

It was true--and not true.

As an icebreaker, Talma Scheerson, the Human Relations Commission coordinator for the program, arranged students from both schools in small groups, gave them large squares of paper and asked them to write down what it is like to be a teen.

They scrawled over the papers: “Parties!,” “Shopping,” “Guys + girls” (written inside a heart), and “Sometimes we feel trapped and it’s dangerous. We have difficult, difficult choices.”

“Like take drugs,” Rene said. “Adults think that other kids ask you once, and you just say no and that’s it. But it’s something you deal with again and again and again.”

Finding Similarities

All the teens agreed they live with a variety of social pressures. There is pressure to grow up quickly, to be popular, to have sex, to avoid sex, to be pretty (boys did not mention pressure to be handsome) and to be successful. Also, several of the Thurston students, even at ages 13 and 14, were keenly aware of how much money they would have to earn as adults if they wanted to own a home in Laguna Beach.

About 15 minutes after meeting, Katie McColm and Cecilia Cea from Laguna Beach sat down to talk to Ysenia Mejia and Rocio Cruz from Santa Ana. The four determined that they like to shop, listen to hip-hop and rap, would not be caught dead country line dancing, and then exchanged telephone numbers and photographs.

Scheerson’s exercise also seemed to open the way, particularly for some of the girls, to deeper confidences. They breezily chatted of barely concealed heartaches and split families.

Girls compared pictures of stepmothers--”Mine’s barely 30 years old,” sighed a Laguna Beach teen while looking at a photo of a McFadden teen’s step-mom.

Another Laguna Beach girl pulled out a photo of her father. He lives in South America, where he and his new wife work to try to save the rain forests.

“If I could have any one wish, it would be that he comes back home,” the daughter said.

“What religion are you?” another student asked the group.

“I don’t know what religion I am, but I don’t think I want to be a Buddhist--that’s what my family is,” announced a Santa Ana student.

“Do you go to the girls’ room when you need to cry?” the not-Buddhist asked Cecilia.

Cecilia, wearing a Mickey Mouse hooded sweatshirt and metal studded choker around her neck, stared back.

“I don’t cry,” she said firmly. “Ever.”

The boys also talked, but seemed to have less in common. They worked together with goodwill in groups when asked to by the adults, but rarely mixed when left alone.

“They’re nice, but they’re just different,” explained McFadden student Frank Cisneros. “They dress different and they talk different--I don’t know, it’s just easier to talk to people who talk the way you do--they understand you.”

On the visit to Santa Ana, students went to City Hall and lunched in the open-air Japanese pavilion near Superior Court. Several Laguna Beach girls cooed over a friendly black dog, seemingly oblivious to its surprised homeless owner nearby.

By contrast, with hardly a glance, the Santa Ana students took in the shopping cart, the bedroll and the woman muttering beside them. With an urban wariness of unpredictable situations, they left the dog alone.

The downtown and City Hall area had a lot of charm, Thurston students decided, and the bustle of a big city was exciting.

“It’s really neat here--I’ve had a lot of fun,” said Thurston student Heather Gregg, 13. “It was a little different, but mostly the same.”

A New Appreciation

Meeting two weeks later in Laguna Beach, the teens came together more easily. The Santa Ana students found the coastal town beautiful--isolated, a little boring, but beautiful.

Thurston Intermediate School is perched on a hilltop with sweeping views of the ocean. While the teens from more level Santa Ana appreciated the view, they found route to the school too “twisty.”

When the Santa Ana girls asked if there was a mall nearby, they were directed instead to Toes on the Nose, a popular surf shop.

“This is a nice place to, uh, relax,” Frank Cisneros said politely, when asked his impression of Laguna Beach.

The two groups would meet one last time, in Santa Ana, to exhibit the photos they took of both communities.

Several students from both schools said they would like to have had more time to really get to know one another. One trip to Santa Ana and another to Laguna Beach were not enough.

“When you don’t have contact with people in other communities, you create an image about who lives in Santa Ana or who lives in Laguna Beach that really may just be stereotypes,” said McFadden teacher Tyra Dimateis. “What’s important is that now they have contact, and that’s something they can keep all their lives.’

The students learned that although Laguna Beach may be a haven from violence, living there doesn’t necessarily mean being wealthy. Several Thurston students in the group rent homes with their families--and in a couple of cases, struggle to make the rent--while on the other hand, some of the group’s Santa Ana students live in homes their parents own.

Perhaps one of the students’ more startling revelations came from examining their own communities in photographs, artwork and essays. In each case, the students found they love where they live.

“This program has involved a lot of introspection,” Dimateis said. “They’ve had to ask themselves what makes a community.”

What emerged from the project was an intense pride in Santa Ana, Dimateis said. The kids love their neighborhoods and have a sense that they fit in well with the people around them. The familiar sounds, smells and sights of city living--from the county government offices to the dozens of shops and restaurants--give Santa Ana a measure of excitement that became most noticeable after they left it for a day.

The same pride emerged in the Laguna Beach students, who described their town as a lovely, safe haven many hope never to leave.

“Laguna is so peaceful and quiet--I’d definitely live there as an adult,” Mahri said. “I think we’re really lucky to live there.”