Hispanic Causing Panic

And the craziest and most exciting week award goes to __________.

Yes, this past week. Actually these past few weeks have been critical, and I’m not sure how I made it through. I wanted to do something crazy, as always, something that was going to get the youth’s attention, but at the same time not degrade what I represented. Also, I wanted to promote an exciting time of year for me, the 2012 NBA Playoffs. So I decided to contact the best in the local business that can do a design similar to what Metta World Peace had two years ago.

I knew I was going to hear a lot of criticism towards it, but I was willing to take the hits because I knew what that meant. It was worth the sacrifice and adds excitement because it’s fun to live on the edge. I wanted to be the first teacher/coach that can reach out to these kids in style. That’s what I’m about, I love fashion, I love what is new, and I love to be up to date in order to keep up with the kids that I deal with day in and day out. I’m like a cell phone constantly updating to the latest and greatest. My intentions always point back to the reason I got into teaching to inspire and influence kids in a positive way by the way I live. That’s my way of evangelizing. I’ve been doing this long before I became a teacher, but recently I’ve gone more public than ever before. Kids are easily influenced by negative lifestyles because that is all that gets promoted, so why not turn it around and show them an alternative. I do things like this to win them over. Once I have their attention then they really listen. Yes, teenagers do listen. It’s like magic.

The person responsible for the design above is a true artist. He is a Hispanic that is well known in town, my own students referred him to me, so I decided to contact him. It wasn’t easy, and when I got to his shop which was his garage at his own “pad” it was like I was in Los Angeles, my home. In L.A., it is easy to smell the smoke in the air, even more so since the legalization of marijuana, while viewing the graffiti on the walls and feeding off of the energy of the Hispanic culture that is very alive. These lively people literally put everything on the line for a better tomorrow. That’s what I admire most about being Chicano. I don’t want to send any wrong messages here because I’m 100% against smoking, alcohol, and drugs as I mentioned before in a previous blog. Personally, I don’t want any tattoos because 1. It marks God’s temple. 2. It’s permanent. 3. My body is already beautiful and if I want to make it better I can do it by adding muscle not ink. Tattoos look cool, but not for me. My older brother, Desert Storm veteran, received the following tattoo in 1992 that will forever change the way I feel about segregation:

I’m not a gangster, but the color of my skin and being American stereotypes me. When I was in 8th grade, at San Jacinto Junior High, where I currently teach, I was either a gangster or a kicker. Since I was American and spoke English, I was gangster, but because I spoke Spanish well, I was a kicker or “wet back”. I didn’t understand those stereotypes then like I do now. Everything is much clearer now. I see the world with different set of eyes then the youth because of my education and upbringing. I can relate to every single one of them. After all, not only was I once sitting in their seats, but I am one of the closest adult to their age. It’s all about youth. We must be like children and their innocence to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Even though every year I’m one year older, I feel one year younger. I’m never going to “grow up”. I understand! I understand all ethnicities. Without labeling by race, I understand all kids. The bad boys who think they are too cool for school, the ones that don’t speak English, the straight A students, the goodie-goods, the economically disadvantage, the wealthy, the preps, the jocks, the nerds. I understand because I represent every one of those groups. I like to call myself a new breed or shoud I say the last of a dying breed, who had to privilege to live all these lifestyles. I chose education as a career for a reason. I felt the call to serve the next generation or should I say my generation, not because I’m young also, but because it’s about having ownership. We are in this together if the kids fail, then we fail, that means I failed and I’m not talking about a state mandated standardized test. I'm not talking about TAKS, STAAR, THEA, SAT, CRE, etc. I’m talking about life.

As the week went by I had to remind myself, based on the movie Zombieland, rule #32 to survive in a zombie infested world: Enjoy the little things. Semester finals were hectic. Everything was due at the last minute. Plays, presentations, research paper, comprensivo, presentation, take home final, presentation, research paper, and research paper. It was worth it, and I should finish with straight A’s in the toughest semester, first time full time student as a graduate student. 2 more classes left for my Masters of Arts in Spanish. One class in Summer I Session and the last and final one in the Fall with the comprensivo attached to it. Life goes by so fast. We often forget the little things in life that make everything worthwhile. Live a little, dance like no one is watching and live like it’s heaven on earth. May 10th was Mother’s Day in Mexico, so I wanted to say happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers before this Sunday on Mother’s Day. May 10th was my father’s 75th birthday. He has walked this earth for three fourths of a century. I love my father the only father I have on this earth. I started teaching at Midland College again part-time in the evenings. I’m about to rock my student’s world. They are going to get a full dose of my enthusiasm and passion. My goal in the next few weeks is to blow them away while I’m teaching them remedial algebra. It’s going to be wild and crazy.

I’ve been under attack. It’s like I’m at war right now and I love it. Nothing new, I’ve been in this situation before. I’ve been tested numerous times since my childhood days in the West Coast, and I love it because it what makes me this strong. I love the 12th round, I love the 4th quarter, I love the 9th inning, and I love Game 7. I love “haters”. Haters = parasites who panic.

With that being said, we are living it up. These are the days that we will remember forever. We need to cheer up. Wake up and smell the coffee or the whey protein shakes. It’s not thugs and violence that people fear it’s something far greater. I’m starting a revolution, with the Martin Luther King and Cesar Chávez approach of non-violent acts to greatness. When will they stop hating? When will they start appreciating?