Notes From the Future
Posted Mar 31 2006
Reflection of MECHA Conference
by Martin Rochin
When we first arrived at UC Berkley for the MECHA conference I admit I had little idea of what the MECHA conference was going to be about. I knew it had something to do with Chicanos but that was all I knew. I vaguely remembered being on another part of the UC Berkley campus when I was in 8th grade. I knew I was on a University but I did not make much of it. However later during Mr. Alex M. Saragoza’s speech I realized that UC Berkley had actually been rated the top school not too long ago. .jpg)
Mr. Saragoza also spoke about how hard it was for him to get where he had gotten. One thing he really focused on was telling us how lucky we were to even have parents that knew that education is very important because when he told his parents that he was going to graduate from high school his father said, “good now you can work” but after he told his father he wanted to go to college his father said, “you’re just trying to get out of working because you’re lazy.” His parents had no idea what it meant to go to college and he told us that was something many people take for granted.
After the speech we got to enjoy entertainment by two Peruvian dancers. They were really good and I could tell they had to go through a lot of practice in order to dance so flawlessly.
After that Jestin and I went to a couple of workshops: "College 101" and "Why Athletics?" In college 101 we learned that there are many ways to get financial aid to go to college, we were even told about a website called “fastweb.com” that allows one to apply for many scholarships and gives reminders of upcoming deadlines and new scholarships. In why athletics (which we went to because neither of us knew where to go so we chose something at random) we learned that getting a scholarship on just athletics is a “mixed blessing.” Although they are easy to get because not that many people apply to them so one doesn’t have to be the best at sports to apply to them, one cannot quit the team during their time spent in the college or must risk having their scholarship taken away.
After lunch (in which hard working parents had made tamales) we went to hear a second speech. This one was by Mr. Johnny Rodriguez and the first thing he pointed out was that he was inspired by the earlier speech and was angry at the disrespect that people showed Mr. Saragoza. He said he had seen someone listening to music and playing on their cell phone during the speech. Then he continued and spoke about how he knew how it was like around the bay and how a big part of people failing is the examples they’re given. He said that the reason he turned his life around is that his brother, who is currently serving a life sentence, told him about how he shouldn’t drop out of school and do what he did. He also talked about how the OG’s will say the same thing: how they regret what they did and that kids shouldn’t head that way but try to make something of themselves.
The MECHA conference definitely taught me things I didn’t know before. When Mr. Saragoza spoke I realized that I really am lucky to have parents who support me on going to college. During the Peruvian dancers’ dance I saw a beautiful demonstration of culture. During Mr. Rodriguez’s speech I thought of what Stanley “Tookie” Williams did: try to guide as many young kids away from the very thing he helped create. Finally I remember that on the way back we went to go see a park that the Black Panthers and other activists used for their meetings before and I realized as well that all this big history is not only recent but it is all over and is forming all around us.
I believe teachers like you and people like Dr. Alex M. Saragoza should be around teens talking about life, history, and how change can be positive. A lot of kids do think of their future, it's just motivation and a role model. If the kids see's the outcome of a unsucessful person maybe they will change. When I attendeed the UC Berkeley MECHA event, it did change me a lot. I wasm't a bad kid and my grades were not low. It help to work hard in school for college, life, and for my future. Even tough it was made for Latinos, my friends who are african-americans attended this event. They where the only ones there and sitting in front with my class. I was suprise that a lot went to talk with there freinds and meet up with there boy/girl friends. It was very rude because most of the people in the hall but my class where texting and not really caring. The school should open the program try to lour other races. F.Y.I. I am in the pictures, this was 9th grade.