MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
2022–23 HOLY CROSS CORE VALUE
OPTION FOR THE POOR Each academic year, Hoban focuses on one Holy Cross core value. Option for the Poor is the chosen theme for the 2022-23 school year. For some, it is a Holy Cross core value that difficult to fully grasp. Unlike Hope, Integrity or Zeal, it is sometimes ambiguous or even worse, some would say culturally or politically loaded. This year, our Hoban community will explore the many forms of poverty that we must address each day in our own lives and in society. From spiritual poverty, emotional poverty and socioeconomic poverty to communal poverty or cultural poverty, the types of poverty that we face are daunting. Therefore, addressing Option for the Poor connects the heart of our mission at Hoban. One of my favorite short stories to teach in the 9th grade classroom [many moons ago] was Hugo Martinez-Serros story “Distillation.” In the story, a destitute Mexican father living in Chicago pulls his five sons in a wagon to a trash dump each Saturday. The dump is miles away from his home and the journey each Saturday traverses over many steep inclines and obstacles. “Ahead of us rats scattered, fleeing the noise and bulk that moved toward them. Stray dogs, poking their noses into piles, did not retreat at our approach. Sunlight and shadows mottled my vision as the wagon rolled past trees, poles, fences, garages, sheds. My father moved in and out of the light, in and out of the shadows.” Once there, the family scavenges for leftovers…depicting a sad and gruesome reality for many in society who struggle for essentials. In a way, the story is a sobering documentary on actual poverty and suffering. Words on a page helped the students relate vicariously to an extent, but raw experiences like Hoban’s Project HOPE or JAM often provided the real-world experiences that Serros narrated.
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SPRING-SUMMER 2022
“My father had learned that the dump yielded more and better on Saturdays. Truckloads of spoiled produce were dumped that day, truckloads from warehouses, markets, stores, truckloads of stale or damaged food. We would spend the entire day here, gathering, searching, sifting, digging, following the trucks’ shifting centers of activity.” The climax of the story occurs when a thunderstorm accompanied by damaging and large-sized hail breaks onto the scene out of nowhere and the father must protect his sons. The shack they take protection under blows away and the father scurries to find a tarp– all while taking abuse from the dangerous spheres of ice pelting his skin. “The growing force of the hailstorm crashed down on him. Thrashing desperately under the tarp, we found his legs and clung to them. I crawled between them. We could not stop bawling.” At the conclusion of the story, the young boy sees his father preparing to bathe after the long journey home. His back is exposed, and the son sees the welts and bruises his father absorbed. In the end, a new appreciation of his Dad’s sacrifices is realized–a new clarity of servant leadership is gleaned…a new “distillation” understood of what a father is to a family. As a teacher, this story always reminded me of Hoban’s Holy Cross core value Option for the Poor, taken from biblical themes throughout the many passages. Perhaps the most impactful is Matthew 25: 31-46.
