BERKELEY HIGH
PUBLISHED BY AND FOR THE STUDENTS OF BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL
www.berkeleyhighjacket.com • friday, October 7, 2022
no. 4
since 1912
Latinx LATINX Heritage HERITAGE MONTH Month STUDENTSUBMISSIONS SUBMISSIONS STUDENT ON PAGE 9 ON PAGE 9
ART SUBMITTED BY DAVID GUERRERO ART SUBMITTED BY DAVID GUERRERO
INVESTIGATIVE
Trans athletes speak on their experience BY JASPER LOVVORNBLACK staff writer
“It can sometimes be a little bit weird to be on a women’s varsity team and know that I am not a woman,” said Medina Lam (they/them), a senior on crew, who plays on a gendered team that they do not identify with. Some athletes within Berkeley High School’s sports program identify as transgender or non-binary, but are on teams that come with labels that don’t fit their gender identity. One of the benefits of playing sports is the community building that comes from being on a team. “(The team) is competitive but not toxic, and it’s just fun getting out there and getting exercise,” said senior Abbey Chen (he/they), a student who
plays on the women’s lacrosse team but doesn’t as a woman. “I do like that there’s like a community built with the girls team that maybe wouldn’t be the same on the boys team,” he said. “I feel safer on the girls (team), and it’s just a fun experience overall.” Some gendernonconforming athletes find community within their shared identities. “There’s kind of this point of bonding not even necessarily on my team, but with trans athletes, non-binary athletes on other teams, or friends of mine that have similar experiences,” Lam said, “(who) understand what it’s like to be on a women’s varsity team (but not identify as a woman), for example.” Rowan Nykamp (they/ them), a junior on the BHS mountain biking team, said “I haven’t found anybody that hasn’t been supportive about me or PAGE 8
Micaela Bedolla Garcia and her older sister, Paola, find that they approach BHS Spanish classes differently.
LILA HALLWARD
FEATURES
A cultural connection: Learning Spanish BY MADELYN PHILHOWER staff writer
Though raised in the same Spanish speaking household, Micaela and Paola Bedolla Garcia have different relationships with the language. Paola Bedolla Garcia, a senior in Berkeley International High School (BIHS), grew up speaking Spanish and took part in
the Two Way Immersion (TWI) program at Longfellow Middle School. In the program, most of her academic subjects were taught entirely in Spanish. In contrast, her sibling, Micaela Bedolla Garcia, a Berkeley High School freshman, said, “I can read and write (in Spanish), but I cannot speak it back.” As a student taking Spanish I this year, “even though I learned Spanish by listening to it, I
feel like I’m learning again for the first time,” they said. For Paola Bedolla Garcia, who tested into Native Speakers Spanish III her freshman year, now having taken the highest AP classes available, taking Spanish at school helps “in speaking to family members and being able to (practice Spanish), because language is a muscle. You need to always train it … if you don’t have people around you to speak
to in it, then you’re probably going to lose that language.” BHS senior Jasmine Moreira-Cortes was also motivated to take advanced Spanish classes because of her experience growing up and speaking Spanish at home. “I was afraid that … in going to school (speaking English) for so many hours and then coming back home to speak (Spanish) again, some of my PAGE 10
Listen to the The Buzz: Latinx experiences in white spaces
Rundown on telenovelas: A core piece of Latinx history
Students and community grieve death of two students
Listen to the most recent episode of The Buzz: The BHS Jacket Podcast. Listen on Anchor, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Telenovelas, known for shocking reveals and elaborately tangled romance, are a crucial part of Latinx culture. PAGE 13
Students and community members attended memorials to grieve and remember lives lost in the recent shooting. PAGE 11