Volume 78, Issue 18 | www.elaccampusnews.com | Wednesday, April 14, 2021 | Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
EOPS inspires students to be kind to themselves BY CYNTHIA SOLIS Staff Writer East Los Angeles College Extended Opportunity Programs and Services program held a multitude of events in celebration of Women’s History Month; as a way to conclude the month, they held the “Inspiring Women” workshop. The workshop began with ELAC’s President Alberto Roman congratulating the panelists for the remarkable contributions that they have made at ELAC, helping to carry the college forward. Roman said all the panelists are incredibly inspiring— capturing the essence of empowering women in our community. He said he was very humbled by the opportunity to attend and believes that it is essential to celebrate and recognize the panelists (and all women) for paving the way for future generations of hardworking women. The workshop’s purpose was to show how to become a great leader and be successful. Many students submitted questions before the meeting and they all had the general theme of how a person can be successful when the odds are stacked against them, whether it’s because women, are trying to enter a male-dominated career or don’t feel like some things
CN/CYNTHIA SOLIS
EMPOWER ALL—EOPS seminar encouraged many students to take part in self-care and being true to themselves during times of high stress and adversity. can be accomplished. Something that stood out in all of the panelists responses is how important it is not to change oneself. Sending the message that women should remember that they are capable individuals who are more than qualified for whatever they set
their mind to, Dr. Angelica Suarez, P.h.D, one of the panelists, talked about how important it is to be authentic because it is a lot easier to be oneself than to have to hide their personality. The panelists also talked about the importance of remembering
the value of learning to grow and develop as a leader. People often question themselves and put themselves down when it comes to messy situations. Panelist Teresa Moreno discussed how she uses whatever hardship she endures, and sees them as “growth opportunities.”
Activist speaks on her journey fighting for education BY PAUL MEDINA Staff Writer
Civil rights and education activist Sylvia Mendez returned to ELAC on March 30 continuing to enlighten students as the latest speaker of the ELAC Racial Equity & Social Justice Town Hall series, since her last visit in 2014. The theme of the workshop was “Fighting for Racial Equity and Social Justice.” Mendez is best known as being the lead plaintiff in a landmark legal case known as Mendez v. Westminster. The seminar was sponsored by ELAC President’s Office and the Women/Gender Studies program. M e n d e z t h a n k e d E L A C ’s audience for inviting her to share her story. “We have come a long way from Brown v. Board of Education. My dream is finally coming true, Mendez v. Westminster is being recognized for its historical impact it had on all of us. My goal is for it to be taught in all the schools,” Mendez said. Mendez said “Today an estimated 60 million Latinos live in the United States and about 43 million still speak Spanish. Although, Latinos are the largest ethnic minority at about 18%, anti-Latino discrimination is so common. Latinos still experience discrimination and it’s far from over.” In 1947, when racial segregation was lawful in schools nationwide, eight-year-old Mendez, and her parents Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, alongside five other Mexican families, sued the Westminster School District in Orange County, California. The lawsuit alleged that the district practiced unfair educational opportunities for Hispanic students and violated the equal protection clause found under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
News Briefs
After Gonzalo Mendez found out that several cities built separate schools to educate non-white children, he hired a civil rights attorney named David Marcus to file a lawsuit to desegregate Westminster district schools, according to a United States Hispanic Leadership Award documentary on Sylvia Mendez. Dr. Alberto Román praised Mendez on how her battle for school desegregation changed the course of history. Furthermore Román praised Mendez’s case for being the catalyst for change in inspiring Brown vs. Board of Education which ended segregation in public education. Mendez’s parents argued in court that being a student at Hoover Elementary was unconstitutional. The Westminster school district policies at the time were that Hispanics attended the so-called ‘Mexican Schools,’ which were poorer schools located in the predominantly Mexican neighborhoods, according to an article by Dave Roos on History. com
Meanwhile, White children attended the beautiful 17th Street Elementary School. The U.S. Ninth Circuit court of appeals would eventually rule in a landmark decision in favor of Mendez and the five families. The case would be appealed, but by then Mendez had the backing of organizations such as the NAACP, LULAC, JACL, and WJC, which assisted in upholding the ruling, according to a United States Hispanic Leadership Award documentary on Sylvia Mendez. ELAC Chicano Studies Professor Nadine Bermudez said to the audience, “The case changed my life and, whether you know it or not, it also changed your life.” “I’ve spent almost 20 years studying the Mendez case. My family was involved in the Mendez case. We come from Westminster. If I were to sum up the case in a few words, it would be an idea of identity and love,” Bermudez said. Public schools were eventually desegregated in California. The case would serve as a catalyst and strong inspiration for the U.S.
Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education which struck down racial segregation in public schools nationwide. The Brown case ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional and overruled portions of the controversial 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine in the United States. Román said that the Mendez case “Shed light on the many social, economic, political and racial injustices that Mexican American families faced during those times.” In her later years, Mendez would go on to attend Orange Coast College, becoming a registered nurse for 33 years before retiring. Mendez has been enshrined with many accolades including the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by Barack Obama in 2011, the renaming of a Berkeley public elementary school in her honor, a commemorative U.S. Postal Service Stamp and a planned 2-mile-long freedom trail and monument in Westminster.
CN/DESIREE LOPEZ
BACK IN 2014—Sylvia Mendez last visit to ELAC was on March 2, 2014, also discussing her activism in her fight for education and segregation along with a few others.
Stronger Together Mental & Financial Wellness Elac Student Health Center will host
workshops to help students with financial and mental health struggles. Workshops will take place on today at 4 p.m. and next Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Town Hall for ELAC Students
All the panelists also stressed the importance of having a great support system. For some, support is something hard to come by, but whether it is a friend, teacher or parent, support makes the journey to a goal a lot easier.
Panelist Angeles Abraham talked about how she has many mentors that pushed her when she didn’t have the motivation to work hard anymore, because of them she is now a dean and EOPS director at West Los Angeles College. She has also taken the value of having a mentor in the way she helps students. Abraham believes that because she has a welcoming spirit, it allows her to create close relationships with students. She said that when she sees her students walking across the stage, it inspires her “because [she] knows what they overcame and what difference [she] made in their life.” When trying to accomplish anything, an average amount of stress is typical, panelist Julie Benavides said. It’s important to take care of oneself by practicing self-care. In the beginning, she questioned its effectiveness, but now she swears by it. Practicing your breathing, self-reflecting, or simply having someone to talk to will significantly impact how a person can move on from challenges more robust than before. A source Benavides recommends is https://projecthotmess.com/ self-care-habits-of-successfulwomen/ which highlights many habits successful women should implement into their daily lives.
ELAC town hall speaks on passion in activism BY IVAN CAZARES Staff Writer Patrisse Khan-Cullors told East Los Angeles College students who aspire to be activists on March 19 that they need to find the issues that impact them the most, because that is what will keep them motivated and committed to their work. Cullors is a cofounder of the Black Lives Matters movement, an educator and an author whose books have made it to The New York Times best sellers list. Her latest book “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” is a direct response to conservative media and those skeptical of the movement. After they were labeled as terrorists when some protestors clashed with police and instances of looting took place following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Cullors said labeling movements like Black Lives Matters is a strategy white supremists use to change the public narrative. She said the strategy was used against the Black Panther movement as a way to criminalize activism in the minds of the general public. “The work that BLM is doing is trying to undo 400 years of harm violence and trauma caused by white supremacy,” Cullors said. “That is actually psychologically and physiologically very hard to do, because one thing that’s important to know if you’ve studied psychology, physiology or biology is that human beings, even if it’s not good for us, if we’ve been doing it over and over again we’ll lean toward the thing doing us harm, because it’s what we’re use to.”
ELAC President Dr. Alberto J. Román Students can attend ask questions regarding COVID-19, Wi-Fi hot spots, financial aid and other questions regarding support for students. To register go to http://bit.ly/townhall042321
In January thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. capitol in what Cullors said was a clear act of terroism, but she said despite that being blatantly obvious using the term comes with negative repercussions for people of color and their movements, because it results is more anti terroirm law enforcement that ends up targeting people of color. “Making an institution like the U.S. change is not easy. You’ll get resistance from your own people, because it feels like their foundation is being ripped from underneath them, and it is, but we can establish new foundations. It just takes time,” Cullors said. She told aspiring activists that they can’t be discouraged by the colossal obstacle of institutionalized racism, because the work must be done.She said supporting causes through social media helps, but that they need to get involved and be ready to face challenges if they really want to affect change. While she said BLM is fighting hundreds of years of trauma, Cullors said it’s important for people to understand that the movement isn’t only motivated by pain. “You can only use anger as your anchor for so long. It’s not sustainable. It destroys individuals and it destroys matters. BLM is motivated by black resilience, black joy and love.” Culllors was invited to speak to ELAC students as a collaboration between One Book One College and Gender Studies program. The college will continue to host similar seminars and workshops to help educate staff and students on activism throughout the year.
How to Avoid the Sophomore Slump
The first year experience center will host a seminar today from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. regarding how to stay motivated during the second year of college. Register at https:// tinyurl.com/avoid-soph-slump