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INSIDE
Two young entrepreneurs embark on a journey in search of the secret recipe to life in the food bussiness. Thursday
Vol. 67 Issue 1
September 21, 2023
RIO HONDO CELEBRATES 60TH YEAR ANNIVERSA RY
CLAUDIA RIVAS
ZINE PROJECT SEEKS TO INSPIRE STUDENTS ON CAMPUS
Sierra Uribe
SIERRA URIBE @s3erra
On Friday, September 15th the Rio Hondo Choir performed in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Rio Hondo College in the lower quad on campus.
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io Hondo hosted the 60th anniversary celebration and invited the community to celebrate 60 years of the college on Friday, September 15. This successful event gave community members such as students, faculty as well as alumni the opportunity to look back at not only the great achievements of the college but what the future holds for it. Since 1963, Rio Hondo has been “a testament to dedication and progress” President & Superintendent Marilyn Flores said. From 9:30 AM until 8:00 PM many enjoyed a day full of live entertainment, food, games along with activities. The festiv-
ities hosted by Rio Hondo were provided for free for all to enjoy. Food catered by businesses such as Camilia’s Tacos, Cortina’s Italian, NORMS and more were also available at no cost. A series of performances ranging from Mariachi, Folklórico, Choir, Native American and more took place during each hour of the event. Native American group; Red Boy Production, was allowed to hit the stage and present their music and culture to guests. Lupe Lopez, member of Red Boy Production, said, “I want to thank the president, superintendent and activities director and all involved for in-
Sierra Uribe
Rio Hondo Staff representing their college at the 60th anniversary of Rio Hondo on Friday, September 15th in the lower quad of campus.
Sierra Uribe
Rio Hondo Staff 60th year staff photo framed in the midst of the event on Friday, September 15 for community members to see in the lower quad on campus.
viting us.” “Native American groups are often shut out of events so I am grateful that we were able to educate the people on what we do” said Lopez. Students and advisors of programs such as Career and Technical Education, Associated Students, the Honors Transfer Program and others proudly showcased their organizations. “These programs contribute a lot when it comes to making Rio Hondo a community that is for everyone as well as providing resources to students” said AS senator, Hesma Valdes. With Rio Hondo serving several local areas such as South Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, Pico Rivera and El Monte, the college creates and allows a unique community to come together each school year. “We are a single college district which gives us the ability to explore opportunities more easily,” Michael Slavich, CTE Dean said. Rio Hondo has continued to grow as a strong community college each year thanks to the faculty members and leaders both on and off campus. “When they say ‘Rio Hondo cares,’ the faculty and staff really do here” “There has been a really great community built not just among students but faculty as a whole” said 15 year ceramics professor Robert Miller. This milestone shines a light on the hard work and dedication put in by administration to make the school welcoming for all. Alexandra Zuniga, student trustee, said, “It is important to recognize the progress made when it comes to providing an equitable and inclusive environment since Rio Hondo’s original founding”
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Christopher Araujo
CHRISTOPHER ARAUJO @chris_ jrnlsm
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he Rio Hondo College librarian Claudia Rivas was one of the 25 applicants to be apart of UCLA’s California Rare Book School’s inaugural Radical Librarianship Institute. More than 300 librarians applied and Rivas was selected. After attending some RLI(Radical Librarianship Institute) for a week, she received 10,000 dollars to have a library project that she has been working on. Rio Hondo College Library’s Zine Outreach Project is intended to target the Río Hondo College campus and Whittier area communities, and especially teen and young adult populations, in encouraging and inspiring them to tell their unique stories. After speaking to Rivas she expressed how she felt being selected as one of 25
“Pretty good! Out of the 25, 20 of us are actually an art project in connection with zines.” -Rivas applicants,
Rivas was pretty excited to see her project of zines align with the other applicants. Rivas talked about the expectations for this project. “It’s a three phase project. The first phase is a zine fest, which will take place over two days Tuesday October 10 2023, and Wednesday October 11, 2023. We are going to have professional Zinesters come and present their work as zinsters and what inspires them.” Claudia went on to say that there will be 11 panelists who will be presenting over those two days. “The second phase will be a series of workshops where students will have the opportunity to make their own zines,” Rivas explained phase two of the zine project. Claudia did say that they will provide all the materials and everything is free. Some of the workshops students will have to register and others are walk-ins. The third phase for this project will be publication. “In the end we are going to have a printed book of all of the zines that have been made during our workshops and donated to our collection,” Claudia explained about the final phase of the zine project. Rivas said that any student that participates either by attending the zine festival or workshop and also contributes to zine will be getting 25 dollars to spend at the student store. Claudia said that they will be working on getting physical zines and digital ones. From a page to a whole booklet students will get to create their own zines. Rivas has been working on this project since 2019 with some workshops.
LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT CELEBRATES ITS EXEMPLARY AWARDS SIERRA URIBE
@s3erra
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ast Whittier City School District is celebrating big. The CA Dept. of Education awarded two of its schools, Leffingwell Elementary and Oceanview Elementary with the Distinguished National Blue Ribbon School award. The awards are present-
ed to schools for their excellent work in closing the achievement gap and exceptional student performance. The EWCSD is a K-8 district that serves a diverse community and is part of the dual enrollment program at Rio Hondo College.
News
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COLLECTING THE RARE, OFFERING THE KNOWLEDGE: THE DEAN OF THE LIBRARY CHRIS CASTANON @chriscast3194
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n a student’s quest for research Librarian, Mike Garabedian is a walking historian with a vast expanse of knowledge and wisdom. A published author of two books, Whittier: Images of America and Whittier: A Postcard History, the Dean of the Rio Hondo Library didn’t always dream of becoming a librarian. Growing up in Whittier, Garabedian had always been into literature, even making it his area of study by the time he graduated high school, this took him across the U.S. studying for his Bachelors in English Literature at Whittier College, an MA in American Literature from Northwestern University. He would finally go forward to pursue a PhD at the University of Chicago. This pursuit, however, would soon prove that his desires would not be in the right place. “I was actually going to get my PhD in American literature and found my heart wasn’t in it,” Garabedian
said, “During my time in grad school, my grades weren’t exactly the best to look at.” Like many other people living their lives figuring out what they want to do for their future, their first choice wasn’t going to be the thing that they would become. This goes the same for Garabedian, having decided not to continue in pursuing his career as a professor in literature, but instead working under tutelage with several librarians he had met along the road. He would continue to work in a bookstore he had sought employment in, when he attended the University of Chicago. This bookstore, known as Heritage Book Shop, would be where Garabedian would gain his interest in becoming a librarian in the future. During his time working in this bookstore, Garabedian had come across many of these librarians with different backgrounds and each time he would interact with one his interest would grow. “These peo-
ple seemed pretty laid-back, and so that’s how I started to pursue a career in the library,” Garabedian said. This new pursuit had taken him all the way from Chicago, Illinois, all the way to Los Angeles, CA. to attend UCLA in pursuit of an MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science). Though he didn’t become a librarian right away, he would work with others like him in collecting rare material from all four corners of America and the world including one of the surviving 48 copies of the Gutenberg bible. Garabedian would go on to co-author two books, both about the city of Whittier, one called Whittier: Images of America and the other, Whittier: A Postcard History. He still has a love for collecting rare books as seen in his office, however now he had a different pursuit. To help in making it easier for students to collect and gather information for their research. His plans are to further expand Rio Hondo’s
YOUR FUTURE STARTS NOW! SAMANTHA MARIN @sammarin4
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n Tuesday Sep. 12, 2023, Rio Hondo College had its very popular and highly anticipated Job and Internship Fair. This fair is one of Rio Hondo’s biggest events during the year. This fair has numerous companies, nonprofits and organizations come to campus and speak with students. Over 70 different employers from various different career fields were in attendance at this semester’s fair, some of which include Ford Motor Company, the Boys and Girls Club of Whittier, California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Department, Pep Boys and so much more. The Job and Internship fair is an event that many students look forward to every semester. There is always such a high number of student attendees at this event with roughly over 200 students each semester and this one was no different. The main purpose of this fair is to give students the opportunity to connect with different companies and organizations in areas that they are interested in. The fair also helps students, who have not yet chosen a path for themselves, to explore different career areas that they may find interesting to join. “It’s to help our students at Rio Hondo College get connected for real and actual jobs,” Christine Waugh, a career counselor at Rio Hon-
do, said. This fair has shown time and time again how beneficial it is for students. What are these employers looking for? Most of these employers are looking for fresh and creative minds that can enhance their companies. “It’s very important and very crucial to bring in new minds that can teach us,” Priscilla, from the City of Whittier, said. Many of the employers from the fair are also looking to help students grow as workers and as people. They want to see them flourish in what they do. “We are all about internal growth and we are all about getting you set up for any outside of work too,” Cha Cha, from the Disney Corporation, said. This fair is one of the events that students look forward to the most. It gives them a chance to branch out and learn about different careers they might not have thought about before. “They give you a lot of opportunities in one area and it gives us time to stop by and apply for things and see where they’re hiring,” Jennifer, a second year student at Rio Hondo said. If you happened to miss out on the Job and Internship Fair, don’t fret about it because this fair happens every semester. The next fair will be sometime at the beginning of the Spring semester so keep an eye out for that later on.
archives and digitize sources for easier access to help students with receiving information from the books they search for. “that’s our job, to provide the resources for those who need it,” Garabedian said, “No matter if it’s in digital form or in physical paper and ink, we’ll be there to provide
it.” Garabedian knows the strength and weaknesses of both physical and digital and knows what the library could do with both. Garabedian is currently pursuing a PhD in Library science, we wish him good luck.
Chris Castanon
Arts & Entertainment A LOOK INSIDE UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 2023
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El Paisano Staff Sierra Uribe
Editor-in-Chief
Giovanna Hernandez Executive Editor
Luis Martinez
Managing Editor
Alyssa Esquivel Christopher Castanon Co-Copy Editors
Christopher Araujo Online Editor-in-Chief
Robert Jimenez
Broadcast Director
Arianna Morales Video Editor
Victoria Ortiz Podcast Editor
Samantha Marin Rio Roundup Host
www.elpaisanoonline.com
GIOVANNA HERNANDEZ @elpaisanomedia
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niversal Studios Horror Nights has kicked off from September 7th - October 31st. The event is open from 6:30PM - 2:00AM. As always Universal Studios stays on top of trends, revealing the new haunted houses of the 2023 Halloween season. This year’s haunted house line up consists of themes such as “Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count” , “An Evil Reawakener”, or arguably the most anticipated “Try to Escape the Curse of Vecna” from the Netf lix popular series
“Stranger Things”. 17 year old Natalie Martinez’s favorite was the Stranger Things Haunted House, “Stranger Things has been my favorite show since I was younger so I loved seeing it come to life in our real world, however I would’ve liked to be a little bit more scary” she said. Not only are they showcasing haunted houses, but characters like Gozer from Ghostbusters, Farmer Gene Green from , GillMan and so many more. On average, guests were waiting 15 to 20 minutes to make it to the front of
the line. “I went into the Chucky Haunted House line thinking the wait time was 1 hour but I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the front with 30 minutes to spare,” Emily Viveros said. As lines continue to stay full, guests spoke up about their experience this year regarding pricing, entertainment and of course thrill. Guest Albert Hernandez said “Driving an hour and a half to come to Horror Nights I didn’t know what to expect, but I think during the month of September it’s very
affordable, only being $74 because I know the prices are just going up from here.” Halloween Horror Nights has been a hit since its opening in 1991. The event continues to stay busy throughout both months of September and October. Guests pay to have a frightful, spooky experience and hope that that is exactly what they get. The closer it gets to Halloween the more chaos that surrounds this event and theres no plans on making it any other way here in southern california.
NOCTURNAL WONDERLAND ARIANNA MORALES @tentwentytw0
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he adrenalin you’re feeling running through your body just walking into the gates makes you feel more alive than ever. The excitement just f lows all around once you get in, many happy emotions and expressions going on. Nocturnal Wonderland took place in Glen Helen Regional Park located in San Bernardino, CA September 2023. This outdoor venue is the perfect location ready for creatures of the night to listen to some of their favorite DJs on set. Many people of different ages and different groups of lovely open minded people surfed their arms in the air at 3 different stages filled with
diverse sounds of bass, full art installations, camping activities and musical arts. This fantastic festival makes you bring out the energy and spirit in you shine, all the art and ambiance you just get to see while walking around is like walking down the streets as a little kid at night getting to see all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood and being amazed by all the different decorations and colors everything is.
The entire Park holds a capacity of 50,000 people in attendance and a large body of land to hold 3 different stages all available to everyone in the crowds according to what DJ or music genre if preferred. You will see many artsy costumes, different changes of appearances such as apparel that isn’t worn on a daily basis, but since these are festivals that only come around once a year people will decide to dress up.
Hearing many peoples stories about their experience and asking why they come to these events all commonly share the same similar responses such as the energy and the environment is just so comfortable that it feels like home. People around you sharing the same moment enjoying the same music and overall the ambiance is just so cool to be around and meeting new wonderful people.
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Miscellaneous
IS “SMASHED UP” A SMASH HIT?
THE DREAM OF TWO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS ROBERT JIMENEZ @jimenez__robert
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mashed Up is a pop up burger spot here the city of Whittier. Operating only Friday nights from 8:30 pm to 1:30 am or till they sell out. Owners Chris Villasenior and Isaac Huerta run the stand by themselves. The two men running the stand are very professional and have great customer service making sure every customer’s meal is served to the best quality possible. The menu consists of juicy burgers, crispy tater tots, handspun shakes,
with refreshing sodas and lemonades as well. All burgers have options such as fried mustard, grilled onions, pickles and chilis free of charge. Their menu also includes specialty items such as loaded tots with cheese, their own special dressing and grilled onions or their new Cali burger with avocado, bacon, and tots in the burger. Going on their fifteenth week of business selling out of burgers almost every time however, last Friday the 15th seemed to be one of the busier nights with 150
Burgers, 25 shakes and 30 tots all sold before midnight. Though there is a wait time the burgers and/or tots will have you understanding why. When asking owner Mr. villasenor why he started the stand he said “I really wanted to revive the late night cuisine here in Whittier especially for those who aren’t 21 and still like to go out with friends”. And he did exactly that with great music, tables and chairs, and a gaming system set up for customers. For the address direct message @smashedupburgs on instagram.
STUDENTS SPEAK: RHC PARKING PERMITS VICTORIA ORTIZ
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Daily permits can only be purchased from the information booth in lot 2. There are permit kiosks in each lot, however, they are out of order. For students who are unaware, this could be an extremely time consuming endeavor to have to obtain a pass for the day. It is suggested that semester passes are purchased; however, this is not always an option for students who are facing financial hardships. Prior to re-implementing
CARLOS SAINZ ENDS REDBULL’S DOMINANCE
LUIS MARTINEZ
@vo.mediastudies
io Hondo College has started enforcing parking permits again this fall semester. This new parking enforcement means that students and guests who wish to use any of the open student lots will need to purchase daily or semester parking permits. Daily permits are $3 and semester permits cost $40.
SMOOTH OPERATOR
the parking fees, parking was free for Rio Hondo students following the campus’ reopening after the covid closure. Many students are not happy about having to pay for parking again, especially since finding an available space to park is hard to come by on a busy school day.
find a spot before their class starts. Student Enrique Rivas says “The first three weeks, good luck finding any parking.” Rivas says he parks in the A lot which is the largest student lot Rio Hondo has to offer but says, “During peak school hours, like around 10-11, it’s hard to find a spot there”. Many students have expressed that the school needs a vertical parking structure where more parking could be offered.
“The first three weeks, good luck Students said that they finding any would feel better about paying the cost of the permit parking.” -Rivas if the parking on campus was
Student, Angelina Childs, says she bought the semester permit but she also says “[Parking] is crazy. I get here at six [am] and by 7, it’s packed.”Students can be seen in their cars circling the lots, frustrated and desperate to
more
convenient.
I will be following up with the Director of Parking Services to find out if there are any plans in the near future to alleviate the student’s parking frustrations.
@elpaisanomedia
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arlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari secured his first win of the 2023 Formula 1 (F1) season on Sep. 17 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit during the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix. This win marks the Spaniard’s second career win. The win also snaps the 10-win streak by Dutchman Max Verstappen. British driver Lando Norris of McLaren F1 was separated by less than a second from Sainz. Norris earned a second-place finish. This marks Norris’s third second-place finish in his 2023 F1 campaign. MercedesAMG PETRONAS F1 Team driver Lewis Hamilton of the United Kingdom finished the Singapore Grand Prix in third place. He also won an extra point for his F1 World Driver’s Championship (WDC) bid with his latest lap of the race in the 47th lap. The Singapore Grand Prix was filled with drama and unexpected turns throughout. With a margin of 308 points over Mercedes in the F1 World Constructor’s Championships (WCC), Oracle Red Bull Racing has had a dominant season. Their current victorious form started last season, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Leading into the Singapore Grand Prix, the Austrian team had a 15-race win streak. Red Bull Sees Blue All three practice sessions left much to be desired for Red Bull. Their best finish was a P3 in the first practice session by Verstappen. The bad spell for them continued into qualifying. Both Red Bull drivers failed to make it
out of the second session of qualifying. The last time this happened was back at the Russian Grand Prix in 2018. Unlike previous race sessions, this past race weekend featured a competitive race throughout. The podium ended up separated in total by about a second and a half. That doesn’t tell the whole story. United Kingdom’s George Russell of Mercedes had a stellar weekend qualifying in second place up until the last lap of the Grand Prix. While challenging for possibly the second race win of his career, Russell clipped the right wall on turn 10 of the street circuit with his right rear tire. “I think we were half a car’s length away from winning the race. Had I been able to overtake Lando [Norris] when I had that one opportunity because Carlos [Sainz] did such a great job at dictating the pace and giving Lando the DRS... and then the last lap I don’t know what the hell happened there...,” said Russell. What’s Next? After the Sept. 17 race, there was a little bit of movement in the WCC. Hamilton went from fourth to third in the championship, passing Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team. Australians Oscar Piastri of Mclaren and Liam Lawson of Scuderia AlphaTauri all moved up a place as well. The WCC saw no movement in places. F1 action returns on Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix.