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Chapter 6 ‘‘We Can’t Forget Our Roots’’: Building Solidarity Sitting behind her desk, forty-six-year-old Denise Villarreal unwraps her sandwich and motions to me to begin the interview. She is a gregarious woman, and her jovial demeanor creates an inviting atmosphere. Between phone calls, knocks on her office door, and her lunch, she reclines in her chair and talks about her life and her experiences as a La Puente resident and a local school principal. Denise is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. She was raised twenty minutes from La Puente in an area where even today her family members ‘‘are still the only Mexicans on the block.’’ As a result of this experience , she remembers, ‘‘We were real Mexican at home, but not when I walked out that door.’’ Growing up, Denise didn’t want to speak Spanish; she didn’t want anybody to know that she was Mexican. Denise’s perspectives on the Spanish language and her racial/ethnic identity have changed. She now describes being fluent in Spanish, appreciating music in Spanish, and identifying as both Latina and Chicana. She attributes this transformation to the Chicano movement and to her college experiences in the early s as a double major in Chicano studies and Spanish. Upon learning about the history and experiences of Mexican Americans, Denise explains that she started to ‘‘embrace my background more.’’ In the s she moved to La Puente, and after several years Denise began familiarizing herself with the schools in the Hacienda–La Puente United School District (HLPUSD). She met educators in the district and attended a bilingual advisory committee meeting. Such experiences began to suggest to her what she describes as the ‘‘mistreatment’’ of La Puente community members by school officials. She remembers the dynamics at one district bilingual advisory committee meeting that fueled this perception: 131 It was a school district employee who was yelling at parents at this meeting . . . I said, ‘‘Man, those people need help, those poor parents. All they’re doing is asking for what the children are really entitled to by law, by federal law.’’ Hoping to get involved with the parents and the bilingual advisory committee , she remembers approaching a school principal to inquire about volunteering in the school. Denise recalls how her assistance was refused: She says, ‘‘Why?’’ I said, ‘‘Because I’m going to have children who are going to end up going to your school. I’d like to get involved and help out.’’ I said, ‘‘I can sell tacos at a fund-raiser or something.’’ She said, ‘‘If you don’t have children, you can’t participate.’’ I said, ‘‘Excuse me. I’m a taxpayer in this community. I live in your attendance area. If I want to run for your PTA, I’m entitled to it.’’ Well, she basically told me off. While working as a bilingual teacher in a neighboring city, Denise applied for and was hired as a La Puente school principal in the HLPUSD. In this new capacity, she has improved her Spanish-language vocabulary to better communicate with immigrant children and parents. She supports bilingual education, encourages parent participation, has sought to hire teachers who are community-centered, and has attempted to create a school climate that is inclusive of English and Spanish speakers. Denise has maintained such philosophies and practices even when she has been accused by some school officials and parents of being ‘‘too compromising ’’ or ‘‘too immigrant-identified.’’ She explains: I have one parent in this community here who says that she’s a third- or fourth-generation Californian, and she’s ‘‘an American’’ and that ‘‘this school is going to the wetbacks’’ and that I’m the head wetback. She yells at me on the phone and cusses me out all of the time. She does not want me to ever put her child in a bilingual classroom. She has a Hispanic surname. All of her children’s names can be translated into Spanish , and God bless them—they have skin color pretty much the same as mine. Denise Villarreal’s narrative is an example of how some Mexican Americans are aligning with immigrants and engaging in community-building activities . Despite the institutional and ideological structuring of conflict described in the previous chapter, there are multiple examples of how Mexican Americans are working to create inclusive spaces for the growing immigrant community and are trying to build bridges between Mexican Americans and 132 Becoming Neighbors...

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