| Abel Ortega
I was born on June 12, 1966, in the city of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Merida is a beautiful city where the skies are blue in the mornings and filled with magical lights called night stars, and where walks can be taken at nights without having to look over your shoulders.
In that state, which was once ruled by the Mayas, a young child was to grow with a wisdom to acquire knowledge, just as his ancestors did before him. My heritage line (Maya culture) has provided with the desire to elevate not only my intellect but also the intellect of others (my students). Much of my childhood was spent with my grandparents. I remained in the state of Yucatan for nine long years. I was the only child at school that did not have a parent during parents’ nights. You do not have parent, and the jokes would start and next thing you know blood was all over my fingers, hands and shirt. It was the blood of the idiot that dare to joke about my loneliness. The reason I was left with my grandparents was because my mother was a single mother and she had to feed not just me, but my two other brothers as well. So she left her sons, to come to a country of hopes and dreams. When she got to Tijuana, she hired a "coyote" so as to be able to illegally cross the "tortilla" fence. She arrived to California in 1968. Seven years passed before I was to see my mother again. It was during those years that my childhood was taken away from me. My grandmother had me clean the house, cook, and feed the animals and I could not go against her comments because if I did, I was punished. My mother would send money for us but the money was used on my cousin. At the age of nine I was run over by a bus, I did not die. "La muerte" and I have an appointment to keep, but we will not meet until I am done here on earth. My mother did not know of my near end until one day I spoke with her about it. She went back to Yucatan to visit my two other brothers and me in 1975. I remember looking around asking god for answers. She came to me with a child on her hands and a man by her side. Was I dreaming and if I was not, why was I not told about these people? God had no answers for me. Is there a god?! That question was inside my being for many years. But, for the moment I had a mother and everything else did not matter. I was a new person for two weeks. That is how long the reinvent ion of myself lasted because she went back to California. Two more years passed before we were reunited with that one person that we love most, my mother.
After the third day of been sitting inside a train, your mind begins to wonder about all those people whose companions are chickens and pigs. The trek to happiness was long and unlike the animals in the train I became nervous, and I starter wondering when the tracks of the train were going to end. If the tracks end, don’t let it happen on this hill. I do not want to die among strangers. God, if you are up there give I the opportunity to feel the soft arms of my mother. I will be good!
Once in the United States, my two brothers and I started school. I went from elementary to junior high. So many people in one school, and why is that kid so black and that one why is he so white and this other one why does he have slanted eyes? Berendo Junior High was a bowl of salad (many cultures coming together to add to the favor of diversity). It was there that I encountered peer pressure, drugs and the process of "malinchismo" (cultural denial).
My so call friends administered the peer pressure that I encountered. Come Abel, you will be our look out. If a teacher gets near just start making some noise. About seven minutes passed before they asked me if I wanted to hit it. I took that "frajo" and smoked it. I was in walking on air. My friends wanted me to become a cholo so I could fit in with them and I did. I wanted to fit in because, by myself I felt that I wasn’t going to be able to function. I got jumped in one morning before school started; my initiation was brutal. At the end of the count my face was bloody, it had taken eighteen seconds for it to get that way but it was all worth it because I needed friends to socialize with. And because of my need for friends I decided to accept the life of a cholo. While I was a gang member, I used drugs. Marijuana, paint, and alcohol, was my daily died. Once I was so loaded that could not walk across the street by myself and everything was moving in slow motion around me. I remember thinking that I was up in the sky trying to reach the sunrays that were melting my face. I was a cholo and a user for 36 months. During the course of that time I saw some friends get shot at, some got beat up, and some got kill right before my eyes. It seems that I learned about la ‘calaca’ at a young age. Maybe that is why I appreciate life with all its imperfections. Life and its lessons sometimes trigger a person to reinvent his whole persona. Finally, I left the gang sometime at the age of fifteen. I walked away from the violence of gang life because I felt that it was time for me to move on. But, before I did a member of the Mexican Mafia asked me if I wanted to be a member and if I did I needed to kill or almost kill someone. I rejected his invitation.
After leaving the gang, drugs were no longer apart of my life, because when I left the gang the drugs went along with it. The "malenchismo" that I felt was imposed on me by the cultural change that I underwent. Nowadays, I have learned that to be a Mexican and being called a Latino is not just an indication of whom I am but is also a symbol of what I represent, the Maya culture.
As a twelfth grader I decided to get serious about my studies and allow it to take me as far as I could go. I was a good athlete in school! I letter in, cross-country, soccer, and track. I was accepted to many Universities wanted me to run for them but I decided to first attend a junior college. I entered Los Angeles Trade Technical College; there I graduated with an Associate of Art and Associate of Science degrees. Soon after graduation I decided to attend the California State University, Los Angeles. I was in the track team but since I did not get alone with the coach I stopped running for the school team. I remained at that university for one year and after that transferred to the California State University, Dominguez Hills. At Dominguez Hills I changed my school major from Physical Education to Mexican American Studies. One day a friend of mine asked me to take a Mexican American class with him. It was on that semester that I felt in love with that subject of studies. At Dominguez Hills I was able to obtain my Bachelor’s degree in Mexican American studies, and I became the first member of my family to have received more that a high school diploma. I was on top of the world and ready to make a difference in the issues that oppresses my "raza." But before doing that, I decided to pursue an M. A. in Mexican American Studies.
I enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles in 1994. I had so many high expectations because my formal professor had told me that the Mexican American program at that school was very good. I discover that it was not. I knew more than the professors did. The professors would call on me to answer, discuss or explain the class material to other students. For two years in a roll I was in the top 5% of my class and was given the Special Recognition Award in Graduate Studies. I took my comprehensive Exams in 1996. I cannot go into too many details but I can only say that my degree took six months to clear. Once it did, I was without a University job and the Department Chair of the Mexican American Studies was no longer working at the school.
Today I work as a Physical Education teacher at Lynwood high school. I have 40 units in physical education and a minor in Recreation. I worked 6six years at Los Angeles trade Technical College as a part-time teacher and a track & cross-country coach. There I received coach of the year nine times. I have not lectured or done research in the field of Mexican American Studies for almost five years because I feel that the very "raza" that was suppose to help people like me, damage my dream.
The people that influenced my moral value system are the ones that are close to me. Those individuals are my grandparents, mother, brothers, teachers and friends and all of them combined to form the person that I am today. Three of the concepts that I have learned during my life trek are the following: A person should worry about the things that he can change because when life gives you lemons just make lemonade. Life can take away many things from you (like girlfriends, family and material items) but it cannot take away what you are.
In conclusion, I would like to add that if I forgot to write about anybody or anything that has influenced my life, rest assure that even though he or she or it is not in ink, they are in my heart, mind and soul. For I cannot forget the contribution that they have made in my upbringing. Finally, my name is Abel Ortega and I am of Mayan descent, and I am very proud of my cultural background.
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