When you grow up in Anaheim close enough to Disneyland to watch the fireworks show every night from your backyard but your family can’t afford to go, you can’t help but feel like you’re on the outside looking in.
It was the moment where we could finally say we’d made it, we could afford the golden ticket that got us inside the gate, signifying middle class status. But had we really arrived? Would we ever?
A few months after moving back to California, I went to visit my old house in Anaheim. To my dismay, it had been abandoned and left in a state of disrepair, most likely the result of a foreclosure during the economic recession. At the time, I lived next to the Estrada Courts, a low-income housing project adorned with numerous Chicano murals painted during the 1970s honoring barrio culture.
The program helped me connect my family’s history in Mexico with my history in the U.S. as a person of Mexican descent. Many of my assignments involved collecting oral histories; for one, I interviewed my grandpa and learned that he was part of thein the early 1960s in Texas. I also interviewed my mother and learned about her journey toward becoming a U.S. citizen after living as an undocumented immigrant for many years.
I was immediately attracted to the Chicano Studies doctoral program at UCLA. After submitting my application, I received a letter the following year congratulating me on my admission. Finally, I was going to my dream school.I felt like my life was coming full circle, from the little boy who felt like an outsider to the adult who had just been admitted into one of the top public universities in the country.
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