Standing up against stereotypes

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Latino Youth Conference keynote speaker Pepe Serna

stood before an audience of about 200 teenagers Tuesday and told them

only a handful of them would go on to college, the majority of girls

present would end up becoming teen mothers and only one of them in the

room was really important.

His tongue-in-cheek speech drew defiant responses from the

enthusiastic crowd of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa youths.

“If you think you’re important, stand up,” said Serna, an actor and

artist from Balboa Island.

The teenagers, dressed identically in white Latino Youth Conference

T-shirts, stood in unison to demonstrate what Serna hoped they would:

that they were not bound by the stereotypes or statistics sometimes

dictated to them by society.

The intensive daylong conference was a collaborative effort between 25

school and civic organizations, including Save Our Youth, Families Costa

Mesa, Todos Hermanos, Project STOP, and the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District.

The teenagers, who were handpicked to participate in the event, spent

the day in a series of workshops, panel discussions and skits.

“I love coming to the conference,” said Claudia Flores, who has

attended all three of the annual conferences. “It motivates people. Your

self-esteem just goes up.”

Flores and other students had help from numerous members of the Latino

community. Author and professor Jack Lopez spoke in a workshop called

“Cholos and Surfers” about holding onto his culture and community while

growing up in Huntington Beach.

Alec Esparza from the Orange County Department of Education helped

students discover how to use signs of life and nature to visualize one’s

goals and dreams. And Kathryn Vroman of The Mediation Center guided those

gathered in a listening exercise in which the youths were required to

draw pictures from directions given to them by their peers.

Zuly Pineda and Esbeydy Belmontes were most interested in attending

the mediation workshop because, they said, they wanted to know how to

stop fights between friends.

The conference also included a success panelist discussion featuring

various community leaders and business people, including Frank Gutierrez,

owner of Muebleria Vallarta in Costa Mesa, and Superior Court Judge

Frances Munoz, who is also a member of St. Joaquim’s church.

All the panelists spoke about being the first in their families to

graduate from either high school or college. Gutierrez and Munoz both

spoke about working as grape pickers early in life, although Munoz said

she called herself a “crop harvesting engineer.”

Gutierrez later received a scholarship to USC and Munoz became a judge

after putting herself through 12 years of night school.

Munoz encouraged the teenagers to try to achieve their goals through

hard work and education.

“You have to be able to see when the doors open and rush in,” she

said. “You keep asking yourself ‘Why not?’ ‘Why not?’ and the answer is

there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.”

FYI: Roy Alvarado Leadership Awards were presented for the first time

Tuesday at the Latino Youth Conference. Alvarado, who died in 1996, was a

drug and gang counselor for Newport-Mesa Unified School District. He also

left a legacy as a tireless advocate for low-income, at-risk youths and

their families in Costa Mesa. This year’s recipients are:

* Hilario Arriaga, Estancia High School. Arriaga is involved in

soccer, the MECHA Club, which focuses on Mexican and Chicano culture, and

Save Our Youth.

* Zhaira Franco, Costa Mesa High School. Franco is a straight-A

student, tutors math, and was selected the best English as a Second

Language student in 1998.

* Claudia Flores, Newport Harbor High School. Flores is also a

straight-A student, is a member of the Da Vinci Academy, and president of

the Save Our Youth girls’ program.

The awards were sponsored by the Latino Business Council of the Costa

Mesa Chamber of Commerce and the Daily Pilot.