2015 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Luis Vázquez

MATC Author

11/15/2017 Added

9 Plays

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The Graduate School Journey: Mi Cuento/My Story

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[00:00:01.201]So. (crowd chatters)
[00:00:03.476]The pressure is on, you know?
[00:00:05.031]But he's got a really great story to tell
[00:00:08.876]and I hope you enjoy it.
[00:00:11.750]Thank you. (audience applauds)
[00:00:13.727]Do I need a microphone or can you hear me okay?
[00:00:15.649]You need a mic.
[00:00:16.588]I need a mic?
[00:00:17.851]No, you don't.
[00:00:18.907]I don't need a mic.
[00:00:19.740]Okay, now, I'm gonna tell you my story
[00:00:23.146]however I don't want to hear a pin drop
[00:00:25.992]because I need you to absorb every word.
[00:00:28.055]Do I have you word?
[00:00:30.822]Do I have your word?
[00:00:32.318]Yes.
[00:00:33.421]Thank you.
[00:00:34.808]Okay.
[00:00:36.592]This is who I am, my name is
[00:00:38.416]Luis Antonio Vasquez Rodriguez Cruz Colon Lopez.
[00:00:43.652]That's my real name.
[00:00:48.451]However, I go by Luis Antonio Vasquez.
[00:00:51.807]And then I found out two years ago
[00:00:52.988]that my real last name should have been Flores
[00:00:55.425]because my grandfather never married my grandmother
[00:01:01.106]and my grandmother gave my father Vasquez
[00:01:04.616]'cause that was her side of the family, not his.
[00:01:05.854]Anyway, to make a long story short,
[00:01:08.165]I really applaud it.
[00:01:08.998]But my father died a Vasquez and so will I, in their honor.
[00:01:14.923]Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
[00:01:16.348]when I first started school, I only spoke Spanish.
[00:01:18.779](speaks Spanish)
[00:01:23.171]How many of your are bilingual?
[00:01:25.484][Audience Members] No.
[00:01:26.633](audience members respond in Spanish)
[00:01:28.091](speaks Spanish)
[00:01:29.071]So at home we only spoke Spanish.
[00:01:30.087]My mother only went up to fourth grade,
[00:01:32.220]she could not read or write.
[00:01:34.495]My mother could not read or write
[00:01:35.733]but she knew how to write her name.
[00:01:37.908]My father almost made it to seventh grade,
[00:01:39.874]almost made it to seventh grade.
[00:01:43.084]And he tells me that he quit school,
[00:01:46.126]I think they escorted him out.
[00:01:47.903](audience laughs)
[00:01:51.657]When I first started school I only spoke Spanish
[00:01:54.089]and they called me Luis.
[00:01:56.451]Luis Antonio Vasquez, Luis.
[00:02:00.460]I always knew when I was in trouble,
[00:02:01.782]because I would hear this:
[00:02:02.784]Luis Antonio Vasquez!
[00:02:04.188]And you go oh man, I'm gonna get cooked.
[00:02:06.259]Or you say, Luis mijo.
[00:02:07.260]All right, words of endearment, that was beautiful.
[00:02:09.739]So I started school and I only spoke Spanish.
[00:02:13.090]And I was born in inner city Southside Chicago.
[00:02:16.306]And we moved to a small town, huh?
[00:02:18.625](audience member asks question)
[00:02:20.317]5050 Trathmere, I lived in two flats upstairs.
[00:02:22.652](audience member responds unintelligibly)
[00:02:24.597](audience laughs)
[00:02:26.794]Now you're getting an idea my brother!
[00:02:30.681]So then what happened was that
[00:02:31.865]we moved to Rock Falls,
[00:02:33.862]you see my father, he used to work in the fields.
[00:02:36.483]He was part of that bracero program back in 1948.
[00:02:39.728]And the fascinating thing about that,
[00:02:41.349]he was Puerto Rican.
[00:02:42.477]Puerto Ricans were part of the bracero program
[00:02:44.164]along with the Mexicans,
[00:02:45.371]so they put them all together to work in the fields.
[00:02:47.607]Then my father got a job at the railroad.
[00:02:49.705]Northwestern Railroad.
[00:02:51.653]And he used to be gone 15 days at a time.
[00:02:54.077]And my poor mother, they came here in '48
[00:02:56.862]and my mother like many women at those times,
[00:02:58.924]my mother's brothers came
[00:03:01.224]and they left their wives and their children
[00:03:03.192]in Puerto Rico, my mom refused to leave the children.
[00:03:07.217]Here's a woman that could not speak English,
[00:03:09.669]couldn't read or write,
[00:03:10.831]sold the pigs she had and her little house and so forth
[00:03:14.661]and she flew in a two-engine plane with 10 kids
[00:03:17.646]because the women in Puerto Rico said, forget it.
[00:03:21.455]These are your brother's kids.
[00:03:22.862]She brought 'em all to the United States.
[00:03:25.517]That plane stopped in Miami,
[00:03:29.857]it stopped in Carolina, then in Chicago.
[00:03:33.914]She came off that plane, this five-foot woman with 10 kids
[00:03:39.090]and they weren't even hers,
[00:03:40.433]they were not even hers.
[00:03:42.861]So I started school, they didn't know what to do with me.
[00:03:46.456]Let me show you what I looked like.
[00:03:51.532](audience awws)
[00:03:53.773]That's Luis Antonio Vasquez, 1962.
[00:03:58.270]That's Abuelita Martina,
[00:04:00.920]when I was two years old, walking me through the grass
[00:04:03.276]and that's me right there.
[00:04:04.944]When I started school, I refused to go to school
[00:04:07.145]unless I had a white shirt and a bow tie on
[00:04:10.504]and black pants.
[00:04:11.653](audience laughs) And I went to a public school,
[00:04:14.373]public school, and since I only spoke Spanish
[00:04:19.533]they didn't know what to do with me.
[00:04:22.077]So, I remember taking all these little tests.
[00:04:24.471]All I know I was diagnosed as mentally handicapped.
[00:04:33.463]In those days, they used the word, I was called retarded.
[00:04:37.487]I got put in special education.
[00:04:40.275]And in special education,
[00:04:42.722]they had this portable on the other side of the playground.
[00:04:46.509]So when you walked through the school,
[00:04:47.765]and you went across the playground,
[00:04:49.088]and you went to the portable,
[00:04:50.884]that's where all us special ed kids were.
[00:04:53.491]And I spend the whole day
[00:04:54.792]cleaning kids and feeding 'em
[00:04:56.339]that were in wheelchairs, that wore helmets,
[00:04:58.304]couldn't hold their head up,
[00:04:59.405]never learned to read or write at that time.
[00:05:02.623]My name was also changed to Louis.
[00:05:05.838]I'll never forget the day my teacher said, Luis,
[00:05:09.064]and I stuttered really bad, and I'd go,
[00:05:13.522](stutters) yes?
[00:05:16.890]Because one thing with stutterers,
[00:05:18.671]we learn a wide range of vocabulary
[00:05:20.706]so we try to make up words and fix words
[00:05:22.824]to make sure we can't say the word that we're stuck on.
[00:05:26.227]So I'd say, we're gonna f-f-f-, I'm gonna land hard.
[00:05:29.492]And that's what we would do, you make up.
[00:05:33.786]Well, I go home, and I tell my father.
[00:05:36.370]My dad goes, Luis, (speaks Spanish) Luis, come here.
[00:05:39.052]And I say no dad, (speaks Spanish).
[00:05:47.298]And he goes, Louis?
[00:05:48.992]The teacher said your name is Louis?
[00:05:52.188]That's what he told me back in Spanish.
[00:05:54.015]I go, si, Louis.
[00:05:57.479]He goes, (speaks Spanish) Luis, Luis!
[00:06:03.136]Back then, that was called discipline.
[00:06:05.294]How many of you have been disciplined?
[00:06:07.064](audience laughs)
[00:06:16.038]So anyway,
[00:06:20.804]so anyway, back then, I was disciplined
[00:06:23.249]so my name at home was Luis
[00:06:25.660]and my name at school was Louis
[00:06:28.462]and I never told my father
[00:06:29.962]that they were calling me Louis at shool.
[00:06:32.712]They called me Louis at school.
[00:06:35.286]And since I got tested in 1962, PL14 did not pass 'til 1965
[00:06:40.438]so they didn't have to tell our parents
[00:06:42.612]where they placed us in school.
[00:06:44.393]They never knew I was in special education, they never knew.
[00:06:47.938]They never knew that I was in special education.
[00:06:53.668]And then one day, something happened.
[00:06:56.990]By the way, every time I got caught speaking Spanish
[00:07:00.713]they'd bring me up to the front of the class
[00:07:04.820]and I'd grab my ankles
[00:07:06.125]and they'd hit me with a board 'til I cried
[00:07:08.781]and they sent me back to my seat.
[00:07:11.364]But don't worry, all my cousins were in there with me.
[00:07:14.898](audience laughs)
[00:07:17.021]All my cousins were in there with me.
[00:07:19.006]Little by little, I started learning a little bit of English
[00:07:21.435]a little bit of English.
[00:07:23.090]And the teacher took a liking me,
[00:07:24.838]I mean look at me, who could not like such a child?
[00:07:27.496](audience laughs)
[00:07:28.863]And they took a liking to me.
[00:07:31.864]So then we noticed something,
[00:07:33.079]the teacher paid a lot more attention to me than the others
[00:07:35.615]and I was one of the lighter-complected ones
[00:07:37.191]and let me tell you,
[00:07:38.869]the color of my skin gave me privileges
[00:07:41.241]that I have used to open doors for everyone else
[00:07:44.335]that I come in contact with.
[00:07:45.885]Because my color, I know how it can be used in this country
[00:07:52.489]so I'm not gonna sugar-coat it, I'm here to tell you.
[00:07:55.124]'Cause my relatives and my cousins were dark-complected.
[00:07:58.237]So whenever we wanted something, we would caucus.
[00:08:01.011]Here we are, six, seven years old,
[00:08:02.774]we would caucus together, I would go ask the teacher.
[00:08:05.321]Nine times out of 10, we got what we wanted.
[00:08:07.337]And so I had become the ambassador of the class.
[00:08:10.992](audience laughs)
[00:08:13.164]One day, my mom got her arm hurt,
[00:08:14.828]she was washing clothes,
[00:08:15.833]and how many of you remember the roller wash?
[00:08:16.948]You probably all do, those old roller machines, you know?
[00:08:19.192]She tried to pull on a rag and her arm went through
[00:08:22.800]and the hospital was near our school.
[00:08:24.772]See, by then, I became the interpreter for my family.
[00:08:27.993]I became the interpreter for my family.
[00:08:30.836]Everywhere we went, I would interpret.
[00:08:32.699]I had gained a lot of social capital.
[00:08:36.558]I learned to negotiate with adults
[00:08:38.422]when I was seven, eight years old.
[00:08:39.561]I even went and helped my dad buy his first house
[00:08:42.226]when I negotiated the contract with the person
[00:08:44.305]that was doing the deed, at that age, at that age.
[00:08:48.052]And what had happened was, my mom hurt her arm.
[00:08:51.439]So right away my dad, the house was by the school,
[00:08:53.289]he came by to pick me up to interpret
[00:08:55.491]'cause you know you gotta have your interpreter.
[00:09:00.246]And when he came by, he came in the school.
[00:09:02.298]And Mr. Langbald, he was the Principal,
[00:09:04.696]I still remember that guy, he was about this bag.
[00:09:07.657]And he said, (speaks Spanish),
[00:09:09.562]where's Luis Antonio?
[00:09:10.647]Nobody knew.
[00:09:12.113]Where's Luis Antonio?
[00:09:13.113]Nobody knew.
[00:09:14.397]Guess who knows everything in the office, who knows?
[00:09:17.907]The secretary, the secretary goes, oh, you mean Louis?
[00:09:23.851]Let me take you to him.
[00:09:25.336]They took my father through the whole school,
[00:09:27.100]took him outside, took him to this portable.
[00:09:32.346]She opens the door and he sees me
[00:09:34.972]cleaning this child that I'd just got done feeding
[00:09:37.163]who was in a wheelchair.
[00:09:39.675]My dad walks in, hits the ceiling and goes,
[00:09:42.247](speaks Spanish)
[00:09:44.624]my son is not retarded.
[00:09:46.626]Don't know what happened,
[00:09:48.688]I got go to the hospital with mom and dad,
[00:09:50.461]I interpreted everything.
[00:09:53.251]Two weeks later, they put me in a regular class.
[00:09:57.415]And I hated it, it was the worst thing, I hated it.
[00:09:59.852]I was away from my cousins, I was away from my friends.
[00:10:02.411]Remember that, because that's gonna come up
[00:10:04.828]later in the story.
[00:10:06.081]And I hated it, oh my god I hated it.
[00:10:08.072]And of course when I was young
[00:10:10.884]I used to go out with my mother shopping.
[00:10:13.226]And when we went shopping, dad would give us money.
[00:10:16.231]So six or seven years old,
[00:10:18.606]I learned how to divide, multiply, add and subtract
[00:10:21.819]all in my head, yeah.
[00:10:23.926]I didn't need paper.
[00:10:24.759]'Cause guess what happened
[00:10:26.561]if I came home with the wrong change?
[00:10:28.315]I would get...
[00:10:29.401](audience members shout out)
[00:10:30.425]disciplined!
[00:10:32.005](audience laughs)
[00:10:33.299]One more time, I would get?
[00:10:34.793]Disciplined.
[00:10:35.802]So what happened was that I learned.
[00:10:38.285]And when they put me in the regular classroom,
[00:10:40.751]they tried to get me, and how many of you remember the SIAs?
[00:10:44.180]Those closer to my age,
[00:10:45.440]when you had to do those little things
[00:10:47.343]about Jack and Jill going up some hill
[00:10:50.290]to get some water and stuff, right?
[00:10:52.677]Okay, I never made it to the first color.
[00:10:56.137]But I knew my math, though, man did I know my math.
[00:10:59.832]Teachers gave me a math test
[00:11:01.315]and I didn't write out how I got the answers
[00:11:05.242]and they thought I cheated.
[00:11:07.391]So I got accused of cheating.
[00:11:09.517]So then they had the teacher stand over me
[00:11:12.370]and give me a new test and I did it again.
[00:11:15.373]And that's when they realized, I knew how to do math.
[00:11:17.940]I could add, multiply, subtract and divide, all in my head.
[00:11:23.838]Even when I close my eyes today,
[00:11:25.998]I can still see the numbers inside my head,
[00:11:27.774]and I work them out.
[00:11:29.318]And I never worked out on paper.
[00:11:31.626]So I got put into the highest math courses,
[00:11:33.931]remedial English, though, remedial science,
[00:11:36.787]remedial social science.
[00:11:38.005](audience laughs)
[00:11:39.140]But my math, I was at the top.
[00:11:42.683]Time went on, by fourth grade
[00:11:44.075]I started to learn to read a little bit.
[00:11:46.271]Just remember, I only spoke Spanish
[00:11:47.785]then started to learn more English.
[00:11:49.225]I still stuttered, though, I would go (stutters)
[00:11:51.890]I still stuttered.
[00:11:54.581]Got up to almost middle school
[00:11:58.817]and still mainstream in my courses.
[00:12:02.130]By the way, I hated to go to the lunch hour.
[00:12:04.058]Because you know what happened in the lunch hour?
[00:12:05.963]Yeah, that's right,
[00:12:07.579]they would come up, I'm gonna touch you young man,
[00:12:09.967]and they would put their thumb between their fingers
[00:12:14.369]and hit me like this,
[00:12:16.282]and they would hit all of us in special ed.
[00:12:19.223](audience laughs)
[00:12:20.831]and you know what that was?
[00:12:22.595]Those were called cootie shots.
[00:12:23.888]And the reason you get a cootie shot
[00:12:25.928]was so retardedness wouldn't rub off on the other person.
[00:12:29.252]And they would come up and line us up and hit us that way.
[00:12:32.351]So lunchtime would come
[00:12:33.645]and I would still go eat with the special ed students
[00:12:36.029]and we used to call them normals, they would go first
[00:12:38.602]then we would go eat.
[00:12:40.759]And so when we got up to high school,
[00:12:43.589]and I'll show you what I looked like in high school,
[00:12:45.722]things started changing.
[00:12:52.485](audience laughs)
[00:12:56.126]I had my 'fro!
[00:13:02.399]Go ahead, get it out of your system.
[00:13:10.249]When I got to high school,
[00:13:12.879]my counselor put me in four years of vocational classes.
[00:13:15.389]I had auto mechanics, graphic arts, construction,
[00:13:18.060]and electricity,
[00:13:21.029]I know how to put up a fan without getting electrocuted.
[00:13:26.541]However, I had Algebra one, Geometry, Algebra two,
[00:13:31.794]Calculus and Advanced College Math.
[00:13:34.768]And all the other courses were remedial science,
[00:13:36.705]remedial English, and remedial social sciences.
[00:13:40.787]All of the sudden, I get to my junior year.
[00:13:43.270]And this is what I look like,
[00:13:44.521]I have my 'fro,
[00:13:45.555]that was my dad's car, 1947 two-door Dodge Coupe,
[00:13:50.087]me and the column, beautiful 600 flathead,
[00:13:53.770]couldn't beat it.
[00:13:55.151]Okay, and that's my good-looking self up there.
[00:13:58.438]And by the way, when I took that picture
[00:14:01.879]that was my own bow tie and shirt.
[00:14:04.811]I borrowed the sports coat from my other cousin
[00:14:07.122]I borrowed the pants from my other cousin
[00:14:08.509]because see, realize, there were nine of us.
[00:14:11.965]I have six younger brothers and two older sisters.
[00:14:15.435]Six younger brothers, and we grew up in a two bedroom house.
[00:14:18.888]That's really obvious, once you move out and about.
[00:14:21.439]Two bedroom house.
[00:14:23.494]And guess what, we had enough room for everybody.
[00:14:26.005]And when one person ate, we all ate.
[00:14:27.902]And when one person suffered, we all suffered.
[00:14:31.721]And we took care of each other.
[00:14:34.069]And we took care of each other.
[00:14:35.995]I was the oldest of the boys.
[00:14:39.488]Two older sisters, one passed away two years ago.
[00:14:42.917]And I miss her, but anyway,
[00:14:44.578]so, they were 15 years older than me
[00:14:47.370]and 10 years older, so by the time I turned 10
[00:14:50.329]I had taken over the care of my six younger brothers.
[00:14:52.981]My parents were working more than several jobs.
[00:14:55.710]I bathed them, I disciplined them,
[00:14:57.096]I did their homework with them,
[00:14:58.235]I washed all their clothes every weekend.
[00:15:00.910]I tell you what, four or five baskets of clothes
[00:15:01.743]at 10 years old, that sucked.
[00:15:05.939]I got to my junior year in high school
[00:15:07.689]and I played football too,
[00:15:10.722]I was weak side linebacker
[00:15:11.795]and I had so much anger in me
[00:15:13.894]that you wouldn't believe all the things that I went through
[00:15:17.074]and so when I was a linebacker
[00:15:18.658]and somebody came through the hole
[00:15:20.205]with the running ball, that helped me.
[00:15:22.387](audience laughs)
[00:15:23.658]And I could legally do it without getting in trouble,
[00:15:25.488]and I did.
[00:15:28.216]My junior year, many of the students would ask, hey,
[00:15:30.803]we want you to run for senior class president.
[00:15:32.752]I go, what?
[00:15:34.827]Senior class president, I go,
[00:15:36.080]if you do the posters and you put everything together,
[00:15:38.113]fine, I'll do it, go ahead.
[00:15:40.141]So what they did was,
[00:15:41.860]they did, Marty Huntly had won class president
[00:15:44.817]for three years in a row,
[00:15:46.384]freshman, sophomore, junior.
[00:15:47.471]And I thought, man, I can't beat Marty.
[00:15:50.825]Nobody beats Marty.
[00:15:52.489](audience laughs)
[00:15:54.065]So what happened was, I ran, and guess what happened.
[00:15:59.482]The end of my junior year,
[00:16:00.711]this is what I hear over the loudspeaker.
[00:16:02.778]Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to announce the results.
[00:16:07.414]New senior class president for 1975, '74, '75,
[00:16:14.678]Mr. Louis Vasques.
[00:16:17.286]And I'm going, man, who the hell is that?
[00:16:19.735]Oh man, it's me, I won!
[00:16:21.558](audience laughs)
[00:16:22.794]Guess how I won, guess how I won.
[00:16:25.671]Guess how I won.
[00:16:26.994]Stuffed the ballot box.
[00:16:28.523]No, I didn't stuff not ballot,
[00:16:29.777]no, we didn't do nothing, stop that.
[00:16:31.137]Guess how I won.
[00:16:32.481]Huh?
[00:16:33.726]Nope, let me tell you how I won.
[00:16:35.876]Nobody counted on the special ed vote.
[00:16:39.153](audience laughs)
[00:16:41.663]All the special ed students voted
[00:16:44.710]and I barely won, by about five or eight votes.
[00:16:47.824]That's how I became senior class president.
[00:16:51.623]The special ed students voted for me.
[00:16:54.114]So I go, great, I'm senior class president!
[00:16:56.561]And then I go, well, what do I do now?
[00:16:59.652](audience laughs)
[00:17:00.864]So I come back my senior year, I start my senior year
[00:17:03.344]and this is what the principal, Mr. William Yan,
[00:17:05.986]I remember it like it was yesterday,
[00:17:08.120]come here son, you realize you gotta go to Rotary Club?
[00:17:12.166]I got, Rotary what?
[00:17:14.158]Rotary Club.
[00:17:16.167]And I got well, I didn't know what it was, I go okay.
[00:17:19.169]Okay Mr. Yan.
[00:17:20.238]And I went around asking everybody.
[00:17:22.303]What's Rotary Club, what's Rotary Club?
[00:17:24.143]They said, you gotta take three other students with you.
[00:17:26.491]I go, okay.
[00:17:27.820]And there's gonna be a luncheon
[00:17:29.045]and you gotta get dressed up.
[00:17:30.048]I go, I ain't got no clothes.
[00:17:31.434]See, we used to go to Catholic charities every Tuesday
[00:17:33.901]and I used to sneak up to the front
[00:17:36.456]I used to go with my mother.
[00:17:37.816]And when I was young, about 10, 11 years old,
[00:17:39.587]if it was cold outside, you went to the coats first,
[00:17:42.149]the pants second, the shirts third,
[00:17:46.209]and the shoes last.
[00:17:47.635]But if it was in the summer,
[00:17:48.941]you went to the pants and shorts first,
[00:17:50.654]shirt and then the shoes.
[00:17:52.279]I had a system down.
[00:17:54.299]And the reason I've become such a good negotiator,
[00:17:56.978]because I used to negotiate with the nuns
[00:17:59.129]and you have to pay three or four dollars
[00:18:00.953]for two bags of clothes,
[00:18:02.082]so my mom would just sit there and smile
[00:18:04.550]and I would negotiate with the nuns
[00:18:05.653]and they thought I was cute,
[00:18:06.971]so I'd get two bags of clothes for 75 cents
[00:18:08.589]and I would take clothes for all my brothers and sisters.
[00:18:14.783]So gotta go to Rotary Club,
[00:18:16.218]and I'm going what am I going to wear?
[00:18:18.708]That's how I got my bow tie.
[00:18:19.957]I figured, that's how people must dress, right?
[00:18:23.440]Got my bow tie, got my shirt, got my sports coat,
[00:18:26.336]I bought my pants, and I invited Rudo Lande,
[00:18:30.336]Luis Rodriguez,
[00:18:32.428](audience laughs)
[00:18:33.636]and those kids had ponytails and 'fros too, okay?
[00:18:37.755]And Eduardo Vargas.
[00:18:39.249]So, we go to Rotary, so we're all sitting there,
[00:18:41.814]we're all standing up and it was all white, senior men.
[00:18:45.740]They own all the business in town.
[00:18:47.628]No person of color, no Latinos, nobody else.
[00:18:50.215]And we're all standing there and I'm going,
[00:18:51.994]this is good.
[00:18:53.585](audience laughs)
[00:18:55.699]One of the elders, gentlemen,
[00:18:58.306]nice guy, comes up and grabs my hand and goes,
[00:19:00.816]y'all gonna sit and eat with us
[00:19:02.911]'cause you're part of the Rotary Club.
[00:19:04.542]I know you're from the high school,
[00:19:05.902]Sterling Township High School.
[00:19:07.046]By the way, it was the first time
[00:19:08.855]in Sterling Township High School
[00:19:10.438]that they had a Latino senior class president.
[00:19:13.577](murmurs)
[00:19:16.262]We sat down, and we sat down
[00:19:17.569]between these different business owners.
[00:19:19.745]My friend Lupe, man, what are we gonna do, man?
[00:19:22.761]I go, hey man, whatever the guy next to you does,
[00:19:26.882]you do it too.
[00:19:27.972]Because see, we never ate in a restaurant before.
[00:19:29.871]The first restaurant we ever ate,
[00:19:32.365]because at home it was mostly making food
[00:19:34.440]and the first restaurant we ever at at was McDonald's.
[00:19:37.576]And back at McDonald's in those days,
[00:19:39.624]when you bought a Big Mac, you could get it for 50 cents.
[00:19:44.493]And if you sang the song,
[00:19:46.561]two all beef patties, special sauce,
[00:19:48.473]lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions
[00:19:50.004]on a sesame seed bun, you would get a free one.
[00:19:53.563](audience laughs)
[00:19:55.365]And so after a while, we would go in groups
[00:19:57.721]and we had a good chorus, we would sing, true story.
[00:20:01.490](audience laughs)
[00:20:02.637]We would take our 50 cents and sing.
[00:20:04.518]Can you imagine, us at McDonald's singing for our food?
[00:20:06.980]And that's what we did to get that extra Big Mac.
[00:20:11.301]After about three months, they quit having that special.
[00:20:13.731](audience laughs)
[00:20:14.951]No, we would come in with,
[00:20:16.356]first we'd start with four people, then eight
[00:20:18.234]then pretty soon about 10 of us were singing in chorus.
[00:20:21.327]You know what, we sounded pretty good.
[00:20:22.377]Anyway, that was the restaurant that we went to
[00:20:25.894]and that's what we ate.
[00:20:27.334]So when we went to this, you know,
[00:20:29.350]I'm sitting down and looking at all these dishes,
[00:20:31.212]having dish on top of a dish,
[00:20:32.535]extra fork, spoons and knife at the top,
[00:20:35.030]a little for dessert,
[00:20:36.648]and I'm looking,
[00:20:37.713]you know the first thing I thought about?
[00:20:41.782]Oh god, please, oh my god
[00:20:43.836]I hope we don't have to wash these dishes.
[00:20:46.212](audience laughs)
[00:20:47.576]That's what we were thinking,
[00:20:48.409]honestly, that's what we were thinking.
[00:20:51.614]So I told everybody, look,
[00:20:52.691]whatever the guy next to you does, you do it.
[00:20:54.997]So they started off on the outside end
[00:20:56.537]and I go okay, we can do that.
[00:20:58.521]And then when they finished the plate
[00:21:00.863]they came to get the plate, it was like give it up
[00:21:02.862]and let them take it,
[00:21:03.884]there's another one underneath.
[00:21:04.986]It's okay, it's okay guys, give it up man, it's cool.
[00:21:08.912]When they took the plates.
[00:21:10.534]That was our first time we ever ate in a formal setting.
[00:21:14.293]Because remember, we all came from the West side of town,
[00:21:17.217]we were poor, and we never had ever been
[00:21:19.557]in a restaurant before, or a place like that.
[00:21:24.328]Time went on, I got to go to Rotary Clubs,
[00:21:26.295]I learned how to eat from outside in,
[00:21:28.711]I learned what the different utensils are for
[00:21:30.200]and how to use them.
[00:21:31.357]It was no fault of my parents,
[00:21:33.502]they did the best they could with what they knew.
[00:21:36.062]And they made sure that we all ate.
[00:21:38.823]And then the principal got mad at me 'cause he said,
[00:21:41.386]you can only take students that are in honor society
[00:21:43.289]to go to Rotary Club.
[00:21:44.519]I wasn't in the honor society,
[00:21:45.856]and neither was none of my friends.
[00:21:48.711]So I picked others to go with me.
[00:21:51.190]And I went to every Rotary Club meeting.
[00:21:54.278]But let's jump to my senior year,
[00:21:56.485]this is what I looked like my senior year in high school
[00:21:58.789]with my 'fro, you know,
[00:22:03.255]I'm in government class
[00:22:04.416]and I'm sitting right where you are back there.
[00:22:06.018]And this is Karen Bolsen.
[00:22:11.073]I still talk to that woman,
[00:22:13.313]Miss Karen Bolsen, my high school social studies teacher,
[00:22:17.814]she was teaching government.
[00:22:18.928]And she's up here trying to teach,
[00:22:20.953]and everybody back there,
[00:22:22.336]we're goofing around and going,
[00:22:23.482]what's up, man?
[00:22:24.797]When you're with your friends back then,
[00:22:26.810]okay, I grew up in about this age,
[00:22:28.404](speaks Spanish) What's up?
[00:22:30.191](speaks Spanish)
[00:22:32.791]You know, and I'm Puerto Rican and I speak that way.
[00:22:35.403]Because it's what I grew up in.
[00:22:38.349]Well we're goofing around and Mrs. Bolsen goes,
[00:22:40.592]if any of you think that you can teach this class
[00:22:43.418]better than me, come up to the front.
[00:22:45.575]Stood up, and I walked to the front of the class.
[00:22:51.589]All right, I was a smart-ass.
[00:22:52.737]I walked to the front of the class,
[00:22:53.966]and she said, you're gonna teach class
[00:22:56.023]for the next two days, you gotta use my lesson plans.
[00:22:59.385]And if you don't, you're the first one in your family
[00:23:02.527]that ever made it this far for high school.
[00:23:05.120]All my older relatives,
[00:23:06.125]almost none of them got past eighth grade.
[00:23:07.634]And she said, if you don't teach,
[00:23:09.465]you're gonna have to go home and tell your mom
[00:23:11.388]why you're not graduating.
[00:23:12.764]Because I will not pass you,
[00:23:13.794]and if you don't pass government, you don't graduate.
[00:23:16.736]And I thought, oh my god,
[00:23:18.551]I really stuck my foot in it this time!
[00:23:20.419](audience laughs)
[00:23:21.417]So, for the next few days
[00:23:22.418]that woman, Miss Karen Bolsen,
[00:23:24.215]taught me her lesson plan.
[00:23:26.074]She made me get in front of the class to teach.
[00:23:27.897]And I got to teach, I still stuttered a little bit.
[00:23:29.805]And you know what?
[00:23:31.625]I loved it, I thought it was the coolest thing I ever did.
[00:23:33.551]Being able to open people's minds,
[00:23:35.329]being able to have information
[00:23:36.657]and being able to bestow knowledge,
[00:23:38.312]I thought, oh my God, oh my God,
[00:23:39.802]I've made it, this is so cool.
[00:23:41.858]And the guys are messing around in the back
[00:23:44.230]and I go like this,
[00:23:45.230]hey man, chill out man, I need to teach right now.
[00:23:49.404](audience laughs)
[00:23:52.147]And they did, and they did, they stayed quiet.
[00:23:54.055]They were my buddies, man, we're blood.
[00:23:55.607]Driving me bananas, but it was cool.
[00:23:58.117]The next day, after I got done teaching,
[00:24:00.659]she goes, you did a pretty good job, son.
[00:24:02.661]She goes, why don't you come to my class tomorrow
[00:24:05.654]but I want you to go to the counselor's office
[00:24:08.079]and go get some college books.
[00:24:09.748]So I did, I went to the counselor's office, Miss Farber.
[00:24:12.800]Five-foot-two, blonde hair, little blue eyes,
[00:24:15.105]and this is another story about her,
[00:24:17.590]she ran off with the SA Director,
[00:24:18.685]but that's different.
[00:24:19.847](audience laughs)
[00:24:21.070]Anyway, I went in to see her,
[00:24:22.145]and I go Miss Farber, Miss Bolsen says
[00:24:24.018]that I can come get some catalogs for college.
[00:24:25.618]And she goes, well you know,
[00:24:27.037]you're really good with your hands
[00:24:28.160]and you have four years of vocational classes.
[00:24:29.860]I think you'd make a very good mechanic.
[00:24:32.538]And I go no, no, no, Miss Bolsen said,
[00:24:34.747]I started reading the book and I go,
[00:24:36.119]I'm gonna get in trouble, man, I taught class.
[00:24:39.609]She goes, you did what?
[00:24:40.442]I go, I taught class.
[00:24:41.275]She goes, you did what?
[00:24:42.196]Well, I mean, I need the catalogs.
[00:24:43.744]And she goes, no, I don't think so, son.
[00:24:46.954]I think you need to be a mechanic.
[00:24:48.915]And I looked at her,
[00:24:49.916]and back then I wasn't as patient as I am now,
[00:24:52.874]and not as wise as I am now,
[00:24:56.924]and I looked at her and I said,
[00:24:58.131]do you think I'm stupid or something, or what?
[00:24:59.677]Do I look stupid to you?
[00:25:00.681]Do I look retarded?
[00:25:02.053]You have to remember, all those years of special ed
[00:25:04.971]and being called retarded,
[00:25:06.040]I still had it, I had it in here,
[00:25:10.105]and I had it in here.
[00:25:12.104]I thought I was retarded.
[00:25:14.833]So anyway,
[00:25:19.464]I go to Miss Bolsen, I said, Miss Bolsen,
[00:25:21.083]I got kicked out of the counselor's office,
[00:25:23.182]she won't give me no catalogs.
[00:25:26.036]She goes, you come here tomorrow.
[00:25:27.991]I come in the next day to her class,
[00:25:29.597]she had a big long table,
[00:25:31.032]there were all these catalogs sitting there.
[00:25:32.938]And she goes, pick a college, pick a school.
[00:25:36.387]I go, what?
[00:25:38.873]And she goes, where are you going to college?
[00:25:40.448]I go, (speaks Spanish).
[00:25:42.353]This is for the rich.
[00:25:43.613]She goes, no, no, no, pick a school.
[00:25:46.671]So I'm looking through all these catalogs,
[00:25:48.236]I go, I bet you were just sad
[00:25:49.069]'cause you flunked that, right?
[00:25:50.120](audience laughs)
[00:25:50.953]So I'm looking through the pictures like,
[00:25:52.274]oh my God, look at this.
[00:25:54.221]Beautiful, beautiful, green leaves,
[00:25:56.780]a lot of grass, big buildings,
[00:25:58.895]I thought it was the neatest thing I'd ever seen in my life.
[00:26:01.773]I go, I'm gonna go there.
[00:26:04.229]That was Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.
[00:26:08.307]That's the school I went to.
[00:26:10.253]And she goes, okay, now you gotta apply.
[00:26:13.060]I go, Miss Bolsen, I don't have no money, man.
[00:26:15.509]You know, thank you, but I can't.
[00:26:16.936]No, no, no, it's your application.
[00:26:20.750]And her husband worked as an accountant for the factory
[00:26:22.964]where my dad worked,
[00:26:24.909]he had the application faxed,
[00:26:26.891]she paid for my application.
[00:26:32.473]And we filled out the application,
[00:26:35.999]we filled it out together,
[00:26:38.540]and we sent it in,
[00:26:39.891]you gotta remember man, I got some pretty decent grades
[00:26:41.403]in my vocational classes.
[00:26:43.933]And my math, woo-hoo!
[00:26:46.264]She said, you gotta take this thing called the ACT.
[00:26:48.937]I go, the act, what's that for?
[00:26:50.258]Never heard of it, never heard of it.
[00:26:52.381]Here I am in my senior year
[00:26:53.386]and this is March of my senior year in high school,
[00:26:55.288]never heard of it.
[00:26:56.309]She goes, I'll pay for it.
[00:26:57.464]Back then, it only cost nine dollars
[00:26:58.666]to take that darn test.
[00:26:59.970](audience laughs)
[00:27:01.413]And I go, I don't have nine dollars, you know?
[00:27:03.182]My dad barely made enough to make it from month to month.
[00:27:07.130]So, she paid for that.
[00:27:09.126]I took the ACT, and let me tell you what I got on my ACT
[00:27:11.064]just so you know.
[00:27:13.582]A nine in social science,
[00:27:15.891]a nine in science, a nine in English,
[00:27:19.967]and a 26 in math.
[00:27:22.845](audience laughs)
[00:27:24.234]I could have been an engineer.
[00:27:25.413]Anyway, so that was my ACT
[00:27:28.636]and when they prorated the scores,
[00:27:30.571]the overall prorate came out to 17.
[00:27:33.455]That's all you needed to go to Illinois State University.
[00:27:36.455]I got admitted, whoa!
[00:27:38.389]I go, okay, that felt good for that 30 seconds.
[00:27:41.964]I go, I can't go.
[00:27:43.607]She goes, no, you're going to go.
[00:27:44.748]I can't go, and by now it's about April.
[00:27:47.196]And then she goes, we're gonna apply for financial aid.
[00:27:49.454]And I go, what's that?
[00:27:50.507]I didn't know, we didn't know, we didn't know.
[00:27:54.655]My parents did the best they could with what they knew
[00:27:55.795]and how much they made.
[00:27:57.160]We did not know.
[00:27:58.385]So she goes, you need your dad's income tax papers
[00:28:01.052]and I go, (laughs) yeah, right.
[00:28:02.250]No, really.
[00:28:03.379]So I go to my dad,
[00:28:04.704]Dad, my dad was named Nicolas Vasquez,
[00:28:06.985]I go Dad, I need your income tax.
[00:28:09.958]For what?
[00:28:10.962]Well, I need it for-
[00:28:11.961]No!
[00:28:12.966]I said, a very proud man, very proud Latino man,
[00:28:15.420]so what I did, he worked shifts
[00:28:17.614]so I waited 'til the final week he worked 3:00-11:00,
[00:28:20.050]I broke into his box and I stole the income tax papers.
[00:28:23.534]And I took them to Miss Bolsen, we filled it out.
[00:28:26.306]My dad found out,
[00:28:27.874]and then I was...
[00:28:29.624]Disciplined. (audience laughs)
[00:28:31.914]That one lasted about three days, man,
[00:28:32.747]that was painful.
[00:28:34.486]Anyway, so I had applied, but guess what,
[00:28:36.696]I had applied way too late.
[00:28:38.085]All the financial aid was gone.
[00:28:40.756]And then, at about that same time,
[00:28:43.431]my dad's factory went on strike.
[00:28:46.291]So I took a job at Illinois Beef,
[00:28:50.899]sanitation crew on the slaughter floor.
[00:28:53.527]So I went to high school,
[00:28:54.667]and my teacher would yell at me,
[00:28:56.287]when I got out of high school I worked from four
[00:28:58.991]in the afternoon, I lied about my age,
[00:29:00.654]supposed to be 21, but they thought I was 21, I lied.
[00:29:03.084]And I worked from four in the afternoon
[00:29:05.534]'til two in the morning
[00:29:07.394]and I'd catch the bus to go to school
[00:29:09.526]from where we lived in the neighborhood
[00:29:12.853]at 6:30, 7:00 in the morning, to go to school.
[00:29:15.955]I would fall asleep in my classes
[00:29:17.457]and the teachers would yell at me
[00:29:20.341]and thought you must be out partying every night
[00:29:22.447]and so forth, and I never said nothing to nobody.
[00:29:24.431]Every week, I signed my check
[00:29:27.731]and I'd give it to my father.
[00:29:29.299]I made like eighty bucks a week and I'd give it to my father
[00:29:31.777]so he could feed the family.
[00:29:33.518]They were on strike, he had no money.
[00:29:35.200]And back then, the unions,
[00:29:37.748]they took your dues and just didn't give you nothing back.
[00:29:43.481]Well, I kept saying, Dad I'm gonna go to college,
[00:29:45.734]gonna go to college, no, no,
[00:29:46.833]don't wanna go to college.
[00:29:47.841]Commencement day comes,
[00:29:49.369]and guess who got to give the commencement speech?
[00:29:52.961]I did.
[00:29:55.086]And I practiced and I practiced and I practiced
[00:29:57.445]and I went, and after I graduated
[00:30:00.146]my dad came down and shook my hand and I go,
[00:30:03.675]well, Dad, everybody else is having a party
[00:30:05.418]but we couldn't afford anything.
[00:30:06.601]And I said, (speaks Spanish)
[00:30:10.019]and that was it, that was it.
[00:30:13.140]I kept working, and then I started to cash my checks
[00:30:15.865]before I gave it to my father.
[00:30:18.578]'Cause I was putting away $25 at a time,
[00:30:20.491]I though, I'm gonna go to college, right?
[00:30:23.448]So then, I was supposed to go to orientation
[00:30:26.284]and the same day orientation in July
[00:30:28.628]at Illinois State University
[00:30:30.850]was the same time I was running a marathon.
[00:30:32.680]I used to run track, I was a half miler and a miler.
[00:30:34.899]I used to run a mile in 4:26,
[00:30:36.923]fastest I ever got.
[00:30:38.208]Couldn't get below that.
[00:30:39.904]State time in Illinois at that time was 4:21.
[00:30:44.075]I was fast, but not fast enough.
[00:30:47.636]So, by that time, we switched jobs
[00:30:49.986]and I started working in the factory,
[00:30:51.426]I lied about my age there, too.
[00:30:52.919]They paid a little more to sweep, you know, push the broom.
[00:30:56.188]Well, it came to July
[00:30:57.533]and one of my friends, and I go hey,
[00:30:59.392]man, I want to go to orientation.
[00:31:00.855]I told my dad, Dad, I'm going.
[00:31:02.365](speaks Spanish)
[00:31:04.068]Yeah, I'm going.
[00:31:05.235](speaks Spanish) means, you're not gonna go.
[00:31:06.401]So okay, fine.
[00:31:07.234]So that day, I was supposed to go to work,
[00:31:11.044]I had my lunch pail,
[00:31:12.107]I had my little taquitos in there to eat, whatever.
[00:31:14.599]And I pretended like I was going to work,
[00:31:17.313]my friend picked me up to go to work
[00:31:20.379]and we drove to Illinois State University
[00:31:22.014]it was a two and a half hour drive.
[00:31:23.487]I figure, what's my dad gonna do?
[00:31:25.386]I'm gonna call him on the phone, he can't get me, right?
[00:31:27.487]Dad.
[00:31:29.738]How come you're not home from work?
[00:31:31.737]Um, I'm at Illinois State.
[00:31:34.357](yells)
[00:31:35.358]I go, it's okay, though, he's far away.
[00:31:37.928](audience laughs)
[00:31:39.367]And so he yells at me.
[00:31:40.366]I go to orientation
[00:31:41.504]and when I go to orientation
[00:31:43.832]I got put with these kids from private schools from Chicago.
[00:31:46.955]And they were registering them.
[00:31:48.927]They put me in astronomy, calculus,
[00:31:54.471]anthropology, and psychology.
[00:32:01.111]And I had been stashing away $25 at a time, right?
[00:32:03.589]Putting some money away, sometimes 15, sometimes 20, more.
[00:32:07.956]So I get back and then my dad goes, okay,
[00:32:10.878]yeah, okay this college thing, yeah?
[00:32:13.469]Yeah.
[00:32:15.921]Well then I told him.
[00:32:19.170]By the way, when I was there for orientation
[00:32:21.297]I needed a place to live
[00:32:22.543]and the RA sent me to the clearinghouse to get housing.
[00:32:26.918]And this is what happened.
[00:32:28.433]I go in there, and they go,
[00:32:30.147]you need a $150 deposit, son,
[00:32:32.597]to get an apartment.
[00:32:33.597]I go, what, 150?
[00:32:36.707]I didn't even know what a deposit was
[00:32:37.988]and they're asking for money?
[00:32:38.887]I don't even know you!
[00:32:39.720](audience laughs)
[00:32:41.311]So, how many of you have been to Illinois State University?
[00:32:43.663]Okay, how many know what Waterson Towers is?
[00:32:47.865]It's one of the biggest dormitories in the whole country.
[00:32:50.444]One block over from Waterson Towers is Broadway Street.
[00:32:54.361]I had gone to a clearinghouse
[00:32:55.910]and I didn't have no $150
[00:32:57.450]and I was not gonna give up everything I had.
[00:33:00.052]And I begged the RA,
[00:33:02.188]the RAs took care of me, and they gave me meal tickets
[00:33:04.480]and let me stay for two days.
[00:33:06.562]The rest of two days.
[00:33:07.983]And then what ended up happening,
[00:33:09.430]the next morning I got up at seven a.m.
[00:33:11.742]And I went on Broadway Street
[00:33:13.519]and I went from house to house.
[00:33:17.336]I'd drop dead for a place to live, to come to school.
[00:33:20.903]I begged, I went from house to house
[00:33:24.402]and I begged people to take me in.
[00:33:28.616]That's the honest-to-God truth.
[00:33:30.166]I get to the corner and there's this house,
[00:33:32.088]called the Tiki House, it was a really cheap fraternity.
[00:33:34.306]I had no idea what the hell that meant.
[00:33:36.236](audience laughs)
[00:33:37.255]I walked in there and there's Chuck Endolfi,
[00:33:39.331]this Italian from New York,
[00:33:40.506]and he couldn't get admitted to any schools in New York
[00:33:42.944]and he got admitted.
[00:33:45.766]At Illinois State University.
[00:33:47.667]And his parents gave him a two bedroom apartment
[00:33:49.963]all by himself, and I didn't even know,
[00:33:52.483]I was knocking on doors, and he answered, I go,
[00:33:54.909]hey Chuck, you know, to do this out
[00:33:56.352]and I told my story, he goes,
[00:33:57.795]you know what?
[00:33:58.798]My parents are rich,
[00:33:59.631]why don't you just stay with me the first two months
[00:34:01.297]and not pay nothing man, don't worry about it.
[00:34:03.014]I thought, really?
[00:34:04.094]He goes, yeah, he goes, don't worry about it.
[00:34:06.018]He had a good heart.
[00:34:07.352]Open mind and a good heart.
[00:34:10.185]Cool.
[00:34:13.694]So I go home and I tell my parents,
[00:34:15.055]and I kept in touch with him,
[00:34:16.455]I told my parents hey, I'm gonna go to college
[00:34:18.831]August 22nd, I'm gonna go.
[00:34:20.459]No, (speaks Spanish).
[00:34:22.189]I showed 'em on a map and they still didn't believe me.
[00:34:25.742]See, I graduated from high school when I was 17 years old.
[00:34:28.089]I didn't turn 18 'til August 26,
[00:34:30.873]and I was gonna leave August 22nd.
[00:34:32.488]So August 22nd, I go and I quit my job,
[00:34:36.051]come two days before I was supposed to leave,
[00:34:39.196]And I told Luis Rodriguez, look man,
[00:34:40.660]you come to my house, 5:30 in the morning on August 22nd,
[00:34:44.524]and you be there to pick me up, man.
[00:34:46.098]And I'm gonna sneak out.
[00:34:48.354]I'm gonna sneak out
[00:34:51.282]5:30 came, no Luis.
[00:34:54.648]6:30 came, no Luis.
[00:34:57.505]I go, damn, everybody's about to wake up, right?
[00:35:00.197]My six younger brothers, my sister's here,
[00:35:02.231]my mom's in the kitchen, I go, oh man.
[00:35:04.401]Because I had packed,
[00:35:06.155]how many of you remember
[00:35:07.764]those old brown big grocery bags?
[00:35:09.292]And one had all my clothes,
[00:35:11.438]the other one had the pots and pans and my guitar.
[00:35:14.369]I used to sing and play guitar.
[00:35:15.476]I can't read music, but I sing and play.
[00:35:16.902]I sing in the back of the coffee houses.
[00:35:19.794]So, here I go,
[00:35:22.296]finally Luis shows up.
[00:35:24.044]His car broke down, so he brought his brother's.
[00:35:26.399]You know what he drove?
[00:35:28.133]A 1971 four-door Datsun baby blue Station Wagon.
[00:35:34.191]I remember it like it was yesterday.
[00:35:37.049]And he pulls up in the driveway.
[00:35:38.879]I throw my stuff in,
[00:35:41.253]and I go into the bedroom and my sister won't come out
[00:35:43.737]out of the bedroom, and she grabs me and she goes,
[00:35:45.881](speaks Spanish)
[00:35:48.499]don't leave, you're never gonna come back,
[00:35:50.512]we're never gonna see you again!
[00:35:52.912]I go, I gotta go.
[00:35:54.571]And to this day, I can't tell you how I left.
[00:35:57.958]But something inside me, I knew I had to go.
[00:36:00.489]I go to the kitchen,
[00:36:02.162]my mom starts crying and going,
[00:36:03.916]mijo, don't leave, don't leave!
[00:36:06.364](speaks Spanish)
[00:36:07.762]I'm never gonna see you again, please!
[00:36:09.825]I go, Ma, I gotta go, man, I gotta go.
[00:36:12.524]I go outside, my six brothers jumped on me in the grass
[00:36:14.843]they held me down and go, man, don't go, bro, man,
[00:36:17.437]don't go, man, you gotta stay.
[00:36:18.737]I go, I gotta go, I gotta go.
[00:36:22.503]I get to the front of the blue Datsun Station Wagon
[00:36:25.457]and you'll see, that's my father and mother.
[00:36:31.220]That's my father and mother.
[00:36:33.878]I get to the front of the Station Wagon
[00:36:36.048]and my father's standing there and I go,
[00:36:38.290]I'm going to college.
[00:36:40.497]He grabs my hand, he goes, (speaks Spanish)
[00:36:43.688]now you become a man.
[00:36:45.579]That's all he said, that was it, that was it.
[00:36:48.676]My brother Nelson, the one that follows me,
[00:36:50.352]says Dad, can I go to take him?
[00:36:51.839]By then I'm crying like you here right now.
[00:36:55.235](audience laughs)
[00:36:56.473]See, I am a sensitive man
[00:36:58.829]and I'm crying, and I get in the backseat of the car
[00:37:01.810]'cause my brother he was driving.
[00:37:03.483]That ride from Sterling, Illinois, to Normal
[00:37:06.962]was about two and a half hours.
[00:37:08.521]I cried the first two hours, I cried, man.
[00:37:11.406](speaks Spanish)
[00:37:13.082]and everything, I cried almost all the way to Illinois State
[00:37:16.415]I get to Illinois State and we get to the Tiki House,
[00:37:19.197]right, I put my stuff in the apartment,
[00:37:21.817]that's about five minutes, I only had two sacks, right?
[00:37:24.198]And I'm sitting in the front yard
[00:37:25.854]and they're parked on the side,
[00:37:27.759]I go, you guys are going huh?
[00:37:30.135]And I'm sitting, thinking, what am I doing here?
[00:37:33.660]What am I doing here?
[00:37:35.278]And then they go, let's go eat something.
[00:37:38.479]Well I only had $150 in my back pocket,
[00:37:39.611]that's all I had saved
[00:37:40.960]because I'd given all my money to my father.
[00:37:42.795]No, they're like, let's go eat something.
[00:37:44.363]Okay, guess where we went?
[00:37:45.440][Audience Members] McDonald's.
[00:37:46.615]McDonald's, in Normal,
[00:37:47.895]and guess what we did when we got there?
[00:37:49.612][Audience Members] Sing.
[00:37:50.617]That's right, 'cause they didn't know us there yet.
[00:37:51.962](audience laughs)
[00:37:52.979]So, we get in there and we sing the song.
[00:37:55.874]Two all beef patties, special sauce,
[00:37:57.607]lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions
[00:37:59.246]on a sesame seed bun.
[00:38:01.975]And the lady comes out with the Big Mac,
[00:38:04.535]we get the free one, so I start to pull out my money
[00:38:07.306]and my brother Nelson goes, no, no, no, man.
[00:38:09.266]Put that away.
[00:38:10.440]I go, what, man, here's money.
[00:38:12.163]No, put that away, he goes.
[00:38:14.873]He pulled out a $20 bill and goes,
[00:38:23.006]dad told us to feed you before we left you.
[00:38:28.739]Dad told us to feed you before we left you.
[00:38:33.193]And he paid for my burger.
[00:38:37.118]Damn, I cried all the way back too.
[00:38:39.974]I can see it like it was yesterday.
[00:38:42.303]So I get back to the apartment and they leave,
[00:38:43.851]and I'm sitting there, and I must've cried half that day.
[00:38:46.422]And I'm sitting there in the room,
[00:38:47.885]Chuck was gone, he had gone to New York,
[00:38:49.772]he was flying back later,
[00:38:50.835]and I'm going, oh my God, what am I gonna do now?
[00:38:54.645]So, okay, so I start going to classes
[00:38:56.090]and I realize it costs more than $150 to go to college.
[00:39:00.064](audience laughs)
[00:39:01.585]I didn't know, honest, I did not know.
[00:39:08.461]So I lied about my age again,
[00:39:11.651]and I became a Pinkerton security guard.
[00:39:14.105]I walked the catwalks at OD Neapco, On Corning, and GE.
[00:39:18.612]Catwalks about 200 feet high
[00:39:20.447]and you had to walk around with this little clock
[00:39:21.926]and I had my uniform
[00:39:23.565]and I would clock to make sure I did the rounds.
[00:39:26.099]I did the 11:00-7:00 shift, 40 hours a week.
[00:39:29.027]11:00 at night 'til 7:00 in the morning,
[00:39:30.685]Monday through Friday.
[00:39:32.183]My fraternity brothers at that time, I go, look,
[00:39:36.577]I don't have any money.
[00:39:37.913]When I got that first bill for $3,000,
[00:39:39.220]and that was for everything,
[00:39:40.474]tuition, books, everything, $3,000 for the whole year,
[00:39:42.456]I only had $150.
[00:39:43.513](audience laughs)
[00:39:44.881]Oh man, I don't think this is gonna cut it.
[00:39:46.765]And so, you know what I did?
[00:39:49.567]The brothers in that house, they would get up,
[00:39:52.825]they would take me to work at night,
[00:39:55.152]and somebody would always be there at 7:00 a.m.
[00:39:58.089]To come pick me up and bring me back.
[00:40:05.200]I was starving, man.
[00:40:07.965]So I did what any good student would do,
[00:40:10.703]I bought a gallon of peanut butter.
[00:40:12.423](audience laughs)
[00:40:14.149]And I bought a gallon of jelly,
[00:40:15.922]you know, cheap stuff, you know the stuff that says
[00:40:17.899]great value, or it has a yellow label,
[00:40:19.898]but there's really no name on it
[00:40:21.503]so you kinda hope it's what it is?
[00:40:22.661](audience laughs)
[00:40:23.899]That's what I had.
[00:40:25.834]And I went to the Wonder Bread store,
[00:40:27.501]on the day-old bread, I paid a quarter a loaf.
[00:40:32.240]I ate peanut butter and jelly for breakfast,
[00:40:34.773]lunch, and dinner for a whole month.
[00:40:37.919]I look at peanut butter now, and just, oh god.
[00:40:40.324](audience laughs)
[00:40:41.866]But I did, until I got my first check.
[00:40:43.761]And then I started paying.
[00:40:45.494]And it still wasn't enough,
[00:40:46.813]so on the weekends I took a job at Kapen's Cinema
[00:40:48.393]to be an assistant manager at the theater.
[00:40:53.174]I was working 60 hours a week.
[00:40:54.801]And my dad would call me, and he'd say,
[00:40:57.774]Son, how you doing?
[00:40:59.469]And guess what I said, what do you think I said?
[00:41:01.632]I'm doing all right.
[00:41:02.652]I'm doing great, Dad,
[00:41:03.656]man you wouldn't believe how great life is.
[00:41:04.860](audience laughs)
[00:41:06.141]I'm doing real nice, (speaks Spanish).
[00:41:10.532]I mean, don't worry about me
[00:41:11.711]and I hang up the phone, and I cry.
[00:41:16.318]Well guess what, that first semester I worked so many hours
[00:41:18.812]I got a 1.69.
[00:41:22.512]1.69.
[00:41:25.442]The classes blew me out of the water.
[00:41:27.692]The only one I was passing was math, go figure, right?
[00:41:31.890]And I got punished for speaking Spanish
[00:41:35.081]when I was a little kid.
[00:41:36.369]When I was in high school they told me
[00:41:37.826]I couldn't take Spanish,
[00:41:38.874]because you needed a foreign language
[00:41:40.163]like to go to college, I didn't know.
[00:41:42.667]But they said because I already spoke it,
[00:41:44.002]you shouldn't take it.
[00:41:45.154]I went to the Dean of the college there,
[00:41:47.311]of education, at Illinois State University,
[00:41:51.000]and I can't go home, sir, I can't go home.
[00:41:52.773]Please, give me another chance, I can't go home.
[00:41:54.887]Because in 1975, there were 22,300 students
[00:41:58.547]at Illinois State University
[00:42:00.163]and nine of us were Latinos on the whole campus.
[00:42:03.224]We started ALAS, the Association of Latin American Students.
[00:42:06.503]So what happened was that, he gave me one more chance,
[00:42:10.112]he goes son, we'll give you one more chance,
[00:42:11.248]but that's it, I gotta let you go.
[00:42:12.470]Had no financial aid or anything.
[00:42:14.588]Switched majors to Spanish.
[00:42:16.599](audience laughs)
[00:42:20.806]And I got a 2.9 that second semester,
[00:42:23.477]even though I was working 60 hours a week.
[00:42:25.957]I worked 60 hours a week, it took me five years
[00:42:28.210]to get out of college,
[00:42:31.172]and I paid everything in cash.
[00:42:33.670]I didn't know about loans,
[00:42:34.872]I didn't know about financial aid or anything.
[00:42:37.752]And then, because I made so much,
[00:42:40.852]I didn't qualify for anything anyway.
[00:42:43.855]So then it came time for graduation
[00:42:46.409]and I told my dad and mom, I'm graduating.
[00:42:48.498]By the way, I have a Bachelor's in Spanish
[00:42:50.411]and a Minor for Political Science.
[00:42:52.571]I thought I was gonna be a Politician.
[00:42:56.044](audience laughs)
[00:42:59.631]Graduation day came, it was May 11th, 1980.
[00:43:06.353]At Illinois State University,
[00:43:07.246]I remember it like it was yesterday.
[00:43:08.732]My commencement speaker, who inspired the hell out of me,
[00:43:10.984]was Andrew Young, he spoke at my commencement.
[00:43:16.624]And I'm sitting in there
[00:43:17.617]and I think I was the only Latino graduating that day
[00:43:19.538]and I'm sitting, and my dad and mom didn't wanna come,
[00:43:22.232]didn't wanna come, and my cousin went,
[00:43:23.738]no, no, you gotta go, you gotta go.
[00:43:25.072]I'll drive you, you gotta go.
[00:43:26.150]It's a two and a half hour drive.
[00:43:27.186]So he brought them,
[00:43:28.465]this is what they dressed up,
[00:43:29.600]this is what they were wearing on my graduation day,
[00:43:31.888]you can't see my mom's dress but it has bright flowers
[00:43:33.515]and everything, so,
[00:43:35.559]and they didn't speak English so I'm sitting in the audience
[00:43:37.642]we're outside, I'm getting ready to graduate,
[00:43:40.377]I look up in the stands, I saw my parents like that.
[00:43:43.648]And they were like, glow-in-the-dark.
[00:43:46.652]And I realized how afraid they must have been
[00:43:48.673]to be there with all those people
[00:43:50.445]that they couldn't understand
[00:43:51.908]what they were saying around them,
[00:43:53.084]didn't know who they were,
[00:43:54.443]they were scared to death.
[00:43:55.538]But they came to my graduation.
[00:43:59.394]I graduated, and I got offered a job at IBM
[00:44:02.298]that paid 21,500, and I got offered a job
[00:44:04.546]to be a child abuse investigator, as a social worker
[00:44:09.084]at $11,900, guess which job I took?
[00:44:13.614]The social worker.
[00:44:15.750]'Cause I figure, if people help me
[00:44:18.133]I need to help others, I need to help others.
[00:44:22.207]So, I became a social worker,
[00:44:23.808]I was a child abuse investigator for almost three years
[00:44:26.081]and now we're gonna zoom up.
[00:44:30.891]These are my six brothers,
[00:44:33.129]my sisters won't let me put pictures up.
[00:44:35.108](audience laughs)
[00:44:36.621]Out of my brothers, I have, let me see
[00:44:39.551]if this thing works here.
[00:44:40.384]This one has a Bachelor's in Math
[00:44:44.395]from the University of Iowa,
[00:44:46.002]and he has a Master's degree also
[00:44:47.564]and he teaches Math at Rock Falls, Illinois.
[00:44:49.327]This one has a Bachelor's in Education
[00:44:51.266]and a Master's in Math
[00:44:53.612]and he teaches in Columbus, Ohio,
[00:44:56.684]in middle school.
[00:44:58.296]This one works as a record specialist for the hospital.
[00:45:00.990]And this guy was one that retired from the Army,
[00:45:05.282]sharpshooter, but we won't talk about him as much.
[00:45:08.667]And this one, Willy, manager of a grocery store,
[00:45:12.747]by the way, this one charged from the Navy,
[00:45:15.210]and this is my baby brother,
[00:45:17.031]who at one point I had, Johnny, Nicolas and Miguel with me
[00:45:22.164]at the University of Iowa living in my apartment
[00:45:24.661]trying to get them through college.
[00:45:27.720]And two got out, including myself.
[00:45:31.278]The rest of them did well
[00:45:32.693]and the other one got a trade.
[00:45:35.420]So, then what happened is,
[00:45:38.171]Iowa City needed somebody in charge
[00:45:41.659]of graduate and undergraduate recruiting
[00:45:43.796]and they said, why don't you apply?
[00:45:45.128]See, I met Arturo Sierra,
[00:45:46.305]Arturo Sierra, my best friend for 32 years
[00:45:48.764]and he died of cancer about five years ago.
[00:45:50.929]That one really hurt me.
[00:45:54.365]'Cause you see, Arturo and I,
[00:45:55.952]we were like brothers.
[00:45:57.398]And he worked at the community college in Dixon, Illinois,
[00:46:00.534]The South Valley Community College,
[00:46:02.938]and when I was a social worker,
[00:46:03.771]every time I would terminate parental rights,
[00:46:05.293]I was in court every week,
[00:46:06.760]I was also a court interpreter.
[00:46:07.993]So what I would do is,
[00:46:09.458]when I would terminate parental rights,
[00:46:11.079]I would call Arturo, and we would put the kids
[00:46:13.074]in the community college
[00:46:14.173]to make sure they all got associates degrees
[00:46:15.957]so we did a pipeline.
[00:46:17.296]And we had all these kids,
[00:46:18.669]and nobody could believe,
[00:46:19.675]how in the hell are these kids coming
[00:46:21.453]from such broken homes getting associate's degrees?
[00:46:23.376]We had quite a few that we were sending through.
[00:46:26.770]And then he goes to the University of Iowa
[00:46:28.526]and I don't see him for about three months.
[00:46:30.125]And then he goes, hmm, they got an opening here
[00:46:31.744]for a recruiter, why don't you apply?
[00:46:33.303]It says you need a Master's.
[00:46:34.358]Don't worry, I talked to them
[00:46:35.741]and they might be willing to interview you
[00:46:36.962]depending on your background.
[00:46:38.286]It says, related experience, Luis, don't worry about it.
[00:46:40.419]I apply, I interview, didn't hear nothing for two months
[00:46:44.501]so I kept doing my job.
[00:46:45.511]The University of Iowa hired me, they hired me.
[00:46:51.025]So I go to the University of Iowa for three and a half years
[00:46:53.231]I was in charge of undergraduate and graduate
[00:46:55.249]minority recruitment, I worked in special support services
[00:46:57.334]minority affairs office.
[00:46:58.953]And I traveled all over,
[00:47:00.591]and let me tell you
[00:47:01.932]that that honed down my etiquette skills.
[00:47:03.730]I knew what restaurants,
[00:47:04.879]I knew what to order, I knew how to use my spoons and forks,
[00:47:07.170]I knew what the plates were for,
[00:47:08.886]man, I had it down.
[00:47:13.827]And, right when I was there,
[00:47:16.337]okay I need to go one ahead.
[00:47:17.831]This is my beautiful wife, Associate Dean
[00:47:19.823]at the College of Education
[00:47:21.694]as Minnesota State University,
[00:47:23.393]we've been together 32 years.
[00:47:26.051]When she came from Del Rio, Texas
[00:47:28.786]to University of Iowa, she was starting her first year
[00:47:31.963]in her Doctorate, super smart woman.
[00:47:35.300]She did her Bachelor's degree at Texas State University
[00:47:40.118]and three years with a 4.0.
[00:47:43.321]Three years with a 4.0
[00:47:45.033]'cause she didn't want to get in debt.
[00:47:47.172]She got her Master's degree while working full-time
[00:47:48.784]as an elementary teacher in San Antonio
[00:47:50.513]at the University of Texas San Antonio,
[00:47:52.307]in Bilingual Multicultural Studies.
[00:47:54.358]And she did that in two years with a 4.0
[00:47:58.682]while working full-time.
[00:48:00.933]And so when she came to the University of Iowa,
[00:48:04.735]I fell in love,
[00:48:06.770]my heart went pitter-patter and that was it.
[00:48:08.536]It was over.
[00:48:10.014](audience laughs)
[00:48:11.238]So I fell in love, and I said, well, and she goes,
[00:48:13.957]you can do this, go ahead!
[00:48:15.050]And I go, well.
[00:48:16.878]You can do this!
[00:48:17.734]So I took six hours,
[00:48:19.065]because I graduated from Illinois state
[00:48:21.673]with a 2.2 grade point average.
[00:48:24.905]So they said that I could take classes
[00:48:26.382]as long as I had to get an A and a B.
[00:48:29.458]To make a long story short, I did that,
[00:48:31.520]and they gave me a fellowship, one year,
[00:48:33.604]educational opportunity program grant.
[00:48:35.408]Paid everything, but just one year.
[00:48:37.245]That Master's degree was two years,
[00:48:38.880]it was almost 60 hours.
[00:48:41.285]So,
[00:48:43.734]during that time,
[00:48:47.456]I was scared to death, and I quit my job
[00:48:49.135]and my dad hit the ceiling, he said,
[00:48:50.347]what are you doing, man?
[00:48:51.327]I was making 23,000 a year,
[00:48:52.285]and my dad goes, why are you giving up such a job?
[00:48:54.347]Why are you doing, what are you doing?
[00:48:55.378]And I got enrolled in my Master's degree,
[00:48:59.100]and they put me on probation,
[00:49:01.687]after I got the 3.5 for my two classes
[00:49:04.423]I took 16 hours the first semester,
[00:49:06.472]16 hours the second, 10 in the summer
[00:49:08.440]and I graduated with my Master's degree in one year, 3.35.
[00:49:13.135]During that time, I met Dr. Ursula Delworth.
[00:49:15.626]Five-foot-four Irish Catholic woman,
[00:49:18.257]and she's tough as nails, man.
[00:49:22.141]I was the only, only man
[00:49:25.030]I was the first and only man she graduated with a Ph.D.
[00:49:27.724]Until three years later.
[00:49:29.154]She used to eat everybody for lunch, so she said.
[00:49:31.753]Ursula goes, (growls) Luis,
[00:49:34.976]she smoked a lot. (audience laughs)
[00:49:38.572]Luis, you gotta get a doctorate.
[00:49:41.098]And I go, I dunno.
[00:49:42.103]And she goes, that wasn't a question.
[00:49:44.001](audience laughs)
[00:49:45.672]And you never said no to this woman.
[00:49:48.293]And next thing you know, I applied
[00:49:49.770]at the University of Iowa to the doctorate program.
[00:49:52.158]It was ranked number three in the country
[00:49:54.474]in counseling psychology,
[00:49:55.589]and it only admitted eight people, and I got in.
[00:49:59.733]I got in.
[00:50:02.905]And this woman,
[00:50:04.993]and by the way, by that time
[00:50:08.056]my wife then, okay, she and I,
[00:50:10.573]we got married and we had a baby
[00:50:12.465]the first year our Doctorate.
[00:50:14.305]Don't do that, by the way.
[00:50:15.313](audience laughs)
[00:50:16.311]We had a baby the first year in our Doctorate program.
[00:50:19.732]And society's grown up,
[00:50:21.286]taking care of kids and all that stuff,
[00:50:22.427]you know what we did?
[00:50:23.458]She liked to watch L.A. Law and Thirtysomething
[00:50:26.286]for those of you who remember those shows.
[00:50:27.886](audience laughs)
[00:50:29.154]So on Tuesday and Thursdays,
[00:50:30.718]those were my nights to study.
[00:50:32.951]Monday and Wednesdays were hers.
[00:50:35.217]When I had the babies, I fed 'em,
[00:50:37.032]I took care of 'em, I put 'em to sleep,
[00:50:38.591]then washed the dishes, cleaned the house.
[00:50:40.646]On Tuesday and Thursdays, okay, she would do that for me.
[00:50:44.305]On Fridays, we would have family time.
[00:50:47.383]Saturday morning to about Sunday afternoon, family time.
[00:50:49.838]Whoever had an exam on Monday or Tuesday,
[00:50:52.118]they got to have those days for the exam to study.
[00:50:56.811]So we both graduated with our Ph.D.s
[00:50:59.266]and she was the first Mexican-American woman
[00:51:01.549]to graduate with a Ph.D. in school psychology
[00:51:03.186]from the University of Iowa.
[00:51:04.951]We were the only two Latinos in the program.
[00:51:07.566]Man, they only brought us one in at a time
[00:51:10.078]every four to five years.
[00:51:11.247](audience laughs)
[00:51:12.540]I was the only one in the program for four or five years
[00:51:15.034]and she was the only one four or five years.
[00:51:16.475]Right when we get ready to graduate,
[00:51:18.054]they brought in two more.
[00:51:19.573](audience laughs)
[00:51:22.280]So,
[00:51:24.675]and my family lived in
[00:51:26.189]so if I would have never came to visit
[00:51:28.062]the first time was in Yarrow, Texas,
[00:51:30.047]so we had our first baby,
[00:51:31.490]she had to have an emergency cesarean,
[00:51:32.994]and I'm by myself in the hospital
[00:51:34.508]and I'm going, oh god, you know,
[00:51:36.332]and this story is she'd kill me
[00:51:38.128]if I told you this story, but I'm gonna tell you anyway.
[00:51:40.493](audience laughs)
[00:51:41.535]I go to the doctors and I go, you know,
[00:51:42.739]you may have to make a choice.
[00:51:44.170]And I go, please, please, let my wife live.
[00:51:47.715]I put on my greens and I went in there
[00:51:49.589]and she had the cesarean,
[00:51:51.192]I talked to her that they even put her to sleep
[00:51:53.357]while you're in the room,
[00:51:55.017]I talked to her the whole time
[00:51:56.266]when I saw them cut her up and we had our baby.
[00:51:57.836]And I'm sitting there,
[00:51:59.749]and then it turned out okay,
[00:52:02.281]I'm sitting in the waiting room after it was over
[00:52:04.421]'cause they took my baby to intensive care
[00:52:06.333]to make sure 'cause it was an emergency cesarean.
[00:52:08.488]And I was with my wife, and I talked to her
[00:52:10.208]and she finally fell asleep.
[00:52:11.409]And I'm sitting out in the waiting room by myself
[00:52:13.286]and my hands like this.
[00:52:15.694]A nurse comes, Mr. Vasquez, Mr. Vasquez!
[00:52:18.551]Yeah?
[00:52:19.865]Your mother's here.
[00:52:22.516]My mother? (audience laughs)
[00:52:25.014]And it was Ursula Delworth.
[00:52:26.500](audience laughs)
[00:52:29.820]because she, when she was younger
[00:52:31.746]she marched with Cesar Chavez in California
[00:52:33.686]and she knew some Spanish,
[00:52:35.501]she came in speaking Spanish, she goes,
[00:52:37.195](speaks Spanish)
[00:52:39.390]and she came in, and this is what advice she does,
[00:52:42.820]she held my hand, and we prayed together.
[00:52:49.035]And then she opened her bag,
[00:52:51.347]and she had a little bottle of Jack Daniel's.
[00:52:53.027](audience laughs)
[00:52:54.698]It's for real, because I took, you know,
[00:52:56.671]so we started...
[00:52:58.267](audience laughs)
[00:52:59.942]In the hospital she snuck it in for me
[00:53:01.597]and we drank together.
[00:53:07.179]So, okay I'm getting there.
[00:53:14.828]Oh no.
[00:53:17.643]Oh!
[00:53:18.858](audience laughs)
[00:53:21.510]Okay.
[00:53:23.364]Well over the years, I have become an Assistant Professor.
[00:53:25.937]Both my wife and I.
[00:53:27.849]We got recruited to Minnesota State University,
[00:53:30.217]I was at the University of Iowa,
[00:53:31.472]and then we both became Associate Professors.
[00:53:35.254]I became Department Head for the Counseling
[00:53:36.885]and then psych department.
[00:53:37.889]At that time, there were seven white males
[00:53:40.277]and one white female and no minority faculty
[00:53:42.484]in that department.
[00:53:44.158]Less than 12% of our students at that time
[00:53:46.602]across the three programs, school psychology,
[00:53:48.740]psychology, and psych, and mental health counseling
[00:53:51.187]at that time, less than 12% were minorities.
[00:53:55.634]I barely became an Associate Professor
[00:53:57.233]and we had a coup in my department
[00:54:00.247]and they were gonna dismantle it.
[00:54:03.989]And the Dean came and he interviewed all of us
[00:54:06.679]and he pulled me aside, he goes,
[00:54:09.085]I wanna make you Department Head.
[00:54:10.542]I go, what?
[00:54:11.375]I just became an Associate Professor.
[00:54:12.591]I wanna make you Department Head.
[00:54:13.833]You got one year to turn this around,
[00:54:15.282]you don't turn it around,
[00:54:16.450]we're gonna dismantle the department
[00:54:18.306]and we're gonna have to take it apart
[00:54:20.875]and the department will cease to exist.
[00:54:24.729]I have never worked so hard in my life.
[00:54:27.210]I turned the department around,
[00:54:28.980]we ended up with three national accreditations,
[00:54:31.162]I was Department Head for six and a half years,
[00:54:33.315]now we have over 67% minorities
[00:54:38.266]across all three programs
[00:54:39.613]and I have almost all women minorities in the department
[00:54:43.943]before I left the Department Head.
[00:54:46.423]Because at that time they figure,
[00:54:47.949]oh man, this man can do something.
[00:54:49.488]So they made me Associate Dean of the graduate school,
[00:54:51.279]got a call from the President of the university,
[00:54:53.233]and in the meantime my wife became an Associate Professor
[00:54:56.301]first, I became an Associate Professor second,
[00:54:58.444]and then I became Associate Dean
[00:55:02.209]of the graduate school, she had been Associate Dean
[00:55:04.238]of the graduate school too at some point
[00:55:05.622]and then what happened was
[00:55:09.785]when I went up to full professorship I had a hard time,
[00:55:12.655]I had a hard time.
[00:55:14.044]I was doing research on only minorities
[00:55:15.557]within group difference and so forth
[00:55:16.985]and people kept asking me,
[00:55:18.296]what's your comparison group?
[00:55:20.535]And I'd go, I am, I'm doing within-group comparisons.
[00:55:23.205]Anyway, the promo society, I got tenured,
[00:55:26.650]I got promoted to full Professor.
[00:55:29.636]A year later, my name was nominated,
[00:55:32.335]I was nominated for the readings professor
[00:55:33.659]and endowed chair,
[00:55:34.653]and all the readings professors
[00:55:36.697]when they voted almost got a full unanimous vote
[00:55:38.733]from across the campus,
[00:55:40.119]and I became an endowed chair.
[00:55:43.572]But then at that time,
[00:55:44.831]I started to be known as the fixer
[00:55:46.865]and I still don't like that
[00:55:48.093]because I have a tendency to stay cool under conflict
[00:55:52.069]and I fix things.
[00:55:54.022]My wife at that time had become a Deputy Director
[00:55:57.220]and Associate Dean of the honors college.
[00:56:00.583]Then she became a full Professor also.
[00:56:04.581]And then what happened was that
[00:56:06.720]I was chair of the interstitial review board,
[00:56:09.079]and we were having all kinds of problems.
[00:56:11.008]When I took over, there was all kinds of problems.
[00:56:13.081]So knowing me,
[00:56:14.165]I started to restructure the whole thing, the whole bit.
[00:56:16.500]Then I told the President,
[00:56:17.762]you need to have an Associate Vice President
[00:56:19.692]for research integrity,
[00:56:20.938]because this is a mess over here.
[00:56:22.935]And he goes, well, what do you think?
[00:56:24.977]I go, I'll write the job description.
[00:56:26.547]So I wrote my own job description
[00:56:29.291]and the President says, okay,
[00:56:30.416]you'll be the founding person in that.
[00:56:32.503]And that's how I got that position.
[00:56:34.445]And I left the graduate school.
[00:56:36.661]My wife went back to full Professor,
[00:56:38.374]she got tired of being in administration.
[00:56:42.643]And lately when we have an excellent new Dean now,
[00:56:45.482]the first time that we have a Pan-American Afro Dean,
[00:56:50.506]we have had one African-American
[00:56:52.477]but he is Afro, he's also Panamanian,
[00:56:55.665]and I've known him for 23 years,
[00:56:57.658]we were psychologists in those days.
[00:56:59.400]So,
[00:57:02.345]she interviewed and competed,
[00:57:04.160]she became Associate Dean of the college
[00:57:05.799]of education since August.
[00:57:07.752]And so we're both in this together.
[00:57:10.036]And 32 years, my boys are doing fine,
[00:57:12.309]I have an oldest boy that's 29,
[00:57:14.361]he's taking the scenic route,
[00:57:15.554]hopefully none of you would do that,
[00:57:17.071]'cause you piss off your parents if you do that stuff.
[00:57:19.978]And then my youngest son finished his Master's degree
[00:57:23.347]in Education, okay.
[00:57:29.304]And this is how I find most of the days,
[00:57:31.635]sometimes I'm there 'til 8:00, 9:00 at night.
[00:57:33.708]But as you can see, I didn't do it by myself.
[00:57:36.455]See my parents, I learned from my parents
[00:57:39.843]endurance, motivation,
[00:57:42.835]and a high tolerance for pain.
[00:57:44.500](audience laughs)
[00:57:47.111]From Miss Bolsen I learned,
[00:57:48.503]nothing can stop you, on to sacrifice.
[00:57:51.776]From Dr. Ursula Dower,
[00:57:54.424]which, by the way, she smoked a lot too.
[00:57:56.779]I hated going to her office
[00:57:58.483]because you know we had a no smoking policy,
[00:58:00.172]someone talked about that earlier.
[00:58:01.722]She'd stuff a towel underneath her door
[00:58:03.289]and smoke all day long.
[00:58:04.429](audience laughs)
[00:58:05.496]I'd go in there for an advisory meeting, whoa!
[00:58:08.864]She goes, come in, Luis.
[00:58:10.653]But I don't wanna go in there.
[00:58:12.939](audience laughs)
[00:58:13.772]No, 'cause I would come out smelling like I smoke.
[00:58:15.214]And then the Principal would say,
[00:58:17.072]have you been smoking in the building, Mr. Vasquez?
[00:58:19.773]So.
[00:58:23.502]Just to tell you that we have fun.
[00:58:25.557]I told everybody that I went to RAGBRAI?
[00:58:27.594]That's that trip across the state of Iowa,
[00:58:29.719]49 miles, my wife and my youngest boy and I
[00:58:31.936]rode our bicycles pedaling across the state of Iowa.
[00:58:34.847]So, the money I've made and so forth
[00:58:37.078]we have fun together.
[00:58:38.784]You see that camel in the corner?
[00:58:40.785]I sent that to my staff, didn't I, Michelle?
[00:58:43.755]Michelle is one of my staff members.
[00:58:45.258]I sent that on hump day.
[00:58:46.573]I go look man, hump day!
[00:58:48.730](audience laughs)
[00:58:51.798]That's when I met Hershey, he was on the trail.
[00:58:54.116]That's me, of course.
[00:58:55.499]And there were over 18,000 bikers
[00:58:57.621]and we spent six nights together
[00:58:58.923]camping and so forth.
[00:59:00.676]So what did I learn from all this, what did I learn?
[00:59:04.168]Oh man.
[00:59:07.012]Thank God.
[00:59:08.173]I learned how to communicate.
[00:59:10.016]Because you know what?
[00:59:11.212]7% of what you say are your words.
[00:59:13.493]30% is the tone Inflection.
[00:59:16.083]How many of you know when your parents are upset with you?
[00:59:19.233]How do you know?
[00:59:20.492]Even, by their what, tone.
[00:59:23.706]Or they give you the look, right?
[00:59:26.024](audience laughs)
[00:59:27.543]Look, body language, 55%.
[00:59:29.544]Do you know what that means?
[00:59:31.283]93% of your communication comes from body language
[00:59:34.504]and your tone inflection.
[00:59:37.049]93%, so only 7% are the words.
[00:59:40.279]And by the way, I love diversity.
[00:59:41.977]When on to doctoral,
[00:59:43.519]I spent 13 years doing Ipi ceremonies
[00:59:45.915]which are the sweat lodges
[00:59:47.393]working with the shaman and the medicine men.
[00:59:49.235]I also spent almost two years,
[00:59:51.328]a year and a half to almost two years
[00:59:53.247]attending an all-black Baptist church.
[00:59:55.701]I was the only non-black in the audience and I loved it.
[00:59:59.333]You gotta remember, I used to have a 'fro.
[01:00:02.452]And I also attended a Mormon church,
[01:00:04.412]Irish Catholic, okay, I got involved with Pido Pistas,
[01:00:09.119]so I been around a little bit
[01:00:11.518]with all these different cultures.
[01:00:12.351]And white, I even attended a white Baptist church
[01:00:14.652]and that was so stupid.
[01:00:16.676]I tried to put the black Baptist church
[01:00:18.024]and the white Baptist church together for a Sunday cookout
[01:00:22.161]and I'm the only one that showed up.
[01:00:24.084](audience laughs)
[01:00:25.359]You know, the Black baptist church also showed up
[01:00:28.174]but not the other one.
[01:00:29.961]They were afraid to come into the neighborhood.
[01:00:32.567]So there I was, having a good time with hot dogs
[01:00:34.281]and everything, Kool-Aid.
[01:00:36.035](audience laughs)
[01:00:38.745]But what I realized is, communication, communication.
[01:00:42.533]Now watch the next slide carefully, are you ready?
[01:00:47.875]When we first see each other, what do we see?
[01:00:50.075]We see our gender, we see our color,
[01:00:51.754]then we hear the words,
[01:00:53.207]then we wonder what the task is gonna be
[01:00:54.865]that we have to do, right?
[01:00:56.802]Am I wrong?
[01:00:57.801]No.
[01:00:59.379]Now, that is called low context communication.
[01:01:03.033]What is low context communication?
[01:01:04.954]That's what we see, and that's what we stick to.
[01:01:06.974]Now what happens when you're actually
[01:01:08.320]in the academic setting?
[01:01:09.738]Are you ready?
[01:01:13.502]We start to see the social setting we're in.
[01:01:18.912]And we start to wonder, am I okay, is it cool?
[01:01:24.124]Social settings,
[01:01:25.497]sometimes we notice that others have more than we do.
[01:01:27.508]Sometimes we notice that others have less than we do.
[01:01:31.430]So we note it and we can tell.
[01:01:32.453]How many of you can tell when someone's poor?
[01:01:34.815]Yeah, how many of you can tell when somebody's rich?
[01:01:38.868]Have you heard of the vocabulary?
[01:01:41.596]If I were to talk to you this right now,
[01:01:42.483]you'd wonder if I'm smart or not, right?
[01:01:46.160]But if I were to talk to you like this,
[01:01:47.990]hello, (mimics fancy accent).
[01:01:51.653]That would mean I'm smart.
[01:01:52.660]And you know what?
[01:01:53.663]Ringo Starr came from Liverpool.
[01:01:55.761]They were considered some of the poorest English
[01:01:57.280]in the world, we over here heard that shit
[01:01:59.318]and guess what we thought?
[01:02:00.962]Wow, that's so cool.
[01:02:02.608](audience laughs)
[01:02:04.748]We didn't know.
[01:02:06.149]But you hear the Spanish, that's just the English, okay.
[01:02:10.553]Culture.
[01:02:12.469]All of you are insiders into your own culture.
[01:02:14.018]You know how to behave around your grandparents,
[01:02:16.011]you know how to behave around your elders, don't you?
[01:02:17.740]You know how to behave with your aunts and uncles, right?
[01:02:20.653]When auntie comes over and so forth,
[01:02:22.405]you behave, how many of you behave?
[01:02:25.517]Right.
[01:02:26.563]Okay.
[01:02:28.169](audience laughs)
[01:02:30.322]Language preferences,
[01:02:31.326]how many of you know how to speak when you're out there?
[01:02:33.679]When I go home,
[01:02:34.999]and I run into my bascos I go, (speaks Spanish).
[01:02:40.452]Let's do it.
[01:02:41.852]And we say hello like this, it takes a half hour.
[01:02:44.319](audience laughs)
[01:02:46.452]When I'm at the college
[01:02:48.155]and I'm talking to my graduate students
[01:02:49.521]I talk like this.
[01:02:51.001]It's great to know, we're gonna talk
[01:02:52.214]about some theoretical content,
[01:02:53.783]we're gonna look at the process of acculturation,
[01:02:55.150]identity, world view,
[01:02:56.671]and we're gonna look at how they impact
[01:02:58.609]the overall personality that each of you have
[01:03:00.370]within you as you evolve
[01:03:04.050]into your interpersonal relationships upon this campus.
[01:03:05.862]See how they go forward.
[01:03:07.851]When I got see the President of the university,
[01:03:09.501]this is how I talk.
[01:03:11.554]Mr. President, how are you.
[01:03:14.017]You know, it's been a pleasure to meet with you today
[01:03:15.964]and I'm looking forward to this meeting.
[01:03:17.915]By the way, I have a win-win situation,
[01:03:20.111]I've been looking over my budgetary concerns,
[01:03:22.714]but also have found that it's a possibility
[01:03:24.505]with your help, and your kind help,
[01:03:27.027]to produce the money that I would be
[01:03:29.433]to produce such an institution
[01:03:32.615]involving the grant that I could bring students here.
[01:03:35.418]I think it would be a win-win,
[01:03:37.007]we could increase the retention and the graduation
[01:03:39.006]of our students, and in return
[01:03:41.374]you will get more taxes, overall,
[01:03:44.026]all of us will benefit
[01:03:46.100]and this university becomes a communal university,
[01:03:48.410]a community university,
[01:03:49.964]for the greatest enterprise of all
[01:03:51.583]which should be our students.
[01:03:54.083]Sure, Luis, how much you need?
[01:03:55.863](audience laughs)
[01:03:57.663]But did you notice the difference?
[01:03:59.088]Context.
[01:04:00.104]You don't give up who you are,
[01:04:01.333]you expand your skills to the places that you're gonna be.
[01:04:06.189]Okay.
[01:04:07.264]And then we have intelligence.
[01:04:09.569]By the way, by the time you reach 18 to 21
[01:04:11.560]you're not gonna get any smarter than what you are.
[01:04:13.927]You're gonna learn more,
[01:04:15.565]but your intelligence taps out, I'm sorry.
[01:04:18.934]You're leveled out, don't mind, okay.
[01:04:21.801]But that doesn't mean you can't learn.
[01:04:24.074]It just means that whatever your IQ is gonna be
[01:04:26.691]it's gonna be the same at the age of 18 to 20
[01:04:29.518]as it is 15, 16, and so forth.
[01:04:32.390]Oops, personality, how you are.
[01:04:35.128]How many of you are extroverted?
[01:04:39.211]I'd say about five, seven, eight.
[01:04:40.429]How many of you are introverted?
[01:04:42.449]Wow, that's quite a few.
[01:04:44.300]Do you believe I was introverted, no.
[01:04:46.214](audience laughs)
[01:04:48.958]Okay, tone, gestures.
[01:04:51.960]How many of you talk with your hands?
[01:04:53.155]I do, I look like I'm sitting out there in the airport
[01:04:55.978]trying to change the planes going.
[01:04:58.920]Okay.
[01:05:00.578]History.
[01:05:02.813]Our history, and you know what that means?
[01:05:04.700]The history of our families.
[01:05:05.810]How it is that we talk to them,
[01:05:07.452]how it is that we love each other,
[01:05:08.864]how it is that we hate each other.
[01:05:10.106]How it is that we deal with conflict.
[01:05:11.930]How it is that we deal with stresses.
[01:05:16.458]I'll spend 15 minutes with you
[01:05:17.899]and by the time I'm done
[01:05:18.732]I'll tell you how you deal with stresses,
[01:05:20.328]I can find out.
[01:05:22.922]I do it all the time.
[01:05:24.773]And all of this is involved with what?
[01:05:27.758]Emotional intelligence.
[01:05:29.123]Emotional intelligence you can always increase.
[01:05:31.096]Your personality and your intelligence balance out.
[01:05:34.960]Your emotional intelligence,
[01:05:36.322]you can always learn how to deal with your anger.
[01:05:38.151]You can learn how to deal with your stresses.
[01:05:40.120]You can learn how to be successful.
[01:05:41.991]You can learn how to believe that you're something.
[01:05:44.660]You can learn.
[01:05:47.287]'Cause look what happens.
[01:05:48.667]When you have emotional intelligence,
[01:05:49.812]this happens to your emotions.
[01:05:51.680]They go through your limbic system right here.
[01:05:54.083]They go through your limbic system
[01:05:56.004]and that's where you feel.
[01:05:57.014]Some of us, it stops there
[01:05:59.260]because we get what?
[01:06:01.491]We start pulling out our concealed weapon
[01:06:03.029]when somebody cuts us off on the highway.
[01:06:04.916](audience laughs)
[01:06:05.913]We start screaming at each other.
[01:06:06.924]I was at Walgreen's the other day,
[01:06:08.424]I was getting some medication,
[01:06:10.419]and they said, it'll be ready in a half hour sir.
[01:06:12.671]Oh sure, so I said, do I have to wait in line?
[01:06:14.195]Oh no, no, you can come right up
[01:06:15.515]as soon as we call your name and it's ready.
[01:06:18.485]Other people in line, with the little bottle
[01:06:20.690]they're in line and they go,
[01:06:23.364]Mr. Vasquez, your medication's ready.
[01:06:25.693]So I walk up and he goes,
[01:06:26.914]what are you doing?
[01:06:27.747]You going in front?
[01:06:28.762]And I go, really?
[01:06:30.059]So I told the lady behind me, I said, look,
[01:06:31.443]I don't want any trouble, I can wait until everybody goes.
[01:06:33.582]No, no, no, I told you to come up.
[01:06:36.860]Man you're lucky I'm gonna kick your ass.
[01:06:38.406]And I'm like, oh man, really.
[01:06:40.002]So I was very, very calm, I said look,
[01:06:42.291]are we really gonna do this here?
[01:06:44.651]I don't think it's in your best interest, nor mine.
[01:06:48.444]And he got real quiet and put his head down.
[01:06:50.724]I go, I got my medication.
[01:06:51.852]I made it halfway down the aisle,
[01:06:52.861]he goes, he's lucky he left,
[01:06:54.315]I was gonna kick his ass!
[01:06:55.421](audience laughs)
[01:06:57.131]You know what?
[01:06:58.280]If you want your emotions to go from the limbic system
[01:06:59.885]to the frontal lobe, why?
[01:07:02.795]Because that's where you think rationally
[01:07:03.963]and you can balance that, you can balance that.
[01:07:07.183]So here you go, emotional intelligence
[01:07:09.197]impacts your intelligence and your personality.
[01:07:12.514]This is what you all have to really pay attention to.
[01:07:15.348]Emotional intelligence is the foundation
[01:07:17.312]that impacts decision-making,
[01:07:19.610]change tolerance, impacts time management,
[01:07:23.148]impacts assertiveness,
[01:07:24.736]impacts empathy, communication,
[01:07:28.781]social skills, presentation skills,
[01:07:31.147]stress tolerance, customer service,
[01:07:33.842]accountability, flexibility, anger management,
[01:07:35.944]trust, your emotional intelligence
[01:07:39.482]is what allows you to deal with things
[01:07:41.911]if you're able to think about it enough
[01:07:44.103]to make the best out of it.
[01:07:48.657]So what do you need for emotional intelligence?
[01:07:50.379]Self awareness?
[01:07:53.343]You have to know.
[01:07:54.232]I know when I'm getting excited
[01:07:55.603]and I know tears, I almost lost it in here a few times
[01:07:58.639]because when I think back on my history
[01:08:00.796]I see it, I re-live it.
[01:08:02.515]It's almost like having a PTSD, it comes to life
[01:08:06.514]and you can't tell me any of you here
[01:08:08.626]have never gone through that.
[01:08:11.119]I drive up next to people on the highway
[01:08:12.745]and we stop at the stoplight, right,
[01:08:14.440]we come up to the stoplight,
[01:08:15.799]and the person next to me,
[01:08:17.416]a young lady, was sitting there going (sniffs).
[01:08:20.349]And I'm over here going, okay,
[01:08:21.950]she either heard a sad song or somebody did something to her
[01:08:23.690]and do I wanna talk to her?
[01:08:26.732]How many of you have had that happen to you?
[01:08:28.543]You hear a song and all of the sudden, (sniffs).
[01:08:33.078]I can't believe he stole my tennis shoes!
[01:08:35.358](audience laughs)
[01:08:36.887]Okay so, you know, that's it.
[01:08:38.416]So management, using awareness of your emotions
[01:08:40.382]to stay flexible and direct
[01:08:42.153]your behavior in a positive way.
[01:08:44.928]Social awareness, and this is where you get
[01:08:47.231]into your initiatives, including pick up others' emotions
[01:08:50.694]and understand what is really going on.
[01:08:52.601]But you can't do that unless you listen,
[01:08:55.628]unless you listen and you observe and you understand.
[01:08:58.726]Relationship management,
[01:09:00.229]ability to use your awareness of your own emotions
[01:09:02.884]and those of others to manage interactions successfully.
[01:09:05.906]My wife and I have been together 32 years
[01:09:07.309]and you can ask her, I wish she was here.
[01:09:09.248]I have never, in my life, in 32 years,
[01:09:11.979]ever cussed at that woman, never.
[01:09:15.366]32 years, and I have never cussed at that woman.
[01:09:18.378]Never.
[01:09:20.214]I wish it was the same the other way, but you know.
[01:09:22.369](audience laughs)
[01:09:24.801]So, let's talk about what this looks like in real life.
[01:09:28.519]Are you ready?
[01:09:29.660]Are you ready?
[01:09:30.573]No she's a fine lady, man, I wasn't...
[01:09:32.333]You know we still go dancing?
[01:09:33.839](audience awws)
[01:09:34.841]We still go to the movies together
[01:09:36.006]and we even hold hands.
[01:09:38.078]I know.
[01:09:39.106](audience laughs)
[01:09:41.485]I'm gonna talk to you about the imposter syndrome
[01:09:43.363]let's put this to real life.
[01:09:44.669]You know what the imposter syndrome is?
[01:09:46.106]When you tell yourself,
[01:09:47.172]am I really good enough?
[01:09:48.933]Should I be here?
[01:09:50.448]Do I belong?
[01:09:52.303]How many of you have ever felt that?
[01:09:54.938]What am I doing here, do I fit, do I belong?
[01:09:57.991]Do I fit, do I belong?
[01:09:59.597]Other people's behaviors should never, ever dictate
[01:10:03.837]how you feel about yourself, never.
[01:10:08.654]Apply emotionally intelligence to imposter syndrome.
[01:10:11.290]This is what you do, are you ready?
[01:10:13.175]Self-awareness, change your thinking.
[01:10:15.204]Start to re-frame your thoughts.
[01:10:17.592]Take out those cassette tapes or, I'm sorry, CDs.
[01:10:21.974](audience laughs)
[01:10:23.378]Or your, whatever it is that you use inside your head.
[01:10:26.765]Take those thoughts out that keep telling you,
[01:10:28.885]I'm no good, I'm not cool,
[01:10:31.156]I'm only here 'cause I'm a minority,
[01:10:32.316]I'm only here because I'm Latino.
[01:10:34.057]I'm like, take those tapes out.
[01:10:35.569]They have no room in your head, those tapes.
[01:10:38.530]You take those tapes out.
[01:10:39.987]Social management.
[01:10:41.742]You need some proof, right?
[01:10:43.666]'Cause even though you might say
[01:10:45.289]I wanna fight this, I wanna fight this,
[01:10:46.525]oh god it's so hard, I need help.
[01:10:47.939]Your mentors, Dr. Perkins,
[01:10:50.685]mentor, Dr. Riley, mentor,
[01:10:54.331]and all the other professors here, mentors.
[01:10:56.618]They'll tell you you're smart
[01:10:58.523]and you can do this, but you need to listen
[01:11:01.201]and you need to trust.
[01:11:03.016]'Cause sometimes you need to hang on.
[01:11:05.731]I heard that earlier today,
[01:11:06.805]and that's so true.
[01:11:08.025]I hung on to Dr. Delworth, she got me through.
[01:11:10.868]They will tell you the truth.
[01:11:12.236]You wouldn't be here unless you were smart.
[01:11:14.644]And I talked to many of you and I know you're intelligent.
[01:11:17.877]So don't ever, ever tell me, I can't do it.
[01:11:20.980]What you can tell me is,
[01:11:22.727]I'm gonna try, can you help me?
[01:11:25.124]That I can do, that I can do.
[01:11:27.862]Relationships, okay, social,
[01:11:31.352]social awareness, you want your peers,
[01:11:34.535]sometimes you get to pick who your peers are gonna be.
[01:11:36.709]When I was younger I had some lethal friends.
[01:11:38.551]You know what that means?
[01:11:39.534]They always got me in trouble.
[01:11:41.192]And when I didn't have no money, I didn't have no friends.
[01:11:45.461]So I started surrounding myself with who?
[01:11:48.066]People that had my best interests in mind.
[01:11:50.280]People I knew loved me,
[01:11:51.659]people I knew they were willing to sacrifice for me.
[01:11:53.748]Relationship management, own your expertise,
[01:11:56.021]dignity, and taking excellence and pay it forward.
[01:11:59.599]And I've seen many of you do that with each other,
[01:12:02.471]looking out for each other.
[01:12:03.669]The other night, I saw, he said well, are we leaving?
[01:12:05.566]No, no, no, I can't.
[01:12:07.214]We can't leave her behind, we're gonna wait
[01:12:08.352]'til she comes out.
[01:12:09.928]Are you going for a walk?
[01:12:11.856]Yeah, yeah, but wait a minute.
[01:12:13.599]Six of us could go, so we all,
[01:12:15.181]I saw you all stick together.
[01:12:16.972]How come?
[01:12:19.322]Why?
[01:12:21.307](audience murmers)
[01:12:22.258]Best interests.
[01:12:23.091]And you take care of each other.
[01:12:25.437]Like we take care of each other.
[01:12:28.992]Words of wisdom.
[01:12:31.466]Is this making sense to you what I share with you tonight?
[01:12:33.775]Yes.
[01:12:34.776]I am here because I stand on the shoulders
[01:12:38.005]of many that have come before me
[01:12:40.477]and there'll be many that come after me.
[01:12:42.859]And I want someday to come back here
[01:12:45.562]and see one of you tell your story up here.
[01:12:48.618]Hopefully you'll know that you need more than $150
[01:12:51.637]to go to college.
[01:12:52.903](audience laughs)
[01:12:54.129]Hopefully you'll like peanut butter
[01:12:55.245]and not go crazy about it.
[01:12:57.394]And hopefully, you will know
[01:12:59.866]the things that I never did when I first started school
[01:13:02.447]because remember, I was diagnosed retarded.
[01:13:06.023]I was educationally, mentally handicapped.
[01:13:08.482]I went from EMH to Ph.D.
[01:13:11.012]And here I stand before you,
[01:13:13.363]and if I could go through all that and get through,
[01:13:16.257]my God, with the privileges and the opportunities
[01:13:20.725]and the support you have
[01:13:22.093]there's no reason why all of you in this room
[01:13:23.711]can't get through.
[01:13:25.570]Words of wisdom, always have an open mind
[01:13:28.672]and a good heart, eyes that see,
[01:13:30.771]ears that listen, share words that heal.
[01:13:34.391]You're embracing yourself, you embrace your diversity,
[01:13:37.349]be a healing presence for each other.
[01:13:40.941]We don't have to put each other down.
[01:13:42.128]You don't like how somebody dresses, so what?
[01:13:45.757]They may not like how you smell.
[01:13:48.056](audience laughs)
[01:13:50.075]You might not like how somebody's shoes are, so what?
[01:13:53.331]They might not like the color of your shirt.
[01:13:56.026]But does that mean we have to use the words
[01:13:58.334]to hurt each other?
[01:14:00.013]And I'm gonna leave you with this thought.
[01:14:02.384]Get rid of your ethic racial barometers,
[01:14:04.240]you know what those are?
[01:14:05.252]I wrote an article on this.
[01:14:06.243]This is when we wear a little barometer here that says,
[01:14:10.548]okay, I'm Latino, right?
[01:14:11.962]Let's do the Latino barometer.
[01:14:13.541](beeps)
[01:14:15.388]Oh man, you can't be Latina,
[01:14:18.128]you don't speak Spanish like I do, (speaks Spanish).
[01:14:22.529]And we tear each other down because we can't speak.
[01:14:25.284]Or we're not dark enough or we're too light
[01:14:29.292]or we walk around, (beeps)
[01:14:31.735]oh man, look at that brother!
[01:14:32.972]He speaks so proper and he can't dance.
[01:14:35.229](audience laughs)
[01:14:37.846]Yeah, you laughing, you know what I'm talking about.
[01:14:43.071]And so we don't need that ethnic racial barometer
[01:14:45.509]because we have enough to deal with
[01:14:46.852]without us tearing each other apart.
[01:14:48.811]So with that, I leave you tonight.
[01:14:51.068]Thank you for listening to my story.
[01:14:52.847]I appreciate it, and thank you very much.
[01:14:55.241](audience applauds)
[01:15:18.033]Show us some dance moves!
[01:15:19.637](audience laughs)

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ntc
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nebraska transportation center
mid-america transportation center
matc scholars program
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graduate school
new mexico state university
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college funding
Luis Vázquez

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2015 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Luis Vázquez

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