A sign, a walkout and a plan of action for Latinos in Washington County

Press Release

"How many of you want to become teachers?" U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici asked.

Bianca Bermejo's hand shot up.

Bermejo has several reasons for wanting to become a teacher. One of them centered on her presence in a meeting room with the congresswoman.

About a month earlier, Bermejo had been at the center of a student walkout at Forest Grove High, a response to another student's hanging of a "build the wall" banner in the school's cafeteria.

The sign was the final straw for Bermejo and other Latino students who'd become dissatisfied with several aspects of school life, such as the lack of Spanish- and English-speaking teachers and feelings of disrespect that preceded the cafeteria sign by several months.

Bonamici sought a meeting with a student group made up of Latino students from high schools in Washington called #UnitedWeStand. She wanted to hear about their concerns and offer encouragement.

Bermejo, a senior at Forest Grove High next year, was one of about a dozen students at a Centro meeting table June 20. She'd also attended other #UnitedWeStand organizing meetings since the May walkout, including the group's inaugural session Memorial Day.

During that four-hour session, Bermejo and other students talked about the importance of ensuring their grievances amounted to more than a one-day protest.

They concluded by listing and ranking their goals for change at schools throughout Washington County. Those priorities, in order: a mandatory ethnic studies curriculum, teacher diversity training, parent engagement and leadership training, student representation on school boards, staff/faculty/board reflect students, teachers getting to know students better, and ending stereotypes.

Bermejo has had just four Latino teachers since kindergarten, even though the Forest Grove School District has the highest concentration of Latino students of any district in Oregon.

"It's really kind of sad," Bermejo said.

Forest Grove School District job postings for teachers say "bilingual preferred," and the school attends recruiting fairs in Texas and New Mexico in an attempt to sign Spanish-speaking teachers. District Superintendent Yvonne Curtis says Forest Grove recruiters see colleagues from other Portland-area schools at the fairs -- all targeting a pool of candidates that's too small for the demand.

"We're looking for every way we can to hire a more diverse staff," Curtis said.

Bermejo, though, isn't satisfied.

"I believe there is a shortage," Bermejo said. "But I also think it's kind of... it's because there wasn't that piece for the older generation to inspire them to be educators."

Bermejo said she's found examples of the teacher she'd like to become, including English teacher Dawn Nelson and biology teacher Tammy Johnson. Another biology teacher, Ben Crabtree, told Bermejo about an internship program at the Oregon Zoo, where she's worked the last two summers.

Bermejo believes she's destined for a college in the Northwest, maybe one not too far from home. She wasn't impressed when her older brother moved across the country to attend and graduate from Georgetown University. She thinks she'd feel too homesick.

It was important, Bermejo said, to get the permission of her mother -- a Portland Community College administrator -- to stage the walkout.

Equally important, she said, was her father's support. She can recite his text message before the walkout from memory:

"I just want you to know I support you and I really love you."

The Elder
maria.jpgMaria Caballero Rubio

Among the several courses taught at Centro Cultural de Washington County, there's one called Citizenship Class.

"Are you interested in becoming a U.S. citizen?" the course description says. "Get ready for your citizenship test and interview at Centro Cultural. This course will prepare you to become a U.S. citizen in no time!"

Enrollment is booming.

Trump's candidacy is likely the reason, said Maria Caballero Rubio, who started last year as Centro's executive director.

Trump struck a nerve last summer when he announced his candidacy and said: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Caballero said the statement, as well as Trump's promise to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, was "hurtful. His words are very hurtful. That's not who we are. We've been here for decades."

That would include Caballero and her family. She was one of 11 children and worked in the fields as young as 5 years old. They were among the first in a wave of migrant worker families who settled in Washington County in the late 1960s.

In April, the family would migrate from their home base in California to pick string beans, plant crops and pull weeds in Oregon. In late May and early June, it was time for harvesting strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and cucumbers. In the fall, it was filberts.

In the fall of 1969, Caballero attended Forest Grove High School.

"There were very few of us at the time," she said of Latino families, most who'd recently arrived from either Mexico or Texas. "You could count them on one hand."

Caballero earned a GED through Portland Community College where she also studied business administration and management. She went on to work as a policy director for former Portland Mayor Tom Potter, as a program analyst for the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., and a crime prevention officer for the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

She returned to Cornelius to lead Centro, which her parents helped start in 1972. The families that launched the center wanted a haven for educational, cultural and vocational opportunities. It's a place, its website says, offering "programs aimed at creating self-sufficient and active citizens... fully prepared to integrate into the larger community."

In 1975, Centro's founders helped open the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, which started in a garage and now has more than 42,000 patients a year in Washington and Yamhill Counties at five primary care clinics and pharmacies, five dental offices, and six school-based health centers. It is named for a 6-year-old migrant farmworker who died of a blood infection after stepping on a rusty nail.

Caballero wants Centro's reach to continue expanding, beyond services and classes for Washington County's Latino population. She wants Centro to encourage Latinos to seek public office.

Trump's rhetoric, she thinks, may persuade capable candidates to emerge from the sidelines. If not this year, then in the near future.

"The effect of words -- of divisive words -- are trickling down toward kids in schools. Kids are getting hurt and are sad that people are perceiving them in bad way," Caballero-Rubio said.

But as Election Day draws near, it's adults who concern Caballero the most.

Children, she said, are "just repeating what they're hearing. They've been given permission to say what they want to say."

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