ABSTRACT
What they always stressed at home was education and English. It was decided from the beginning that my brother and I would go to college. I went to St. Paul's High School in the Irish neighborhood. There were only a handful of Hispanics there. It was because of my parents' desire to improve themselves, to fit in, and to give us a future that I lost my past. I am still dealing with that sense of loss. As I look back on it, I see that the issue of my own cultural identity has influenced or determined many important decisions that I have made in my life all along. For example, at Mundelein College in Chicago I took Spanish from a wonderful teacher named Kateri O'Shea. Because of her, I fell in love with Don Quijote. That experience helped me recapture my culture. When I went to San Jose State, I got my master's in education with an emphasis in history, which had been my undergraduate major. I did one of my papers there on Cesar Chavez, and that was a big step in reclaiming my identity.
