West Coast Chicano: Living La Vida Midwest
Reflections of a Graduate Student's Experience at Ohio State

My name is Adrian H. Huerta; I am a higher education administration graduate student at The Ohio State University. Growing up on the West Coast (southern California and Las Vegas) I’d never been to the Midwest, much less experienced wind-chill or the need for a heavy jacket. Entrance to OSU was hard work but I had a little help along the way, including my grandparents, parents, extended family, siblings, close friends, and Chicano educators, Dr. Christopher Kypuros and Dr. Henry Villanueva. They provided stability, motivation, emotional and spiritual support. After my arrival, I contemplated heading back west to a university where I would find people more like me — Chicanos. However, I decided to stay for many reasons: to learn, to educate, and to help build community. I’m often asked why I left the West for the Midwest and honestly, I don’t have an answer. In retrospect, I guess I recognized a need for a new and different experience. My comfort zone was a town where at least 30 percent of the population looked like me and spoke both English and Spanish. Outside of my comfort zone, Ohio State has brought me closer to reaching my long-term goal of becoming a tenure-track professor in higher education administration and has given me the opportunity to be a vocal advocate for the Chicano/Latino community. I have been able to work with an Ohio Board of Regents Committee focused on increasing the number of postsecondary degrees earned by Chicanos/Latinos.

The hidden Chicano/Latino Community Enrolled at Ohio State University

Coming to Ohio, without close friends or family in the Midwest, my nearest family was in Maryland: my older brother, another West Coast transplant. I eagerly sought out other Chicano/Latino undergraduate and graduate peers to introduce me to supportive faculty of color, local eateries, and the Columbus community, yet found none during my first two academic quarters. Of the 2.5 percent of OSU’s “Latino” population (1,519 students), all were absent, void, and unresponsive to my emails and requests for collegiality. Feeling alone at OSU, I sought out administrators, faculty, or staff that looked like me without any luck. Not having anyone to direct me to resources and/or peers who were searching for something similar was painful. I felt that the offices that focused on minority issues could not relate to my concerns and did not employ individuals who could relate to me. By chance, I met two Mexican-Americans in graduate housing who were searching for the same Chicano/Latino community that I was seeking. After awhile, we developed two groups on campus: Strength, Unity, & Respect (SUR), and we revived the former Hispanic Graduate Organization (HGO) into Latin@ Graduate & Professional Student Association (LGPSA). The purposes of these groups are to garner support, retain, and increase involvement of the 1,519 Chicano/Latino and Chicana/Latina students at the OSU main campus and to increase the visibility of Chicano/Latino graduate and professional students to undergraduates with hopes of increased graduate school ambitions. Latinos have been at OSU for a long time and yet we are still invisible to each other and to the community at large. We have a great opportunity to impact our peers and the growing Latino community in Ohio; we can allocate a few hours a week to make a difference through community service.

Academic Resilience

As a Chicano — a social and politically conscious Mexican-American — enrolled in a research graduate program, I am a statistical anomaly. I recognize those who preceded me in this educational arena, those who fell through the educational cracks for multiple reasons, and those Chicano/Latinos who will succeed me. Those of us who are currently here can walk around campus with a sense of pride and accomplishment for achieving a personal milestone, attending college, considering that only six percent of all Latinos have earned a baccalaureate degree, and less than two percent hold a master’s or above. However, we cannot forget those who were academically and intellectually capable, but were lost in the K-16 educational pipeline. With this in mind, the ability to develop a sense of academic resilience — the ability to be academically successful despite the multiple systematic and psychological barriers — will propel us in a positive trajectory. I have cultivated my academic resilience and found a Latino community that shares the same view. We motivate, support, and inspire each other to work hard to reach our academic goals of being researchers, medical and legal professionals, and professors. As a group, we have slowly shifted the status quo of Latino graduates and professionals being disengaged from the undergraduate community through our involvement with the student organizations listed above. Our goal is to empower others to feel not only a pride for themselves, but to feel a stronger connection to their Latino community by asking the administration difficult questions about Chicano/Latino recruitment and retention efforts, and to develop an improved infrastructure to support Chicanos/Latinos. We recognize cultural capital in Ohio does not compare to the Southwest and West Coast, but being apathetic about culture, heritage, and ethnic roots should not be an excuse.

At OSU, there are less than 300 Latino graduate and professional students. I believe University Campus-wide Hispanic Organization, Hispanic Oversight Committee, and the Organization of Hispanic Faculty & Staff could develop a welcoming program for incoming self-identified Latino students. Latino student leaders could return emails and phone calls to these students. When I first arrived to campus, I attempted to communicate with anyone who could direct me to new friends (Latino or non-Latino) and did not receive a single response. Faculty and staff should also be sure to return emails promptly when graduate and professional students are initiating communication with them. By returning a note or redirecting us to someone who can serve as a mentor to guide us through the political climate of academia, we can establish ourselves as future faculty, researchers, and scholars.

The Latino graduate recruitment efforts are middling compared to our Big Ten neighbors especially the University of Michigan, Northwestern, Michigan State University, and University of Iowa according to data from Diverse Issues in Higher Education (2008). The sense of mattering and marginality are significant indicators of academic persistence according to Dr. Nancy Schlossberg, so Ohio State should revalue their efforts focused on the Latino student community. The university should eagerly seek the insight and stories from the Latino community and search for individuals who do not place themselves in the spotlight, but for the individuals creating intellectual pockets of activism. The state of Ohio is facing a massive brain-drain (college graduates leaving the state), so the Ohio Board of Regents, public and private postsecondary institutions, and city governments should create initiatives to retain academically talented Latinos to start expanding previous attempts of the university. Those could include investing funds for speaker series and a one-month recognition of culture to appease the Latino student community, as a starting point. We share similar concerns with the African American community — we recognize the difference between being identified one month out of a year, and carrying our identity with us all year long. Our histories, blood, sweat, and tears are a fabric of this country. The Multicultural Center attempts to draw students to the programs to discuss serious issues, but needs more support from faculty and staff to have serious discussion about identity, race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. These conversations are initially uncomfortable, but that is the process for change and growth. If we as a university seek to provide an arena for the cultivation of globally minded citizens, we are far from achieving that trophy of glory. I welcome and challenge you to be uncomfortable and talk about these issues with hopes of learning something about others. Consider your educational pathway and please reflect on your experiences, goals for personal development, and methods to create an inclusive environment. As a community, we still have many steps to go until we have reached social and economic equity. Good luck and go Bucks! 