Victor Vazquez prepares food at Big Burrito.

Crossing Over

Hispanics are employed in more service- and construction-based occupations than any race in the United States and also hold the lowest graduation rates.

Hispanic high school graduation rates in the United States lag far behind those of whites and blacks, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with 59 percent of Hispanics graduating high school while the proportions for blacks is 80 percent and whites is 89 percent.   Collegiate rates show the same trend with whites achieving a 30 percent rate, blacks a 17 percent rate and Hispanics following with an 11 percent rate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the percentage of the Hispanic population currently employed is higher than whites, blacks and Asians, though more of these Hispanics are working in service, construction and production based occupations than any other demographic.

Octavio Sandoval is one such employee in the service industry, a jack-of-all-trades at the restaurant Big Burrito.

"We don't have a specific job, you know, I cook, I do dishes, I am prep, everything," said Sandoval.   "I don't care about the job, what kind of job I have to do, the only thing that is important to me is how much they are going to pay me."

Sandoval worked in a pharmacy in Mexico and looked to continue that path here in the United States because of "the economic situation" in Mexico.

"My goal was come here, make money, come back, and get my own drug store, my own pharmacy," said Sandoval.   "That is what I wanted before.   Now I change my goal because now I don't want to go back to Mexico, I want to make my own business here in the United States."

Sandoval enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and began studying pharmaceuticals to open a business in the United States, but responsibilities in Mexico kept him from finishing his degree.

"When I was there I got a scholarship," said Sandoval. "In the second semester, in the middle of the semester, my dad died, so I have to come back to Mexico, and I lose the scholarship."

Sandoval holds that education requirements dictate what type of business he plans on starting.

"I got knowledge in Mexico but I don't have any knowledge of pharmacy here, but I have that knowledge about the restaurant here," said Sandoval.   "I want to get my own business, I want a restaurant here because I have that knowledge."

Q and A with Lori Mercedes, worker for the Hispanic American Council

I was wondering if you might have some ideas on what factors contribute to the low numbers of high school graduates that are latino.

Mercedes:   It's funny that you're asking these questions.   We're actually putting a taskforce together.   We're working with Kalamazoo Public Schools (Kalamazoo Central, Loy Norrix), mental health, Kalamazoo Public Safety, we're working with Western, K-College, KVCC and the Edison neighborhood association and the north side association... One of the big concerns that we have is that our kids are not making it.   They're dropping out at 15...16 out of school.   We're actually going to be meeting at the schools... to figure out why is that, what can we do about it, what are the different agencies doing, what kind of activities are there and why are the kids not taking advantage of those activities.  

One of the things I can tell you, coming from the Hispanic American Council, one of the things we have been finding out contributes to this is the lack of role models within our Latino population.   The lack of Latino professionals, that makes a big impact on this.   The second is language barriers and cultural barriers... That's what we're seeing right now, our kids are not making it past the 10 th grade, they're dropping out.  

So we have the Kalamazoo Promise going and all these wonderful programs going but somehow we're missing the kids.   One of the big concerns is that we're all working on this subject but not working together.

What are some of the programs you have in place to help these students?

Mercedes: We have a support group for kids for the age group of 13 to 17 and they meet here at the council.   We talk about coping skills, how to deal with conflict situations.   We have an activity called the dream my dream.   We talk about what they wanted to be when they were five-years-old, has that changed and what are the barriers, what has changed their minds, why are they not going to school.   We have a small group of 15 kids, 4 males and 11 females and we meet once a week.  

Another thing we are trying to do is work heavily with Western... and now we're going to try to do the same thing with K-College.   It's really complicated, especially for our population because if you don't have anyone in your family that has graduated it can be a little intimidating.   You know all the forms, financial aid, plus your parents are not going to be able to guide you through it because they don't speak the language.   So it's like they have a big huge map and ok this is the Kalamazoo Promise and this is all the stuff and this how you get there.   And in reality what they are needing is someone to help them navigate through that.