Kevin Márquez
December 13, 2019
Kevin Marquez discusses the role race plays in his life. High school is a battle in its own, but the addition of being a minority makes it more difficult.
Outgoing, musical, and an avid member of LASO, West junior Kevin Márquez described how being an active member in his community has allowed him to be proud of who he is.
“There’s a lot of diversity at this school,” Marquez states. “Throughout the halls you see the little Hispanic groups, the white groups, the black groups, and then you see a bunch of people talking together.”
When asked how being a minority has affected his high school experience, Marquez explains how being a member of LASO has so positively affected him.
“Since I was part of LASO freshman year, and being a part of it with Mr. [Otto] Corzo,” he says. “I feel like LASO is better around the school, and has been participating more with school events. More people know about it. The Day of the Dead event we did, I feel like people realize now that there are Hispanic people in the school. Corzo told us that there was a lot of teachers and families there, and the Hispanic and Latino communities benefit from these different events that we do.”
Although these events have been shown to benefit the Latin communities in our area, exposing other communities to different cultures can have benefits as well.
“Our current president has his own views about Hispanic people, and I think that people believe his words and have their own opinions towards us when in reality they’ve never spoken with us or had contact with us. They should really talk with the Hispanic community and actually learn about them.”