Alma Romero was allowed to ditch school Thursday to sit through a series of motivational workshops on the Hispanic culture and the importance of going to college.
Romero is a straight-A senior at Ogden High School who earned the privilege of attending the first day of the annual two-day Latino youth conference at the Ogden Convention Center hosted by La Raza, the largest Latino organization in Utah."It gives us a lift to learn about our culture, and that just because we are brown doesn't mean we can't do it," Romero said.
John Martinez, chairman of the sixth annual conference, said La Raza organizers chose Ogden as the site of the youth conference because that is where about 60 percent of Hispanic junior high and high school students drop out.
The theme this year is Hispanic unity and staying in school. The conference - which includes a music concert, keynote speakers and representatives from universities and businesses - ends on Saturday. It is designed to inject an extra dose of ambition and self-awareness into about 900 Latino youth expected to attend.
The convention continued Friday with workshops on gangs, teen pregnancy, the Internet, careers in engineering, medicine and legal rights.
Though she is not yet old enough to hold a driver's license, Michelle Vasquez, a freshman at Ogden High School, knows where she wants to go to college (University of Southern California) and what she wants to study (business law).
Vasquez said the conference and its 37 motivational workshops is exactly what Latino youth need to hear. But if she had a criticism of the conference, it was that more people should be able to attend.
She said her school sent 30 Hispanic students with the best grades. As a result, her cousin couldn't attend.
"I think he could be doing more, but he's not motivated," she said. "He's the one who should be here."
Archie Archuleta, a retired Salt Lake County School District administrator told the young people to be proud of Hispanics, aware of their own ancestors' traditions, accomplishments and place in history.
He talked about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, Mayan advances in mathematics and Spanish explorers to the New World. He also mentioned all the Hispanic influences on American culture in the fields of architecture and literature.
"If you took all the Spanish names off of cities, towns, rivers and lakes in California, it would slip off into the Pacific Ocean," he said, to the applause from his audience.
Archuleta concluded his talk by showing historical pictures of Mexican-Americans lynched by white people. He also showed a Nazi symbol with a "Deport Spics" caption on a flyer produced locally with a Salt Lake address beneath it.
Though Nazi symbols are a rare thing to see these days, Archuleta said the recent backlash against legal and illegal immigrants indicates that continuing racial tension exists in this country.
"If you are Hispanic, you have to struggle," Archuleta said.
He used an overhead projector to show a set of numbers that raised a lot of eyebrows. According to the U.S. government statistics, a high-school dropout who is white gets an average annual salary of $18,000. A black drop-out, $14,000. A Hispanic, $13,000.
He told the group the best way to fight racism and get a better wage is to work hard, get an education and register to vote.
Thursday's keynote speaker was Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. She told about being born in Laredo, Texas. Her mother was a maid, her father an illiterate laborer.
She worked her way out of poverty and into college. She enlisted in the Army for 20 years. She recently turned down a promotion to general in order to retire and speak full-time to Latino youth.
Her emotional style of speech held the room of junior high and high schoolers enraptured. As the room stood to cheer Kickbusch's message, she said, "I beg you to stay in school and get an education, because that education will set you free."