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Our Faculty Bloggers Support Mary Ann Pacheco

United to Educate

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United to Educate is supporting Mary Ann Pacheco and would like to encourage you to Like her page on Facebook. The following are samples of her first two posts on Facebook.

Who Am I?

FAMILY AND GROWING UP

I am the youngest in a family of eight. My mother came to the United States as a child, a refugee of the Mexican Revolution in the early twentieth century.  She proudly became an American citizen as an adult.  My father’s family has deep roots in New Mexico, people who did not come to the United States as the United States came to them instead at the end of the Mexican War in the nineteenth century.  My parents met in Arizona where they raised much of their family until the heat and the passage of the Right to Work laws moved my father, a loyal union man, to relocate to California.  I was born in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in Lynwood, California.  So whenever I am asked where I am from, I reply that I have always considered myself a child of the Southwest.

I grew up in a household of the working poor.  My father was a carpenter and my mother was a stay at-home mom.  She was an excellent financial manager so we lived well, certainly not extravagantly, but never lacking what we needed.  I knew that we were not rich and not to ask, very often, for extras; however, I also knew that a reasonable request would be considered and, often enough, would be answered positively.  I grew up in a home that was grounded in faith, engaged in reading, and believing firmly in the importance of education.

EDUCATION

I graduated with honors from high school.  I received my Bachelor of Arts in English and Ethnic Studies (cum laude) from the University of Southern California, and I received my Master of Arts in English from the University of California at Los Angeles

As a college student, I was a leader and activist.  I was instrumental in the founding of El Centro Chicano which just celebrated its 40^th anniversary this year.  El Centro sponsored the historic first gathering of Chicano writers from around the nation, the Festival de Flor y Canto, which I organized and for which I served as mistress of ceremonies as well as helping put together the publication of the literary works presented.  As a student leader, I met Cesar Chavez and other community leaders. It was during these student years that I learned basic organizing: how to motivate people, how to evaluate resources, and how to use them strategically.