Raul Velazquez

Student

“SMC was my gateway. It was not an escape. It was an alternative. And it saved me.”

His story, at first, sounds like a lot of others. “I’m pretty much done at SMC. I’m majoring in sociology and Chicano studies: so far, so good,” says Raul Velazquez. “Then, hopefully, I’ll transfer to UCLA and work toward my masters in sociology. “I’m waiting for my letter of acceptance now, and I’m kind of nervous.” Ultimately, what Raul would like to do is to work with Latino gang members. But what makes his story different is the experience he will bring to his job.

“I’m an ex-gang member,” says Raul. “I was in several camps and juvenile halls for three years. I mean, I’ve been involved in gangs since I was 12 years old.” Raul feels that he was headed for some brief footage on the five o’clock news: “Gang violence claims another victim.” But that didn’t happen to Raul. It happened to his little brother instead.

“He was 15 when he got shot,” says Raul. “And it put me through a lot of changes. I was in the camps when he died, and the only way I was going to get out was by graduating from high school. And that was a lot of stress, a lot of pressure, to get through school with. But I just had to do it.”

Raul took the heat. He graduated from high school, got released but fell back into gangs. “It was a life that seemed inevitable for me. I just kept revolving, it was frustrating. And I still struggle to get out of that mentality.” But Raul is winning his long fight with a way of life that—maybe now—is not so inevitable.

“I never had any education, so SMC has been my high school too,” says Raul. He says he knows right where he’s headed next, no matter the struggle. “Giving kids the motivation, the resources. It’s gotta be done and so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to catch them early,” he says with a quiet intensity. “And then I’m going to train them right.”

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