Spring — 2005

Salvador Sanchez y Strawbridge

Associated Students Director of Student Outreach / Teaching

“I grew up in the gangs, making money and doing lots of crazy things. But then I saw my friends dying and going to jail. That road went nowhere.”

“It’s funny when I look back at all of it,” says Salvador Sanchez y Strawbridge of those days that now seem a universe away. “But I think I’m actually a stronger person for having gotten to know the streets. I mean, I can relate to all kinds of people from all walks of life.” Which is exactly what Salvador reports finding at SMC. “I love this college. Oh, my God! It has people from everywhere in the world. The population is so diverse here, and you get to meet people that you’d never meet where you grew up.”

Salvador grew up in the Bay Area, where his folks were heavily involved in union organizing, the civil rights movement, and marching with Cesar Chavez. “I grew up poor, even though my parents both graduated from prestigious law schools. They just never cared about money—and I wanted some,” he says of his gangster days. “So I turned my back on the ‘movement.’” But now Salvador reports that he’s firmly back to his radical roots. “I want to be an activist for social justice and freedom for the rest of my life. But in terms of a profession, I want to be a history teacher,” he says. “I love teaching and being taught, and I just want to be able to speak the truth to students. That way, I can help them understand the world they live in and go out and make some positive changes in it.”

Salvador plans on transferring to UCLA. “And then, who knows? Maybe I’ll be right back here at SMC teaching. But 10 years from now, there’s no doubt that I’ll still be out there organizing and walking the picket lines. But I’ll also be teaching. When you hang around with young people,” he says with a laugh, “it keeps you young.”

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