Representation matters in McHenry high schools, Latinx students, professionals say

Out of the roughly 400 people in her 2008 Prairie Ridge High School graduating class, there were less than a dozen student like her, Crystal Lake native Lorena Jaimes said.

In her aerospace engineering classes at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she was the only Latina student in classes that were less than 10% female.

By speaking Friday at McHenry High School’s first-ever Latin X-Perience career and cultural event, Jaimes hoped the current high school students can build networks and connections with others with a similar experience.

”It is great so you don’t feel alone,” Jaimes said.

Jaimes – now an application engineer and small business owner – was part of a seven-person panel asked to answer questions about career possibilities during the after-school event. Following the panel, the night ended with a dance at the McHenry High School District 156 Freshman Campus featuring traditional Latin music.

I have felt and seen women be on the back burner. So many powerful women, including myself ... have not been presented for what we are.

—  2018 McHenry High School graduate Odalys Landa

Of students in McHenry high schools, between 15% to 19% are Latinx, Otto Corzo said. He teaches Spanish at the Upper Campus and advises the 60-member Latin American Student Organization there.

He uses the term Latinx when talking about the students because it encompasses all.

“Latino and Latina is very binary, one or the other. We have students who are non-binary and we want to invite them all,” Corzo said.

All students in the district were invited to attend, and Corzo said the event flyers were written in both Spanish and English.

His non-native Spanish speakers in class may have come for the taco truck or to hear the music. On Fridays in his language classes, students from all backgrounds dance to Latin music.

“They can come to a cultural event to represent the culture or to show off the moves they learned in class,” Corzo said.

Odalys Landa has been one of those students in the past. The 2018 graduate was one of three career speakers who graduated from McHenry schools.

Corzo, she said, “has been the person who has forced me to do what I thought I couldn’t do.”

She’s pushed herself since graduation, Landa said, attending classes at McHenry County College to get her associates degree. She’s now an outreach coordinator at Live4Lali, a substance abuse resource center based in Arlington Heights.

Ultimately, Landa wants to earn her master’s degree in gender and women’s health and open a center focusing in women’s issues.

“I have felt and seen women be on the back burner. So many powerful women, including myself ... have not been presented for what we are,” Landa said.

When she was younger, she felt pressure to follow traditional gender roles. “Now, I am not a traditional person,” Landa said.

It is that kind of representation from young professionals, in addition to seeing their culture on campus, that Corzo said he hoped students would see themselves in.

“This is something that the kids really wanted, an event to showcase their culture and hear their music as well. And, a way to get representation from professionals who have gone to college, or have a certificate in a particular field,” he said.

Once they see themselves represented in their community of their school “they identify with that person and see that career as a possibility for themselves,” he said.