CalMag, a teenage magazine from Sacramento, writes about teenagers in California.

 

 

California and its different faces … CalMag has found some of them – read interesting stories about three multicultural teenagers.

     Diego is from Mexico and came here five years ago, when he was seven. Now, in summer, his parents are working as strawberry pickers on a farm in the Central Valley. In his vacation, he  is working there too. When the picking season is over, his parents will look for new jobs and he will go back to school. They live in a cheap apartment in Sacramento with lots of other families from Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador. They all speak Spanish, even though they are from different countries, and they watch Spanish-language TV. So it sometimes feels like being back home in Mexico, Diego says. But they have a little more money now. Still, there isn’t enough for all the things he really wants. English is still difficult for him. When he first came here, Diego was happy that there were so many other Latinos who talked to him in Spanish and he made friends easily. But he also thinks it would be better if there were more people around him who spoke English. At school Diego tries really hard, but he isn’t sure if his grades are good enough to go to college. And it is so expensive too. Diego’s dream is to find a really good job so that he can support his family. He hates that they have to worry about money. And he hates being poor.

 

     We also found Huan. She is 14 and when people ask where she is from, she tells them that she is American. Huan’s parents came from Hong Kong, but she herself was born in San Francisco. They came to America in the 1990s, just before Hong Kong was given back to China. Their English was good when they came here, and they found good jobs in the computer industry in Silicon Valley. After Huan leaves school, she is going to go to college and get a degree in computer science. She is already very good at it. What she is not good at is Chinese. Her parents really want her to take Chinese at school, because it would help her to get a good job. But Huan thinks it is such a hard language! When she was little, they always spoke English at home, because her parents wanted Huan to fit in. Now they talk to her in Chinese, but it feels weird. Huan usually answers in English. She just doesn’t feel very Chinese. She has never been to China in her life and doesn’t know much about Chinese culture, except for the food. Huan has been to Chinatown in San Francisco, but that isn’t China. She even says that she isn’t really that interested in learning more about Chinese culture – which she keeps to herself, of course.

 

     And we talked to Fabio. His mom is from Mexico and his dad is from Ecuador. They both came to California in the 1980s. They were teenagers at that time, and they first met at high school in Los Angeles. Fabio’s mom was only 16 when she had him. Their parents told them to get married, but that didn’t go well. They got a divorce just two years later. Now Fabio lives with his dad in Compton, in South Central L.A., which is a pretty dangerous area. Many teenagers there are in gangs and get into fights. It is really hard to stay out of trouble, Fabio says, and it doesn’t help that the police seem to hate Latinos. Fabio finds it very scary there. Next year he will turn 17 and will finally finish high school. Then he wants to move to his mom’s place in San Diego. She has gotten married again and has two children, ages 10 and 13. They don’t have a big house, but she says there is always space for Fabio if he helps in Pedro’s garage. Pedro is her new husband, Fabio’s stepdad. They got married 14 years ago. Fabio thinks it would be good for him because he doesn’t think that he will find a job that easily. Unfortunately, he has never been good at school – not even at Spanish. He can speak a little, but he usually speaks English to his dad. And some business owners don’t want to hire Mexicans – especially not Mexicans from Compton.