Hey friends,
Today I wanted to blog about something personal to me and my family; advocacy! To begin talking about that, I have to go back to the original advocate in our family, my great-grandpa Alfonso B. Perez.
Growing up Grandpa Perez was simply my grandpa, someone who loved us unconditionally, was a history buff who told us all about how he served in World War II as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and all the crazy experiences he had as a bombardier. His garage was a shrine to his and my grandma's life together, their glamorous 1940's and 50's photos, dressed to the nines and looking impossibly cooler than my generation could fathom.
We knew my grandpa was an amazing man, someone who could charm anyone and commanded every room he entered. Even in his 90s, he was sassy and spry, coming to visit me to bring boxes of old photos and asking me to scan them into the computer so he could have digital copies of them. I would scan photos and burn CDs for him for hours (yes, that's how long ago this was!) while he chatted with me about college, my friends, my family, and why I would inevitably end up regretting the terrible tattoo I got in a friend's backyard at 18 (sorry mom and dad 😅).
One thing my grandpa always talked with me about though was his passion for special education, and what we now would refer to as equitable access to education for all children. When my grandpa died, the LA Times published an obituary for him that starts with this:
"Alfonso B. Perez, a veteran administrator who helped shape special education programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District and as principal guided his alma mater, Roosevelt High, during a tense period of Chicano protest, died July 2 at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. He was 91."
The gravity of what he did for special education was lost on me in my earlier years. I knew he was cool, had a school named after him in LAUSD for special needs children (we even attended a prom they hosted one year), and was in the Hispanic American Hall of Fame. What I didn't understand though was the impact and passion he would foster in me as an adult. 20 years ago I wasn't thinking that one day I would have my own special needs child, one who my Grandpa would have loved to meet. We would have talked about therapies my daughter was doing, how she was progressing, and I know he would be so proud to see my passion for advocacy that is so like his own.
In 1956 Grandpa Perez became the first Hispanic principal in LAUSD, for the now-famous Widney High School, a preparatory school for children with disabilities. He worked to create a more inclusive school for his students. He fought for grant money and extra funding for these students, building them fully equipped labs and shops, all the while going against everything that was believed about special needs children's capabilities at that time. His Master's thesis was and still is distributed in LAUSD as a general standard of how to teach physically and intellectually disabled students. He went on to have a career and technical school in LAUSD named after him, and if that isn't so freaking cool I don't know what is!
My grandfather started something that would, generations later, be making a difference in his own great-grandchildren's lives. When he died he had 42 great-grandchildren and only 6 great-great-grandchildren. If he was able to see how many he had now he would be overjoyed, but he would also be able to see how he's inspired so many of us to be fighters for our kids. He still inspires me to this day, and whenever I go to bat for my daughter, my family, or others' kids I know he's there cheering me on. My grandpa taught me so many things, but the one I'll take away from him for the rest of my life is that EVERY CHILD MATTERS. No matter what, they deserve an educational system that serves them, and they deserve advocacy from those within that same system.
Outside of my great-grandpa, my mother taught special education for 25 years and is still one of the best advocates I know, constantly fighting and supporting myself and my daughter. My youngest sister became a special education teacher and now advocates for her own son who is on the autism spectrum as well. My great grandma, grandma, my father, myself, and my husband were/are all teachers as well, and work(ed) to support those children that needed them most.
So yeah, if I can say anything about my upbringing, it's that advocacy runs in the family, and for that I am extremely proud. Below is his last message as Assistant Superintendent, Division of Special Education for LAUSD. Reading his thoughts on care, advocacy, and the importance of loving all children makes me so proud, and I wish he was still around so that I could tell him.
Hasta la vista y buena suerte friends, goodbye and good luck. We're all in this together <3
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