The second part of this topic is personal and responds to a promise I made to myself years ago when I came to teach in the United States after being, for the first time, a victim of discrimination. Unfortunately, the environment we live in today, has reminded me of that promise.
I begin by mentioning the discrimination I observed while growing up. I was born in Melilla, a city in Spain in North Africa. When I was just 4 years old, we moved to Guadix, a town in the province of Granada. At 13, I began high school at a boarding school in Granada, and at 14 we moved again to Málaga, although I continued going to the boarding school and later to university in Granada, spending my vacations in Málaga. Additionally, I find it appropriate to mention that my mother was the daughter of a German father and her education reflected notably that fact, which is why our education was different, and it had to be noticeable since in Guadix my older brother and I were «the children of the German woman,» which at least made me feel different. Unlike my friends from the places where I lived, I never had extended family (uncles, cousins, grandparents) nearby, so my «local roots» were never deep. I mention this background because I believe that, to some extent, being a «local migrant» helped me observe differences that I otherwise would not have seen. This explains why, from a young age, I always noticed and was bothered to see in the different environments around me when someone was belittled or mistreated by others. For example, in schools, it was easy to hear derogatory expressions that intended to be «funny» referring to a classmate, such as «the chubby one in the class,» or «the little one,» or «the big-headed one,» among others. Often these expressions reflect what children hear at home. In the same way, I observed many adults making negative comments about those who were not ‘part of the group,’ whether it be social, political, economic, or simply strangers for the sake of being strangers. Throughout my life, and I think it is important to mention that I have lived at least 13 years in each of three different countries, and I have visited about 23 countries on various continents giving lectures, I have continued to observe different manifestations of discrimination. I believe that humans, conditioned by a society with values that are not always altruistic, acquire prejudices at a very young age, which results in them often discriminating and often without realizing it.
My greatest experience is teaching. I started teaching at the age of 13 by giving private lessons, and from the age of 23, I taught at the university until I retired. In total, I taught for 55 years, covering all levels, from elementary school to doctoral level. I must add that according to my students’ evaluations, I was always considered a demanding but fair teacher who was willing to help. All these years of guiding others to learn showed me that, contrary to what many believe and sometimes use to justify expressions, decisions, and generally unacceptable behavior, there is no group of human beings with greater intellectual capacity than others. I have had outstanding students, both men and women, among Hispanics, Asians, Africans, and non-minority students. Clearly the socioeconomic environment in which children grow tends to contribute favorably to both their basic knowledge and their willingness and interest in education, which is why, in general, students from advantaged groups tend to be better educated, but this does not mean they are more intelligent. On the other hand, while teaching ‘honors’ courses, named as such at my university because they consist of students selected based on the high GPA they had obtained both in high school and in standardized tests before arriving at the university, I observed the crucial role that each student’s determination played in their performance throughout the course. Sometimes I shared in my courses the anecdote of when the gypsy fortune-teller read the hand of a young Alexander the Great, telling him that he would never succeed. When he asked her what this was due to, she explained that he lacked a specific line, pointing to two spots in his hand that it would connect. Alejandro then took out a knife and cut his hand between the indicated points, creating the line, and then asked, ‘And now?’ Similarly, in the honors courses, I observed how some highly capable students, as evidenced by the vision and depth of their questions when I presented new material, did not dedicate the necessary time to study and ended up worse than other students, who had less natural ability but much more determination and tenacity. I remember anecdotal experiences that in the early 90s, when I had been teaching in the United States for six years, they thought I was Latin American because I spoke Spanish and invited me to share my experiences about discrimination as part of various groups that are recognized as discriminated against. Considering that I did not come from Latin America, and therefore was not a traditional Hispanic, to learn more about what these groups suffer, I met with the few female students from the Honors Calculus I course that I was teaching. In the College of Engineering, to which most of the students in the course belonged, students usually formed study groups to help each other, among peers in the same area, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, etc. At that time, there were so few female engineering students that it was unthinkable that there would be enough to form a group in a specific area. One of the students commented that if one of them asked a male classmate if she could join the group to which he belonged, it was not surprising that the question would be misinterpreted, concluding that perhaps what the girl was looking for ways to ‘get to know’ more boys. I was told that this had happened on more than one occasion, so they refrained from doing so. From that moment on, I started assigning projects by forming groups with students from the same field of study, of both sexes. This made it easier for them to get to know each other and work together without any weird connotation. Years later, I confirmed that this solved the problem.
One last comment about discrimination in education refers to my encounter in basic level courses with some intelligent minority students who could have come with a higher level of knowledge. I learned that, although they had received excellent grades in middle school math, because they were minorities, the high school counselor automatically placed them in business math, the class with the least content; this meant that they arrived at college with very poor math training. This harmed those who needed to take calculus by significantly delaying them. Over the years, I sometimes offered summer workshops to high school teachers, and when I spoke with some of them about what I had observed, they confirmed to me that, unfortunately, these were not isolated incidents. Sadly, I can say that, although on a smaller scale than most Latinos, I have also felt discrimination firsthand, so my comments are not based solely on external observations. I will mention a couple of examples that occurred in the U.S., not as a graduate student, when I received excellent treatment at the University of Florida, but when I was hired as a professor. The first occurred at the end of my first week. I was returning home when a police officer stopped me on the highway. After having lived in Florida for three years during my graduate studies, I had placed the license plate in the front of the car instead of the back, as was done in the state of Ohio where I worked. Despite explaining to him the reason for the mistake and providing all the documentation he requested and even indicating that I was a university professor and had only been in the city for a week, the officer told me he would confiscate the car, so I had to hand over the keys and continue on foot. Surprisingly, a young man saw me walking and offered to take me home, something as unusual and extraordinary as what had just happened to me. When I told the department head about it the next day, he couldn’t believe it and concluded, as I had, that it was a clear case of discrimination due to my poor accent. He called the local police chief, who was also surprised to hear the story, although he could never do anything because the officer who stopped me turned out to be from another community. The second example refers to some colleagues at the university in the department, who perhaps because of being Hispanic and having a strong accent from not having studied the English language while growing up, treated me like a ‘second-class citizen.’ Although this treatment had the positive effect of increasing my efforts to succeed in Academia, I never completely forgot it.
Although discrimination occurs on a greater or lesser scale in all countries, it is paradoxical and unfortunate that in a country where 90% are of immigrant origin, discrimination is currently being so marked and unfair as it is happening under the Trump administration.
As an epilogue, I want to clarify that, in my view, unequal treatment is discriminatory if it is given to someone as part of a community, that is, for racial, political, religious, etc. reasons. So while we may all have given or received mistreatment, it has not been discrimination if it has not occurred in that context.
