5th Grade

My last name is Jimenez. When I meet people for the first time, they think I’m married to a Latino, but the reality of my name is that my father was Manuel Jimenez, Sr. I am a second-generation Latina from Highland Park, Los Angeles. Highland Park was a much different place when I grew up there than it is now. My parents believed in the public school system. They wanted to prove that we could be anything we desired, especially because we went to public schools in Los Angeles. They were right. Our valedictorian went to Harvard, but back to me. I continued my education in the public schools of Los Angeles. I attended Cal State LA for both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

            I possess a bachelor’s degree in Urban Learning and a master’s degree in Math Education.  I have deviated from my path in public schools and am currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Leadership from the University of La Verne. My parents who both went to private schools were also raised in the Catholic faith. I was baptized within a month of my birth at La Placita church in Downtown Los Angeles. In the 1920’s – 1950’s my grandparents had a business in what is now the parking lot of this church.  My father was baptized there, my brothers also, and when the time came, my nephew was also baptized in what we consider our parish.

            My mother was Irish and English-American.  She was the darling of St. Michael’s Catholic school in the 1960s where she won a full ride to what was then still just Marymount University on a hill in San Pedro. She was very intelligent, but she was the oldest of nine brothers and sisters living in South Los Angeles during the Watt’s riots of the Civil Rights movement. Most white families moved out of this neighborhood, but my grandfather, who was very liberal stayed in their two-bedroom back house on what is now 95th and Figueroa. Her mother was raised Mormon but converted to Catholicism when she married my Irish Catholic grandfather.

There is a little slice of the country in the northeast corner of Los Angeles, which is called Mt. Washington. I was raised in the eclectic isolated neighborhood that Mt Washington Elementary School generated up; on “the hill.”   All of this backstory is to justify the description I give myself, which is an American mutt. We were an exemplary part of the American melting pot and we were a happy bunch. We are liberal in our interactions with the world, but conservative in the way we live. I was raised with a strong conviction that changing hatred and violence into something beautiful and productive by interjecting our Catholic culture was the best way to live. I have strong feelings that education is a human right. I also feel strongly that education is a civil right. I also believe in Catholic doctrine and am very proud of our current Pope Francis for living by the teachings of Christ.

            There was some tragedy in my family when I was a teenager and so, I spent my adult life taking care of my parents, instead of getting married and having children. I enjoy being social and learning about new people and participating in the adventures of life. Last Christmas holiday, I drove to the east coast of the US just because I had never been. These adventures are part of my spirit, adventurous and curious about the world around me. I am enjoying working for the families of Cathedral Chapel School and I look forward to discovering and participating in all the wonderful things I have heard this community celebrates.