TCLA: What role do you play in the community?

DH: My role in the community is to get involved with issues, especially issues that pertain to immigrants, women, labor, and the environment.

TCLA: Teaching to Change LA is doing a series on the 50 year anniversary of Brown v Board of Education. Do you remember when the Brown decision came down?

DH: No. However, interestingly enough there was a decision before that that had to deal with Latinos called Mendez v Westminister. One of the persons who was involved with the case and with myself in organizing it was a man by the name Fred Ross. [Editor’s Note: Fred Ross was an organizer with the Community Service Organization who worked closely with Cesar Chavez.]

TCLA: Where did you attend high school and what were the conditions like?

DH: I went to Stockton High School in Stockton, California and that school was pretty racist, as some high schools still are today. We had a big division between a lot of the rich kids from the north side and the poor kids from the south side and east side. There was a lot of discrimination; most of the Latino kids that I graduated grammar school with dropped out of high school. So it was a struggle to get through high school because of the racism in the school. But I did graduate because it would’ve never occurred to me to even think about dropping out. My parents both had a high school education.

TCLA: Did your elementary school value students whose families spoke languages other than English?

DH: In grammar school, all of us came from different backgrounds – Mexican, Japanese, Filipino, Italian, Greek. The teachers were very hard on students. We had four hours of English everyday - penmanship, writing, grammar, reading - and a couple of hours of math everyday. The teachers were intensive and concentrated. The teachers were helping and teaching the kids. I don’t think you see the same determination in the curriculum today.

TCLA: Are certain students treated with more or less respect than others today? And, if so, how would you describe these differences?

DH: Well, I think that the Latino kids are definitely discriminated against.

TCLA: So, what should be done to achieve equality in our current school system?

DH: To achieve equality in our schools, I think teachers need to be given the resources that they need in order to be able to teach. My daughter is a teacher and she doesn’t have what she needs. The kids are struggling right now in the sense that they are not taught in a language that they could learn. While they might learn English, they’re losing out on everything else.

TCLA: What would you recommend to students and parents who want to make changes in their schools?

DH: Number one, we have to start with the money. A lot of these school boards get money and it never comes down to students. And we need to support the whole “education not incarceration” movement, so that the money goes to schools, not to jails. Students must get involved , send letters to the legislature and the governor. And parents need to get involved and see what’s happening in their children’s schools. They need to support them and make them understand. Like I used to tell my kids when they went to racist schools, ”You don’t have to live with these teachers forever. You’re just there for a little while. Learn what they have to teach you and realize that something is wrong with them, not you.” The main thing is to hang in there, you know. I mean, a big part of winning is staying in there and not giving up. Remember “La Canción del Rey.” A line in there goes, “No hay que llegar primero, pero hay que saber llegar” which translates to something like, “If you have to repeat classes, hang in there and you can overcome.” I have a son, who is a doctor, and who graduated from UCLA Medical School. I couldn’t help him with any of his studies. There’s this idea that parents can help, well, sometimes parents can’t help. All that we can do is be supportive of them. Sometimes all you can do is let them know that what they are doing is important.

TLCA: As a UC Regent, what is your view on the proposed budget cuts to UC outreach?

DH: It’s horrible. It’s terrible and we should fight it with every ounce of our strength.