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My Chicano Studies education
was absolutely vital to me

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because far from like being
ethnocentric or making

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me feel elevated about
other cultures and races,

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it showed me how connected
I as a Mexican-American was

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to the African-American
experience,

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Asian-American experience.

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It showed me there's a Jewish
blood in Mexico, Black blood,

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all this beautiful, beautiful
braidings going on in Latin

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America and my backyard.

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That's what my education in
Chicano Studies showed me.

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And that's been absolutely
vital to me as a reader

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because I searched out
these different narratives,

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these different histories
that are kind of hidden.

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So you should search them out.

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And that was very
important to me.

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And I still carry that
with me, that gratitude

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for that education.

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So whenever I receive
emails or letters

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from students from Arizona,
California, Nevada, those are--

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I put those first.

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I respond to those first.

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Because I remember being
that kind of student

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like hungry for this
kind of information.

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And I tell them, seek
out this knowledge,

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seek out these books
because you'll be amazed

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the connections you'll find.

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You'll feel at one with
everything else in the world.

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It's an amazing sensation.