Home to over 3.1 million residents speaking over 108 languages, Orange County is as culturally diverse as they come. With such a richness in heritage, however, inevitably comes the challenge of representation — how can we ensure that no one group gets left behind?
It’s a problem that affects many institutions and once upon a time, La Quinta High School was no exception. Since the expansion of the Latinos Unidos club and introduction of a ballet folklórico dance team, however, this is no longer the case.
On Tuesday, April 8th, I spoke with a few dancers during their afterschool practice as they prepared for an upcoming performance. The room was lively. The students danced and laughed, working and playing hard. There’s community here, albeit small. It is a different world than co-captain Rebecca Arellano entered into her first year.
“I felt invisible,” Rebecca recalled. “Like Hispanic culture wasn’t something really thought about.”
It was a sentiment sophomore Jennifer Morales could relate to. “I [used to] feel like no one really cares about our culture here. It’s hard because there’s more focus on Asian culture,” she said. She conceded that the cause is most likely due to the demographics of Westminster.
Though the Garden Grove Unified School District serves a student population that is 53% Latino and 35% Asian, La Quinta’s student demographic is 81% Asian/Asian-American, and felt like it. While Latinos Unidos (LU) has been a part of La Quinta High School for years, it opened new doors for students in 2023 when Spanish teacher Ms. Rivera-Montelongo began serving as its advisor.
In a matter of months, Ms. Rivera took six students and founded the La Quinta Ballet Folklórico team that now boasts more than 20 dancers. As the newest Latinos Unidos advisor, membership exploded from ten students to over sixty (out of over 300 students district-wide): the fastest growth the club at La Quinta experienced in recent years.
Thus, a new space for the Hispanic students of La Quinta emerges. “I grew up my whole life in Garden Grove, so I was really immersed in Asian culture,” Anna, a member of both LU and the ballet folklórico team, said. “LQ is really the first time I got to speak more Spanish and learn about the culture. Something ignited in me. I’m a proud Mexican.”
This representation gives students like Jennifer more confidence in themselves and more pride in their heritage. “It [had] a really big impact on me,” she said. “Once folklórico started and people started knowing about us because they saw our dresses, they complimented us and asked us about our culture.”
Ms. Rivera and her team have been promoting Latin American culture through dance performances at numerous schools throughout the district. Last year, Latinos Unidos even received recognition from the Mayor of Westminster during a Day of the Dead celebration at the Westminster Memorial Park and Mortuary.
I talked with Ms. Rivera, who herself had no professional dance experience, about how the folklórico group began. “I started researching on YouTube,” Ms. Rivera explained. “I worked with my co-captains to choreograph them. When it was time to buy the dresses, I drove down to Tijuana to get them.”
In short, she did whatever it took to ensure the success of her students. This commitment that Ms. Rivera-Montelongo has made towards establishing a supportive and welcoming environment for her students (Hispanic or otherwise) is a reflection of her district. The Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) believes in fostering safe and welcoming schools for their diverse student population.
Based on what her students have said, Ms. Rivera-Montelongo delivers on that promise.
“A lot of Latino kids come to Ms. Rivera’s room just to hang out,” said former student and active LU member Karla Morales. “This is kind of a safe space for us to just be here.”
La Quinta’s regular school day starts at eight-thirty and ends before three-twenty, but rest assured Ms. Rivera-Montelongo’s classroom is open for students as early as eight and as late as seven o’clock at night. If Ms. Rivera-Montelongo’s at school, her room is open for students, whether or not she is ever their teacher as is the case with Heidi Miranda:
“She wasn’t my teacher, but I met her through folklórico,” she said. “Ms. Rivera is like my tía [aunt]. She’s kind, comprehensive. I know if I have a problem, I can come to her and she will be here for me.”
Anna Ruiz, co-captain of the ballet folklórico team, said it best: “It only took one teacher to believe in us.”
Among the interviewed students was a group of boys new to the school. They enjoyed forming a part of the dance team for much of the same reasons that the girls did: meeting others and representing Latin culture. One student, named Alberto, had just emigrated from Mexico. We spoke in Spanish about his brief time in the club and in the school.
[Translated from Spanish]:
“I like it because I get to meet new people —Vietnamese, Muslim— and I’m learning a new language.” Alberto shared. “I don’t speak their language, and they don’t speak Spanish, but we can talk in English. I had never seen people like them before.”
Alberto’s friends nod in agreement. “I have a lot of Vietnamese friends,” Carlos Lopez chimes in. “They teach me some of their words, and I teach them some Spanish. They show me their customs. It’s been really great to learn about other people.” Thanks to Latinos Unidos, now he can repay the favor.
Here we find the crux of the matter: representation and its role in integration.
Here is a microcosm of America. Folks from different parts of the world are coming together as equals in ways that may not have been possible in their countries of origin, and uniting under one banner (in this case, under La Quinta’s blue and gold).
There’s no doubt that, for years, the greater political atmosphere of the nation has sparked debate over what American identity should look like. Now more than ever is there an emphasis on adhering to one, rigid ideal that is rooted in division and exclusion.
Yet La Quinta’s celebration of all their students rejects that narrow ideal and instead embodies the values behind the “American Melting Pot.” Indeed, GGUSD itself has amplified its work around safe and welcoming schools through initiatives including a Human Relations Task Force, a districtwide student-led Bridges Council designed to bring students together and ensure all cultures are celebrated on school campuses, and protocols against hate and bias.This commitment to diversity and inclusion and its results reinforce the proven notion that successful integration comes from the tolerance and celebration, rather than the erasure, of our differences.
Teaching, learning, and accepting every part of our inherited identity creates a new one capable of bridging cultural gaps.
It takes a village, and in the OC, our village is made up of many. The only way we move forward is by taking each other’s hand. Join La Quinta’s ballet folklórico at their last performance of the year at Clinton Corner Family Campus, Skylark, Carver, and La Quinta on April 30th. ¡Hasta luego!
Paola Elizabeth Morales is a Mexican-American writer and educator currently based in Orange County. She graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of California, Irvine, and has previously written for non-profit organizations. Her other projects include a variety of short stories, novellas, and screenplays.
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