Humans of LBCC

Humans of LBCC

Saul Ramos

Saul Ramos is a 46 year old first generation immigrant from Calisca, Mexico. He attended high school in Guadalajara, and made his journey to Corvallis, Oregon at the age of 21. He found a few differences between t Calisca and Corvallis;

“The streets in Mexico are not often clean, much cleaner here. Business is different too. There, there are only bathrooms in some places. Here there are bathrooms everywhere, not there. There, in a small town, there were no public bathrooms. If you had to go, you just had to run, in the wild. In Mexico City, you had to pay 7 pesos to use a public bathroom.”


“The school system here is a lot better, a lot more care for the students...You have a lot more here, you have a lot more computers and labs and everything. When I was going to high school in Guadalajara, you know, a big city, I never saw any computers or labs anywhere. You get whatever you get and that’s it.”


After a long struggle in Guadalajara due to a lack of resources in the education system,Saul dropped out of High School, and half a decade later immigrated to the United States

Diego Casillas-Reyes

Diego is a sophomore at LBCC pursuing a civil engineering degree. He is a hispanic American, a first generation American.

“I get a big blend of mixed cultures. My parents are from Mexico, and they live as such… A LOT of things are different here than what I was taught, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing… I wouldn’t be who I am today without the blend. I understand there will be those who do not like me because of my heritage. Or perhaps one might be upset if they heard me speaking my native language, but those things don’t bother me. I know who I am and I’m proud of who I am.”

“Although I’ve yet to have a direct conflict with someone who dislikes me solely due to my heritage, I am sad to say I’ve had my fair share of situations where people have assumed things of me because of it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been followed by a worker or an associate at the store. Just the other day I had an encounter with a fellow classmate where I was racially profiled. She interjected with a question I wasn’t expecting that day. She asked , ‘You weren’t born in the states, were you?’ Processing what had just happened, I told her I was born in Corvallis. After being told the Hispanic guy sitting across from her wasn’t born in Mexico, with a shocked look on her face, she replied, ‘Really!? Wow. Those are rare.’ Within minutes, I went from being her lab partner, to “those” because of how I look. I am so much more than just my ancestors, but all I can do is suck it up for now.”