Vincent Holguin, American Indian Studies

Vincent Holguin, American Indian Studies

Transcript

Hi I’m Vincent Holguin. Cal state long beach was built on an ancient village site of the Tongva Tribe. This place today is known as Puvungna, it’s where the origin stories of this tribe developed. This location is located currently at Cal State Long Beach and it’s approximately 22 acres. Being a native American from Los Angeles, Ca, getting the first Presidential Scholarship to Cal State Long Beach through my tribe…my identity is comprised with being Native American. And so my role is to respect and acknowledge what my ancestors did for me. In high school, I never applied for college and I didn’t take the SAT’s and I was not prep to go to college. I went straight into the workforce as a welder and then shortly thereafter, I got a letter through the mail from my tribe saying that I’d been offered a 4 year scholarship to Cal State Long Beach. So then I applied and I was honored to get the scholarship. The last couple of years I’ve been privileged to be the President of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. We’ve teamed up with students at Cal State Long Beach to find funding and ultimately implement our ideas. Our goals are to bring a traditional plank canoe community to our university, sponsor the repair of some of those planks, and with that friendship, they’re going to help us build a smaller craft so that Cal State Long Beach can row and paddle with the native community. For me, this canoe project represents the fostering of relationships of the various different communities in Cal State Long Beach that everyone’s welcome to participate. Students, staff, high school students, middle school and elementary students—any ethnicity and any gender—everyone’s welcome, it’s very open-ended. You don’t find that many projects or community activities here that you don’t need to pay anything, and you don’t even have to participate if you don’t want to…but you can show up. Through your simple presence you can show your support and you know, maybe get a picture with these things. Whatever the value people want to take away from this is their choice. But you know, I see this as the hinge of fostering positive community building and practices.