Cerritos College

Lydia Alvarez,
ASC Faculty Liason

Phone: x2838

Office: SB 17

E-Mail: lalvarez@cerritos.edu

Website: www.cerritos.edu/lalvarez

Classes Taught:

English 20, 52, 100 

and Chicano/a Literature

I enjoy working with all students especially in English 20 and 52 and individually in the Writing Center and the Academic Support Center.  I think of my classes as workshops where my students and I get so involved in thinking and writing that it’s easy to lose track of time.  That special place of concentration and enjoyment is where people learn best; there’s less stress and fear of taking risks.  Valuing and exploring our diverse experiences and ideas also make learning easier and writing more effective. I want students to see themselves in the texts that we study; I’ve learned that students who feel they belong in college, have an advantage.

To experience an example of the type of text we use in my classes click on the link below, and listen to Connie Alvarez interview her mother, Blanca Alvarez for the StoryCorps Project.

Blanca and Connie Alvarez on YouTube

I live in Mt. Baldy, a small community in the San Gabriel Mountains, where it snows in the winter, and mother bears, with their cubs, visit in the summer.  Mt. Baldy is thirty minutes from Pomona, where I grew up and where my family has lived for more than five generations.

Inspired Writing:

The following passage reminds me of my own childhood and how grateful I am now for the people who simply loved me. It also reminds me that some of our most profound learning and growing occur in quiet moments, in the presence of someone who accepts and cares for us.

Helena María Viramontes, "Moths."

"In the early afternoon Amá would push her hair back, hand me my sweater and shoes, and tell me to go to Mama Luna’s.  This was to avoid another fight and another whipping, I knew.  I would deliver one last direct shot on Marisela’s arm and jump out of our house, the slam of the screen door burying her cries of anger, and I’d gladly go help Abuelita plant her wild lilies or jasmine or heliotrope or cilantro or hierbabuena in red Hills Brothers coffee cans.  Abuelita would wait for me at the top step of her porch, holding a hammer and nails and empty coffee cans.  And although we hardly spoke, hardly looked at each other as we worked over root transplants, I always felt her gray eye on me.  It made me feel, in a strange way, safe and guarded and not alone.  Like God was supposed to make you feel."

Viramontes, Helena María.  “Moths.” Growing Up Latino: Memories and Stories.  Eds. Augenbraum, Harold and Ilan Stavans. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Click on the book to read more about it at www.barnesandnoble.com!