Before teaching AP Spanish and Spanish 4 at M-A, Julieta Oropeza-Gamez was a shy student balancing her education and caring for her siblings.
Gamez immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was in first grade. “I hated it, and I cried like every day because I didn’t understand, but by second grade, my English was pretty decent,” she said. “My teacher in second grade was bilingual. He was super nice. We would go over both languages, and that really helped me.”
Gamez attended James Logan High School in Union City, a large public high school in the East Bay with over 4000 students in her graduating class. “There are people who would go to school with you that you never knew were there. I don’t remember the prom king and queen. I don’t remember ever seeing them,” she said.
It was difficult for Gamez to find her place at school. “I didn’t feel like I fit in. I was pretty shy. I didn’t really talk much in class unless the teacher called on me for something,” she said. Although she was more reserved, she formed a close-knit group of friends whom she still keeps in touch with today.
“I liked Spanish all the time, for obvious reasons,” Gamez said when asked about her favorite subject. “I didn’t like math, but I was good at it. Except for geometry. Everything else, like pre-algebra, I did pretty well, but geometry, for some reason, I was bad at,” she said.
As the eldest daughter, Gamez didn’t have time for many hobbies. “I have a brother who’s 10 years younger than me, so I would have to go home and take care of him. My siblings would help, because the other two are closer to my age, but for some reason, I felt like the mom,” she said.
Gamez also had a brother and a sister who were attending high school while she was there. “I liked having my sister, but my brother would see me in the hallways, and he would be like, ‘I don’t know you,’” she said.
Gamez reflected on her fondest high school experience. “They took us to Disneyland, and we went to Universal Studios. That was pretty fun,” she said. “Everyone was invited from the grade. They got buses, and we all went together. They had Disney closed for everyone else.”
Gamez believes she both relates to and doesn’t relate to students at M-A. “The part where I say no is because there wasn’t that much technology. We didn’t have phones or ChatGPT to help us with homework. And I feel like if I had ChatGPT, I would have used it for, like, extra practice and help for the math that I didn’t understand, or my physics class,” she said. “I can relate because you’re still a teenager. You still probably have the same problems I had.”
Gamez’s advice to M-A students: “Who cares what other people say, you’re not going to see more than half of them again in your life anyway. I wish I could have been a little more outgoing, which is ironic, since I’m the teacher now.”
