Angelus News | February 23, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 4

portrait. Right behind him in line was his brother, Rudy,
a retired engineer. Eventually, the group gathered on the
stairs outside the gym for a photograph to commemorate
their reunion.
For almost 10 years, Salesian has organized this Mass on
the feast day of St. John Bosco as a tribute to its past, with
all its pomp and circumstance. Moises Delgado, the Salesian
High vice president and a member of the class of 1997,
called it a “win-win situation” for students and alums.
“The students get to hear the stories and see the school
pride in the past traditions the school once had, and they
get to share their experiences as well,” said Delgado. “The
alumni recognize that even though time has passed, the
same type of students attend Salesian today. It still serves
students that come from hard-working families and have
opportunities to succeed regardless of what area they came
from.”
In addition to the 390 Salesian High students in attendance,
another 140 elementary students from nearby School
of Santa Isabel participated.
Outside at a reception area where the honored guests were
treated to a lunch, students from the Salesian Lettermen
Society sporting their light blue sweaters gathered to meet
the alums.
Eddie Valdez pointed out to them where the former
school gym was once down the hill at the site of the current
football field. The gym they were just in was once a parking
lot.
“This is the third Golden Diploma event I’ve been part of
watching, and it’s interesting to see what they went through
— and to think about what it might be like in 50 years,”
said Isaiah Ochoa, a senior on Salesian’s Esports team.
Sergio Guzman, a
senior receiver on
the varsity football
team, said the alum’s
enthusiasm “makes
me more excited
each time to see
them come back and
it encourages more
school spirit. I think
of Salesian as a place
where I have become
a young man and
may not have had the
same opportunities at
other schools.”
Jerry Vasquez, a senior
middle linebacker
on the football team,
called it “a blessing
to see my brothers
come back and fully
enjoy what it’s like to still be a Salesian Mustang — once
a Mustang, always a Mustang, in church, at home, and on
the playground.”
Chosen to speak to the gathering prior to the diploma
distribution, Jose Sandoval, a retired Los Angeles Superior
Court judge who studied at Harvard University and UC
Berkeley, told his 1974 classmates that he recalled the Salesian
faculty “may have had more faith in us than we did
in ourselves. … We were just kids from East LA trying to
get by. They could foresee the challenges and setbacks we
would face, and their guidance helped us get through. Our
friendships have endured. A word to the new generation of
Salesian students: Look around and value these guys. They
will make a difference in your life.”
David Gonzalez, an Emmy Award-winning technical director,
videotape engineer, and cameraman at ABC/Disney
for the last 43 years, said as an alum, the best advice he can
give to current day Salesian students: Never give up.
“The school had a profound impact on me,” said Gonzalez,
who moved to the Inland Empire and is active in the
alumni association. “We may have been poor, but purpose
kept us alive.”
Francisco Ruiz recalled the persistence he learned from
Salesian faculty as he studied at UC Santa Cruz, then at
UCLA to get his MBA and work at AT&T for 32 years.
“We were taught to persevere, to move forward and make
the best of what we had, stay up all night and study if you
had to,” said Ruiz, who lives in Whittier. “I have bonds with
these friends through the years — maybe stronger in the
last few years than when we were in school.”
Acevedo, whose son became an orthopedic surgeon and
his daughter became a nurse, laughs when he thinks about
how he signed his classmates’ high school yearbook telling
them he was going to be a doctor.
“And they didn’t believe me,” said Acevedo, a parishioner
at Sacred Heart Church where he lives in Rancho
Cucamonga. “I look back at all the years in college and
interning and training
and it all boils down
to this is where my
roots were set. That’s
important because
when the wind blows,
something has to
keep you grounded.
“I’m blessed because
I started with nothing
and here we are now.
Mauricio Acevedo was one of
the class of 1974 alumni who
returned to receive a Golden
Diploma. Acevedo has spent 40
years as a physician for Kaiser
Permanente in Baldwin Park. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
This was where I
was supposed to be.
Whatever Salesian is still doing now, it’s working. We can’t
take that for granted.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning journalist based in Los
Angeles.
February 23, 2024 • ANGELUS • 15