When was the last time you sat down with someone older than you and asked for advice? Older adults have lived through some of the biggest events of the 20th and 21st centuries — and some Omaha seniors can tell you what it was like to live through the most historic moments that makes our city the place it is today.
El Perico asked five older adults in Omaha what lessons they’d like the younger generations of Omaha to take with them through life. Here’s what they said.
“Sí se puede.”
Jim Ramirez, 86, remembers South Omaha as a unique and diverse place to grow up in the early 1940’s and 50’s. The retired Omaha Public Schools administrator, who is the son of two Mexican immigrants, lived two blocks from the meatpacking houses with his parents, two brothers and four sisters.
“We had Black, Hispanic, German, Italian and a big mixture (of people) that were my friends and my neighbors,” Ramirez said. “We knew each other and shared a lot together.”
Back then, Ramirez said, discrimination kept Latinos and people of color from accessing the quality jobs like banker or police officer that white people could get. After graduating from Omaha South High School, Ramirez started working in one of the few places he saw job opportunities for Latinos like himself — the meat packing plants. He worked alongside his father, also named Jim Ramirez, for about 14 years in the Nebraska Beef plant. His mother worked in the larger Armour Packing Plant.
“You would not believe how hard (my dad) worked,” Ramirez said. “I respected him every minute of the day.”
After his time in the packing houses — and despite the discrimination he faced — Ramirez fought to continue his education to give back to young Hispanic students in his community. He gained his masters and doctorate degrees through the University of Nebraska and became a counselor and advisor to students at University of Nebraska Omaha and Omaha South High School.
After more than 40 years working with students, he encourages young people to push through hardship and believe in a simple but powerful saying: “Sí se puede.” Yes you can.
“(Students) can be anything they want to be,” Ramirez said. “They have opportunities that I didn’t have when I graduated from South High School.”
“When good people approach you, give them a chance.”
While many of the discriminatory employment policies of the past century have been eliminated since Ramirez was younger, kids of color and low-income young people in Omaha still face barriers to quality job and life opportunities. Alberto Castillo Gonzales, 64, has seen that first hand in his work and personal life.
Gonzales, who is known as Beto in Omaha, is a longtime counselor who has worked with the Omaha Police Department, the Boys & Girls Club and now Nebraska Medicine’s hospital-based violence-intervention program called ENCOMPASS Omaha. He has a book about his life called “Mi Rinconcito en el Cielo” that details his childhood and young adulthood in Omaha marked by poverty, gang violence and drugs in South Omaha.
Gonzales thinks kids today have it hard with easy access to violence on social media, in movies and in video games.
“We’ve desensitized our kids,” he said. “And then when the pandemic hit, these kids had nothing to do.”
That oversaturation of media turns kids to gangs, drugs and violence, Gonzales said, and can lead kids to dark places. He wants kids to understand despite the violence and hardship they may have experienced, there are still good people out there they can trust to support them.
“When good people approach you, give them a chance,” Gonzales said. For young Beto, that trusting role model was a nun named Sister Joyce. Now, almost a half a century later, he’s been that person for hundreds of young people across Omaha.
“Continue studying.”
Juana Espejo, 72, agrees that finding support is imperative — especially for Latina women. After moving to South Omaha from Mexico as a young woman, Espejo helped found the Latina Resource Center to fill the gaps in social services for the growing Latina populations.
Espejo understood that in order for Latina women to feel more comfortable and to grow in Omaha, they needed support. That help had to come in the form of counseling, transportation, English language education and childcare.
Many women today have the same needs she fought to address then, Espejo said, and her advice still remains the same. “Learn the language and continue studying,” by getting involved in low-cost or free programs offered by the Latino Center of the Midlands, Metro Community College, the Learning Community Center of South Omaha and other local organizations.
Stuart W., 84, a participant at the Intercultural Senior Center who did not share his last name for privacy reasons, also encouraged young Omahans to keep studying.
“The most important thing for young people is education,” Stuart said. Although as a white man he had more opportunities than his Latino and Black counterparts in Omaha growing up, Stuart said, work and education had to be put on hold when he was drafted.
“Ask for what you really want.”
Linda M. Garcia, 76, is an artist, instructor and storyteller of Latino arts, a graduate of the College of St. Mary and a retired Omaha Public Library librarian. She grew up both in Papillion and South Omaha with her grandparents and family, and recalls carefree adventurous childhood with siblings and neighbors.
One of the biggest lessons she learned as a young Latina woman was learning how to stand up for herself.
“Women have choices,” Garcia said, sitting in a recliner in her East Omaha living room on a hot day in August. “It starts with simple things.” Choosing what to wear, how to spend your time in the morning, Garcia said, are some of the simple choices that can help women feel more empowered and have more autonomy in their lives.
“Ask for what you really want,” whether it’s a raise at work or more support from your friends, Garcia said. “You’d be surprised how people can make adjustments,” she said. “You’d be surprised how many come to your aid.”
Garcia believes art provides everyone an outlet for practicing the simple act of choice.
“Learning art is selecting and choosing,” Garcia said. She’s always felt a deep appreciation for art and a responsibility to share that love with others. “What’s the use if you don’t share it?” she said.
When asked what advice she has for young people, Garcia answered in a heartbeat, not with advice, but with a request: “I’d like to listen to more of them,” she said. “I don’t think we listen to young people enough.”
Do you want to add advice for Omaha’s younger generations? Contact the writer at bridget@el-perico.com