Carlo De La Cruz’s aphorisms
“ROCKETS take advantage of some basic laws of nature that were discovered by the brilliant scientist Isaac Newton late in the 17th century. One of these, called Newton’s third law, says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This explains what is going on when you blow up a balloon, then let it go without tying a knot. The air rushes out of the mouth of the balloon and that pushes the balloon in the opposite direction. This law also tells us that, to build a powerful rocket, we need to shoot out a lot of high-speed material opposite the direction we want the rocket to go. Most rockets use high-speed exhaust gases from burning rocket fuel to propel them up and away from Earth’s surface to the vacuum of space. Unlike planes, they don’t need air to lift them up.” -Dr. Marc Rayman of NASA on “Why do we need rockets?”
Allow me to write this piece in honor of my bunso, an endearing term Filipino parents use for their youngest child.
This is for Carlo De La Cruz, a reflection of his aphorisms, his innate wisdom and how he has applied himself to “propel” himself to reach his academic and life’s goals.
Carlo recently graduated with a Master’s in City Planning at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. Out of 39 graduates, four graduates were singled out to present their Master’s Thesis on May 15, 2015 at 305 Wurster Hall.
My husband Enrique and I got to witness our son, Carlo, present to his thesis panel composed of college professors, graduate students and alumni.
His Master’s Thesis was titlted “Towards Equity and Sustainability in Housing: Integrating Transit Oriented Development and Affordable Housing.” He got the audience so engaged that questions were raised as to his survey methods and how benefits from using transit translated to increased access to these families. Did they, in fact, use cars less? Did they have better access to employment sources?
A six-page survey was developed, 300 units from five properties in four East Bay cities (Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland and Pittsburgh), including a “cool” survey done by the children, which mirrored what 200 out of 300 parents shared in English, Spanish and Chinese.
Cynthia Kroll, Ph.D., Chief Economist for Association of Bay Area Governments and Carlo’s intellectual mentor, effusively shared that Carlo organized their team, designed the survey, and was “creative, competent, reliable and on time.” She traced the process that it started with a simple, dry question, which the team did not know how to go about getting the answers.
Carlo organized them into a functional team and took on the task of negotiating with the property owners while the team held “research survey days” in front of the properties.
Children and teenagers encouraged their parents to participate. Their participation rate was over 65 percent, considered high enough to give a confidence level to regard their findings as statistically significant. At the end of their process, she complimented Carlo for the rich answers, the analysis and the thoughtful findings on paper, but also how they learned more about the communities and the context of their lives and how they lived in these places.
As a mother, with my husband next to me, who was asking questions from these urban planners along with, along with professors in this illustrious Wurster Hall (whose conference room had photos displayed Caucasian men as deans with then current Dean Jennifer Wolch), I felt my son had crossed borders and boundaries.
Mentored by an intellectual scholar and genius, Professor Ananya Roy, who will be organizing a new Institute of Inequality and Democracy and will be teaching at UCLA this coming fall, I felt overwhelmingly proud to witness my son, Carlo, a great storyteller and confident scholar who is quite loved by his fellow colleagues and appreciated by his professors. He answered their questions thoughtfully and substantially that, at the end, Cynthia Kroll complimented him for a rich set of valuable, reliable research findings.
Dean Wolch thanked us for raising Carlo and regarded him as “a great speaker and a great student, “ while Associate Professor Karen Chapple did the same. Later, his friend, Vaughn mentioned that Carlo was voted to head their Planners Students Association, a group of graduate students in urban planning. To end our visit, Carlo took us to the 9th floor, where from the dean’s conference room, an 180-degree view of Berkeley’s skyline and the emerging sunset’s rays illuminated the Bay waters. One could see the shimmering surfaces, its luminosity and inner radiance.
Carlo’s aphorisms and milestones
As parents, we had a philosophy to raise Carlo in a positive affirming environment. I kept an eye on his milestones, the daily details of his growth years and intervened when appropriate.
In the first grade, the principal and teacher met with me to tell me that Carlo was not “tying his shoe laces,” an indicator for them that he would fail first grade. I questioned what criteria was being used and I asked them where Carlo was on the bell curve – was he off the bell curve, I asked, an outlier?
The principal responded that he was in the midpoint of the bell curve. It turns out that tying shoelaces is an indicator of fine motor skills. Since the teacher could not get rid of me, she blurted out that Carlo is not reading aloud in class. Why? Carlo told me, “Mom, it is in my head. Why do I need to flaunt it?” Fast forward, Carlo advanced, as I knew he would, as he was even then, reading newspapers and books. The teacher apologized to me at the school year’s end.
In the fourth grade, a transition from learning concrete ideas to abstract concepts, I was again called to meet with the math teacher. I saw a poster with 20 out of 30 students in the class. Wow, I told myself, Carlo is advancing with the rest. It turns out the fourth-grade teacher had listed everyone she considered were misbehaving. I told her that 20 out of 30 students reflect on her negative teaching style and not the students. I also shared with her that Carlo is being raised in a positive manner at home, where we fill up his love tank. Carlo moved on to fifth grade and many more students, as the teacher changed her teaching style, noticing every milestone of learning, instead of punishing for discipline.
In the summer, we enrolled Carlo at the California Science Center. “Mom, do you know how high rockets can fly?” His eyes sparked with such an interest as he made the rocket, which flew the highest and the farthest. “Mom, do you know how far? It flew from here to the Coliseum.” It was 1,584 feet.
In high school, Carlo went with his Japanese teacher and classmates to Kyoto and Hiroshima. He organized his classmates to go with him to Santa Monica and to interview Los Angelinos what they knew about Japan. He then made a video for class and it was shared during their trip to Japan. Their class was invited by a local television show and their video was shown to the viewers.
When I was stuck for years, looking for the meaning of “Even the Rainbow Has a Body,” at 11 years old, Carlo told me, “Mom, it has to do with legacy. Everyone has a unique way of making his or her own footprints in life, their own legacies.”
Such is Carlo – he makes his aphorisms, his statements of truth and his opinions, everywhere he goes.
I still recall what his English teacher and yearbook advisor told me,
“Carlo is a gem. He is an amazing human being. He is the yearbook’s photographer but he makes sure everyone on the team knows how to use computers and shares them his skills.”
The best thing I learned about Carlo was when he lobbied with his colleagues at then the Asian Law Caucus for a bill to be passed in California, for green card holders, or permanent residents-immigrants, to be poll monitors, much like high school senior students who are natural-born citizens. He told me, “Mom, it is training them to be citizens in the future, to be involved in the electoral process.”
Need I say more? Now, it is known to all of you, AJ readers why I am in love and in awe of my son, Carlo De La Cruz, a rocket with his innate power, fueled by cities he visits and folks he forms relationships with!
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for Asian Journal Press for 8 years now. She contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in the field of science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium and Mexico and 22 national parks in the US, in pursuit of her love for arts.