LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
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The capacity crowd attending the Paris High School graduation Friday, May 24, received a lesson in honesty and bravery from one of the six class valedictorians.
Fermin Torres, a first-generation American who has lived in Paris all his life, shared with his classmates and those attending the challenges he has faced as a brown boy in a nearly all-white community.
“Growing up I never really realized I was different from other kids around me,” Torres explained. “I thought we were all the same until I realized we weren’t.”
Torres said around third grade he remembers someone telling him he resembled “that Indian kid off that show Jessie.” Torres noted he was “really confused” by this comment.
“I thought, ‘I don’t have a giant eight-foot pet lizard, how on earth could I remind them of Ravi from Jessie?’ Until I realized, oh wait, they’re talking about my skin color aren’t they,” he said.
The comments continued throughout Torres’ years in local schools.
“I kept getting weird comments on my race and ethnicity up until now,” he recalled. “Most people would assume I was Indian and would be shocked when they found out I in fact was not. Others knew I was not Indian, yet still continued to patronize me with hurtful comments.”
Even if they knew his ethnicity, Torres endured questions about whether he could speak Spanish and whether the family eats tacos every week.
“Whenever these questions and comments would be thrown my way, I would often go into tunnel vision. I would answer their questions quickly to end the topic, or I would ignore the comments to keep myself sane,” he explained. “After the fact, I would just think to myself, ‘It won’t be like this forever, I’ll leave this place, and go somewhere where people aren’t so idiotic.’”
But, Torres said he finally concluded he didn’t care anymore what others think.
“For so many years, I would just take these remarks and questions hit after hit, and sometimes even go along with the joke just to make the situation less awkward. However, I find myself no longer standing for these sorts of statements,” he said. “Throughout my time in this school system, I have learned not only how to endure these constant and even offensive statements, but I have also learned that I know who I am. No matter what types of assumptions people might make about me, I know that those assumptions don’t define who I really am. Because I know me, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
Torres concluded with a personal affirmation.
“My name is Fermin Torres, and I am a first-generation, brown, low-income Mexican-American. I am the son of two immigrant parents who never got a high school education, who left everything they have ever known, and moved to this strange country to start a new life for their kids,” he said. “Now almost 30 years later, their final kid is standing here giving a speech at their high school graduation.”
Torres said he definitely didn’t think his speech would be as well received as it was.
“I was really nervous,” he said. I didn’t practice it for anyone, not even my family.”
No one, with the exception of English teacher Kristy Bennett, had previewed the speech.
When writing the speech, Torres said he started with the last paragraph because he wanted to pay tribute to his parents, Catalina and Fermin Sr. The couple came to the U.S. from Durango, Mexico and landed in Paris.
Catalina Torres is a stay-at-home mother while his father works for Bob Morgan at a variety of jobs including moving trucks and yard work.
After the speech, Torres and his three siblings briefly discussed his speech, each child acknowledging they had similar experiences.
“We never talked about it because it was uncomfortable,” he said.
The biggest surprise for Torres was the response from his classmates – many of who apologized for what he experienced at PHS and throughout his scholastic career.
“They told me it was beautiful and then apologized,” he said, noting some were in tears. Although the schools and community are much more diverse now, Torres emphasized it is not the responsibility of the school system to teach kindness and respect for everyone no matter their background, economic status or ethnicity.
“This is something to learn in the home,” he said. “It’s okay to look different.”
Torres will be attending Northern Illinois University in Dekalb where he will study graphic arts, with the goal of being a graphic designer.