CSUMB’s interim vice president of student affairs has a history of working for inclusivity and change.

John Fraire is an educator, historian, playwright and proud Chicano from the Midwest. He grew up in 1960s Gary, Indiana, in a very different setting than Mexican Americans working in the Salinas Valley.

“I come from a family of steelworkers,” Fraire says. His father, brothers and sister, as well as cousins toiled in the mills of an industrialized America. In the 1920s many Mexican Americans, attracted by high-paying jobs, migrated to the Midwest to work in the steel industry.

Fraire (pronounced “Fry-Ray”) is also one of the first Mexican Americans to study at Harvard University. After graduating, he joined the admission staff and helped to establish a minority recruitment program.

Many remember their college years with love and nostalgia; for Fraire however, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Mexican American students were scrutinized. If they turned in a well-written, thoughtful paper they were questioned. If they took a course in Spanish, instructors assumed they were fluent. “It took me a while to realize that some of the racism at Harvard was shocking even by 1973 standards,” he explains.

Fraire remained because he knew it would help future generations. And he’s still working for change. He’s currently the interim vice president of student affairs at CSU Monterey Bay. Fraire is also the co-founder of Las Memorias Performance as Education, a program that prepares minority students for college using writing and performing arts.

Weekly: Why did you decide to attend Harvard?

Fraire: I was a high school quarterback. And one of my idols was Jim Plunkett. He was the quarterback at Stanford University. That’s where I wanted to go. I wrote this long letter to Stanford – you might grade my activities, all the stuff that I thought would make me a good student for them. My brother says, “Hey, man. You just applied to Stanford, why don’t you take this same letter, cross off Stanford, put Harvard in there and apply?” It was sort of by accident. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be Harvard.

Do you think that your college experience influenced the way that you recruit students?

I was glad that I was able to be part of the Harvard admission staff, because I joined them with a mission, which is to try to open up the admissions process – particularly among the elite schools, so that there were more Mexicans, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Latinos, Native Americans. I made it my mission to bring people of color and working-class students to places like that.

You were a teenager during the Chicano movement, did you participate in demonstrations?

Not demonstrations, because that wasn’t happening in the Midwest. We boycotted grapes. We boycotted lettuce. We were so committed. We didn’t eat grapes or lettuce.

How did that make you feel?

Proud. Connected. It was a way for us and my family to connect with the Mexican Americans in California.

You have said you oppose standardized testing. Why?

I think standardized test scores are unfair, and they are culturally biased. For the longest time, I’ve fought against their use in higher ed because standardized test scores have been used more to keep people out of college, not help recruit them. There’s a direct correlation between high SAT scores and economic backgrounds. So it took a while but most of the schools are coming around.

What has changed since you were a college student?

In some respects I think things have changed very little. The ranks aren’t diverse enough. There are also still not enough Latinos, and Mexican Americans in positions of leadership. I think for as much gain that we’ve made, we still have a heckuva a long way to go.

What did it mean for you to be the first in your family to earn a Ph.D.?

I see it as a responsibility. My accomplishments don’t belong to me, my doctorate doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to my family, and my community.

Those who sacrificed often gave their lives just to allow someone like me to get an education. I never take my education for granted and I know that I represent more than just myself, everywhere I go.