Why the Music Stopped

This is the story of Ricky, a victim of a bad neighborhood in south Texas. His story plays out in Hispanic barrios across the U.S. His story is real; the names are not.

By Mayra Rodríguez Valladares — Ricky was a thin 13-year old kid with incredibly straight jet-black hair and very mischievous eyes. Teresa remembers him “as a C student the whole time he was in junior high.” Yet, Ricky was also a very good clarinet player. He would sit on the gravel in front of a neighbor’s house and play the school-borrowed instrument for hours. The woman’s two huge German shepherds would stop their barking and whimpering when Ricky would serenade them most evenings. Even Teresa, who had better grades, was a little envious. “How could such a bad student be such a good clarinet player?” she would ask herself.

“¡Ricky, ven a comer!” his mother would shout. And just like that, the beginner’s level of Mozart’s clarinet concerto would stop abruptly and Ricky’s lanky legs would carry him off. He would always try to eat with his mother and sister. The father had been absent all of Ricky’s life and one of his brothers had been in jail longer than Ricky could remember.

Teresa’s and the dogs’ ears, for that matter, would be left wanting for more of those comforting clarinet sounds that momentarily would almost cover up the barrio’s sounds: the fights, crying children, and police car sirens.

Suddenly one day, no one heard Ricky play again, nor did anyone see him running to and from home. Rumor had it that he had been in a fight with some teenage drug dealers. A shot in the back confined him to a wheel chair the rest of his life. No one in the barrio was ever willing to testify as to who had shot him. Ricky had become very depressed and did not want anyone seeing him in a wheelchair. He dropped out of school and refused to receive any special tutoring or to go to a special school.

If Ricky’s tragic story were a rare exception in the Hispanic community, it would be easier to walk away. Ricky was a victim of circumstances. His mother worked hard to make ends meet. He was left alone and unsupervised too frequently.

Unfortunately, examples of other Rickys abound in the Hispanic community. Many Hispanic students come from broken homes or homes where parents are working endless hours to make ends meet. They are seldom home when classes end in the afternoon. And they are left unsupervised for long and dangerous hours from 3 to 6 p.m., when many teen crimes are committed.

By the time parents, counselors or teachers realize that the students are falling behind or are in trouble, it is almost impossible to steer them back onto the right course.

When students have a lot of unsupervised free time, they fall easily into temptations that can ensnare children and teenagers forever. Some turn to drugs for the seemingly easy money or because of peer pressure. Others get mired in violence due to drugs or because that is what they see at home. And still others get pregnant because of lack of sex education or because they want to have children in the hopes of receiving unconditional love.

One of the biggest problems that influence young Hispanic students to drop out of school is their involvement in taking or selling drugs or facilitating deals for drug dealers.

According to Inter-University Program for Hispanic Research (IUPLR), a nationwide research organization, 15 percent of Hispanic eighth graders had used illicit drugs in the 30 days prior to being interviewed. By 12th grade, 27 percent of Hispanic students had used drugs.

Violence often follows. It is often drug-related activities, and is not limited to the neighborhood where the teens live. Teresa, a petite and bookish girl, remembers riding the same school bus that Ricky used to ride to the nearby junior high school. One day, through a cloud of marijuana smoke, she saw that two teenagers were fighting each other; some later said it was over drugs, others said it was due to jealousy over a girl. When the bus arrived at the school, a group of kids fell out the door, some fighting and others just egging on the fighters. Eventually, principals, teachers and older boys disbanded the mob.

Why the Music Stopped, continue