A neighbor had already thrown a blanket over the body by the time the two boys passed, but grim stories about the murder were still fresh on bystanders’ lips.
The victim had been running with a bad crowd, they said as they gathered on the street where the victim lay. She’d been dating a known gang member and he’d turned on her, sexually assaulting her before taking her life. Under that coarse blanket, they whispered, her face was unrecognizable, her features destroyed by blunt force from a heavy rock.
Juan Carlos Baños was 11 years old when he took in that scene with his twin brother on the streets of San Salvador, a short walk from where he and family were living at the time.
“Everybody knew that it had been gang members,” recalled Baños, now 18, as he sat on the steps outside Smoky Hill High School after class on a recent cloudy afternoon. “The people who knew her said she walked that same way every night after work. The person who covered her was her neighbor. He saw her first.”
Shortly after the Baños twins stumbled across that murder victim on their way to school in 2006, their parents made a hard decision. They would take their two sons and younger daughter away from the violence gripping San Salvador and many of the other cities in El Salvador. They’d head for a place they knew from visits, a city in the United States where relatives waited to welcome them.
They headed for Aurora.
“We had family here in Colorado, my mom’s brother. They accepted us and took us into their home,” Baños said. “After about a month, we decided to go out on our own, just the five of us.”
Juan Carlos Baños started sixth grade with little knowledge of American culture and even less familiarity with English. Six years later, he speaks with little trace of an accent. His speech is calculated and concise. He’s apt to smile slightly as he recalls those first years adjusting to life in a new city and a new country. The typical trials of teenage life were amplified as Baños and his brother struggled to learn the language, find friends and keep up with their studies.
“Besides the language, trying to make friends was one of the hardest things, finding people to associate yourself with,” Baños said. “At first, we had an isolated group of other Latinos who just spoke Spanish. Once we got to know the language, once we got comfortable with being social, we started associating with other groups – not just Hispanics, but also whites, blacks, all of the cultures that you see here in Colorado.”
As Baños prepares for his graduation from Smoky Hill High School next month, his plate is full with the stresses and preoccupations of any other American teenager. An avid and devoted artist, he’s already been offered a four-year, $40,000 scholarship from a local art school, but he’s setting his sights higher. He’s applied to top-notch art schools in Massachusetts and Minneapolis, citing ambitious plans to become an architect or draftsman.
Those goals haven’t been derailed by the fact that Baños and his family are still waiting to have their request for asylum granted by the U.S. government. Baños said his family has a federal dispensation to remain in the country as they wait for formal approval.
“I might be ‘undocumented,’ but that doesn’t mean that I can’t think big,” Baños said. “The situation is a little harder for colleges. Tuition issues are the main thing. I have permission to stay in this country, but I’m still undocumented. You’re put on hold, but that does not change anything. You can’t qualify for financial aid … the tuition can be three to four times more, depending on the colleges.”
Baños faces these hurdles as the state Legislature hears arguments about tuition rates for undocumented students as they debate the ASSET bill (legislation that would allow undocumented students who have attended high school in the state access to some degree of in-state tuition discounts). He may be looking at out-of-state colleges, but Baños’ story is deeply rooted in the current debate raging around access to higher education in the United States.
“Why they wouldn’t encourage every student to explore college opportunities … is perplexing to me,” said Gayle Brown, an art instructor at Smoky Hill who has taught Baños for the past three years. “I hope colleges come hunting for him and offer him a free ride, because they don’t know what they’re missing out on. That’s where we’re down to, calling deans of admission and saying you don’t know what you’re missing.”
Baños, who progressed from the school’s intermediate drawing and painting classes during his sophomore year to his current International Baccalaureate class, has shown a clear, creative progression, Brown added. It’s an evolution that speaks of challenges, focus and a strong sense of identity, she added.
“To see him six years later as one of the top in his class is astounding. Every piece that he’s made can somehow tell a piece of that story,” Brown said. “You see this beautiful narrative just opening up, his own personal struggles and triumphs, and a little glimmer of what’s to come.”
As Brown spoke in one of the high school’s art classrooms, Baños held one of his most recent works, a mixed media piece that showed the weathered and aged face of an Indian woman. Baños titled the work “Matthew 5:13,” pulling inspiration from his own faith and the underlying beauty of a simple biblical verse that cites the “salt of the earth.”
“It’s a self-portrait of my faith,” Baños said. “The verse talks about that if salt does not give taste, it can’t be used. I feel like it shows that regardless of your religion, there’s an essence to you as a human being.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707
A proposal to let illegal immigrant students attend Colorado colleges at a discounted rate was tested April 25 by a panel led by Republicans who have expressed concern about the bill.
Under the plan, students who graduate from a Colorado high school could qualify for a tuition rate lower than the out-of-state price, but slightly higher than the resident rate. The bill passed a crucial vote out of the Education Committee Monday when Republican Rep. Tom Massey joined Democrats to advance the proposal out of the GOP-controlled panel.
But the bill faces long odds because the Finance Committee, which now considers it, does not have Republicans who have expressed support.
Democrats said the students deserve a chance to continue their education at an affordable rate because the state has spent money educating them in the K-12 system. The out-of-state rate is up to five times more expensive than the in-state rate.
About 70 percent of illegal immigrant students in Colorado live at or below the poverty level and likely wouldn’t attend college on the out-of-state rate, according to an analysis by nonpartisan legislative staff.
Republicans argue that a college degree won’t fix the student’s legal status and they’ll have trouble finding jobs. Opponents also question whether the bill encourages illegal behavior, instead of punishing it.
The proposal requires students who want the discounted rate to sign an affidavit stating that they’re seeking, or will seek, legal status.
This is the sixth time the Legislature has considered what type of tuition illegal immigrants should pay. Other proposals would’ve given illegal immigrants the in-state rate, which includes a state subsidy. This year’s proposal does not include that subsidy, creating a third tuition category in between the in-state and out-of-state rates. It would be up to colleges whether to participate.
Democratic Denver mayor Michael Hancock and former mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal spoke in support of the bill Monday. Vidal, who was born in Cuba, was Denver’s first foreign-born mayor.
An analysis from legislative staff says as many as 500 students could qualify for the third tuition category the first year the bill becomes law.
Thirteen states — including Texas, California, Illinois and Connecticut — have passed legislation granting in-state tuition for immigrant students, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.