Gregg Castro:
CLASS OF 1974
Andrew Hill High SchoolClass of 1974
San jose, CA
Gregg's Story
My parents moved to San Jose near Hillsdale (now Dahl) School in 1950, from their homelands of the Salinas-Monterey area, where much of both families still reside. All my family that doesn't live with me has fled San Jose - but I am still here and still working in SillyCon Valley tech job since 1980. I grew up in a great neighborhood (now built over for the most part) with great friends and families. And yet . . . most people, even those that knew us from the start, were unaware that my family was "native'. They assumed that we were 'hispanic' (which we are), which is what generations of California Indigenous people did since 1769 to hid from the genocide and enslavement of the European invasion. That attitude lasted long after 'danger' (but not prejudice) was past. So ...Expand for more
very few of my friends, with a few exceptions, knew of my identity as a native person. There were almost no other native families that we were aware of in the area, so we 'blended' in with the spanish families and community - a common survival tactic of CA native people for decades.
Now - after finally embracing my indigenous heritage in 1990 after the loss of my Father, I have become deeply involved in the American Indian/Native American/California Indigenous communities of the central coast and throughout Cali. I spent 2 terms as Tribal Chair of my Father's tribe; now I am Culture Director of the Association of Ramaytush People of the San Francisco Peninsula, working to preserve and protect a lineage of my Mother's heritage with our nonprofit. The work never ends . . .
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