A young man who has dealt with his share of life’s grief — including losing his brother in a shooting and his father to liver disease — is about to graduate from Santa Monica High School and go to college.
Diego Godinez, 18, was born and raised in Santa Monica. He grew up at 16th Street and Delaware — the area of the city in which the most violent crimes are reported, statistics show.
The outgoing homecoming king, set to graduate in June from Samohi, spent much of his life living in a crowded apartment with four siblings and his parents. When Godinez was 4, his brother Leo was killed in a shooting. His father, Leo Senior, died from liver disease when Godinez was 12.
Godinez, who is dyslexic and has had difficulties as a student, attended Will Rogers Elementary and John Adams Middle schools.
Despite challenges, Godinez has earned the adoration of peers and the respect of adults who know him. He has been involved with a variety of campus groups intended to promote school solidarity and improve academic goals. He was elected homecom-ing king in the fall and hopes to be elected prom king this month. In addition, he has played football and baseball at Samohi, and been involved with the Police Activities League — an organization providing recreation, development and leadership opportunities for Santa Monica youths — since he was 6.
Godinez has been accepted for the fall to Cal State San Marcos, a relatively new college with a small enrollment and strong minority presence. Although he has been awarded a $1,500 scholarship from the PAL, how he will fund his college degree continues to be an issue. In addition to his extra study needs and school commitments, he works 30 hours a week at Vons.
Here the Daily Press caught up with Godinez to discuss his future.
Where are you living now? “I was in the same apartment for 17 years until a couple of months ago, when my mom bought a house in Los Angeles. There used to be six of us in that apartment. The new house is much better. More space. Four bedrooms. I get my own room. I’m the baby of the family.
“My mother’s name is Antonia. She’s 55, works on the Santa Monica Pier. My sister, Lorena, is 31. She has two kids, Jocelyn and Alan, in second grade and pre-school. She’s married, works for the school district. She lives about five minutes from us. My father, Leo, died when I was in sixth grade, about six years ago, when I went to John Adams Middle School. My oldest brother, Rafael, is about 34, has three kids. Right now he is doing some community service at the hospital. Hopefully, if they like him, he can get a job there. His daughter, Vanessa, goes to Samohi. She’s in ninth grade. I see her all the time on campus. Tony is younger, maybe in seventh or eighth grade, and Angel, I think he is in fourth or fifth grade.
“Then there is my brother, Marco, who is about 32. He works at Gelson’s market. He worked at Vons for 10 years, but with all the strikes, he decided to change. He likes it a lot better. Marco is kind of like a father to me. He sort of raised me. I can rely on him like I used to be able to rely on my father, you know? If I need some money or help with something, a couple bucks here, a ride, he is the person I go to. Yes, I miss my father, but Marco has sort of been a father to me. I don’t remember Leo very well. I was 4 when he was shot. I want to have a big family, too, when I get older.”
What’s next? “I graduate from Samohi on June 23, and I’m planning to go to Cal State San Marcos, in Oceanside, near Camp Pendleton. It’s not that far, about an hour and a half away. The campus is beautiful, fairly new. It opened like 10 years ago. It only has 7,000 students, and that’s part of the reason I chose to go there, because it’s a small school and I think that would work better for me.
“I’m dyslexic. I have a learning disability, so it’s difficult for me to read and write. I never thought I would go to college, because of it, but my girlfriend has pushed me to get involved, work hard in school, and believe in myself and not get into trouble. I grew up in Santa Monica on 16th Street, supposedly a bad neighborhood, but I didn’t think it was bad. It’s getting better for me as I go on, but it’s still kind of difficult. It’s easier for me to deal with a teacher one on one sometimes, or being in a small group, compared to being in a classroom, say, with 400 students, where I wouldn’t even get to know the teachers. That’s why I look forward to going to San Marcos. Smaller class sizes.
“In middle and high school they have a program called tutorial, and all I do is homework in that class. It’s been really helpful. If I need help with my homework, they help me, or if I have a question they will answer it, so that’s pretty cool. I have all my credits to graduate. When I go to San Marcos, I plan on majoring in criminology and justice studies. The first two years of college is general ed, right? I’m pretty sure after taking more courses I will be more sure what I want to do, but I like watching Law and Order on TV. I love that show. I know the cases aren’t real and the whole show is fake, but I like the mystery behind it, like trying to find out who did the murder, or who raped the victim. It’s pretty cool to figure that kind of stuff out. I think I want to be a detective. Maybe a homicide detective. Something like that. When I was little I used to watch Chips. I loved that show. I used to watch it a lot.”
How do you feel about heading off to college?
“I’m kind of scared. At first I was like, yeah, all excited, but now it’s coming toward the end of high school, and I’m thinking, I never want to leave high school. Part of the reason I decided to go to San Marcos, too, was so I could be close to home, and because my girlfriend, Odalys Flores, is going to the University of San Diego, about 30 minutes from San Marcos, so I get the best of both, close to girlfriend and close to home. She’s 17, will be 18 in July, a senior, too. In June it will be two years. We hope to keep going on through college. We’ll see what happens. We met in school, through friends. We went out a few times, and it just kept going from there. She wants to major in business. She’s really smart.”
What have you been up to recently? “In school, I was homecoming king, so when prom comes up, I hope to be prom king. That would be really cool if I got both. But besides all that, I’m involved with Committee 41, MEChA and senior steering. Recently I came out in the prom pamphlet. Sort of a fashion thing. I came out in this pamphlet that all of the kids got it at school, to demonstrate the tuxedos. My girlfriend and I were both in it, so that was pretty cool. Kids come up to me, saying, ‘I saw you, I saw you’ in this pamphlet. I’m pretty well known at school. It’s a big school. Big graduating class.
“I think the fights at school lately have been pretty stupid. People shouldn’t be fighting over race, you know? Blacks and Latinos, we’re the minority. We should be together, not fighting each other. I think it’s so stupid. I get along with everybody. I have no problems with nobody. I get along with blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics. I don’t even pay attention to that stuff.”
Any great sport moments? “I played football for Samo my freshman, sophomore and junior year. I was a receiver and defensive back. Freshman year I was starting, until I got hurt in the middle of the season. I was tackled, my leg went back, it was messed up. Sophomore year I was second string. The coach would give me the plays, and I would be running in and out, so I got a lot of playing time. Junior year I started receiver.
“There was one play I’ll remember. I was running down the field. I can’t even remember who we were playing. But I was running down the field thinking I was never going to catch the ball when it was in the air, and somehow I did. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe I caught the ball.’ It was amazing. I was like ‘Wow.’
“I played baseball one year, my sophomore year. I was starting in the outfield, but our first base man wasn’t doing so good, so I volunteered to play first base. I had never played first base before, but I was one of the captains, so I told the coach I was going to play first base, because this guy wasn’t doing good, and the coach let me, and I did better, so I stayed at first base.
“This year I didn’t play any sports because I wanted to stay to make sure my grades are good. My grades are good. First semester I had five As and one B, and this semester, right now, I have four As and two Bs. I’m trying for straight As by the end of the year. When I first started high school, the first two years, my grades weren’t so great. When I applied to college, my GPA was only a 2.8. San Marcos has just been approved for a baseball team, so, maybe I’m going to work out and practice this year so that when I’m a sophomore I can try out. I ran the LA Marathon for four years with Santa Monica PAL. I did it 2001, 2002, 2003, then in 2004 I took a break. I came back for it in 2005. It’s 26 miles. My best time was four hours and 28 minutes.”
Any advice to others? “Don’t take life for granted. If you need help, ask for it, and don’t be afraid to ask, especially when you really need it. Because you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t ask.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 9, 2005. Read the original PDF.