3 graduating siblings instill Bruin tradition in family

Every Monday night, Frank, Elizabeth and Victor Salcedo travel from their various jobs around Los Angeles down small, familiar streets to their parents’ house in Paramount. The walls are decorated with pictures of themselves and their family. The smell of their favorite food wafts down the halls while the siblings sit down to catch up with each other and their parents about their lives as UCLA students.

All three of the first-generation college students will graduate with different degrees from UCLA, realizing their father’s dream for his children. This week Frank will graduate with a master’s degree in education, Elizabeth with a master’s in social welfare, and Victor with an undergraduate degree in Chicana/o studies and political science.

“It’s a dream come true. (My children) deserve it,” said Francisco Salcedo, the father of the Salcedo siblings. “They worked very hard, and I feel wonderful. I’m just supporting them.”

After moving to the United States from Mexico in the early 1980s Francisco Salcedo set out to get an education. He attended night classes to get a high school diploma and then attended East Los Angeles College. He wanted to continue his education at UCLA but was ineligible for financial aid because of his immigrant status, said Francisco’s oldest son, Frank Salcedo.

“I feel happy that all of his hard work and sacrifice has paid off, and he can see the fruit of his labor (in us).” Elizabeth said. “Even though he didn’t make it he hoped his children would – and we did.”

So their mother could stay home and raise the siblings when they were young, Francisco would work more than one job with long, labor-intensive hours, Elizabeth said.

The Salcedos’ mother, Mercedes, never went to college and she said she thinks it’s amazing what her children have accomplished. She currently works as staff at an elementary school.

For their undergraduate degrees, Frank attended San Diego State University and California State University, Los Angeles while Elizabeth went to UCLA.

Elizabeth said she attended UCLA because it was a prestigious institution and close to home.

Victor Salcedo was the next sibling to choose UCLA, attending the school he had set his heart to when he watched the Bruins play football when he was 7 years old.

Frank then decided the education program at UCLA would be a good fit for what he wanted to do as a teacher.

That same year Elizabeth found out she was accepted into a master’s program at UCLA for the following year.

Though their dad helped financially support his kids during their first year of school, all of the Salcedo siblings received financial aid, scholarships and worked to pay their own way for their education.

Two years ago, they all decided to get an apartment together out of convenience.

“It was neat because they were my older siblings – very protective – and I was a sophomore at the time, so I appreciated the fact that they saw me as a roommate and not a little brother,” Victor said.

Though the Salcedo siblings moved out the following year, they still made sure they stayed close by eating lunch together at Lu Valle Commons every Thursday to catch up on each others’ lives, Frank said.

This year, they go eat at their mother’s once a week, to catch up with each other and their family.

Frank said he plans to continue teaching at an alternative education school after he graduates and Elizabeth said she plans to continue working with the City of Long Beach.

“It increases my Bruin pride definitely knowing that we’re a Bruin family,” Elizabeth said. “I feel like we are convincing our niece (to come to UCLA), we know she will have the opportunity to be a Bruin.”

Frank’s daughter, who is 6, will also be graduating this spring­ – from kindergarten, and has the mindset that she will follow her father, aunt and uncle and also become a Bruin one day.

The Salcedos said the Bruin tradition has been instilled in their family and will hopefully continue with future generations.