Home > Our Projects > Santa Barbara Council for Self-Esteem > Salud Carbajal

Salud Carbajal
Presentation to the SB Council for Self-teem-09/19/08

The Introduction
By Dennis Forster

Our guest speaker today is First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal.

Salud started life in Mexico, living a short time in Arizona before arriving in Oxnard.

Growing up in an economically depressed neighborhood he could have taken a different path but went on to graduate from UCSB, earn a Master’s degree and serve eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.

He served as a Family Service Advocate and Group Home Counselor at Devereux and worked for the County’s Public Health Department on the Drug and Alcohol division’s Master Plan. All of his jobs have been in public service.

He was elected in March 2004 to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and is currently serving as Chairman of the Board.

In that capacity he is committed to ensuring responsive, effective and accountable government for all residents and protecting our cherished natural environment and resources, enhancing public safety, and working regionally to address our transportation, housing, and workforce challenges.

A strong self-esteem was required to successfully travel his chosen path. I am confident that he has an interesting and compelling story to tell.

Please, give a warm welcome to Supervisor Salud Carbajal.

The following wrap-up is by Betty Hatch

	Salud Carbajal First District County Supervisor answers questions from the audience

The clean-cut man dressed in business attire approached the podium with warmth exuding charisma. Before he said a word the audience liked him. He told of being asked to speak for us and accepting readily over a year ago. Then he confessed, as the time approached, he became terrified. Although he is asked to speak often, this was something different. Talking on a subject as personal as his self-esteem, would be a first. He didn’t know where or how to begin.

He began by writing an outline and then he started to procrastinate. He mentioned his dilemma to a friend, J’amy Brown, who discussed the subject with him and gave him some self-esteem quotes to use. Salud then wrote his personal definition--“Self-esteem is an evolving contentment and peace with one’s strengths and weaknesses, failures and successes, gains and losses conducive for personal growth in the lifelong pursuit of goals and aspirations.” He believes we each have our own definition of Self-Esteem and it is an evolving, life long process as we learn to be comfortable with who we are, and who we want to be. Organizing his thoughts for the talk, he confided, became a very interesting and valuable exercise.

Salud gave us first, what he called “his innocuous biography,” saying the kinds of things most of us would say when asked to write a paragraph about ourselves. He began with: “I immigrated to the United States when I was 5 years old. I am the youngest of my eight brothers and sisters. After living one month in Oxnard, my family moved to Bagdad, Arizona, where I entered the first grade, not speaking a word of English. I grasped the language quickly and continued in the same school though the 6th grade. Then, unfortunately, the under-ground mine, where my father worked, was closed, causing our family’s return to Oxnard. I finished school in Oxnard, graduated from UC Santa Barbara, and married a woman I met on a blind date. We have two children—23 year old Natasha, a SBCC student, and 8 year old, Michael, who attends Roosevelt Elementary School.

	Founder Betty Hatch and Salud Carbajal chat prior to the presentation.

Then the real Salud Carbajal took the podium. He explained his youth by describing his family. His father was a former “Brasero,” a very hard working laborer in the agriculture fields. He was a very doting father. He was generous with the little money the family had, giving his children every thing they needed, counseling them on his own values of hard work, taking responsibility and having integrity. He remembers his father saying, “Son, your word is your bond.” Salud describes his parents as being nurturing and wonderful.

Starting school in Bagdad, though difficult at the beginning, became pleasant and fun. At first Salud was embarrassed eating his home-made burritos at lunch in front of the 95% Anglo student body. Later in Oxnard, because of the limited staple foods provided at his home, he loved to eat at the school’s cafeteria. Adapting to the language and getting along with his fellow students came easily.

During his third or forth grade year, his parents split up. Most of the older children were out of the house by that time. Then his oldest sister, committed suicide and it was Salud who found her. Salud was sent to the school psychologist for counseling but he only went one time because he was afraid his friends would think he was crazy! Now he is sorry he didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to receive professional help. This family tragedy brought his parents back together.

Salud remembers his six years in Bagdad as being happy, safe and positive. This small town gave him a firm foundation where he felt he fit in, belonged. The kids were as one—none being wealthier than another.

When the underground mine, where his father was working closed, the family to returned to Oxnard. Salud was worried about the move. He was concerned about the big city, with gangs and the need to assimilate with big city life. At times he felt himself embarrassed that his parents could not speak English. Salud was afraid he would be thought of as different. His mother could not work due to rheumatoid arthritis, and his father’s wages as a laborer in the agriculture fields did not provide for a living wage, so the family had to live in public housing or “the projects.” as it is called.

Opening up to us even more, Salud told of his painful experiences noting the socio-economic differences in Oxnard. It pained him that his father worked so long and hard for so little money, that he had to translate for his parents when they received Medi-Cal help and was embarrassed to have friends over to his home and have them see cockroaches cross the floors. Salud had to labor in the fields with his father in the summer and they lived simply with no vacations, no eating out and a very limited diet at home. But Salud and his brothers and sisters were always allowed to keep any money they earned.

Salud was well liked and got along with his classmates and his teachers. He was encouraged to take college prep courses in high school and with no thought of being able to actually attend college, he took the courses as a test for himself—just to see if he could. One of his teachers encouraged him to apply for college. He followed her advice and every college he applied to accepted him.

Another teacher counseled Salud to go to UCSB because it was close to his home, smaller than the others and was in a beautiful area. Though he played a little too much his first semester, he quickly heeded his father’s counsel and got straight A’s the second semester. Salud’s steady rise to success had begun and continues today.

Looking over the factors in Salud’s life that have led him to his high self-esteem, we noted his love for his parents, his ability to get along with others and counting his wife as his best friend. Salud is grateful for the experiences in his life and has learned from them.

At the end of the presentation, the charismatic man, we had liked from the beginning, meant even more to us. We respect and admire Salud Carbajal--a role model in our community. He left us with a suggestion he would like to make to the next president of the United States; “Mr. President, we need all students to be mandated to do public service. This will not only support our communities, but will also provide an opportunity for our young people to interface and become friends with all ethnic groups, rich and poor.”

Home > Our Projects > Santa Barbara Council for Self-Esteem > Salud Carbajal