THE RISE
FAMILY LEGACY
A journey from fieldwork to service to philanthropy .
BY JARRETT HALEY
WHEN SUMMERTIME approached San Diego ’ s Hoover High School in the mid-1960s , and students started talking about their plans to hit the beach or go on vacation , Jorge Carrillo ’ 72 remembers being silent . He already knew where he ’ d be heading for the summer , the same place he and his family always went : up to central California , where they worked in the fields , first picking peaches and raspberries in the town of Selma , then to Hollister and Gilroy for apricots and garlic , and back down through Fresno picking grapes for wine and raisins . Together , with parents and grandparents , they would earn enough to supplement their income and return back to San Diego , often a few weeks after the start of school .
Today , Carrillo recalls this migrant work with pensive objectivity , recounting the difficulty of that life and the dismal conditions . He remembers working a minimum of 10 hours a day , six days a week and often in 90 to 100 degree heat , living in campsites , cooking over a fire and sleeping in tents or an occasional shed , often on discarded mattresses , cots or old blankets . He and his family woke before dawn to work as much as they could while the day was cool , contending with wasp nests and black widow spiders , as well as white powdery pesticides that once sent a 12-year-old Carrillo to the hospital for a week with an adverse reaction .
This was until one summer , when Carrillo did not go to work in the fields . His brother was about to enter UC San Diego and enrolled in a summer college readiness program , the same one Carrillo would enter as he , too , came to campus the following year .
“ I knew that education was a way out for me . And in that summer program I met a lot of other students from underrepresented backgrounds . We had some excellent teachers who taught us what to expect from college , how to think critically and how to write better ,” says Carrillo . “ Honestly , I would not have made it without that sense of support and belonging .”
The program was an early version of what is now UC San Diego ’ s Summer Bridge , and then as now , it was a lifeline for Carrillo and others . The program also provided Carrillo with a friend group that lasted throughout college , and as well introducing him to his lifelong companion when he met
48 TRITON | SPRING 2022