One Reason I Do Not Like Female Bosses

Is due to the fact that I have not had a positive experience with female bosses or potential female bosses. Does that make me upset, angry, macho hurt or all three?  I will stick with angry because I returned to my memory and counted how many had rejected me and denied me my place of opportunity.

But how did I get here. I cam across the job specifications for a Chicano Studies position at Cal State Fullerton and as I read the qualifications, the minimum all wanted doctoral degrees but in fields that did not make sense like Spanish. Mexican Americans were not educated in Spanish because we are from the US, it was an elective but then we didn't comprehend it because they used Castellian and had a Cuban or a White person teaching the class and neither were comprehensible. Plus my brand of Mexican American was really Apache Spanish which was more Apache than Spanish and that Spanish was Nahuatl based like Chingado and pinche loco which meant Spaniards wouldn't understand what I said and neither would southern Mexicans.

Then I looked at the preferred qualifications and they have queer studies and feminism spelled out loud and clear. They wanted a queer emphasis which meant one had to be queer too, you just couldn't write about it and not be joto (NACS accepted term). What degree would be needed to meet that qualification? Then the feminism which meant that one had to be a woman and hate males (think of your father-Darth Padre) or be a man who thinks like a woman and hates being men or males. I couldn't believe it, what kind of soupy qualifications were being written up by these professors who professed to be Chicano. No righteous Chicano would hate on themselves even if they wanted to fight or be embarassed about his testosterone but I had doubts as I read those quals. Then feminism which I have always read as "I hate Mexican American men" but I know my mother would fight any feminist who hated on me so if I was beloved by one woman, it was the most important one, my mother, my jefa who would not hesitate to say, "defend yourself mijo, what kind of man are you?"

So I decided to defend myself and I thought about all those places where I have had female bosses and come to think about it I have been on the negative receiving end of female hatred in the work place. Though no fault of my 6'5 height and 320 pound body I found myself reciting like the lord's prayer the evil of estrogen and it read like this:

1. Trade Tech: I was not rehired by A Rodriguez because she did not like my style of teaching eventhough she admitted she would teach online because students would not enroll in her class. And she laughed proudly of that.

2. CSULA: I was given a needs improvement evaluation by Talavera though I had more teaching experience than her and had been teaching at that place longer than her in a subject (literature) she never taught. I should have gone with the interim gay chair's evaluation. His rebuttal was upset at my rebuttal because I was still recommended for employment but I would not have a needs improvement from an unqualified person. And I was rehired.

3.  Southwest: At this campus where discipline is lacking I was not placed on the seniority list because I did not have the right hair and colour. This was a Black campus and the Black female chair SLee would not place me on the seniority list even though I taught online for her and wrote the class up and got approved. She even admitted she did not place me on the seniority list and the union bylaws do not protect me against not being rehired and I wasn't.

4. CSULB: I once was hired to teach US history courses after 5 years of trying and being denied by the elder White woman who recently died. Though I was hired by a prolabor historian Quamwickham I learned why: 8 am classes. I learned full time faculty do not like to teach at those hours and have to get up so early. I had to rough it out in traffic and traffic sometimes got the best of me. Then I was evaluated and was not given a good one because I critiqued country club unions and that went counter to this White woman's lifestyle. Unions protected her but not me from her. Though in Chicano Studies where they placed on the Mexicans and even those that looked Mexican even though they were not, I was given satisfactory evaluations teaching courses that overlapped.

5.  ELAC: those that know me know I was denied tenure at this place even after being recommended for tenure and them changing their votes from yes on Friday to No on Monday. I was thrashed by the Greek Woman in Chicano Studies who was the chair because I did not do as she pleased. Why should I have been a toy? I didn't go to college for that and she testified against me even though she was not around the last year because she resigned as chair and took a leave though her word meant more even as she had not been on campus during the 4th year. She could do no harm.

6. Loyola Marymount: even though I was being fired from ELAC, Loyola Marymount hired me as visiting professor. To be fired from ELAC which they didn't, I continued teaching but not as a full time faculty, I had seniority for part time then be hired by a 4 year institution was a redemption of the first class. How could they compete? I give props to Graciela Limon who hired me even after I informed her of ELAC though by reference of my former student Jorge Fajardo, a male who defended me and married me off once as the minister of ceremony. Unfortunately, Limon left in mid term for retirement and left me unprotected or without my manager. The other faculty was a female named Davalos who believed she was the superior one and Ms. Feminism a la macho, cried wolf to the Dean an Asian and ELAC's academic affairs vp badmouthing led to my ouster for I had no protection. Though Graciela Limon asked me to receive a female educator award on her behalf and when I showed up I was asked by Davalos what was I doing there and proudly I stated: "I'm here to pick up Graciela's award". I took a picture with other female recepients and enjoyed the moment that a woman of stature would confide in me a tall male to accept an award over a female feminist colleague. Revenge was sweet even if I was not employed the following year. It's the Apache blood I carry.

7. CSUDH: At this place I had resigned out of protest because (it was part time) the Black dean wanted to weaken the Chicano Studies Department and he did so by hiring a White woman named Irene Morris over a much more experience author Antonio Rios Bustamante. The Dean simply gave her the job and ignored the varous student and faculty suggestions. All S. Williams could say was that Rios was wierd. Some dean. The hiring of Morris meant that myself and others would not be rehired regardless of our experience and accomplishments. She was going to imposte her own female white view on Mexican Americans.

8. Santa Ana: this was the best where I interviewed for a miserable 1 class in Ethnic Studies. The commitee was made up of 6 women and the dean, another woman who was White. Though I did not show any botherness, I was suspicious of the all women committee. By this time in my life I had learned do not trust women and this place was evident. I presented the material the best I ever had and no call. I should have wore a dress. And this happened when I taught upper division at CSULB so it was funny to see their reactions because they did not know what they were questioning me on for it wasn't Ethnic Studies-they were instructors from different fields and that is what angered me the most. No hire there.

9.  Female union reps have also been dismal at ELAC: A C Castro and A. Ornelas would not represent me in union matters though they were mandated to by district laws. Castro stated to me she would not be objective with me and shoved me off to somebody who wore a wig and did not know the union contract. Ornelas was worse, she didn't return my calls after one conversation. So here I distrusted both the union and females.

In summary, I have learned that I do not like female bosses because they are allowed to be male prejudice and they get away with it with no legal ramifications because they are protected under civil rights laws but a brown man like me has to take the violence and is not even able to defend himself.  Even when filing harassment reports to no avail, the women are more protected. At least with male bosses including Whites I have had fairer opportunities if not the best scenario.

For the CSUF announcement a letter of protest was sent with other males but we are not sure it will succeed or better said, we don't expect it to. Not in this climate.

I trust the devil more.