Film director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu was considered legendary amongst people in the industry but found mainstream acclaim when Birdman, a 2014 film where Michael Keaton plays a fading actor who made a name for himself playing a superhero, hit theaters.
The movie cleaned house at the 87th Academy Awards winning the prize for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (which he helped write) and Best Cinematography.
Gonzalez Iñárritu elevated his status in Hollywood even higher the next year when The Revenant was released, a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He won the Best Director award for the second straight year, becoming the first person to do so since western movie maker John Ford won two straight in 1940 and 1941.
I fell asleep during both movies, so I don’t remember much about either one.
What I do remember is a part of Gonzalez Iñárritu’s acceptance speech that he gave when Birdman won the award for Best Picture.
He told the audience, “I want to dedicate this award to my fellow Mexicans, the ones who live in Mexico. I pray that we can build the government that we deserve.”
That quote stayed with me because I had never really thought about Mexico or why it had such a bad reputation. Growing up in the U.S., you’re more or less just told that it’s a bad place with no dialogue attached.
Of course, years later and after spending a lot of time in countries with similar socio-economic conditions to Mexico—like Laos, Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador—I know that most people who live in countries that are perceived to be “bad” aren’t bad people. They just have horrible inequality caused by institutions that are tainted by corruption. Essentially, they have community leaders that don’t look out for the best interests of their community and its people.
It may sound strange and I know the conditions are not quite comparable, but I view Rockdale in a similar way. A place with really good people, we just don’t have the community that we deserve.
If you ask most people, it’s not the best place, but I’ve grown to love it here.
Not just because of the slower pace but because of the folks who live here and make this community what it is and also offer an insight into its potential.
We have so many people who struggle like hell but still have the capacity to be warm, caring and kind towards strangers, despite living in a place with not too many opportunities for upward mobility. I find it so honorable when a person doesn’t unleash the weight of difficult circumstances onto others but instead does whatever they can to be a light in someone else’s life.
But remember in school when you were taught that people left England for America because who they could be in England was pretty much determined at birth? When I talk to people here, I’m surprised by the range of people that agree when I say that that’s what Rockdale reminds me of. Life seems so limited for some people here.
In sportswriting, one of the hardest parts of covering Rockdale is also covering Thorndale. At THS, students are playing to full gyms while Rockdale kids routinely play to nearly empty gyms.
This past semester, Thorndale teams won district championships in girls basketball, baseball, softball and placed second in boy’s basketball, while Rockdale teams won a total of six district games in those same sports. In speaking with various Thorndale athletes, the common variable seems to be that their community supports them so well.
Every time I went to RHS for a game this year, I knew I would sit around with teachers, coaches and parents and hear them vent about the lack of community support. It was therapeutic to discuss that because it’s so disheartening to see people work so hard, yet not being supported.
It’s not like they have good coaches and we don’t, because we have some really good coaches and ones that really want to be here for the kids, which is what they have in Thorndale. Coaches who are there for the kids. It’s a collective failure.
This is on administrators for siding with irrational or entitled parents and not the teachers and coaches who help build the environment you need in order for your students to flourish. If you want them to stay in Rockdale, they need to at least feel supported.
This is on the people that have disposable income here who don’t have any regard for any Rockdale student unless they can play football or show animals at the fair. Many of y’all would likely be another family on the cul-de-sac in Hutto and this town gives you the feeling of celebrity that you wouldn’t get elsewhere, so return the favor and support the players, coaches and teachers for all of our teams.
This is on alumni who’ve done well professionally in major cities throughout the U.S. and don’t give anything back. You don’t have the slightest bit of room to talk about how backwards your hometown is if you’re not even willing to swallow your pride and do what you can to help make it better. The truth is that a lot of these kids can benefit by just knowing somebody well-connected, so do your part and see how you can get involved. It takes a village, even the members away from the village.
If any of the last three paragraphs personally offended you, then channel that anger and use that energy towards starting or supporting programs so our youth have something to do besides having sex and drinking cheap beer. Not that there’s anything wrong with either one of those things, but a reason why I’ve had such a wonderful life is because I’ve always had options, and these kids here are in desperate need of them.
I know this place isn’t Lake Travis or Westlake, but it doesn’t have to be the way it is. Be that light in someone’s life and give these kids a chance to thrive.
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