Antioch Graduates
Making Change

Rafael Torch ’02
Major: Creative Writing

When Rafael Torch ’02 first came to Antioch as a radical leftist, he wanted to effect change with ideals. A Mexican-American who grew up between Cleveland and Pilsen - the largest Mexican-American community in Chicago - he wanted to give back to the youth of his childhood community. He especially wanted to share his love of literature.

He took his first co-op job at the Buen Dia School for young children in San Francisco’s Mission district. At school Rafael had been exposed to Marxist ideas of equity and justice and to notions of changing international politics in favor of the common citizen. He wanted to share these ideas with the Latino community to help immigrants in this country find strength and power, but Rafael returned to Antioch the following quarter disenchanted. “I went out and realized none of this works, that it wasn’t applicable,” he said. “What mattered more were things like how to get these kids to come to school and what to teach them that’s valuable.”

Rafael had some more learning to do during his next co-op experience at Latino Youth, an alternative high school in Chicago.

Still intent on spreading appreciation for Chicano literature and storytelling, Rafael had not shed the veil of hope that his students would see the value in what he had to offer. Once again he was met with challenges. One of his students was in the Cook County jail, another had been physically abused by her father, and most of the kids he found simply did not care. “I was planning my classes around the idea that if they just knew who Pancho Villa was or Zapata, if they knew this then they would trade in their guns for books,” he said.

Again Rafael returned to Antioch disillusioned about the small impact he was making in other people’s lives. His hope, in a more practical sense, could not be dashed. He began writing American Iodine for his senior project, a novel about the flagging imaginations of the burnt-out residents of Los Angeles. He wrote, he critiqued, he revised, and had an invaluable experience fueling his own excitement for creative writing.

Since graduation Rafael has been teaching 10th and 11th grade English at Christo Rey Jesuit High School in Pilsen. He serves as one of the deans of students and says he feels good about being a positive male role model for his kids. His early experiences as an inefficient agent of change might have led him toward cynicism and apathy, but he credits Antioch for challenging him to not give up so easily. “My kids are great writers, and I’m trying to get them to use the raw energy they have toward writing,” he said. “If I could get these kids to love literature, I could change their lives.”

Join us in celebrating their pursuit of new venues:

• Doug Fischer ’92
• Nina Harawa ’92
• Dylan Wrynn ’92
• Molly Schultz ’98
• Alexander Stadtner ’00

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