Norfolk teen breaks away from family to attend UNL

NORFOLK - The young man puts on a supercilious air and walks across the tiled floor, all eyes in the room waiting for his next gesture.

They look, they stare. ``Who are you?'' a police officer asks.

His pause hangs just between the indignant and mildly bemused. His almond-shaped eyes stare blankly at the officer, his hands still gently carrying a well-worn bugle, his dark hair a nest of curls under the fluorescent lighting.

``I'm President Roosevelt!''

Teddy Roosevelt - a Mexican?

The scene over, Jonathan Barreto bounds off the stage as his classmates practice their ``Arsenic and Old Lace'' lines.

He scurries towards one friend, rehashing an old inside joke that requires a scratchy, Anna Nicole Smith-like voice. In another minute, he'll don a Russian accent, beginning every sentence with ``Vack in old cuhn-tuh-rrry ... ''

Jonathan, a senior at Norfolk Senior High School, has learned to change from role to role as the situation dictates. He is Hispanic, gay and, starting this fall, the first of his four siblings to venture away from his mother and father to attend a four-year college.

``There are a lot of things I can do there that I can't do here,'' he said. ``I always like to dabble into things - literature, psychology, theater, dance class. I have so many things to do that I have trouble fitting my life into my school life.''

But Jonathan has no trouble transforming his personality into those of others' - a Ukrainian teacher in Neil Simon's comedy ``Fools,'' a chorus singer in the musical ``Guys and Dolls.''

And at home, his mother confirms, Jonathan took on a role his family wasn't prepared for. Unlike his older siblings, Jonathan was a rebellious teenager - the first to demand a life beyond the shelter of his family.

Even something as simple as participating in school plays - a passion that has driven his desire to perhaps pursue theater in college - was initially met with resistance from his conservative family.

Being Hispanic in an American high school would force him to create a persona all his own.

A Childlike Fascination

Jonathan always had a flair for the theatric.

When he was just a young child, he thought it'd be funny to tear open his sisters' sanitary pads and stick them across one of the household doors.He tried to carefully write the word ``Jonathan'' across the length of the pad, but the ink kept getting absorbed.

And that, little Jonathan realized, was making his large block letters disappear into the layers of his spongy canvas.

So he got upset.

And that day, his mother Isaura said, was just the beginning of his emotional outpourings.

``If he can't find a shirt, it's a tragedy,'' Isaura said. ``If his hair doesn't look the way he wanted it to, it's a tragedy.''

Still, his interest in theater wasn't piqued until his parents brought home the 1995 movie ``Batman Forever.'' He watched, fascinated as Nicole Kidman and Val Kilmer took on such wildly imaginative roles.

``I was so amazed that these people weren't actually these people,'' he said. ``I always thought that was different.

``But then, I was always a different child.''

His Mexican parents, though, couldn't promote his burgeoning interest in theater. Religion initially spurred their 1992 move from California to Norfolk to help form a Spanish congregation of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

His parents tried hard to keep Jonathan within the boundaries of their faith. For them, involvement in school plays was of dubious value - not to mention it wouldn't lead to a lucrative career.

But Jonathan grew the nerve to disobey his parents.

``One day I decided I was going to try out,'' he said, ``and I've made it since my sophomore year.''

The drama and music crowd - its own unique subset at Norfolk High - allowed him to explore his own quirks through the characters he developed.

Eventually, the people he met became his best friends. They were there for him when he fell into a depression - a part of growing up, Jonathan says. They were with him when he started backing away from his parents - an era his mother Isaura calls ``when he turned to the dark side.''

Jonathan remembers when Homecoming came around his junior year. He'd never been to a dance before, never understood why his parents didn't let him.

On the night of the dance, though, he begged his parents to let him go with his friends.

Isaura and his father, Jos©, didn't relent. Bad things happen at school dances, they told him. Besides, his brother and sister never went.

Again and again, they told him no. He was so upset he was crying.

``You know what?'' he told them. ``I'm different than my brothers and sisters. They were never in theater. They were never as involved as I am.''

And finally, they gave in under the pressure.

Jonathan's friends were ready for him. They pinned a boutonniere on his shirt, and the group went off to have what Jonathan remembers as the most fun he's ever had.

Over time, his mother became his biggest supporter: ordering giant inflatable jungle gyms for Norfolk's after-prom and raising money for his activities as class president.

And Jonathan, too, adores his mom.

``I have so much respect for my mom for putting up with all that stuff and dealing with me,'' he said.

Family Ties

Jonathan is the only member of his immediate family with plans to leave Norfolk. His older sisters and brothers attended a nearby community college and live in the area.

Staying close to home has a long tradition. When they were younger, Jonathan's mother, proficient in English, got a job with Norfolk Public Schools - partly to keep an eye on all her children.

And now, Jonathan has been accepted to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln - and the two-and-a-half hour drive will prevent Isaura from seeing her son every afternoon.

``He wanted to go to Boston (University), but it's too far,'' she said.

Isaura has busied herself examining Neihardt Residence Hall blueprints on the UNL Web site - but she can't quite figure out how beds fit into such a small room.

Another more difficult puzzle is how the family will pay for Jonathan's education. Like other Hispanic families, Isaura said it's difficult for the uninitiated parents to figure out how to find and apply for scholarships targeted toward high-achieving Hispanics like Jonathan. And not everyone, Isaura said, has the savvy to go to the Internet for information.

The closing of the Norfolk Tyson Inc. meatpacking plant, too, has affected the family's financial future. Jos© lost a sought-after job in the plant's training department, and although the company transferred him to the Madison plant, he now works on the meatpacking line - for fewer hours and less pay.

The wage deficit has taken its toll.

``We didn't realize how good his checks were before,'' Isaura said.

Jonathan's UNL Honors Program book scholarship is a start to easing the financial burden, but the family hopes he'll find more funding sources before school begins.

``Get him a scholarship, otherwise I'm going to have to get a second or a third job,'' Isaura implored the university.

Isaura knows college is necessary to take Jonathan further in life. Ever since Jonathan was young, he earned strong grades in school. She wants him to continue his education - even if it means he'll live in a strange room with no space for a bed.

She only wishes he'd turn from acting to another profession: a doctor, perhaps, or a lawyer. But certainly not a starving artist.

``When he used to say he was going to be an architect, he said he'd build a big house with a little house in the back for me,'' Isaura said. ``If he's an actor, he's going to live with me for the rest of his life!''