A Mexican-American boy skilled in mathematics felt mocked all his childhood and even in college because he was smart.

He felt mocked by the white and Asian-American students who made up the majority of the high-level math classes at his magnet high school. He also felt mocked in his own neighborhood by other Mexican-Americans who accused him of thinking he was better than them because he wanted a college degree.

Although he was never named, his story was a subject of discussion during a session of a conference on Latin-American studies at the University of North Texas.

In one of about two dozen conference sessions Friday, UNT students shared oral history projects they conducted as part of an anthropology class last fall.

Sponsored by several UNT departments, the three-day conference started Thursday and concludes today.

Dr. Roberto Calderon, an associate professor of history, coordinated the conference.

Today’s sessions are free and open to the public.

Dr. Mariela Nunez-Janes, an assistant professor of anthropology, said the oral history projects were part of a class on Latinos in the U.S., which she teaches in the fall.

She assigned students to interview specific Hispanic students and capture their stories about education.

“What they get most of all out of this is an understanding of how real life matters to people,” Nunez-Janes said. “History is alive and well in the lives of ordinary people.”

UNT students Elizabeth Rovira and Chase Walding told the group of about 30 gathered in Wooten Hall that their subject grew up in a poor neighborhood in Fort Worth.

He attended poor schools with inexperienced teachers. By high school, a teacher urged him to apply for a magnet school, and he was accepted.

He attended Dunbar High School but because his commute to school was too long, he didn’t stay. He went back to his former high school. He still won an engineering scholarship and attended the University of Texas. But he soon became frustrated there because again he was one of only a few Hispanic students, so he joined the Navy.

At the time it wasn’t what he wanted to do, Rovira said, but his other alternative was to go back home to what he called a “ghetto mentality.”

Though at the time he considered the military a last resort, it was there where he both found acceptance among people of other races and learned to get along with them.

After serving in the military, he enrolled at UNT to study engineering, even though his mother received ridicule from her own community: “Why does your son have to be better than us? Why does he need a college degree?”

Nunez-Janes said the class project began in 2005 when she asked her students to interview Hispanic faculty members at UNT who had agreed to take part in the project. Last year she chose some students for her class to interview. She hopes to expand the project to community leaders and high school students in the future.

The weekend conference has featured sessions on many different issues related to Hispanic people, including education, immigration, Spanish media and religion.

MATTHEW ZABEL can be reached at 940-566-6884. His e-mail address is mzabel@dentonrc.com.

NACCS Conference

What: National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies Regional Conference

When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Registration begins at 8:30 in Wooten Hall foyer.

Where: University of North Texas; see complete schedule at registration table in Wooten Hall

Cost: Free

Details: Visit www.hist.unt.edu and click on the link for “ 2007 NACCS Conference.”