Young Latino Voices 1. I am a young Latina professional attempting to set forth a good precedent for my sisters, and be the best human I can be. I am an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico. First to graduate high school and soon will be the first to graduate with two bachelor degrees from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Latin American Studies and Political Science. I am a fashion lover who loves reading and knowing everything about social sciences and random trivia. Bad at every sport, but does not kill my motivation to try everything, learn about it, and try it at least once. I have been in and out between Jalisco and Nevada my whole life, but made a permanent move 6 years ago for school. 2. I am currently a full time student at UNLV …show more content…
and also the Hispanic Outreach Coordinator and Regional Representative for U.S. Senator Dean Heller. I help constituents from our state with their bureaucratic issues through casework. I am a liaison between the constituent and the different federal agencies along with helping bridge different community partners to better serve the Nevada Community better. I am also in charge of making sure the Senator is well aware of the issues arising in the Hispanic community, and being as supportive as I can be. It has been a long process to get to where I am, like my father says when you come to this country you will do everything before getting to where you want to be. I started working at a very young age.
My first job was with a loan officer where I worked as support staffer which pretty much meant everything from translating and interpreting to taking out the trash. From there I worked for a bit at Target, in their little café/Starbucks, which was my lesson in life where I did not want to be. During this time I interviewed for an internship with then Senator Ensign, and was brought on the team as an intern. I graduated high school and knew I had to get out of fast food, and went to apply for retail. I landed a job in a luxury retail store, thanks to my multiple language skills and did great. I had the time of my life working with very important and high profile clients and being close to what I loved Fashion, but I knew this was not going to be my career. I quit for an opportunity I was offered with Nevada Youth Coalition helping out with voter registration, but had to go back to Mexico for a bit. Upon returning I attended the NCLR conference in which I ran into a person from my past Law School mentorship program HUELLAS, who happened to tell me they were looking for a file clerk. I applied and interviewed, and was hired that fall with DeCastroverde Law Firm. I worked there for about a year and a half and moved up to legal assistant, when the opportunity for this job came. I interviewed in the fall, but was not given the job. I decided to head back home, and the day I returned back to Las Vegas to start my spring semester I got a call for a second interview and the rest is history. 3. I think the best part of my job is my casework, the behind the scene stuff. I have had the opportunity of reuniting families. Of connecting people and seeing them do great stuff. I could go on and on with my anecdotes, but it is that that inspired me to come to work every day. How with the support of the Senator I can help people work with the federal
government. 4. Being Latina has been a great part of my identity. It has been the fuel to my pathway because I do want to prove people wrong about all the stereotypes that have been installed into them. Being Latina has given me the tools to be a lot more versatile, innovating, and creative then my counterparts. Being Latina has given me my roots, and having good roots is crucial to knowing who you are and where you want to go. I work for republicans and many times I have had to be the most prepared person to counterargument those who try to put us in a corner. Having the tools of knowledge are my arms against ignorance and xenophobia. 5. Never be afraid to talk to people, always reach out be kind because people will remember that. My greatest asset apart from my diligent work in school and in work has been my network. At a young age I started looking for mentors, people that I wanted to be like when I was older and I asked them to help me. They have all responded positively and taken care of me. Being a first generation simple things like: applying to college, getting an internship, what should I major in, how to deal with your conflict of identity, dad not letting me go abroad to study. Having that mentor to talk to over coffee or lunch really helps guide you, because most likely than not those were conflicts they faced growing up as well. I started analyzing my friends and acquaintances, there is proverb in Spanish that goes along the lines of tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. It might hurt but you have to remove yourself or avoid putting yourself around people who are going to drag you, it is better to be alone then with bad company. You need to build a good support circle that is going to for example study with you until 2 a.m. during final weeks, who will challenge your knowledge and who embrace you for who you are.
Being a Hispanic have impacted all my entire life; I lived 15 years of my life in Mexico I love being there because most part of my family live in Nuevo Laredo, I was cursing my last months of 8th grade and one day my mom told me that she was thinking about send me here to the U.S to start learn English; since I’m a U.S citizen and I didn't know the language of my country, I accepted. The most hard prove was live without having my mom at my side, since I live with my aunt now; when the days passed here in the U.S I started to depressed myself because I missed so much my house and all my family, one day in the middle of the night I call my mom crying and I told her that I really want go back to Mexico, but she didn’t take into account my desire my mom just explained me that it will be the best for my future and with the time I will be thankful with her for don’t let me go back. My mom, and my grandmother are the ones who motivates me to be a better student. Actually I’m in dual enrollment and I have taken AP classes; sometimes is hard for me talk, read or write in another language that the one I was accustomed but, every time I fail I get up and persist until I’m able to do what I want.
The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America is a book written by Mario T. Garcia. This book tells the individual life stories of individual Latino Americans all attending the same class at University of California, Santa Barbra. The book discloses stories and events told by 13 students each who narrate from first person and give us a brief description of their life. The book is composed of 13 sections with an additional introduction and conclusion (Garcia, Kindle). Within this reflection I will describe the key points within this book and compare the stories within this book not only to each other, but also to additional stories of Latino Americans and how Garcia’s book rids the general public of misconception of Latinos.
I roll my r’s with pride and that pride carries me through my journey of being a first generation Mexican-American. I was born and raised in the town of Salinas, also referred to as the “salad bowl”. Beaming in culture, Salinas also possesses a dark side due to gang violence soliciting each young member of my town. Immigrating to the United States, my parents’ initial priority was to find a job rather than an education in order to survive and keep me away from the darker Salinas. To make sure of this, my parents always encouraged me to try my best in school and make it my main focus. At a young age I began to notice disadvantages I had including the lack of resources at school. Realizing we only had 5 books for about 30 students, I felt unmotivated
A question that every high school student is faced with is: “What extracurricular activities so you participate in?” Some can answer confidently while others are slapped with a moment of sudden realization. These people are just floating along with the crowd, with no driving force or motivation. What I believe differentiates me from my peers and gives me a sense of uniqueness, is what I do outside of my academia. Out of the deluge of activities that are available, Latinos In Action is the one that I feel the most passionate about and shapes my persona the most.
In my 18 years of life everyone has known me as the girl with the unique and hard to pronounce name, however there is more to me than just having a weird name. Like everyone , I have goals. My main goal is to become a neonatal nurse, someone who works with infants born with different health status. My archetype is a martyr, which represents my future goal in a way that nurses and martyrs sacrifice their time to help others in need. Now that I have informed you about my career goal I will talk about how I became to be the person I am today.
Being 7 years of age, a child’s only problem should be which toy they should play with. Unfortunately, for Eric Lopez at 7 years old he was put to work with his family to help support the household. Being the oldest of 3, the responsibilities of being the oldest meant working with his parents after school and on weekends, taking care of his brother and sister, and still maintaining to keep up with his schoolwork. This is the reality of how growing up in a Latino community has humbled Eric’s vision of life in this country. Experiencing the societal effects that economic policies have on Latinos first hand has influenced his designs tremendously. Although, through all the challenges Eric faced he managed to persevere and managed to enroll to
It was the summer going into 6th grade I was so excited for soccer season to start at my middle school. I would regularly check my calendar during the monotonous summer days to see how many days left until tryouts. My foreign parents are very strict and stubborn so I decided it would be best to inform them ahead of time so they don’t cancel my tryout plans.
If I were to ask you “what would you do for your family?” what would be your response? Most of the time I would expect people to answer that question with “anything” and I would agree. From a young age, I was unintentionally taught to fear deportation. The reason I say it was “unintentional” is because although I knew I was born in the U.S I had family who was not, and their fear of deportation seemed to rub off on me, especially after hearing horrible stories related to it, so I engraved a longing fear into my mind. Aside from this fear came a desire to help struggling immigrants, even if it is by simply spreading awareness of the struggle that Hispanic immigrants endure. I am part of a UWM organization called LSU (Latino Student Union) and
Stuck in a limbo between two different countries I face an identity crisis. I am Chicana, a Mexican-American living in Chicago. I was born and raised here minutes away from downtown Chicago and miles away from my roots. Both my parents come from a small town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato called Urianagato.
Reflecting back on my career, I honestly couldn’t be more proud of myself at this point. I grew up in a lower income community with a blue collar family. Most people graduate from my High School and enter into the workforce, passing on college or trade schools. Most of these jobs are manufacturing or labor intensive positions. I however, had the fortune of attending college right out of High School on an athletic scholarship. Although I found out quickly that I was not ready to take on the responsibility of a student-athlete. Therefore, after just one year of college, I dropped out. Quickly realizing I needed to make money and provide for myself, I began working for a lawn care company. Working in lawn care was draining both physically and mentally. Physical labor 50+ hours a week takes its toll on your body. After work you don’t want to do anything but rest. You don’t have a lot of free time and you find yourself becoming burnt out really fast. Mentally you question yourself every day. Questions like, “why am I doing this” or “there has to be another way”. You feel worthless at times. After a year or so of doing lawn care, I chose to go back to school part-time, taking a class or two at a time. I still had to work in lawn care in order to pay the bills but I had a goal in mind, a goal to finish what I started. I always knew I wanted to work in a professional environment. After 4 years of working and taking courses, I decided I needed to change my environment. I was surrounded by the same people, people that weren’t contributing to my goal of becoming successful. Therefore, with some college education under my belt, I decided to apply for entry-level sales positions in Chicago. After interviews started to pres...
When I first arrived to Mexico, it was the most beautiful place I've ever been too. Everything was so amazing. The rivers were so clear and pure that it almost looks like a water slide. The schools were so much shorter. I felt like we barely learned anything under such little time. It was hard to maintain a good job since some jobs were so hard working and people would earn a little bit of money, with the money a person would make would barely complete to get food. We would have little opportunities in having a great career. But I can tell you one thing it's such a amazing place to live in order to be having fun you should have a vacation their! Both places are beautiful! Just amazing. I wish I could go back sometimes.
After graduation, the only job I could find to keep a roof over my head was, teaching! I went to work in January after a beloved teacher found it necessary to retire mid-year. I was teaching high school history, and coaching girls’ basketball.. The first game was Friday of m...
One goal that I have clearly established is to learn Spanish properly. I have always struggled with learning languages, but I also never put special effort into improving my abilities until recently. More recently I have been attempting to take more steps that would lead me to be more likely to learn Spanish. The first step I took was paying more attention in class. I work hard when I am working, but I get distracted fairly easily. I decided to work at overcoming that as to make myself more likely to succeed in the classroom. Secondly, I had a very bad habit of not doing my homework in my language classes. Using just those two steps I was able to greatly improve my scores and abilities in my Spanish class. Generally, I would either fail my
If I were a child living in Central America, I would choose to leave because the United States (or Mexico, for that matter) would be safer.
Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley my family background, and culture is typical for this area. Seeking a better opportunity my parents came to the United States from Mexico. I am a first generation Mexican-American, and my native language is Spanish. I have two other siblings, and hopefully will be the first in my family, but not the last to receive a Bachelor’s degree. Cesar, my wonderful husband of twelve years, and I have two awesome, loving, and silly children, a daughter (7), and a son (5). My family is very encouraging about school, and they are constantly motivating me to do well in school, and finish my degree.