I was born the seventh of eleven children in a rural place of Michoacan Mexico. My family had limited resources, but nevertheless my parents were able to provide a roof and put food on the table. I have always being passionate about school. Growing up, I remember that I always would get in trouble with my mother because she instructed me to do chores and instead I would go to my room to read a book or write on my notebook. In my community, the goal of every parent was to teach their children to read, at least. It was a difficult task for them given the fact that our community was very small, and we did not have a teacher to give us lectures. My parents were determined about teaching their kids to read. That is why my father and mother organized a group of parents and went to the municipal presidency to request a teacher. The municipal president granted their request, but the community members needed to construct a classroom so that the teacher could give us lessons. My father and the men of the community started to build an adobe room to provide a place for the teacher to give the lectures. The teacher came and on that way I was able to graduate elementary school.After graduating from elementary school, I wanted to continue with my education, but I was not able to do it because my family did not have the resources to move to a place where there was a middle school. At that point, I accepted the fact that my education career had ended.
Luckily, at the age of fifteen, my mother decided to immigrate to the United States seeking job opportunities. When she decided to take the journey, I knew that I needed to work on the fields to be able to help my mother. Once we arrived to Salinas, she told me that I was going to attend school. I was very happy because my wish to continue my education had being granted. My first day of school in the U.S was not what I expected. All my classes were conducted in English, and I did no understood a word. I had to go to talk to my counselor to be able to switch classes, and she enrolled me in a Spanish class. Once I arrived to that class, I feel that I was home. The teacher was very helpful and understanding with the students to the point that she gave me the motivation to learned English even if it seemed impossible.
After graduating from high school, I attended Hartnell College. When I enrolled in community college, my goal was to obtained an AA Degree in Child Development because I thought that I did not have what it takes to enroll in a four year university and consequently, graduate. One of the requirements for that degree was to take a Spanish class. It was then when I meet the teacher that made me change my major to Spanish. The first day of class, I was in awe. When she was giving a lecture, it looked that she enjoyed teaching, and that transmitted to the students. I really liked her teaching methods. The next time I met with my counselor, I told her that I wanted to change my major to Spanish. At that moment, my goal was the same, to obtain an AA Degree, until I got to know my teacher and she asked me why don’t you go to a four year university. I told her that it was too late for me because I had a family and two children to take care of. She suggested that I could attend CSUMB on that way I did not needed to move my family in order to attend university. I did researched and met with my counselor so that she could guide me to the transfer process. I graduated from Hartnell College and enrroled to the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures BA at CSUMB.
During my years in CSUMB, I have learn a tremendous amount of every single teacher and every single class that I had taken. From Dr. Maria Zellina, I learned how to analyze literature in deep. I took her clas SPAN 427 where she would stand in front of the class, read some sentences and analyze them. She would take a lot of information from that small amount of text. In my mind, I would ask myself, how does she see this things? Where does it say this? Through the course of the class, I was able to obtain a small amount of her knowledge when it comes to analyze a novel.
Form Dr. Gomez, I learned that a teacher should not only care about academics, but the well-being of the students. I took Service learning with him, and every single class he would ask the students, Any concerns? Any questions? He would take the time to get to know the students. He also taught about the importance of volunteering in our community and that we should not judge people because of their situation. In other words, we have to understand how the person got there and as community members we have the responsibility to do something to help our community.In my future career, this would help me to connect with my future students.
From Dr. Urioste, I was able to learned about the Chicano community through his class Chicano Literature. As a Mexican immigrant, I came to this culture without any knowledge about it. For that reason, I suffered from the culture shock. I thought that only people who immigrated from this country had that problem, but I was wrong. Through the readings in this class, I learned that Mexican-Americans also suffer from this. I Identified with some of the characters of the books because I share the same experiences as them. For example, my mother worked on the fields for many year. For that reason, she did not have the opportunity or time to learn English.Once I was able to communicate in English, I became my mother's translator. Even though I arrived at the age of 15 I struggle to embrace my culture because I wanted to become part of this culture because I thought that it was the only way to succeed in this country. Throughout my college years Because of this classes I learned to embrace my culture because I learned about the Chicano movement.
Form Dr. Oliva I learned the linguistic aspect of Spanish. For example, I learned that there are many variations of Spanish and that all variations has history behind it. For example, in some places, there are word borrowing that come from the Amerindians languages such as the triqui, tarasco, and many others. He had taught me not to be ashamed of the variation of Spanish that I talk and not to judge the people that speak another variation on my language. One thing will always stay in my mind is one thing that he said about language variations. He said, “ I do not stop to correct people when they are no speaking a language correctly, Instead, I like to investigate what sociolinguistic aspects are responsible for it.”
From Dra. Fernandez, I learned about the problems that faced other Latin american countries.As a Mexican, I knew about the history and culture of my country , but i did not know anything about other Hispanic countries. Through my career at CSUMB I have learn different aspect of other Hispanic countries. For example, I have learned about the different military dictatorships that many Latin american countries suffer from. For example, I learned about the dirty war in Argentina that caused many family disintegration and many death of innocent people who were against the dictatorship.
From Dra.Pozzi, I learned the process of conducting a linguistics study. Since the first time that I met with her, she was very willingly to help my partner and me. She guide us through the whole process, and I am very thankful for that.
One of the things that I am more proud of is my capstone project. My first semester at CSUMB, I learned to analyse narratives and I thought that I wanted to analyse a book for my project, but once it was time to decide for a theme, I opted to choose a linguistic project. At the beginning I was very excited about it, but time pass and I started regretting it. Once I started working more on my project, I became very passionate about it.
One of the areas that I will like to improve is my translation skills. At this moment, I can translate a text or a discussion, but I need to take my time. I want to get to the point that I can translate without getting stuck.