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Translate. A seal your your pocket. Still your your bag are times when my apartment.

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So you want to do a meter? Can download it. See you guys on the reruns

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of men. But I didn't hear some years. So there's a five-year alone for you? Yeah. And then for my dry Tom Penna.

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Yeah. Know Yeah. Yeah. Coase theorem as our seriously. I lived there. Let me give you the camera

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okay. For the interview. Maybe if I use my hands and bounce your ammonia with that, how could you still? Mostly.

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Hello. My name is Samantha Lopez, empathetic. I will be Samantha Lopez sodium. Here in the United States. I am a complex coordinator for the office of

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Residence Life and also a doctoral student specializing in social, cultural, and community approach, has

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a Research and Education Center at your favorite childhood memories. Family life. I have to say him, but totally cool.

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I lived in two areas. Editor you'll be in not only gonna, not too far from one another, is usually called the metropolitan area.

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Although it was metropolitan, you still had the simplistic feel to it? Me. Were you still when you went to your backyard,

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you felt so connected with nature? One thing that will always stand out for me and I will always remember is my backyard.

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I was able to get them adding those from one tree or a Mongols from the other. Enjoy life. It wasn't about material things. It was really an opportunity for you to,

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to be one with nature, to be in a world where you felt connected to everything else. And don't get me wrong. I love living in

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the United States and everything. But I when I go to put or we go to this day, I'm still able for some reason to enjoy life, even a little bit more.

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So it makes your intuitive. They did. Were there any differences, I guess, being able to not far from where you live,

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goal to the river and just take a dip. Or, you know, enjoy the sun, the cookie and nights, which sounds like a lullaby.

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And cookie, which is one of our traditional unique thing to put the legal, they're just tiny little frogs

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that might going, it makes such an amazing found, especially at night you hear the cookie, cookie.

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The males are the one that actually thing. So that's probably where guys get out there. Romanticism. But I just,

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you just feel connected to nature. And I know that I said that before, but that's something that I always remember. I have that itch to feel connected.

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I usually go back to what the article with me during a kinesthetic. Well, we started off my mother and father. They owned a restaurant it and put the legal.

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And my mother, she my mother was such a strong woman and she wanted to experience something different.

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And she asked us, all right, I want to move somewhere. Don't know where where do you girls want to move to or just studying?

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No. Okay. So we wanted to go to a place where it was snowing.

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So my mother call a travel agent and thinking, where's the place where it's snowing and we can get

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a flight there anytime soon. And they told they told her to New York City. There's actually right now today. This evening, my mother was very spontaneous.

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This evening there is a flight to New York, New Jersey, which is around the North Jersey and New York area.

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And we came here and might we visited for a while. And my mother really she enjoyed the difference,

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enjoyed I guess, a different environment that was to heard that was an adventure, those more challenging.

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So we remained here for a year. But then we did what many Puerto Ricans do, which is called the elevator or the where it's actually another elevated

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the what are those call my God, those stores that revolving doors that revolving door concept where you're here for one year.

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And then the next year I'll put 30 go you come back and forth from port equal to here because obviously my citizenship status,

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we can do that. So we did that for most of my cake through seven experience. And then an eighth grade,

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seventh to eighth grade is when I've permanently stayed in the United States, New Jersey, Delaware. I came to Delaware it later in

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life after my masters. And it was too to work. You entered into the View icon. This issue of approaches to

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research and education for me to decide to get involved in. Well, right now, that's that's

00:08:41.660 - 00:08:50.360

the doctoral program that I'm in. I I have a bachelor's in public health and my Masters in Public Administration.

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I worked a lot with that, a lot of work with women reproductive health. I work for Planned Parenthood, also for American Red Cross,

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did some education around sexual health as well as HIV and aids awareness. And it exposed me to the community.

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I was out there, I had an opportunity to really get to see some of the social issues as

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well as some of the social capitals that we can really look into and maximize even further so that

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they're having that experience helped me also see that I can actually do something with, you know, with my life and my degree. My purpose could be further advance

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if I get a degree that really focuses on social, cultural, social, cultural theories in general.

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But one thing that's not, that's actually very influential. And why I chose this degree in education was my experience in

00:10:01.070 - 00:10:15.770

seventh grade as a student. And I know that I took a long way to save. But seventh grade, I went to a school that didn't have ESL.

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And they did not know what to do with couple of students that did not know English well or weren't proficient in the English language?

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A handful of those students, including myself. We were kind of over school, not knowing. Place them one classroom

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with a poor less than planner curriculum in place. So then the, the school realized that the best thing

00:10:47.380 - 00:11:03.590

to do with these kids. To play something special education. Now, I have a pretty average even above IQ. Just healthy.

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I always have healthy grades, satisfactory grades, and never had behavioral issues. Here. I'm being placed

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in a in an actual classroom. That is for students that do have cognitive needs and behavioral issues. And in that just me alone.

00:11:23.180 - 00:11:35.180

Those other five to six children that were part of that English deficiency type of label. And luckily, I had someone who advocated

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for us and spoke to my mother, told her this is not right. Your you know, your daughters self-esteem, her capacity, her potentials are

00:11:48.020 - 00:11:56.720

going to be shattered if you don't take her out of that classroom. I was the only person that was taken out of the classroom.

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And unfortunately to this day, those other kids that were with me, I know personally three of them didn't high school

00:12:07.050 - 00:12:20.220

because they were set to fell from the beginning because their needs were met. The only issue was the language barrier and that was dismissed.

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So for me, I have a role I had an opportunity to get out of that situation and now have an opportunity to

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get back to contribute. And my way to contribute is to see how I can find equity and

00:12:37.630 - 00:12:45.260

just quality education for all students. And that's one of the reasons why I feel that the social, cultural, and communal approaches to

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research of the cation will give me what I need in order to make that difference, to change curriculum, to show that learning is contextual, dialogic.

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Oh my goodness, so much more than just the traditional way of viewing learning. So hopefully, through my research, through my teaching,

00:13:05.550 - 00:13:12.970

I'll be able to change some of those concepts and maximize experience for us through an and not just my Latino students

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or for our students as readily self-esteem. And imagine and there's a stigma for those students are in special education. So Niger, oh my goodness.

00:13:25.930 - 00:13:39.890

Sorry. Excuse me. Okay. My mike got a little excited there. Okay. What you know, and it's interesting

00:13:39.890 - 00:13:51.170

because from that experience I, I do try to find humor and try to find ways to totally turnaround that experience. And I wrote this article

00:13:51.170 - 00:14:00.140

and one of my professors she just loved and she's like, You need to publish this article is called, I called it.

00:14:00.140 - 00:14:14.090

And the unhealthy marriage with education. And the reason why is, you know, an unhealthy marriage. There's poor communication, misunderstanding.

00:14:14.090 - 00:14:25.910

Okay. And then there's that lack of romance. And what I mean romance in terms of education. Lack of a truly investing in all

00:14:25.910 - 00:14:36.820

truly looking at what are the needs of that person or that student, an auditor, to truly help and maximize their learning capabilities.

00:14:36.820 - 00:14:45.040

So for me, you know, during during that time of my public schooling, I felt like I did have

00:14:45.040 - 00:14:52.530

unhealthy marriage that was lacking all of those elements. But now that I'm part of this Doctorow, you know,

00:14:52.530 - 00:15:02.690

this doctoral program, I was able to get a divorce and I am in a healthy marriage with education again. So I remarried education.

00:15:02.690 - 00:15:12.370

So I know that it's a little humorous, but that's how I felt. I felt that I I wasn't an abusive marriage with education.

00:15:12.370 - 00:15:20.760

But luckily, I got some string, I got some education and I was able to divorce and now remarry. So something healthy.

00:15:22.000 - 00:15:33.450

And then because they were so the other thing, exam, review and education higher. So really, I'm ready.

00:15:33.450 - 00:15:45.700

Do you consider yourself a feminist? I do it. I think that for me the reason why I consider myself a feminist, because I am,

00:15:45.700 - 00:16:09.530

I'm an advocate for equal political, social and economic values than n. How can I say that just needs for both sexes? To be honest.

00:16:09.530 - 00:16:20.810

Being a feminist is really taken into consideration that equality within those groups. Making sure that everyone has their part in

00:16:20.810 - 00:16:31.820

society and that are able to maximize their experiences here. And for me, I do a lot of work around empowering women in

00:16:31.820 - 00:16:45.310

different ways and seen how women are treated, especially, you know, culturally. Men do not have the best reputation.

00:16:45.310 - 00:16:57.710

Like this is a much more, you know, world in terms of the culture. You know, I've seen women take such a different role in the household,

00:16:57.710 - 00:17:04.700

on the role that they play in society. That from me, I want to make sure that they are empowered. It That's the role they want to take.

00:17:04.700 - 00:17:11.130

That's a choice they made. But it's not that they've been placed in that box. So for me as a feminist

00:17:11.130 - 00:17:21.020

is to make sure that they're provided with the equal resource and political and social avenues to be empower and to continue

00:17:21.020 - 00:17:34.010

to be contributing members of society. Some, please. I'm erasing, become a very strong woman or a woman who has

00:17:34.010 - 00:17:41.480

been made the biggest impact in your life. I have to say my mother and I know that that's something that you hear all the time,

00:17:41.480 - 00:17:53.060

but the reality is she threw her actions and our self-awareness really showed me what a woman, what being a woman means.

00:17:53.060 - 00:18:03.620

She's Cuban. So I'm actually have cuban have Puerto Rican. I was born in Puerto Rico, but my mother, she she was born in Cuba.

00:18:03.620 - 00:18:15.950

And her life experiences, her struggles or challenges. But her triumphs and her way to deal with life always empowered me.

00:18:15.950 - 00:18:23.810

With a woman who her, her first marriage and in Cuba, she had a daughter. My mother was a singer.

00:18:23.810 - 00:18:32.720

Her a single name was yesterday. Yeah. And she was touring touring the United States. And this was during the time when

00:18:32.720 - 00:18:43.870

Fidel Castro was kinda coming into power. She received a telegram from her husband saying this, then they score nigra.

00:18:43.870 - 00:18:50.660

Is that, you know, Listen, don't, don't come back here yet. We're trying to leave with their customer just

00:18:50.660 - 00:19:00.090

got I just got power and he's going to try to close all type of communication as well as, you know, exits or

00:19:00.090 - 00:19:09.390

entrance to Cuba from United States. Stay there, we're going to leave. So don't come back until we tell you or we find a way to meet.

00:19:09.390 - 00:19:18.250

Again. My mother had a two-year-old daughter. So she's like about she's like, Well, you have a model that has 13 siblings.

00:19:18.250 - 00:19:25.510

Like, you know, you'll be okay, she'll be fine. But we're trying leave so you don't have to come back.

00:19:25.510 - 00:19:34.850

So my mother took several several years trying to whip for them and communication ended for a certain point.

00:19:34.850 - 00:19:46.560

And Cuba from United States to Q0, my mother moved to Venezuela to be closer to try to find ways to come back. Fidel Castro provided

00:19:46.560 - 00:19:58.910

every people in Cuba with whoever left Cuba and do not want to return. If they return an officially, they'll be arrested.

00:19:58.910 - 00:20:08.660

So my mother couldn't come back to Cuba or else you'll be arrested. And the prisons there are in the best. To this day.

00:20:08.660 - 00:20:19.260

My mother never met, never saw her daughter again. So she was two years old. This has been from my mother, you know,

00:20:19.260 - 00:20:27.740

regardless of any type of accomplishment. For her accomplishment, the greatest accomplishment her life will be for her

00:20:27.740 - 00:20:39.230

to see her daughter again. So hopefully my goal, but just to see her continue on and for her to make us still

00:20:39.230 - 00:20:48.290

feel and connect it to a sister that we've never met. Show her strength and her true role as a mother and as a woman.

00:20:48.290 - 00:20:57.260

And I can't wait for the day that I surprised my mother with my sister. I actually we spoke. I it's been a while, but I

00:20:57.260 - 00:21:07.870

spoke to my sister. Her birthday was February 23rd. Saw we spoke for like two hours. Two hours. And the first thing that she said was,

00:21:07.870 - 00:21:15.090

I will always love you, my sister. Although I've never met you, I will always love you. And to me those words

00:21:15.090 - 00:21:23.600

are what carry me through and What keep me strong so I can keep my mother's strong. And it's just, I don't know what to say,

00:21:23.600 - 00:21:36.680

but it is such an empowerment and empowerment that regardless of people that you've never met, how love and concern you have.

00:21:36.680 - 00:21:48.320

I don't know. For me, is it emphasize what it means to be human? Some team?

00:21:48.320 - 00:21:57.560

Tall as I don't know what I have, all my family and q are taught my sister psych, by 12 or six.

00:21:57.560 - 00:22:08.830

Yeah. My niece is 5, ten. Yes. So it's like, Oh my God, and lean obviously over there and play volleyball in.

00:22:08.830 - 00:22:17.290

But they actually don't get money to get stipends. So it's like this MAN, your stipend to buy

00:22:17.290 - 00:22:25.520

clothes or they tell you what to buy. So it's not like you have a choice necessarily. I mean, you have a choice if you're going to

00:22:25.520 - 00:22:34.100

go to the black market. But besides that, if they're controlled. So yeah. So it's really interesting.

00:22:34.100 - 00:22:44.130

But my my sister's husband died of cancer three years ago, she told AS so that's also hard and he was a doctor.

00:22:44.130 - 00:22:56.570

Yet receiving the same amount of money basically of someone who may work as a custodian or, you know. So it's really hard to be in

00:22:56.570 - 00:23:12.330

a place where you don't have a choice. And one thing that my mother empower me is being a lapping up color. You've heard the term of Afro Latina.

00:23:12.330 - 00:23:25.120

I consider myself a Latina because to me it and confesses. That word includes all the diversity within the Latino culture.

00:23:25.120 - 00:23:34.970

They are Latinos that are dark skin. Let the another could be fair skin that look like Europeans. But that's because of our culture,

00:23:34.970 - 00:23:46.760

especially in Puerto Rico and Cuba. You know, from the conversation periods, you know, slavery brought in African. We had the indigenous Indians already

00:23:46.760 - 00:23:55.420

there and then the European, which were white. All those three truly became part of who we are.

00:23:55.420 - 00:24:02.030

And I think that's the beauty of being Latina, of being put that again, yeah. Okay. Vanna, however,

00:24:02.030 - 00:24:10.420

still in the world that we live in and the media, what is considered beautiful, what is considered mainstream.

00:24:10.420 - 00:24:21.470

It's not people that look like me. If you think about Luthien us, the first picture that you would think of is Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz.

00:24:21.470 - 00:24:33.670

But you won't necessarily see someone that fierce more to my appearance. And that's because we still have an issue with skin color.

00:24:33.670 - 00:24:47.420

We still have an issue of what does it really mean to be beautiful and to be accepted in the world that we live in. And unfortunately, we still with,

00:24:47.420 - 00:24:57.350

you know, blonde hair, blue eyes. The closer you are to that, the more beautiful you are. Wich looking at me,

00:24:57.350 - 00:25:06.680

obviously, that's completely wrong. But the reality is everyone is beautiful and my mother would, he showed me that.

00:25:06.680 - 00:25:19.250

And I think as part of my conversations with friends, as part of my identity as a Latina is to help other women of Latino heritage that

00:25:19.250 - 00:25:29.820

are of color to understand that we represent our history. And there, if there's a speaker, I forgot his name and a book that states.

00:25:29.820 - 00:25:36.400

Okay, You're like Dina. All right. But let me who's your grandmother? It can you thought, Well, yeah.

00:25:36.400 - 00:25:44.110

The reason why is, if you look at the lineage, the heritage of a lot of Latin Caribbean people, along the lines,

00:25:44.110 - 00:25:51.920

you will always see someone that is of color, that is of African descent because our roots are very clear that we

00:25:51.920 - 00:26:01.080

derived from those three culture. And again, for all those women who hairs are currently dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes.

00:26:01.080 - 00:26:11.870

If you represent the beauty of our tradition, the beauty of our culture, the beauty of who we are as people. So I really had to emphasize that because

00:26:11.870 - 00:26:24.910

some Nobelist, you still see, you know, Afro Latinos plane made are playing roles that are, you know, less than of a mainstream look.

00:26:24.910 - 00:26:35.730

But times are changing and more and more, you're starting to see Latinas of color doing things and moving, shaping the world we live in.

00:26:35.730 - 00:27:08.370

So and hopefully through this experience, I conceptualize of other woman as well. Ami and lithium gas there. They burrow at Brianna me

00:27:08.370 - 00:27:22.850

more and will not enter a vista. See that there may a variance for LIGO. There may be that common a Latina. See, we have charity.

00:27:22.850 - 00:27:32.490

Yeah, I believe it the Everly they get a Coval, an archosaur, a myth apoptotic gain equal Vanna, WSL.

00:27:34.990 - 00:27:50.900

Ok. Theta as you can pop MOD are doing Uh-huh. Yeah. Or si, se.

00:27:50.900 - 00:28:05.610

But okay. Okay, but that decade or more Choi it up with a confocal more study, I thought. Okay. Okay, bye, bye.

00:28:06.880 - 00:28:20.490

A Ebla, the annuity. But it's so interesting that talking to my mother, you have the kind of go back and forth

00:28:20.490 - 00:28:28.730

from your English mentality to Spanish. And it's just great though I really, that's something that I want to also instill in

00:28:28.730 - 00:28:36.410

my children to be able to be fluent in both language. And my dad was someone who really shaped that and

00:28:36.410 - 00:28:48.290

emphasize that he's he was born sons to say that WE Go. And my mother, when she actually in the seventies,

00:28:48.290 - 00:28:57.760

she moved to early seventies. She moved to Puerto Rico. And she met my dad there and my grandmother was actually

00:28:57.760 - 00:29:09.060

a professor at University of Puerto Rico. So I guess I'd take after her. Those are some of my goals. And my dad just loved my mother,

00:29:09.060 - 00:29:18.450

loved her Cuban Neff vessel, he used to say. But growing up, you know, he always told us you're going to learn English.

00:29:18.450 - 00:29:26.390

You know, you're going to become Americanized. He's a say, but you never forget your roots. You never forget the language.

00:29:26.390 - 00:29:42.170

Forget who you are. And day, I'm so happy that I'm able to still capture and cultivate my culture and be able to speak the language and be

00:29:42.170 - 00:29:54.770

able to enjoy the food, be able to cook the food. Let me tell you. I'm a good cook. Good for my mother. And my dad passed away when I was 10.

00:29:54.770 - 00:30:06.470

And I still to this day, I can still hear His word and the first words that I learned in English, votes for my dad.

00:30:06.470 - 00:30:17.600

And he used to always tell us one, he used to come home cooking good-looking. The first American afraid. I learned in my life.

00:30:17.600 - 00:30:26.840

And it was because of him, you know, and my god, I miss him, but they're just things that you will never forget.

00:30:26.840 - 00:30:39.530

And he truly, even in little time custody, I was ten years old when he passed away. He really make sure I emphasize that we always knew that we

00:30:39.530 - 00:30:57.530

were Puerto Rican south. And I feel like what an adverb like cooking area of a valid ballot dancer. If he, he's a 62 macho man.

00:30:57.530 - 00:31:07.770

But he was a jazz and ballet dancer. He loved the arts and I play the saxophone for 13 years. My sister and guanine, that little pith,

00:31:07.770 - 00:31:19.850

which is actually named after Diana, Indian Indian woman who was a princess in, but probably go. So Juanita, and she

00:31:19.850 - 00:31:27.920

knows she plays for different instruments. So we were always brought up in the Arts Theatre and everything was part of who we are.

00:31:27.920 - 00:31:37.440

And again, that culture, we're very festive. We're always celebrating something. We're very proud of. Proud of who we are,

00:31:37.440 - 00:31:48.710

part of who we are as a people, as culture, just us, everything. So those are things that I bring to this context.

00:31:48.710 - 00:31:56.420

And it's funny because at work everyone has cycle. Here comes the Latvia and death and they will tell you,

00:31:56.420 - 00:32:05.720

it comes out anywhere I go and I will never traded and I will never be something different. You know, definitely I'm American,

00:32:05.720 - 00:32:10.140

but most importantly, put that again. Yeah.