INTERVIEW #29: CHRISTINA RODRIGUERZ

20 words that will flip your literary, cinematic, artistic, and otherwise critical lens inside out. The Bechdel-Wallace test is a measure of the representation of women in film and other fiction. The day I learned about this “test” which seems so obvious “test” seems like a misnomer, was the day that Christina Rodriguez answered my pleas, and agreed to let me write about her. I grew that day.

Christina is from California, just like Hollywood, and strikingly brilliant- just like the Bechdel-Wallace Test, my May column was shaping before me.

The founder of “Latinas with Masters”- Christina’s genius is wise, and not all genius is so. My first Latina representing Nicaragua is the proud daughter of undocumented Americans, and that is a specific use of the term on my part, a mother, and ‘Latinaherstorymaker.’ She created “Latinas with Masters” as an Instagram page and it later grew into a movement, one of which I am humbled to consider myself part of. A doctoral student, a wife, a sister, a homie, a cool kid, a city dweller, a teacher, a friend, a poet, the list could go on, she is a strong spirit. A beacon of light- one that I could see from 2,657.00 miles away in the dark through my swiping.

I saw myself in her, in her path to becoming Dr. Rodriguez, in her passion for the brilliance of everyday people, and in her dedication to telling their stories. The ancient home of highly organized and expressive artisan indigenous people, Nicaragua has been the site of complicated coalitions of diplomats for thousands of years. A posit into why Christina’s oratory skills seem highly practiced. Descendant of leaders are modern Latinx people, who like Nicaragua, have multiracial and multilingual contemporary histories I uncovered in my research.

Christina is the perfect ambassador for her culture, her state, her city, and for our way of life, which centers healing and family values over material possessions and trending superficialities. A sister in the celebration of lifting other people, her Instagram stories are often full of hopeful faces of the recently graduated, the newly admitted, and the award-winning Latinx student. Her gift to the world is the counter-stereotype. There have been times I have walked into a room full of people and insisted that even though I have not personally lived some of the experiences that my sisters have, that women who have the same last name as I have, and that for the RODRIGUEZ reason, it was my duty to speak for them.

Christina is the epitome of who I was talking about. For every two of us, there are two million more Latinas who deserve better, and I do not even need to ask Christina, because she is a Rodriguez for one and two, she and I will be FIGHTING FOR THEM… sure thing, bet your bottom dollar…

For every little girl who is working tonight as I tap my fingers across this keyboard, because they are out there, and they are going to have to go to school in the morning, and they are going to be exhausted, going to be sitting in class worried sick; thinking about if someone is going to think that her parents are not American enough, and is going to take them away.

Those kids are out there, and working harder than us, and for them, and for every other story of incomprehensible bravery, fortitude, and love we will be here. The storytellers, waiting, and my stories will be stronger told next to Christina’s.

A TALK WITH CHRISTINA: The name of my business is Latinas with Masters, which I originally started as an Instagram page. I wanted to share my experience of how I obtained my master’s degree. That included being the only Latina for most of my cohort but then also sharing in real-time my experience of attaining my Doctoral degree. So, what originally started as just an Instagram page, organically turned into a business, which turned into a movement, and turned into a brand. I was motivated because I was receiving a lot of feedback from people that were starting to follow my page; the content that I was sharing was resonating with them.

And the content that I was sharing was that I wanted to drop out of Graduate School, as I felt like I did not belong. I had feelings of imposter syndrome even though, technically, I did not even know what that term was.  It was not until my doctoral program, that is when I dug deeper as to the meaning of impostor syndrome, but I was able to now name a lot of these experiences that I was dealing with both in higher education and in the workplace.

There are a lot of things that are not told to us right; we are sold and told “a dream”, and so it works to a certain extent but then you walk into these spaces where people do not look like you or you feel like you do not belong and then, suddenly, you start thinking, wow nobody told me this. You know, I was going to experience these microaggressions or that my education is still going to be questioned even though I have advanced degrees and that is more education than most of the people in this room. Those are the things that were not told to me, those are the things that I had to experience on my own, so I am here to change that narrative, here to tell you the things that many people may be scared to share for whatever reason. But I could only speak for my personal journey, the lessons that I have learned from those experiences, and those that are also willing to share their experiences you know I share my platform for us — to have a counter space and provide a counter-narrative of the perception of Latinos in higher education.

 I get asked a lot if “Latinas with masters” is a business, and I say, yes, it is a business. But organically it became several things, a brand; It became a movement, a sisterhood, and a support system.

I honestly feel that Latinas with masters can be anything that you need them to be, everything you wanted to be, there are no limits to Latinas with masters, that is the beauty of it, it is a journey that you know. I became an entrepreneur by just being a friend, an amiga, and a sister. It just all happened organically. It represents us showing up as our authentic selves. It represents us preserving and embracing our Latino culture. It represents us being proud of being educated, proud of being the first in our family to attend or graduate from college.

I do not see Latinas with masters as necessarily one reaching a diploma if that makes sense. One might notice, I do not promote graduate schools, and I do that for a specific reason. There are a lot of inequities with Graduate School admissions. I would be insincere if I were here trying to promote a Graduate School that still has a GRE or GMAT which is a barrier for a lot of people to get into Graduate School. I am trying to break those barriers.

 If you’ve always dreamed about attaining an advanced degree a master’s degree, a doctorate, a Ph.D., a bachelor’s degree, or an associate’s degree, doesn’t matter what type of higher education you want to pursue. You have a whole gang of Latinos that look like you, and shared experiences as you. They can help you along the way should you come across any challenges or barriers, working against you not to achieve your dream of becoming a college graduate.

In closing, I am also learning how to accept those compliments and so that kind of transitions with the values that I have been taught. I was born in San Francisco, so I am from the Bay Area. My parents came to this country from Nicaragua. Our family values are very much embedded in our Latino culture and identity, growing up very engrained in the Central American culture. Overall, my Latino culture or values, as you know, are to always honor and respect one’s parents.

Follow @latinaswithmasters and join a community that will allow you to dream, in fact, it will demand you to.