Placement: SF Dept. of Children, Youth & their Families
My Hometown: Fusagasuga, Colombia- South America
My Education: Williams College, BA in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies (Contract Major)
Selected Honors: Graduated with honors; Senior Honors Thesis in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies; Robert L. Gaudino Memorial Fellowship; Robert G. Wilmers, Jr., Travel Abroad Fellowship.
Selected Activities and Community Involvement: In college, I undertook two major transnational ethnographic studies. For these projects I travelled to several countries around the world exploring the influence of popular culture in different nations’ political structures as well as their conceptualization of civil liberties, democracy, nationhood, gender, ethno-racial equality, and LGBTQ rights. I wrote my senior thesis on Selena Quintanilla, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez. By using popular cultural texts I strived to make Post-Structuralism, 19th-century philosophy, Critical Race theory, and Queer Theory, among others, accessible and relatable to people who historically have not had access to the training necessary to read complex philosophical texts.
Why San Francisco is important to me: San Francisco is important to me because of its history of social change and cultural resistance. As someone who is not native to the city, I understand my positionality as a guest that is so fortunate to occupy a space in this community. As a guest, I also comprehend the imperative duty to respect and honor the history and culture of the place that I am being welcomed to.
Something unique about me: I created my own major in college and lovingly I named it “Jennifer Lopez Studies.” Even though that was not the final official name, I still proudly tell everyone that I majored in J.Lo.