Browse Items (63 total)

Paola Saldivias Méndez was born in Quito, Ecuador, before moving to Bolivia with her family as a baby and begins by detailing her family’s story. Her educational experiences included her “American” bilingual school, where teachers fostered her love for education, and her degree in Science and Social Communication from Universidad Católica…

As Bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh, Rafael Zarama oversees a network of about one hundred Catholic churches in the eastern half of North Carolina. Parishioners in this region are diverse and include people who have immigrated from Latin American countries such as Mexico, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, where Catholicism is a prevalent religion. He…

Julio Gutiérrez is an anthropology doctoral student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Julio was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador, and held both U.S. and Salvadoran citizenship (the former was passed down through his mother who obtained it when living in Los Angeles prior to his birth). He migrated to the U.S. with his…

Niccolo Roditti, who was born in 1996 in Guayaquil, Ecuador and moved to the U.S. at age three, is the Assistant Director of the LGBTQ Youth Center of Durham, part of the LGBTQ Center of Durham. Niccolo discusses conflicts and other intersections of queerness and traditional Ecuadorian culture. In addition to describing the experiences of queer…

Ana Muñoz Molina is a student at UNC Chapel Hill from Cuba who shares her experience emigrating to the United States and her role within the Latino community in Chapel Hill and Miami, where she lives with her family. Ana discusses her family’s struggles to make ends meet in Cuba and discusses the challenges she faces to feel integrated within the…

Adolfo Briceño is Program Manager of Human Relations and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the City of Winston-Salem. He shares his early life experience in Mérida, Mexico, where he was born and educated. Having studied economics, he grew disillusioned with the field while working as a mortgage analyst at a Cancún bank and switched careers to…

Gianella Romero is the current Executive Director at El Centro Latino in Hickory, North Carolina. She begins the interview by talking about herself, her family roots, and her journey from being in the healthcare field to transitioning into her current role as Executive Director in the non-profit sector. Gianella also discusses her Mexican-American…

Yesenia Pedro Vicente shares a second interview with the Nuevas Raíces initiative. Yesenia relates her experiences teaching in Phoenix, Arizona for several years after graduating from UNC in 2013. She draws contrasts between living in North Carolina and the Southwestern U.S., where there are much larger communities with Latin American heritage. She…

Rebecca Heines, better known as Becca, recalls her experience on her class trip to Guanajuato in March of 2018 as part of APPLES Global Course Guanajuato (GLBL 390 Latin American Immigrant Perspectives). She explains how various factors influence education in Trancas compared to students in North Carolinian schools. Becca also discusses how her…

Rebecca Heines, better known as Becca, serves as the mentorship coordinator of North Carolina’s Service Learning Initiative (NC Sli). She also is a bilingual navigator at the University of North Carolina hospital in Chapel Hill. She discusses her experiences as a college student volunteering with organizations targeted towards the Latinx community.…