Issue 02
Excell Network Magazine | Spring 2021
COLLETTE STROGANOV “I was stuck in this victim’s mentality”
T
hree years ago, Collette Stroganov felt the bottom drop out of her life.
In the aftermath of her second D.U.I., it seemed as though she had lost everything ̶ her job, her car and, worst of all, custody of her beloved daughter, Maylana. She also lost her freedom. Sitting in the Santa Rosa County Jail, she became so depressed she was placed in solitary confinement. There would be plenty of time during the next 30 days to examine the past 30 years of her life and see how things had gotten this way. Stroganov was a mixed-race child who was adopted when she was one. Her biological mother, whom she met once when she was 11, was Native American. Her biological father, whom she never met, was Latino. The family that adopted her was white. “I experienced racism growing up in a white family,” she says. “And one of the things I struggled with was not feeling that I fit in.” Stroganov grew up in Novato, but since her father was in the military, the family moved around a lot. She lived in Puerto Rico, New York, Oregon and all over the Bay Area, an outdoorsy kid who enjoyed the freedom that living on a safe military base offered. “The only real rule we had,” she says, “was that we had to be in when the streetlights came on.” As a teenager, she grew rebellious. She experienced abuse in the family she struggled to feel a part of, and felt overwhelmed at times by feelings she couldn’t identify. “I was struggling with anxiety and depression,” she says. “But I didn’t know that then.”
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By Dana Perrigan Writer | Journalist | Book Author
ace tres años, Collette Stroganov sintió que su vida se hundía.
Después de su segundo D.U.I., parecía que lo había perdido todo: su trabajo, su automóvil y, lo peor de todo, la custodia de su amada hija, Maylana. Ella también perdió su libertad. Sentada en la cárcel del condado de Santa Rosa, se deprimió tanto que la pusieron en confinamiento solitario. Habría mucho tiempo durante los próximos 30 días para examinar los últimos 30 años de su vida y ver cómo las cosas habían llegado hasta allí. Stroganov era una niña mestiza que fue adoptada cuando tenía un año. Su madre biológica, a quien conoció una vez cuando tenía 11 años, era nativa americana. Su padre biológico, a quien nunca conoció, era latino. La familia que la adoptó era blanca. “Experimenté el racismo al crecer en una familia blanca”, dice. "Y una de las cosas con las que luché fue sentir que no encajaba".
