Farewell to Mariela Aranda Former Latinx Cultural Center Coordinator

Farewell to Mariela Aranda Former Latinx Cultural Center Coordinator

Interview Conducted by Sara Luz Torres and Marcela L. Reales Visbal

Mariela Aranda was the Coordinator of the Latinx Cultural Center (LCC) from 2020 - 2023. During her time at DePaul, she established herself as an advocate for Latinx students. She led the LCC throughout the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, successfully restructuring services and resources at the same time that the college experience transformed. Before Mariela transitioned from DePaul, we talked about her journey in Higher Education, her work at the LCC, and her advocacy for our amazing students.

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Mariela Aranda. My pronouns are they/them, and she/her/hers. I've been at DePaul since 2018 and I've been the Latinx Cultural Center (LCC) Coordinator since 2020. I think that the LCC has really evolved in my time here and I've been really blessed with the opportunity to exercise creative freedom and revamp the Center. I'm someone who's very community-oriented, so I see the LCC as a vehicle for community. It's a space with resources that is here to bring people together. But, we're not the LCC without the student body. Outside of DePaul, I'm also very community-oriented. I'm part of an art collective, I'm a dancer and I'm very involved in cultural spaces. I'm really lucky to have a position at DePaul where I can bring culture to the campus and reimagine what the college experience of Latine/x students at a PWI can look like.

How did you end up working in Higher Education?

I had no idea I would be working in colleges until I was a graduate assistant at the University of Texas in Austin and worked at their Gender and Sexuality Center. I always thought that I would come back to Chicago and either work for the city or do some sort of nonprofit work, but I got really disillusioned. I was in Texas from 2016 to 2018, and because of the time, I was really frustrated and disappointed in the lack of creativity I saw in

spaces where supposedly policies were being created for a better world. When I took the graduate assistantship, I had no idea that I would love working with undergraduates so much. I saw U.T., which is a huge campus, as a small space where policy had an immediate impact on our community. The things that were on the news and being talked about, like undocumented people and white supremacy, we were addressing them in the moment, in realtime, in our little community. That was really empowering and I really loved it. Also, a lot of the undergrads I worked with there went on to really reach for the stars after they left college. And that was inspiring to me because I don't remember having felt empowered and proud as I graduated from undergrad. It was just like okay, I did it. I finished. But I really saw them shine as they left, and that's something that I want to

contribute to, make our students leave DePaul shining brightly and really reaching for the stars.

Mariela Aranda

Is that what brought you to DePaul?

I knew I wanted to come back to Chicago, so I was applying to different schools. But honestly, it's really hard to crack into a university setting. Especially since I didn't have a master's in Education or Critical Race Theory or anything like that. I had a master's in Public Affairs so I think it was confusing for people, and the only experience I had was as a researcher and as a GA in graduate school. I applied to the Steans Center which was the perfect fit because my position was overseeing a program where we place students in community organizations and have them do service there. It was also a soft introduction to the Student Affairs side because that was a part-time position. I’m very lucky and I'm very grateful to the Steans Center for really giving me an opportunity.

Can you tell us what is the mission of the LCC, and your specific role in the Center?

The LCC is a hub for Latine/x students to find community and work towards thriving at DePaul. I have two branches in my role. One is creating student experiences like programs and events where students can find community and see Latine/x culture reflected. I think those experiences also serve the larger DePaul community of non-Latine/x people because it's a space for them to learn. That's the branch of my work that most people see because of the big events we put on like FERIA, which had over 500 people last year (2022). The other branch is a little bit more subtle; on the day-to-day, I’m very accessible to students. My office door is open, and I do student advising, crisis management, and conflict resolution. I'm working to professionally

develop my staff and build relationships with students so that they can continue to use me as a resource. That is what takes up the majority of my time, and that's the part of the work I really love.

You talked about how rewarding it was to see students shine and grow into themselves and feel empowered. What specifically about working with Latine/x students at DePaul do you find the most fulfilling?

Our students care a lot about each other. Sometimes it's hard for me to get them to advocate for themselves because they're always thinking about other people or folks who don't have as much as they do. Our students have a really, really strong ethic of care for each other. I think DePaul students, come to the LCC, meet each other, and find out that their experiences are very different; they're always looking to learn. I think they're very curious and everyone's so different. Sometimes you think “Oh, a Center space for people of shared culture, they're going to find that they have a billion things in common.” More often than not, I have students come and be like “I don't have anything in common with any of these other Latino students.” And I think that's also beautiful in its own way.

What has been one proud moment since you’ve been working at the LCC?

Last year, we hosted Las Estamos Bordando, which was a project where our students had a series of programs where they talked about gender-based violence and femicide across the Americas, and learned about the social movements that are happening in Latin America that are getting a lot of coverage, but also the

connections in Chicago to some of those structures of violence and learning how the issue is almost of equal magnitude here but not spoken about in the same way because of our history of more racist assumptions. While we had these discussions, we were embroidering the names of missing and murdered girls and women, both in Chicago and in Latin America. The first program was in the fall of 2022. Many of the students told me “Oh, I've never embroidered before, but my grandmother tried to teach me” or “My mom does this all the time.” And some of them were like “Oh, I've tried to learn.” They were all in a circle doing their tejidos. When everyone got back from winter break, some of the student staff brought back huge pieces. So much stuff that they had worked on when they went home with their moms. And I thought that was so beautiful, to see that our space really resonated with some cultural familial memory that they had and that they took it and made it their own and continued the practice. Some of them said that they felt more connected because they knew it was something their grandmother did, or they knew it was something that was common in their family. And I think that was really, really powerful in a different way than the discussions were powerful. Honoring and respecting the arts of maternal figures in your family. That's not something that's easy.

What are some other events hosted by the LCC?

Besides FERIA, we host an Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration. I'm very excited to continue that conversation and continue pushing our students to look at the land acknowledgment and really study it and understand it. After School Amiguis is another ongoing year-long series where we do arts and crafts with students and give them a space to meet each other, reflect, journal, and have discussions. We also do field trips. We've gone to the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture, the National Museum of Mexican

Art, field trips, movie nights. Something new that's starting in the fall are community dinners a couple of times a quarter, Convivencia y Comida. That actually came from one of our custodian workers who was talking to me about what the space looked like before the pandemic. She said, “You know, before, students would come together and eat dinner. Even after the centers were closed, they would have a potluck-style meal together.” I kept thinking about that, we haven't really had that culture since COVID and just everything happening with the world. So, I want to bring back that spirit of eating dinner with other people, trying new food, and meeting new people. Also, I know that there's an increasing issue of food insecurity so I'm hoping to also bring resources to those meals to make sure that our students feel cared for and paid attention to.

What do you wish DePaul students knew about the Center?

You don't have to join. People think it's like a club that you have to sign up for. You don't have to. You can literally come and put your water bottle in the fridge if that's what you need that day, that's what we're here for. You can come and play the Nintendo Switch for an hour after class to decompress. You can come and work on a group project. We have paper, markers. This isn't like an organization where you need to come and present in a certain way. You can just come as you are that day and use this space. We just hope you feel comfortable here.

Mariela Aranda left DePaul in August of 2023. ¡Adiós, Mariela! Thank you for all your work and advocacy. We will miss you!

Flor Reza is the new Coordinator of the Latinx Cultural Center since September 25th, 2023.