I walked into my office this morning and there sitting on my chair was the November issue of
Lucky magazine. Thinking that it belonged to our office tech, since she is the only person in the office who has pulled out a magazine at work, I say, oh thanks Jenn for bringing me the magazine. Except she didn't bring it in. Which is weird because a. I've never even seen a magazine at work except in her hands, b. it's Monday morning at 9 and I was at my office on Friday until 5:30 meaning someone brought it to me pretty darn early Monday morning (the magazine was apparently already on my chair before Jenn got to the office at 8 am, and c. I don't even read fashion magazines.
Naturally, I'm intrigued by the mystery magazine gifter. I try to deduce who would have brought it to me. I only have so many friend, friends at work. You know the kind who would come bring you a present first thing on Monday morning (and most of them don't just stop by my office randomly). My next clue is that this person doesn't really know me that well because I don't actually read fashion magazines. In fact, that might be the first time I've ever looked at a Lucky magazine. I flip through the magazine to see if there is some picture or article that made someone think of me. Like maybe an article on what to wear when riding your bike to work or an article on the secret lives of UCLA color guard alumni or how to survive dating a musician. Nope, just the standard articles comparing 7 different types of canary yellow nail polish. And then I look at the cover again. The cover is a picture of
Sofia Vergara. Did someone leave this magazine on my chair because they assumed I'd like it because Sofia Vergara, hot, Latina mom from Modern Family was on it? Kind of a stretch, but it did seem quite possible after I thought about it. I mean forget all the stupid stuff that Sofia says during the interview basically saying she just sells her body and she knows that's why she's famous. There was a woman with brown hair and a Spanish last name on the cover. But, the fact that someone assumed I'd like it because I too have brown hair and Spanish last name was not really what bothered me. Once I thought about it, not one other Latina professional staff in the entire department came to mind. I work at a place that mostly employs scientists and engineers, meaning disproportionately men and not Latina/o. I could think of a few Latinos and some women who work as support staff, but no other professional Latina staff. I'm sure they are out there given that the place has over 500 people working there. But, I could not think of a single one.
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| Papi! |
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| My mom has fewer wrinkles than I do! |
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| Yay for education. |
Now, I have not felt out of place at my office at all. People respect me and the work that I do because I've earned it. And my section of the department is actually quite diverse and young for state government. But, when I had a chance to reflect on it, the whole experience reminded me of two things. First, it really spoke to the lack of Latinos in the STEM fields due to the litany of issues that make succeeding in science for people of color (that I won't go into in this post). Second, it reminded me of why I need to strive to not just be a good worker bee in my rank and file position, but that I have been lucky to have the tools to be a leader in a place like my office, where women like me are thoroughly underrepresented. And lucky to have the support to have gotten me to where I am today. I can think of two particularly awesome Mexican people who I have as examples, my mom and papi. Without them taking a step towards a better life by attending UCLA, neither me nor any of my siblings would be where we are today. Plus, I'd like to see Sofia in 10 years try to look as awesome as my mom does today.
