Latinx Changemaker: UC Berkeley Professor Cristina Mora
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The Professor Changing the Way UC Berkeley Centers the Latinx Experience
Professor G. Cristina Mora. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
I met UC Berkeley professor G. Cristina Mora a year ago when she invited me to one of her classes about Latinos in the media.
She created Latino Sociology, a course that “examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Latinxs in the United States.” It’s exactly the kind of class Mora wished she had been able to take as an undergraduate at Berkeley.
I wanted to learn more about what she is doing to make Berkeley a place that welcomes and celebrates the Latinx experience.
When Mora, a UC Berkeley graduate, arrived for her freshman year, she thought she would become a teacher and maybe a principal. Growing up in Pacoima, a city in the San Fernando Valley, the only people she knew who had college degrees worked in education.
In her first two years at Berkeley, she took some part-time jobs working with middle school students and quickly realized she didn’t want to be a teacher. In her junior year, the ambition to become a professor materialized. She knew she was facing difficult odds. Higher education is a competitive field, especially for a first-generation college student from a working class, Mexican-American background.
At Berkeley and across academia, Latinx college students need institutions to recognize Latinidad as an academic discipline, Mora told me.
Roughly 50% of students who graduate from high school in California are Latino. Meanwhile, Latinos make up about 19 percent of Berkeley undergraduate students. The university has a goal of reaching 25% by 2027.
But Latines only make up 7% of Berkeley’s core faculty. Mora recalled that when she was an undergraduate majoring in sociology, she took a lot of classes that were amazing but completely left out the Latinx experience.
“I hardly ever got to read texts about my own community,” she said.
Tell us about your background and how you identify?
Both my parents were born in Mexico. I was born in Fresno and brought up in a Mexican family with traditional values and customs. I’m an only child, so I spent a lot of time by myself watching TV and consuming American culture. Growing up, I was often teased by my cousins for being “white washed” or “too American.” For a long time, I felt ashamed or not Mexican enough. As I got older, I became comfortable with the idea that I can be both. So, I would identify as Mexican-American and also as Latina because I am a woman and my family is from a Latin American country.
What do you do at KQED?
I host the California Report, our daily statewide show. We cover politics, culture — anything under the sun or the rain or the snow. I try to focus on underserved communities, specifically in the Central Valley, as well as farmworker, immigrant and Latinx communities.
How does your heritage show up in your life?
The most immediate answer is in the food that I cook. My favorite dish to make is my grandma Licha’s enchiladas that she makes with queso fresco inside. I’m also a huge fan of albondigas or caldo de pollo on a cold day. Also, in the way that I show up for my community. Mexican culture is very tight-knit and family oriented. I talk to my mom every day on the phone. Some of my best friends are my family members — my cousins, my aunts, my grandma.
What is your favorite thing about working at KQED?
KQED really emphasizes getting a person’s story out there. It’s not just what is happening to this person, but who is this person and how have their experiences shaped the way that they show up in the world?
What’s something you’re into right now?
Singer and songwriter Julieta Venegas, one of my favorite artists of all time.
K Más: Featured Stories From KQED
A New Salvadoran Cookbook Celebrates the Stories of Diaspora
I interviewed Karla Tatiana Vasquez, the Los Angeles-based author of The SalviSoul Cookbook, the first Salvadoran cookbook published by a major U.S. imprint. She recently held an event at Popoca, a “progressive” Salvadoran restaurant in Old Oakland owned by chef Anthony Salguero. The two Salvadoran-Americans talked about their shared mission to celebrate and honor the experiences of the Salvadoran diaspora in the U.S.
Meet the Dance and Music Teachers Bringing Peruvian Culture to the Bay
The Bay Area is home to one of the biggest Peruvian diasporas in the world who live in cities including San Francisco, San Jose and Redwood City. Three decades after arriving in San Francisco, two siblings opened Tradición Peruana Cultural Center in the Mission District.
Your Birria Taco Is Ancient History—Here’s Why | Beyond the Menu
We’re at peak birria these days, where every taqueria in town seems to have adopted its own version. For KQED’s new digital food series Beyond The Menu, host Cecilia Phillips takes a deep dive into the origins and recent popularity of birria. By the way, my family is from Jalisco so birria is not new to me and I find it amusing that it’s become trendy.
DannyLux Harnessed the Grief and Joy of Young Latinos at SF’s Regency Ballroom
DannyLux’s show at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on May 1 was his first time headlining in the Bay Area. The 20-year-old, Palm Springs-raised, Mexican-American singer is known for his ballads and emo lyrics. “All of my songs, they’re built upon the base of regional mexicano, but I don’t want to stay in a box,” he told KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí.
How a Chicana-Owned Agency Is Shining a Light on the East Bay’s Diverse Food Scene
Marisa Sanchez-Dunning founded If Only Creative, a Berkeley-based creative agency that supports dope East Bay destinations such as Popoca, DAYTRIP and Burdell. A homegrown Chicana, she predominantly works with small business owners of color to provide photography, social media management and branding.
Carnaval San Francisco When: 11 a.m. 6 p.m., May 25 and 26 Where: 17 blocks in the Mission District, San Francisco What: Memorial Day weekend in the Bay wouldn’t be complete without Carnaval San Francisco. The 46th annual festival celebrating Latino culture will feature 400 vendors and over 50 local performing artists. This year’s grand marshal for Sunday’s Grand Parade is Rigoberta Menchú Tum, the Guatemalan human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
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