I am an Otter: El Centro feels like home for some students

By Melissa Anderson

Valeria Nunez Cortes spends her afternoons at El Centro, where she works as a student coordinator for the Undocu-Student Success Center. She found the job by chance when she saw a posting to support El Centro, the Cal State Monterey Bay affinity and resource center for Latiné students.

“I want to help people who have mixed status or who are undocumented because my mother was undocumented when she gave birth to me,” Nunez Cortes shared.

She was born in the United States, but moved to Mexico as a baby when someone reported her mother as being undocumented. Her father, a college student, stayed in the United States.

“I went to school in Mexico until first grade and my first language is Spanish,” Nunez Cortes said. “My mom got her green card when I turned 5 and we came back to the United States.”

She said she speaks Spanish with her friends, even if they don’t know the language, and will translate for them because it is a way to share her culture and heritage with them.

“It is part of who I am,” she said.

She got to know her father when she and her mother moved back to Fresno, and she enrolled in a bilingual school program. She recalls that they taught science, math and history in Spanish, and she spent an hour a day in English class. From a young age, she was interested in science and said when she would get a scrape or cut, she was intrigued by her body’s healing process. A second-year biology major with a chemistry minor, her ultimate goal is to go to medical school.

Even as a youngster, her parents encouraged her to attend college, but she assumed it would be closer to home and was prepared to settle for Fresno State University. Her parents both worked two jobs, and she thought staying close to home would save on housing and food.

“When I was a senior, my parents sat me down and were like, ‘Hey, we have this much money. You can go wherever you want.’”

Nunez Cortes had considered the University of California campuses in Santa Barbara, Merced and Davis.

“I said I was going to my dream school,” she said. “I came here [to the Monterey area] in sixth grade on a field trip and thought it would be super cool to live by the beach.”

She was accepted by CSUMB. As a first-year student, she found herself homesick for the warmer weather of the valley and her family. She doesn’t have a car so her chances to travel home are limited, but El Centro provided the feeling of family she was missing.

“I was just going to events, but it reminded me of home,” she said. “My parents can’t come here a lot and I only go home at breaks. I want to help people get connected, to know we are here and have these opportunities for them.”

Nunez Cortes helped to organize the Mi Barrio Summit as part of Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week in September.

“The Center is here so people can go there and feel at home,” she said.

Joshelyn Martin, associate director for El Centro and the Undocu-Success, is happy to have Valeria as part of the team.

“She is constantly sharing stories about her time in Mexico and experiences connected to her culture,” Martin said. “In the short two months since Valeria started working with us, I have not only witnessed her growth as a person, but how her compassion and humor draw others in and make them feel like they too belong, even when they may not identify as Latiné or from the undocumented community.”