My name is Lara, pronounced “La-d-a.� For 15 years, my name has been said many ways—“Lora�, “Lar-a� and “Laura� have been the most popular. Forget trying to tell people how to pronounce my last name, it is a waste of time. Then they always ask what nationality/ethnicity it is. My response is “it’s Hispanic,� their reply “It’s pretty,� and the conversation ends. When I was seven-years-old my family uprooted from Corpus Christi, Texas to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; my dad received a job offer he couldn’t refuse. I didn’t realize until much later the decision my parents made was the best life-altering decision they could have ever made. Who knows where I would be if they hadn’t decided to move from the only thing they had ever known.

I’m of Mexican heritage and proud of where I come from but I wasn’t always so steadfastly proud. Initially, when I was dropped into white America, I couldn’t accept the fact I was different from all my classmates Growing up, I never really accepted my heritage, which essentially meant I really didn’t accept me. I just wanted to fit in, as all kids do. My mom remembers me being angry about the move. “You were angry about us moving,� she said. “You were going to attend a private school with your group of friends and didn’t want to go anywhere.� Growing up in Oklahoma was pretty OK. I lived in an upper-middle class suburb and had a pretty typical childhood. I graduated from one of the largest high schools in the state, a class of about 1,000 and was more than ready for the next step, which in my family was always college.

My Now Years

Another popular conversation I have with people is about my second bachelor’s degree in African and African American studies. “What made you decide that?� the person asks. The answer is too complex to describe in a paragraph so, what I’ll say is this: History is a fundamental element all people need to understand and learn from. Without understanding where you come from, how are you able to move forward? History is underappreciated in American culture and to have a series of classes where you are able to examine the past in a profound way has made me a more culturally aware person. I’m so proud of everything I have seen and done at the University of Oklahoma and I’m definitely going to miss it.

I will leave with two bachelor’s degrees in hand, one in journalism and the second in African and African American studies. Education has always been important to me and is the key to everything. Why do you think slave owners kept their “property� from reading and writing? When you are knowledgeable, you become empowered with intellectual property that can never be taken away. This is the message I try to resonate with students I mentor. Mentoring is one of my life’s simple joys. I have been fortunate enough to have never been without one and I thank my parents for that. But many children are not so lucky. Mentoring can alter a child’s life. When parents and teachers are not enough, mentors can give a sense of relief from the day-to-day occurrences a child might face. Especially in the Hispanic community in Oklahoma, there is a sense of shamefulness for being dark-skinned. Some Hispanic children I’ve spoken to echo this very sentiment. I have seen and done a lot in my short 22-year life span but I know this is only the beginning. There is so much I hope to see and do in the future and with my family in toe helping me along the way, I expect many more adventures to come.