Spotlight Interview-Hispanic Heritage Month
Maria-Lorena Santos
Assistant Dean of Students/Director of Community Standards
What is your favorite thing about your culture/heritage?
What I like about my culture are the traditions and the food, I'm a foodie. My family is from Ecuador in South America, both of my parents were born there. I was born in New Jersey, but luckily, I'm blessed that my mother would always bring me to Ecuador every summer to make sure that I remembered that yes, I am American and born in the United States, but I am also Ecuadorian. My mother emphasized the importance of language from a very young age I learned to read and write in Spanish, so I was better prepared for the future. I’m first-generation born in NJ and first-generation college graduate
Tell us something unique about your heritage or country of origin that you would like to share with our campus community.
One of the unique things of my heritage is Ecuador’s name comes from the Spanish word for equator. Ecuador is on the equator.
How has Hispanic culture shaped who you are today?
My values, Ecuadorians are very family-oriented. We are taught to respect our elders and to be inclusive of family, sometimes you may have disagreements, but we are taught to guide each other by being a mentor and assisting whenever needed. My family lives around the world but at the end of the day, we have a family chat where we keep everyone up to date with photos, distance has us all over the place and this has helped me to maintain my culture. It's important to know where you come from, without that I wouldn’t be who I am today.
What is your favorite food of your culture?
That’s a tough one, but I love the soup that my grandmother used to make. It is made from scratch and takes forever to make. It’s called Caldo de bola, it is delicious. It is a soup with meat, greens, onions, carrots, plantains, potatoes and boiled egg. It sounds weird but it is amazing, and it is such a comfort food.