My name is Mariana Irais Reyes Santiago. I am 18 years old. I am Mexican, Latina, and Hispanic. I am fluent in Spanish, and I can speak English. I call Fairmont home. I have lived in Fairmont for 8 years. Home is where you can be safe and in good conditions. You are protected. A family is there to protect you. The thing I enjoy most about this community is the people. They are very friendly. I also like that it is very safe and secure. It’s not dangerous.
I lived in Veracruz, Mexico until I was around 10 or 11 years old. While I was living in Veracruz, the pay was very little. Both of my parents were working so my brothers and I had to take care of the house. Then, things started to become harder. My dad came to the US, then my mom. He came here for a better life, better economy, and for safety. Veracruz is very unsafe. There is a lot of kidnapping, rape, etc. My grandma was living in Elmore, Minnesota so then my entire family moved here. I finished high school here. Something that I remember from my childhood in Mexico is that we would always play soccer on the streets. We would run away when any cars came! In the evenings, we would go knock on all of our friends’ doors. We would play every afternoon!
In Mexico, we always had to move from school to school. We never had a specific school. We were always meeting new people and didn’t really have a lot of friends. We would also miss a lot of school. Sometimes, the teacher wouldn’t exactly teach well… well, it depends on the teacher and the school. I came here in 6th grade. I don’t remember anything from 6th grade. I couldn’t understand anything. I moved to another country where they teach differently. I also couldn’t understand any English at that time. The only thing I knew how to say was “I don’t speak English” because my grandma taught me how to say that. Everyone was friendly. Everyone had their own groups in Mexico. The culture is different, so I had experienced everything new. The mentality was such a change. Then, I went to 7th grade. It was still hard. I’m not going to lie. Every year, there were more Latinos coming. There were no Latinos when I came in 2016 – maybe 5 or 6. We didn’t have many friends. I was always hanging out with my brothers and cousin.
A challenge in my life is going to college. Another challenge is learning English. It’s weird. It takes time. You need to talk to people and listen. I think my brain slowly got used to it. I would hear words in English and slowly get used to it.
I love to read books and watch movies in my free time! I love romance and suspense/mystery books. My favorite book is Twilight, and I love Marvel and John Wick movies. I have a passion for cheerleading. It was my favorite sport. It was something that I really loved to do! I also love to spend time with my family and my friends that invite me to try new things.
I don’t know if there are any similarities between Veracruz and Fairmont…There are a lot of differences. In Veracruz, it is always summer. It is never cold, and there’s no snow. The food! In Mexico, the food is cooked with a lot of spice. Here, there is no spice.
Also. This might be a weird difference…… In Mexico, we eat pizza with ketchup. If you put ketchup on pizza here, people will look at you like you are crazy. That happened to me my first year here! But it’s very good!!!!!
The school is different. In Veracruz, there are many schools that are almost outside. There is only 1 month of vacation. Here, there is only one building for school and 3 months for summer. Veracruz is very big. It is a huge city! Fairmont is a very tiny town.
I am Catholic. My faith means everything to me. If we don’t have God, we are lost. It is a very crazy world. My faith is like my light. I go to church and pray, in Spanish. Family is very important to me. My family is my safe place. If something is going wrong, I know that my family is always going to be with me…even if I make a big big mistake. They help me a lot. I want to pass the meaning of family to my children. It is something that is very important to us. Something that I noticed here in the US is that when you turn 18, it’s like goodbye. For us, it’s not like that. You can stay with your family, and they will support you. You can go to the university, but you can keep in touch with your mom because mom is always worried!
My mom and my grandma inspire me. Both of them have gone through very very hard things. They are just nice people. They like to help people. They keep fighting - even if they are sick. They keep looking for other options, even if they want to give up. They care for their families, sons and daughters. That is something that I really admire.
In my culture, women always have to be in the kitchen. It’s kind of like you have to do what your husband says. Also, the woman has to make food, clean, and take care of the kids. The men - what they say is what they do. In my culture, men are viewed as superior. Men are in charge of paying all the bills and bringing food to the table. In my family, my mom taught us that everybody can help. We ALL had to clean the house - not just the girls. I am the only one who cooks. Women and men are not similar, but they complement each other. If someone can do one thing, the other can do the other thing. They support each other. My mom raised us with a mentality that is different from what is typical of my culture.
Christmas is an important holiday to me. All of our family members come together in one house - like my grandma’s house. Each family makes food and brings cocktail fruit. We go to church. We wait until midnight. Then we sing a song and put the baby in the Nativity scene. We eat lots of food and do a ‘Secret Santa’. After the Secret Santa, we give gifts to our entire family. We play lots of games and then we dance in the basement.
My favorite foods are enchiladas, tortas de pastor, tostadas, and pollo en crema. I don’t like to cook, but I can cook. Well. I am okay with cooking. I don’t hate it. I don’t love it. I am kind of weird.
I have very sensitive skin, so I can’t be in the sun too much. In Mexico, kids and adults didn’t like it. People would always set me apart and tell me things. My sister has epilepsy. Some places don’t like when people have a slower process of learning. Here, some people treat me differently because of how I look. Or, some people don’t like that I can’t fully understand them when they’re talking in English and I can’t talk to them back. That isn't something that I can fully control. It takes time! Some people are just joking. There is a difference between joking and actually getting angry. They get very angry for no reason. When I got here, I couldn’t control that. I think that is just how people were raised and how they grew up. Something I can do to improve that is just to teach my kids about respect. It’s up to each family to make a change.
I would say don’t judge somebody if you don’t know them. You don’t know what has happened in their life. Be respectful and nice. Everyone deserves respect. Help people if they need it!
I am proud that I finished high school. First, I faced a language barrier when I got here in 2016. I didn’t have many friends at first. I didn’t know about PSEO or CIS classes. I was Latina, so I was always in the EL classes. One day in my junior year, I was in the office. I noticed a Psychology (CIS) class. I asked Mrs. Stewart (EL/Spanish teacher) about what CIS was. She explained that it is College in the Schools. I tried to sign up, but they told me that it probably wasn’t a good idea because I was an EL student at the time. I didn’t really listen to that…I went to my counselor. She helped me with the process for CIS. I was accepted into the class! I took a Speech (CIS) class the fall of my senior year and Psychology (CIS) in the spring .
I was also on the Fairmont Dance Team! I really liked dancing, and I was improving a lot. I started working full time in December my senior year. I worked from 3pm-1am on top of high school classes, so then I had to quit the dance team in the middle of the season.
Because I had to work at 3pm in the afternoon, I talked to my counselor about leaving my last class early. I had all my credits done and two study halls, so I just wanted to leave a little study hall early to go to work. She said that wasn’t allowed in the school policy, but she introduced the possibility of PSEO to me. My counselor told me that I could only work and leave school early if I took PSEO classes. That was the first time that I learned what PSEO classes were. Some people told me that it would be very expensive and that we couldn’t afford it. I decided to work and pay for college. I am working full time and completely paying for college by myself!
My personal goal is to be a psychologist/therapist. That is a big dream of mine! Success would be helping kids. I also want to graduate from college and a university. I also want to be a mom and have a family! I love children and babies.
Right now, I am working full time and completing my generals at Minnesota West Community College-Jackson online. Then, I want to transfer to a university to study psychology. I want to help little kids overcome trauma such as kidnappings, rape, and family abuse. I want to work with child victims because I believe that little kids don’t deserve to be treated badly or mean. They are just little kids, and they deserve protection. I want to help kids overcome that. In Mexico, I know kids that have experienced abuse and trauma. I’ve seen that and I want to help them. Kids are the future. I want kids to know that they are not alone.
I hope that the community understands that nationality doesn’t make a difference about who a person is. We are the same. Not that every person is mean or every person is nice. Just don’t classify people based on their nationality or how they look.