Vanessa Hernandez-Gutierrez has joined the Latin American Latino/a Studies (LALS) program at Illinois State University as the program’s graduate assistant. Hernandez-Gutierrez is a second-year master’s student studying cultural anthropology.
Where are you from?
I was born in Ocotlan, Jalisco; however, I was primarily raised on the southeast side of Chicago. I attended Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy in Pullman and George Washington High School in the East Side.
How did you decide on your major?
While studying at Harold Washington Community College, I was originally a history major. An introductory class in anthropology got such a hold over me, that I decided to change my major. I received my associate’s degree in liberal arts and sciences in the spring of 2021. I subsequentially enrolled at ISU as an anthropology major in the fall of 2022.
What has your major given you?
Being a dreamer and a kid from a deeply segregated city like Chicago, I never had much exposure to people outside of my community. I recognized that others also had little awareness of people like me, so when I discovered anthropology at a community college, the language of the discipline appealed to me greatly. This language has furthered my understanding of self and others.
As an anthropology major at ISU, I have received many academic and creative opportunities. For example, Dr. Gina Hunter’s Ethnography class (ANT 303) taught me qualitative research skills. It also allowed me to engage directly with the Latinx student life here on campus resulting in the term paper, An Ethnographic Analysis of Integration Processes Available for Latinx Students at Illinois State University.
Dr. Liv Stone’s Media and Visual Ethnography (ANT 385) class introduced me to the creative and practical potential of visual media in research. The content of that class not only let me integrate my creative side, but also led to my participation in the transnational, transborder, and translingual conference, which took place at ISU in the spring of 2023, Borders, Femininsim, Memory, and Identity.
Additionally, anthropology is one of the few majors that offers an accelerated program. These programs allow students to begin graduate degrees as an undergrad. In other words, they complete their senior year and first graduate year concurrently. During my second semester here, I got accepted into the accelerated master’s program and completed the last year of my bachelor’s degree and first year of graduate school in the spring of 2024.
What drew you to the Latin American and Latino/a Studies program?
I was greatly inspired by my three-year school break to engage with Latinxs matters. Throughout this time I matured, gaining awareness of the structural challenges that exist for people like me, Latina migrants with chronic diseases, and how deeply they are related to labor issues. My current master’s thesis project focuses on the experience of Latinxs in ethnic labor niches.
Once here at ISU, my understanding of these factors made me crave nuanced conversation, which I found by engaging with Latinx Heritage Month events. This only furthered my interest in Latinx matters, and I signed up for Dr. Maura Toro-Morn’s Chicana Feminisms (SOC 368) in the fall of 2023. This class introduced me to the work of Dr. Hilda Llorens, an Afro-Puerto Rican anthropologist engaging in “Home-work,” who was visiting ISU as the keynote speaker for the 2023 Latinx Heritage Month celebration. A conversation with Dr. Llorens affirmed my desire to center my own community in my research.
What are you looking forward to in the coming year with LALS?
I am looking forward to helping with the organization of Latinx-centered events, representing the utility and potential of anthropology for Latinxs, and uplifting members from my own community such as everyday people, artists, and activists.
Why do you feel the program is important?
The Latinx experience cannot be expressed in a singular narrative. We are subject to various pressures of discrimination, marginalization, and oppression, and confront those challenges in different, unequal manifestations. This program is essential because it is one of the few places that not only considers this, but centers and critically engages with the consequences and reasons for Latinx variability.
What do you want people to know about LALS?
I want them to know that this program is much more than a place where you can hear about your history as it has never been told to you. It is an avenue to construct your history, a pathway to social consciousness, a place of community, and a space to imagine the world in a new way, outside of strict exclusive norms and, instead, with basis in all the contradictions and beauty that makes up Latinx heritage. To all young Latinxs, I won’t lie and say that this will be the place where all things become clear and that a sense of knowing what is right or wrong is suddenly imposed onto you. It is, however, one of the few places on campus where you can begin to disentangle your confusion, with support by faculty and students who have confronted/confront the same things, albeit with the variability that the Latinx experience produces. It is a place where you can experience profound change and knowledge that you can take anywhere, personally and professionally.
