Testimonios, a new publication from MAA/AMS, brings together first-person narratives from the vibrant, diverse, and complex Latinx and Hispanic mathematical community. Starting with childhood and family, the authors recount their own particular stories, highlighting their upbringing, education, and career paths. Testimonios seeks to inspire the next generation of Latinx and Hispanic mathematicians by featuring the stories of people like them, holding a mirror up to our own community.

The entire collection of 27 testimonios is available for purchase at the AMS Bookstore. MAA members can access a complimentary e-book in their Member Library. AMS members can access a complimentary e-book at the AMS Bookstore. Thanks to the MAA and AMS, we reproduce one chapter per month on Math Values to better understand and celebrate the diversity of our mathematical community with folks who are not MAA members.

In this chapter I recount my personal journey from K–12 schooling to my present position as faculty teaching at a university, I detail an important principle instilled in me by my mother—to take the initiative. Growing up, my mother would inform my two siblings and me to speak up and inquire about opportunities. By taking the initiative, we would be carving out a path to do better in our studies, which would lead to our future careers. In this narrative, I provide some of the many instances where I recall “taking the initiative.” Currently, I still “take the initiative” in my own career, as I’ve learned that if I don’t ask or if I don’t try, then I end up doubting what possibilities could have occurred. “Taking the initiative” begins by having confidence in yourself and always inquiring about opportunities. And this is the principle that I now communicate to students and which centers my testimonio.

My Upbringing

As is common in Mexican culture, I was named after my mother, while my younger brother was named after my father. My sister, who is the middle sibling, took on the name Gabriela, as it was a favorite name of my mother’s. And thus my story begins. My parents, Jesús Villalobos Cuéllar and María Cristina Sánchez Treviño, were born and raised in Hualahuises, Nuevo León, a small town in northern Mexico, which is close to the larger town, Linares. My parents met at a dance hall in 1969 and married nine months later when my mother was 23 years old and my father was 44 years old.

My father was born in 1925 while my mother was born in 1946, and as you’ll note they had an age difference of 21 years. Both of my parents came from large families consisting of eight to nine children. Life was difficult in Mexico as my grandfathers worked whatever jobs were available. My grandmothers were homemakers, taking care of the family at home. Hence, my father only completed elementary education through the third grade so that he could work and assist his family financially. He read the newspaper daily and could engage in political conversations and debates with anyone. Now, imagine being nine years old and dropping out of school to take on an important matter that adults are tasked to take. Unfortunately, this still occurs in many parts of Latin America and around the world.

My father returned to Hualahuises and married my mother in 1970. They immigrated to McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, a location close enough to their homes but most importantly a location they thought would provide a “better life.” Soon after, my sister and I were born in McAllen and we all settled in Donna, a smaller town 12 miles from McAllen. It was in Donna where I did all of my K–12 education. At that time there was only one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school; now there are multiples of each. During my school-aged years, my father worked at a local cannery in Donna while my mother worked at a local cannery in San Carlos and then as a custodian at the local Headstart in Donna.

Early Schooling. I was raised in a Spanish-speaking environment as Spanish was my parents’ native language. My mother has always been a wise woman (as all Latina women are!) and a strong supporter of education. Thus, she took it upon herself to enroll me and my sister in the Donna Headstart preschool program. I spent one year in Headstart while my sister spent two given that she was a year younger than me. I only remember a few things about that year. I remember a field trip where I sprained my ankle, and singing while the teacher played the piano. I also remember watching a world slowly spin on the television screens, which years later I discovered was the intro to the soap opera As the World Turns that our teacher would watch while we were (supposed to be) napping.

From kindergarten through second grade, I was in bilingual education with bilingual teachers, perfecting Spanish and learning English. Developing into a dual-language speaker was helped by my immersion in Spanish at home and in English while in school. In third grade, I encountered my first full-blown English-speaking class—I say this since Ms. Turner only spoke English. I remember initially being frightened that Ms. Turner only spoke English, since I had felt comfortable with my bilingual teachers knowing that if needed to I could combine Spanish and English to communicate my thoughts. And thus I would frame English sentences with proper grammar in my mind before I approached Ms. Turner. Eventually this practice went away and the third grade was the best year of all my K–12 years. What made that year great was that we did so much “active learning,” to put it in today’s pedagogical use of words. In Ms. Turner’s class we sang and danced to songs by the Beatles; we built a western town out of construction paper and straws and I was designated “sheriff ”; and we built a vegetable garden whose produce we ate at an end-of-school year Hawaiian celebration, which was where I discovered that I didn’t like radishes.

In terms of mathematics, this was the grade where we learned the multiplication tables. Ms. Turner would provide us with a new set of flashcards each time we mastered learning the multiples of a set of numbers. Most importantly, I learned that I was good at spelling. Ms. Turner would line up the class in the front of the classroom and provide each of us a word to spell orally. If we missed it once, we were out. I kept missing words and wanted to advance and also win first prize. One day I noticed Ms. Turner reading words from the back of our spelling book during our spelling orals. So I went home and studied the words and specifically remember being given the word “different” to spell to which I remembered not to forget the first “e.” After that I won every oral spelling competition and brought home many prizes, one of which was a spider plant!

I grew up in a low-income family and mom always made it a point to tell us that she could buy us any food (minus candy) we wanted or educational materials, but not toys as they were reserved for birthdays and Christmas. So as a child I would request mathematics workbooks from our local grocery store, which allowed me to practice and learn mathematics.

Middle school years. Middle School turned out to be a fun time. In eighth grade, I studied algebra for the first time, but I found it to be difficult as the teacher didn’t explain the concepts very well. During one weekend, I remember that my friends and I didn’t understand a concept associated with a word problem. Some of my friends asked their parents for help since they had taken algebra in college; mind you this was a small minority. When my mother saw me struggling she immediately called her friend in Hualahuises who was a mathematics teacher. Guess what? We hopped on a bus that Saturday morning and made the four-hour ride to Hualahuises where Maestra Armandina devoted her afternoon to helping me learn algebra. Wow! Every time that I look back at this instance, I am in awe at my mother’s courage and determination to help me succeed. Although she may not have taken algebra, she showed me that it is not impossible to learn and that there is always a way. The following day I explained the solution to my friends.

High school years. Having thought that I was weak in algebra, I decided to first take Geometry in ninth grade. I enjoyed the class as Mr. Frazier taught us to prove properties about angles, parallel lines, congruency, and other topics by using a two-column table format. Then came tenth grade and I enrolled in Algebra 2, which I feared. However, Mr. Miller taught us very well and I attended morning tutoring sessions to make sure that I understood the material well. Later I took Precalculus in eleventh grade, and in twelfth grade I took Calculus with Ms. Mendiola who turned out to be an exemplary teacher and who prepared me so well that I earned an “A” in first-semester Calculus I at University of Texas at Austin. In fact, my strong high school preparation meant my first year in college was manageable and doable.

During high school, I learned to “Take the Initiative,” which is what I now tell my students. In order to graduate high school with honors, one needed to take five honors classes, but you needed to pass a standardized test in order to enroll; note that AP courses or dual-enrollment courses were not available then. I was not good at taking standardized tests. I spoke to my mom about this issue, and she advised me to talk with the counselor. So that summer before eleventh grade when registering for classes, I took it upon myself to talk with the counselor. I mentioned that I could do the work of an honors class and I could obtain As in the classes and hence do better than some of the students who had tested in, but had gotten Cs. The counselor looked at my past grades and was surprised as to why I had not been in the honors courses. All said, I had to take five honors classes in two years to graduate with honors. And I did. I enrolled in the honors courses English III, English IV, Spanish 3 (yes there was a lot of Spanish to learn!), Government, Marine Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and Calculus, and thus I graduated with honors in the top 1% of the class, which had approximately 350 students.

During high school I decided to participate in the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Spelling competition since I was good at spelling. We were provided with a booklet of over 1000 words to memorize and we competed locally in preparation for the District meet. I did very well. When I had trouble remembering the spelling of words, I would pronounce the word as if it were in Spanish as Spanish has only five vowel sounds, whereas English has five vowels, but with multiple sounds making it tricky to distinguish, for example, between a long “a” and a short “a” and everything else in between. So Spanish was a tool that I used to memorize the spelling of some challenging English words. I did very well placing in the top three in District every year and making it to Regionals to compete in San Antonio, but I never placed in the top three as it was tough.

In tenth grade we travelled with the UIL Typing team to San Antonio and I learned that no one had ever placed in the top three in a UIL State meet and the UIL Typing sponsor was eager for someone to do it; overhearing their conversation, I learned that the students were typing 45–55 words/minute with 0–2 errors. Wow! I had taken a typing course in middle school and I was typing 60 words/ minute with errors. That is when I learned that students who competed at the UIL State meet were eligible to apply for a UIL college scholarship. So you can imagine what I did! I enrolled in a typing course in eleventh grade to be eligible to compete in UIL. I was earning first prizes throughout the local competitions until we got to the last practice where I dropped to second place. All of this time I hadn’t quite paid attention to the advice from my UIL Typing sponsor, Ms. Medrano. She had advised me to seek a consistent typing pattern and hence I began to practice quickly. All told, I achieved second place at the UIL State meet at UT-Austin, becoming the first individual to place at the State level from Donna High School. Today these typing skills have certainly helped me greatly in writing grant proposals, research papers, letters of recommendations for students, and answering emails. These UIL trips to San Antonio and Austin were the first I had taken away from my family and away from the Valley. They opened my eyes to the rest of Central Texas.

During two high school summers, I enrolled in the Texas PreFreshmen Engineering Program (TexPREP) at our then regional university, Pan American University, which is now part of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I met many peers who became good friends and I took classes such as Logic, Computer Science, Engineering, and Physics, which helped me understand a bit more of what an engineering career entailed. In addition, one summer I decided to take on a part-time job where I worked as a shoe department clerk (for one month) and as a cashier in a grocery store. I took these jobs as I didn’t know what awaited me in college especially since I would be a first-generation college student. I didn’t actually know if I wanted to go to college. After these jobs and TexPREP, I figured I’d go to college to become a high school mathematics teacher.

College Years

I will change direction here for a moment. UT and the city of Austin opened up my eyes to a different culture. No longer was I, a Latina, in the majority as I was in the Valley. Now I knew what it meant to be in the “minority.” There were few Latinos in Austin, few Latino professors at UT, and few Latino students studying careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). This was a shock to me. In addition, I met new Latino friends who spoke little Spanish, but it shouldn’t have shocked me as they were multi-generational Latinos while I was first-generation Mexican-American. Moreover, I also learned that I had grown up in a low-income family as I compared myself to others. All of this time growing up in the Valley, I thought I was middle-class. Probably because my parents had bought a 25-year old home when I was in first grade and paid it off within four years (something my mother is extremely proud of!); because we had food on the table although we did ask our neighbor for a loan of $50 every now and then to make do with the week’s expenses; because on a few occasions we purchased new furniture and clothes using the store’s lay-away plan; and because compared with my cousins in Mexico we were doing financially better. There is no shame in being low-income, and I take great pride in the fact that my parents instilled in us the diligence of a strong work ethic and honesty along with “living within your means” to avoid debt, to pay back any loans in the event you needed to ask the same individual for a new loan, and to financially plan ahead. My siblings practice these ideals and are very successful in their own careers.

The following academic year, 1993–1994, was my senior year at UT-Austin and there was a lot I had to do. In fall 1993, I applied to applied mathematics graduate programs across the nation and I also applied for fellowships. It was a demanding semester, but I knew I needed to give my all. Since I had only one shot at the applications and fellowships, I did not seek part-time work that semester and instead took out a loan. In addition, I also attended the SACNAS conference where Mónica introduced me to Dr. Juan Meza from Sandia National Laboratory and by the end of the conference I had secured a summer internship at Sandia! My efforts that fall semester paid off, and I got accepted to the Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAAM) department at Rice University and I received a three-year Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. I was elated! And thus I spent the next five years at Rice University and in 2000 I received my PhD in CAAM.

To summarize, I had met many Latino mathematicians during my college years who mentored me, who continue to assist me in my career and who have become friends and family. Much of these efforts were attributed to “taking the initiative” and meeting them and learning about opportunities.

Graduate School Years

My first year at Rice was smooth and I attribute it to the preparation that UT gave me. I was used to studying late into the night, working on proofs and perfecting them, and just plain working hard. I studied with friends and we quizzed ourselves on the material. I was doing well until I had a moment of truth. I was probably in my second year of graduate studies when I walked into Dr. Tapia’s office telling him that I wasn’t sure how I could be working behind a computer doing applied mathematics while people in other parts of the world were struggling to live day by day. So his advice was to integrate community service into one’s career to start making positive changes. And thus I have done exactly that in broadening STEM participation to women and underrepresented minorities. At Rice, I was a tutor at a local middle school and I served as a mentor to other students. I was nominated by Dr. Tapia for the Rice Volunteer award, which I received.

If you were a part of Dr. Tapia’s research group, you quickly learned about the “Torture Chamber,” the place where you presented your research work only to be critiqued and questioned by your peers regarding the material. It actually sounds worse than it really was. My peers and I presented our work many times, more than I remember. But think about it like this: questioning is good, as it helps you develop into a researcher and it provides you with opportunities to cement your work, understand it better, and develop new directions of research. In my third year of graduate studies, Dr. Yin Zhang became my PhD advisor (with Dr. Tapia as a co-advisor) for my research work in optimization. Throughout graduate school, Dr. Tapia became my mentor, and throughout my professional career, he has become a colleague, friend, and family.

There were few Latino graduate students across Rice and as a result we got to know each other and became friends. The CAAM department was very diverse in terms of Latino, Black, and female representation. Friday afternoon meetings with Dr. Tapia’s group meant discussing not only research, but also social/educational justice issues, too. And it also meant having a better understanding of my friends who were Black, Brown, White, and all colors in between. During those meetings we shared our upbringing experiences and respected each others’ opinions. Sure, some discussions were tough and emotional, but we learned from each other.

In summer 1999, I defended my dissertation successfully. My CAAM peers and friends attended and provided much support. Actually, several of my friends and I defended our doctoral dissertation within days of each other. So what do you do when you accomplish something great? You go to Disney World!

Professional Career

As a tenured professor at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), I teach mathematics classes. I work with colleagues in electrical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics to model application problems using optimization and optimal control. I also collaborate with colleagues on improving STEM education, and providing service to the department, university, local community, and to the mathematics profession. I am the founding director of the Center of Excellence in STEM Education, which focuses on broadening STEM participation of women and underrepresented minorities, especially that of Latinos, and preparing them for their careers or graduate studies. Our Center was one of three funded nationwide and I am extremely proud of that accomplishment. In addition, I collaborate with colleagues on grant proposals, research publications, teaching initiatives to improve student success, and service activities. I enjoy my job. And I am passionate about preparing the next generation of students to become leaders in academia, government, and industry.

In 2015, I was appointed Interim Director of the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences to transition two mathematics departments into one department consisting of 45 tenure-track/tenured faculty and 25 lecturers to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I was the first Latina and the first woman to serve as department chair in the history of both departments. During my two-year period as chair, I hired a total of nine tenure-track faculty, effectively increasing the number of Latino faculty by 66% and the number of women faculty by 40%. Given these large increases it is important to ask the base value; that is, the original numbers of Latinos and women on the faculty. I can tell you that it was merely a handful or less for each group.

Concluding Advice

As you’ve noticed I’ve had mentors during my school and college years, however these mentors have also extended to my professional career providing guidance and advise. And so I end by asking you to “Take the Initiative!” and knock on doors. Take things a step at a time, but look five steps ahead. Be proud of your heritage and hold your head high. And finally I couldn’t leave without stating: Do well in Mathematics!

Thank you to the editors of Testimonios for bringing these narratives to us.

Dr. Pamela E. Harris is a Mexican-American mathematician and Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Williams College. She received her AA and AS from Milwaukee Area Technical College, BS from Marquette University, and MS and PhD in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Dr. Pamela E. Harris’s research is in algebraic combinatorics and she is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed research articles in internationally recognized journals. An award-winning mathematical educator, Dr. Harris received the 2020 MAA Northeast Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching, the 2019 MAA Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member, the 2019 Council on Undergraduate Research Mathematics and Computer Sciences Division Early Career Faculty Mentor Award, was named a 2020 Inaugural Class of Karen EDGE Fellow, and was one of 50 women featured in the book Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics. Her professional mission is to develop learning communities that reinforce students’ self-identity as scientists, in particular for women and underrepresented minorities. In support of this mission, Dr. Harris co-organizes research symposia and professional development sessions for the national conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and is an editor of the e-Mentoring Network blog of the American Mathematical Society. Moreover, in order to provide visibility to and increase the positive impact of the role models within our community, Dr. Harris co-founded Lathisms.org, a platform that features the contributions of Latinx and Hispanic scholars in the mathematical sciences. She cohosts the podcast “Mathematically Uncensored,” sponsored by The Center for Minorities in the Mathematical Sciences, and has recently coauthored the book Asked And Answered: Dialogues On Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics.

Dr. Alicia Prieto-Langarica is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Youngstown State University. She obtained the Distinguished Professor designation in May 2020, after being awarded the distinguished professor award in Research, Teaching and Service. She received her Undergraduate degree in applied mathematics from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2008 and her PhD from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2012. Prieto-Langarica’s research is in the intersection of mathematics and biology, specifically problems related to the medical field. Recently she started conducting research in data science, public policy and mathematics education. Some of her awards include the MAA Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member, the 2020 SmithMurphy Award by the Student Government Association at YSU, the Athena Award Finalist by the Mahoning Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, and The 25 Under 35 Mahoning Valley Young Professionals MVP award.

Dr. Vanessa Rivera Quiñones is a mathematical biologist with a passion for telling stories through numbers using mathematical models, data science, and education. Born in Puerto Rico, her love for mathematics began at an early age and continued to grow thanks to the encouragement of her family, teachers, and the support of many mentors. She received her bachelor’s (BS) degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras (2013) and her doctoral degree (2019) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in mathematics. She has been involved in several organizations and initiatives that focus on broadening the participation and mentoring of underrepresented students in mathematics. In 2015, she was awarded the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, which seeks to diversify colleges and universities. She is a proud member of multiple national organizations such as the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), SACNAS, American Mathematical Society (AMS), Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences. She believes mathematics is a human endeavor and that by creating inclusive and equitable environments that embrace the identities of who does mathematics, our community will flourish. Currently, she is a data science consultant and instructor. At the next step of her career, she is interested in working on the ever-growing challenges of sustainability, healthcare, and education through a social justice lens.

Dr. Luis Sordo Vieira is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at The University of Florida. He is a Venezuelan American Applied Mathematician with scientific experience broadly described as being in the area of systems medicine. He completed his Bachelor of Science from Wayne State University in mathematics, minoring in physics, and his PhD in number theory from the University of Kentucky as a National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellow. He has served in the Lathisms leadership team since 2019. Dr. Sordo Vieira has served in the organizing committee for The Mathematics Summer Workshop for Achieving Greater Graduate Educational Readiness, a program to prepare students from underrepresented minorities in mathematics for graduate studies. He is a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Science Policy Fellow and received the American Mathematical Society Simons Foundation Travel Grant.

Dr. Rosaura Uscanga Lomelí was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. at the age of 11, so she considers herself a Mexican-American. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences at Mercy College (as of Fall 2021). Her research area lies in mathematics education, specifically in the teaching and learning of abstract algebra. She completed her PhD at Oklahoma State University in 2021. Her dissertation explored students’ thinking regarding the concept of “function” in the context of abstract algebra. She received her BS in mathematics from The University of Texas at Arlington in 2012 and her MS in mathematics from Oklahoma State University in 2015. Dr. Uscanga is passionate about teaching and enjoys working with students—one of the reasons she decided to study mathematics education. She strives to make sure students in her classroom feel a sense of belonging and view themselves positively in relation to mathematics. She is extremely interested in issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in mathematics.

Dr. Andrés R. Vindas Meléndez is a Costa Rican-American mathematician, raised in Lynwood, South East Los Angeles, California. He is a first-generation college graduate and is currently a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellow. He completed his PhD at the University of Kentucky where he was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and by a National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to Doctorate Fellowship. At the University of Kentucky he was also an affiliated graduate student in the Latin American Studies program and earned a graduate certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino/a Studies. He earned a master’s degree in mathematics at San Francisco State University and completed his undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley where he also minored in Philosophy and Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies. His research interests are in algebraic, enumerative, and geometric combinatorics. In particular, he is interested in lattice-point enumeration for polyhedra. Dr. Vindas Meléndez’s teaching, service, and outreach is student-centered. He has the opportunity to help guide students to learn abstract mathematics and find their voice while also developing a sense of ownership of their knowledge and mathematical abilities. Dr. Vindas Meléndez strives to create community in order to build students’ confidence in spite of society’s negative messages and stigma about mathematics. He also aims to build meaningful and empowering experiences with mathematics, while also challenging others to think about the power structures that are present in and outside mathematical spaces.