Martha Gonzalez has been a woman that follows her passions in life and works hard to get where she wants to be after growing up very independently. One of those passions has been her music. She has come to see music as a powerful tool for empowerment of her community and has developed her artistic side as part of a group called Quetzal, alongside her husband who started the band. More than a job, for her it has been her passion and a way to create change within the Latino community and how music is viewed in terms of gender. It is this part of her life that has led her to now become a college professor in the Chicano Studies Interdisciplinary Department at Pomona College with a focus on music and gender. However, she did not always feel as strongly about music before joining her band,

Martha Gonzales was born and raised in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood with Los Angeles, California. She was one of three siblings that grew up being very close-knit with the entire family. Although Gonzalez went through certain hardships that caused a gap between her father and the rest of her family when she was young, Gonzalez’ music influence came from her father. He raised her to believe that “el compositor es el compositor, la cantante es la cantante [the composer is the composer, the singer is the singer]”. Although she enjoyed listening to music, she disliked the portrayal of women in the music world. Gonzalez opposed the idea that female singers had to have a “sexy” image to attract an audience, perform for others, and that they sang whatever was thrown at them. Gonzalez thought music lacked the presence of strong outspoken female singers that inspired her to go into the music world.

Yet, it was until she was twenty-three that she was introduced to a whole new type of music. She was told about being part of the band Quetzal. Although Gonzalez thought she would be a back-up singer, she ended up being the lead singer of the band and it was then that she learned more about the different aspects of music: composing songs, the meanings of music, and the social impact music can have on a community. They wrote songs varying from topics like important Mexican figures such as Emiliano Zapata and Comandante Ramona to events like the Chicano Movement.

Unknowingly, Gonzalez had great success with Quetzal, which led to a Grammy. However, through many interviews about the band and their music, Gonzalez wanted more than being interviewed. She decided it was time that the artist talked about their own music without interviewers structuring or prepping the interview for their own purposes. This led Martha to her most recent job as a professor after finishing graduate school. She wanted to show the issue of gender in music, the power of music for social change in the community, and the relevance of music in Latino history. Alongside her professional career, Gonzalez, along with Quetzal, have created workshops for Latino communities to show how music can be a way to channel feelings, deal with hardships, create music, and see it as a social tool.

After a distasteful exposure to music during her youth, Martha found her passion for music and its impact through Quetzal, which then led to her other profession as a professor. Having been independent since her childhood, she worked hard all throughout her life to achieve all her success in the music industry, academia, and in her social work; success that has taught her to see how her mindset and determination got her to where she is now.

Music is a tool. Music is a tool (slower/reflective tone). Either way you look at it. It can be a tool to make a whole lot of money right or it can be a tool to build community. It can be a tool to destroy communities, but either way it’s an important tool you know? It all depends on how you use it.

Currently, Mireya Bastida works as part of the housekeeping staff at Pomona College. She is happy with the working conditions at the college and the benefits she obtains from her job. Additionally, she enjoys the good co-worker relationships with the other staff and on occasion they gather to celebrate holidays or simply have a get-together. Bastida is at a point in her life where she is happy with her work, her relationship with her family, and herself as a woman. While this is the case, she has always strived to live a life as an independent, strong, family-oriented woman with a job that allows for her to do so.

Bastida was born and raised in Nayarit, Mexico. She is among a group of twelve siblings that were raised cultivating their family’s land along with their father while their mother tended to all the housework. Growing up, and even now, she is very close-knit with her siblings. However, she struggled with some family hardships that drove her to want to make a change in her life in regards to her life choices and her own family. While she loved her family, she did realize the difference in opportunities for the males and females in the house. She was not allowed to go to school with her brothers and was expected to help out with house chores, cultivating lands, and/or anything else her parents needed help with. In her family relations, while she was very close with her siblings and parents, it was hard for them to sometimes express their love to her and she was influenced to make a change. Through those childhood experiences Bastida grew up having to be more independent and decided she wanted to live a more autonomous life in which she could choose how she wanted to live her life.

Therefore, when she was around twenty, she migrated to the United States to have a better life not only for herself, but for the daughter she was pregnant with at the time. At first, Bastida worked in factories where she ended up meeting her husband, who she now has two other daughters with. Throughout her life, Bastida has always worked in various occupations with her longest job being her current position at Pomona College. More than the benefits of the job itself, Bastida has enjoyed what work has been able to do for her in her personal life. Although she is happy with her marriage and her family, Bastida has talked with her husband about the importance for her to feel that she can still be independent and not depend on him for money or anything else. Being at her current job allows her to earn enough to sustain herself and her family. Furthermore, it gives her that feeling of being independent and strong while still being a good mom and giving her family the love she knew her parents had for her, but didn’t always express to her.

Although it has sometimes been hard to manage the things in her life, she has reached a point in which she feels very happy with her hard work and the accomplishments in her life. Now with her three daughters, she hopes to see them work as hard as she has to reach their goals in life in their personal and professional lives. To live life with a good job and as independent women, but to also remember to raise their future families with love and with enough time to do so.

A mí me gusta que mis hijas sean independientes. Así como yo fui yo quisiera que mis hijas fueran porque hemos agarrado ayuda psicológica de parejas y de familia. Yo he aprovechado a veces esas ayudas que ahí aquí en el colegio y si hemos ido a terapia de eso. Yo creo que me ha ayudado mucho eso. Y misma la psicóloga me dijo que yo creo que yo fui criada de una manera que siempre fui independiente. Que no necesitaba de nadie. Si necesito pero tal vez no lo demuestro. Entonces yo problemas que he tenido con mi esposo o algo yo siempre le he dicho yo no necesito. Si estás aquí conmigo estas porque somos pareja pero no porque yo necesito que me mantengas ni que tu necesites que dependes de mi sino que a mí me gusta que tú seas independiente. Y con mis hijas también siempre les he dicho de que tienen que ser independientes

by Karla Itzel Molina

Since he was small, Miguel Segura knew what having to work hard to progress in life meant. He saw and experienced what it meant to live in poverty, but used that as his motivation to work hard in life to make a change in his future and that of his family later in his life. During his childhood in the 1960’s, Segura and his three siblings at the time, lived in Jalisco, Mexico with other relatives and family friends while his parents traveled constantly across the border to the United States under the Bracero Program. Although at the time he felt the emotional hardship of having to separate form his parents constantly, he learned the meaning of working hard to maintain someone’s family through the hardships his parents faced under the Bracero Program.

However, at the age of thirteen, Segura along with his siblings migrated to the United States to rejoin his parents in the state of California. His family traveled constantly depending on the agricultural seasons and the work available in the fields. After some time, his family permanently resided in Los Angeles, California where Segura went to school and also looked for several jobs as a student to help his family economically. At the age of fourteen Segura obtained a work permit through his high school and worked as a sweeper/cleaner for a contractor’s clothing factory. Part of his duties included sweeping, cleaning the factory machines, throwing the trash. He acquired other part-time jobs, but it was his schooling that influenced him in what we wanted to do in the long run.

Segura did not only value hard work at his jobs, but also in school. During the 1960s and 1970s, there was still segregation in schools and violence in his neighborhood as a consequence of such tensions. Despite the pressures to leave school, Segura always has a strong inclination toward school and progressing through the education he received. Part of this was instilled by his parents who would advocate for him to go to school and also by his teachers who were very encouraging. From among the various programs in his high school, Segura enjoyed carpentry and appreciated the help his teacher gave him throughout the program. This became the base for his interest in carpentry, which has led to his current and long-time job now in carpentry and additional skill sets as well. Segura works for a company that operates in several building taking care of the maintenance whether it is carpentry, plumbing, painting, etc. Through the years at his job Segura has become close to his bosses who have come to appreciate and treat him and his co-workers like family. This is due to their good employer-employee rapport and to their hard work and constant efforts to always do a good job in whatever task they are assigned.

Segura’s ideals on hard work and progress have not only influenced his schooling and occupation, but also the way he has raised his family. Along with his wife, they both raised four children, two daughters and two sons. Segura always taught them the value of hard work and getting an education. Currently, they are all in college but one who already graduated with a degree in chemistry with a focus on criminology. For Segura, his view on work, whether it be academic or in a job setting, has been his way to progress in his life doing what he enjoys. Furthermore, he has instilled it in his kids who demonstrate it in their lives through their pursue of an education and hard work in order to get there and reach their life goals.

Pienso que como todo padre pues queremos siempre lo mejor para sus hijos y pues nos esforzamos veces un poquito más de lo debido pero por sacar a la familia adelante. Y te enfocas y eso siempre sirve uno de padre para que los hijos [carro manejando] tengan menos problemas mientras están de la niñez a la adolescencia y de la adolescencia a se adulto. [Aclara la garganta] Siempre influye que l padre pues este disciplinado y tenga su trabajo y los saque adelante.