Office Hours

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi, everybody. My name is Giselle Kowalski, and I'm the podcast producer here at Texas State University. You're listening to Office Hours. And today, I'm here with Andrea. How are you, Andrea?

Andrea Hernandez:
I'm good. How are you?

Giselle Kowalski:
Good. This was your first Office Hours podcast. So who did you talk to and how did it go?

Andrea Hernandez:
I spoke to Dr. Aimee Villarreal, and it was really great. She shared how her roots and culture influenced the way she teaches. And it really made me think about how our background can help us create spaces where other people can feel seen. And she also gave a voice to very similar feelings I've been having about embracing identity.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's beautiful. That conversation was wonderful to listen to in the podcast studio as well. So I hope listeners can resonate with it. So please enjoy this conversation with Andrea and Dr. Aimee Villarreal.

Andrea Hernandez:
Welcome, Dr. Aimee Villarreal, to the Office Hours podcast. For anyone who hasn't met you yet, can you tell us a little bit about what you teach here at Texas State and how long you've been here?

Aimee Villarreal:
Sure. Thank you so much for inviting me. I teach courses related to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. I teach courses related to any field of anthropology, just the intro course. Also, graduate courses in anthropological theory. And also, my favorite course to teach, of course, is Mexican American culture, which I'm teaching right now.

Andrea Hernandez:
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Here at Office Hours, we like to start off with a little icebreaker. So for you, what's something that you're really into right now, like a TV show, hobby?

Aimee Villarreal:
Oh, well, I have been playing Son Jarocho music, which is the root music of mariachi. And I play the jarana and I also sing. And I used to be part of a Son Jarocho group called Tallercito de Son, but now we're just playing on our own. I'm also into "Wednesday," that series. That's like how I just relax and spend my time with my daughter, watching "Wednesday."

Andrea Hernandez:
Yeah, that's really popular on Netflix right now. Talk to us a little bit about your background. I know you grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What was that like and what did you picture for your future? What did you want to be? And how did your background shape that?

Aimee Villarreal:
Well, I think it really is fundamental to what I chose to do because Santa Fe in New Mexico, unlike other places, the indigenous presence is very visible. And so I grew up between Santa Fe and my mom's ancestral Pueblo. So I had feast days in the Pueblos my whole life. I had a lot of cultural traditions that I practiced with Pueblo communities. And so I was steeped in Pueblo culture and also, Nuevo Mexicano culture. What was interesting to me is that even though I was in this milieu of a lot of cultural diversity, in school, I didn't learn much about it. And so that is a disjuncture for me and something that I had questions about like, "Who am I? What's my identity? Are we Mexican? Are we indigenous?" And I always had a lot of questions and I never got good answers. I never got clear answers. And I think it's because things were really muddled and there was a lot of wanting to forget or renaming yourself in order to acculturate to U.S. society. And so I wanted to know more.

Andrea Hernandez:
I'm really glad that you brought up identity. And a lot of students ask themselves, "Who am I? And do I fit into this one mold or this bubble?" Was there a moment for you in high school or early college that shifted that narrative for you towards education and research to what you do now?

Aimee Villarreal:
Yes, absolutely. I was young. I think I was studying New Mexico history in middle school, and we read the novel by Rudolfo Anaya called Bless Me, Ultima. And this novel is about a young boy who's searching for his own identity. It's set in New Mexico. And it was the first time that I ever saw myself and my community in literature or anything that we had studied in school. And it was at that point that I was like, "Our stories are meaningful." This place that I've always thought was marginal could actually be beautiful and could be poetic and could be told in this beautiful story that reminded me of my abuela, my grandmother, reminded me of my tios and tias, my aunts and uncles, and the landscapes that I knew growing up. And that was the moment that I thought, "I want to do something like that. I want to contribute in some way like Rudolfo Anaya did."

Andrea Hernandez:
Yeah. That's really inspiring. I know it's really important for anyone to just see themselves represented in media. And you actually discussed this in an interview once. You spoke about how the grand narrative of American history often creates a historical amnesia, leaving out complexities of multiracial revolutions. You also acknowledged that this erasure occurs partly because of language and that it's important for young people of Mexican American descent to see positive representations of themselves and their communities and schools. So a lot of Texas State students are bicultural and bilingual. How can that strength be not just in class, but in research and creative projects?

Aimee Villarreal:
Oh, this is really an important question. And I'm going to give you an example from our own department, which is the Forensics Anthropology department. And I actually serve on a lot of the dissertation and thesis committees of students who are in forensics. That's not my field, but they are in the OpID program. So their goal is to identify missing persons, people who have died either crossing or close to the border. And many of these students were immigrants themselves recently that have been doing this work. They speak Spanish very well. They understand migrant experience, and they're motivated by their own personal experience of migration. And I think they hold that in their heart.
And it motivates them to try to find these families, to reconnect. And it was because of their own personal story, their bilingual talents, their understanding culturally of what it is like in Latin America, how those systems work, how to relate to families in a sensitive way. And this is what we are trying to do as anthropologists and really connect internationally and really do a service to people. And that's why being bilingual, having that cultural background, having that experience is so important and can actually make so much difference in the world through anthropology, but through any other kind of science or social science.

Andrea Hernandez:
Thank you so much for that example. I'm going to have to definitely look into that. I wanted to go back to your education. I know you earned your bachelor's degree in psychology and the arts from New Mexico State University, and then went to pursue your master's and Ph.D. So what led you specifically to anthropology? I know you've discussed this in your background, but specifically to teach anthropology?

Aimee Villarreal:
Oh, that was a long and meandering path. I was lucky enough that I could run pretty fast and I was able to get a track scholarship to New Mexico State. And when you're an athlete, they push you into certain majors that are "supposed to be easy." Well, psychology is not easy, but I really loved it. My mother is a high school counselor. And so I grew up with psychobabble in my household. So I was drawn to psychology. I also double majored in Spanish because even though I could understand my grandparents who spoke Spanish and my community members, I couldn't produce it. I didn't have the vocabulary. I was ashamed and I thought, "Well, the only way to get over that is to learn Spanish in an academic way."
And through this program, I was able to go on exchange at the Tec de Monterrey. And I actually took my first anthropology courses in Mexico. I took cultural anthropology and I also took archaeology. And it was so amazing because you actually get to go to places like Teotihuacan and some of the amazing great ruins they had. So that really got me interested in cultural anthropology.
And I finished and I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. It is very scary to leave the university and not have a path. And I think you forge your own path. I guess it was Gloria Anzaldúa who said, "Camine, por que la calle se hace caminando. Your path will emerge as you walk." I didn't know how to teach Spanish or even teach English. And so I thought, "Well, I better get a master's degree." So I went to UTSA and I got my master's in bicultural bilingual studies. And then I started teaching. I started teaching ESL, English as a second language in the community college there at Palo Alto College. Then from there, it was another meandering path, going to get a master's in anthropology and then continuing with the Ph.D. And even though I had a meandering path, I am appreciative of every stop that I made because I learned something everywhere I went.

Andrea Hernandez:
What you said earlier about caminan, just keep walking, reminded me of what my grandpa used to tell me when I was younger. He would always say, "Caminan... que nunca se te cierra el mundo. Never let the world close in on you." And you really did apply that to your college journey. You really held onto your culture. Even though you didn't necessarily grow up speaking Spanish, but you were really influenced by your family.
You talked a little bit about your research and how it looks at sanctuary and social movements in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. If I'm not an anthropology major, how would you explain what you study and research and why it matters here in Texas?

Aimee Villarreal:
Yeah, it's where you feel most at home. So that idea is actually a human universal. We all need to feel somewhere where we feel a sanctuary, where we feel like we are safe, where we feel that we are at home, that we're cared for. And not all people have that. And it's a privilege to have a place to call home. And so my book is about home places. It's about how people who are living in trying times under hardship, displacement, or other kinds of crisis, how they recreate home with other people through social movements for rights, recognition, and justice.

Andrea Hernandez:
What would you say is your sanctuary?

Aimee Villarreal:
Oh, yeah. My sanctuary definitely is with my family, with my daughter, Luna, and my partner, Steph, and, of course, the place where I grew up, where my heart will always be, and that's Santa Fe. Its food, its people, its history, its landscape, and, of course, its beautiful sunsets.

Andrea Hernandez:
I've never been. I would have to visit one day.

Aimee Villarreal:
You definitely should. Bienvenida. You can come stay at my house.

Andrea Hernandez:
Thank you. For students listening right now, what do you want them to feel when they step into your class at Texas State?

Aimee Villarreal:
I want them to feel like they're in their sanctuary. I want them to feel safe, but also, I want them to feel challenged. I want them to feel inspired, and I want them to feel like they can use their talents in creative and new ways. We do a lot of interactive projects in which students have to talk to each other and do a little bit of group work and the artwork that my students have produced from my classes. Most of it adorning my office right now. I have a whole gallery now in my office. The reason I got into being a professor doing what I do is because I love teaching. It's just such an honor and privilege to do what I do. And that's what I hope to create in my class, a little sanctuary scape for a little while, where you can un baile inolvidable, like Bad Bunny says-

Andrea Hernandez:
I love that song.

Aimee Villarreal:
... I love it too, that you have a little dance here for a while, but it's unforgettable.

Andrea Hernandez:
Thank you for that. You definitely have a very calming presence. So I'm sure students feel that. My last question for you is, if your college self could interview you today, what's the first question she'd ask and how would you answer?

Aimee Villarreal:
Why are you so hard on yourself? I was so hard on myself as an undergrad. I thought I had to be perfect. I was so worried that I wasn't doing the right thing or gaining the right knowledge. I was one of those type A students trying to make sure that I got all my things in order. And I should have had more fun. I wish I would've relaxed more and just talked to my peers and gone to the coffee shop and just lived life with them. We were young and we had so much to share. But I was so focused on my studies and on sports and just the schedule and the run around that I didn't do enough of that so much so that my sister was there with me. She's a year younger than me, and she made all kinds of friends and did all kinds of social things, and she asked me, "Do you remember this person? Do you remember that person?" And I can't remember because I wasn't present.

Andrea Hernandez:
We need to slow down.

Aimee Villarreal:
Absolutely.

Andrea Hernandez:
Well, thank you so much, Dr. Aimee Villarreal, for being here today. You were wonderful.

Aimee Villarreal:
Thank you for the invitation, Andrea.

Andrea Hernandez:
Thank you for listening to this episode of Office Hours. We hope you enjoyed this conversation. And make sure to tune in next time to learn more about the experiences of our amazing Texas State faculty. Also, remember to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at TXST. This podcast is a production of the division of marketing and communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the host and the guests, not of Texas State University. Once again, I'm Andrea, and I'll see you next time. Bye.