Office Hours

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi, everybody. My name is Giselle Kowalski and I'm the digital content producer here at Texas State University. You're listening to Office Hours and today I'm here with a new voice that you have not heard before, Nora.
Nora, what's up?

Nora Parkhurst:
Hello. I'm happy to be here.

Giselle Kowalski:
Awesome. I'm so happy that you're here too, because this was your first ever interview on Office Hours. How did it feel?

Nora Parkhurst:
It felt really good. I honestly was really proud of it. I felt like it was a really great conversation and I felt proud in the questions that I asked.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah, no, you did a great job and I'm so, so happy that you're on the team now. But you got to talk to Dr. Claude Bonazzo-Romaguera, who is also a Boricua, he's Puerto Rican, just like me. He teaches in the Sociology Department. He's the Director of the Latin Studies minor here at Texas State University, also an alum, also an instructor of mindfulness. That's a mouthful. So what did you take away from this conversation and what do you hope that listeners take away from this conversation?

Nora Parkhurst:
So he's just very wise, and I think my main takeaway was everything he said about being present and just allowing yourself to be. I feel, especially as a student who is constantly using technology and constantly on social media, I feel like I never really get opportunities to just be, and I've had similar situations with other students. And so everything he said about just being present and listening to your body and removing distractions, that was my main takeaway.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah. We hope you enjoy this conversation between Nora and Dr. Claude Bonazzo Romaguerra.

Nora Parkhurst:
So my icebreaker for you today is what are five things that make you happy?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
My family, coffee, my meditation practice, my study group, and then being alive.

Nora Parkhurst:
Good answer. OK. Could you introduce yourself please, and then tell us how long you've been teaching at Texas State University?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Yes. My name is Dr. Claude Bonazzo Romaguerra. I am a sociology professor. I've been teaching more than five years here at Texas State.

Nora Parkhurst:
Perfect, thank you. So you were born in Hato.

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Hato Rey.

Nora Parkhurst:
Hato Rey?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Yes.

Nora Parkhurst:
OK, thank you. You were born in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, and I wanted to know how living in both Puerto Rico and America has shaped you.

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
So when I was born in Puerto Rico, I lived there for 10 months, and then we moved to Houston, Texas, lived there for 10 years and I moved back to Puerto Rico. Then, we lived there for 10 years. I would say that there's a very big difference in terms of living in Texas particularly or even just in the United States, compared to Puerto Puerto. Back in Puerto Rico, it's more community oriented, whereas I would know some of the neighbors when I was younger in Houston, when I moved to Puerto Rico, we lived in an apartment building with 15 floors, four apartments for each floor and everybody knew everybody. We congregated together, we partied together, New Year's, Christmas. We even had held mass in the common area. I had people that took care of me. I had a doctor on the seventh floor. It was a really beautiful community. And so then after we moved from Puerto Rico back to Houston, it was almost like I tried to talk to the neighbors, but everybody just stays in their own thing. Nobody makes an effort to get to know each other.

Nora Parkhurst:
Yeah. Do you think that's influenced your teaching at all, 'cause you were talking about wanting to foster community and be there for your students? Do you think that's where that comes from?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Yeah, definitely. So I wanted students to be able to have a community similar to what they had back home, especially as being Director of Latino Studies. And I feel like students look for that. When I bring up this idea, they like it. They want to feel welcome, and it's just having them come together and then making that happen.

Nora Parkhurst:
I'm glad you brought up that you were the Director of Latino Studies. I wanted to ask if you could explain what that minor is and what a student who's studying that can expect.

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
It's an 18-credit hour minor. There's two required courses. Then, the rest are electives that you can take. It's a multidisciplinary minor, so you can take electives in psychology, you can take electives in criminology. You can not only tap into the intro class that we provide and then the second one on communities, but then you can kind of expand yourself and go into art, history and all of that kind of stuff and have more of an interdisciplinary approach to it.

Nora Parkhurst:
That's really cool. I'm looking at minors right now, so I might actually...

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Yay.

Nora Parkhurst:
Yeah. OK. So you are Director of Latino Studies and then you're also a mindfulness instructor and you start your classes with a mindfulness exercise. So I was curious, 'cause these are two things that you're passionate about, and I wanted to ask how both of those have impacted your life personally and then academically.

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
So years ago, I got sick and then I had surgeries. I had a lot of life interruptions and a lot of life difficulties. That's what brought me to mindfulness like this moment, particularly in graduate school at University of Texas, dealing with brain surgeries, muscle eye surgeries, my mom's illness and then eventual death, financial issues, having a newborn child and everything. And so it wasn't until I started having panic and anxiety attacks that I was like, "OK, this is..." And so I started visiting the counseling center at UT and that's where they introduced me to mindfulness and largely also breathing techniques. And I started to do those breathing and meditation techniques, and I started to see that I was feeling better and it was almost like I was learning how to become my own antidote to my issues, learning how to manage those anxieties and so on and so forth.

Nora Parkhurst:
I love that that you said that you kind of became your own antidote. And I have a question for you that I wanted to ask if you had any advice for students who might also be struggling with outside stressors in life and how they can kind of manage that while also be successful academically. Because I know you were having to do something similar, so how did you find that balance and then what advice do you have for students?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
So once I started to see that it was helpful, then I would do it off-and-on, do the meditation, sometimes I wouldn't do it. And then, more than 10 years ago, I made the commitment that I'm going to do it every day, and that can mean 1 minute, it could mean 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and now I'm up to 30 minutes a day. And I realized that when I take care of my mind and my well-being that I'm better service to others, family members and students, and things like that.
And then, it was during COVID and I could see the anxiousness and the exhaustion from the students, and I said, "Hey, I know we're all struggling through this situation. Do you want to do a mindfulness practice? It's one way to help us through this process," especially since I was teaching a class on death and dying, I figured that why don't we try it? And students loved it, even though we were doing it through Zoom. And I was like, "OK, this seems to be helpful." And then in my course evaluations, the students mentioned how helpful it was. So I was like, "Well, I'm going to continue doing this." And then when COVID stopped, I just continued it on.
And so for students balancing school, work, family, friends and all that, it can be a lot. You feel like you're pulled in different directions. So I think it's important to take care of your mind. Throughout your entire life, there's always going to be that dynamic of busyness, there's always going to be that dynamic of stress from family, friends, difficulties in life and so it's a product of living. It's a product of being a human, we go through these experiences. So you have to find what works for you to keep you settled, keep your mind settled, focused and ready to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish.
But sometimes we need to actually give ourselves space to just be, and I feel like we have a problem of always doing and not just being. And so if you give yourself some grace and self-compassion and you provide yourself a space of 5 minutes doing a meditation, whether that be, so a lot of the meditations, yes, there are formal sitting meditations, but there's also very active ones as well. And this is what we teach in the mindfulness class through the counseling center.

Nora Parkhurst:
Can you talk a little bit about the mindfulness class?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Yeah. So the mindfulness class is, it comes from the Mindfulness Institute of Emerging Adults, and it's a four-week course and we meet for an hour and 15 minutes. Essentially, we give you a lifetime access to an app. Each of those classes, we introduce you to a new mindfulness activity. We do breathing exercises, we do belly breathing, we do labeling thoughts meditation. We even do a walking meditation. It's incorporating a lot of the things that we already do and then training ourselves to be more mindful throughout the day.
So we also offer a weekly meditation meetup where you can just drop in 12:30, 474 at Trauth-Huffman Hall and it's just people who are engaged, people who want to come together as a community and want to just meditate together to kind of keep on task. So we meet every Wednesday at 12:30 to 1:00, and we meditate for about 10 minutes. And so the last meditation we did was a walking meditation.

Nora Parkhurst:
So you brought up living in both America and then Puerto Rico. I wanted to ask if you had any advice for Latina students who don't feel like they fit neatly into one specific identity and sort of how they can find which identity feels best for them?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
So this is something that we cover in my intro to LATS course and this idea of the Nepantla experience by Sergio Troncoso. He talks about this idea of being in-between spaces. All this is about being in somewhat of a liminal space of in-between, not quite being Puerto Rican enough, not quite American enough, maybe a no Sabo kid, maybe I know Spanish, maybe you don't, do I have an accent. We're always kind of in this in-between space and we feel like we have to just choose one or the other, but honestly, we can just be both. And so honor that, respect the fact that you have this in-between, it's not just one or the other. And then even in terms of different contexts, we change from one context to the next. That's just a natural part of life.
And so it's centered around largely the Mexican American experience. And we go in depth in the class, in the Intro to Latino Studies class, kind of unpacking what that means, what does it look like, what are some of the kinds of stressors, how sometimes even within our family, we don't feel Latino enough and then in certain American spaces, we don't feel American enough, and that's OK. You don't have to prove anything to anybody, just be who you are. We don't have to be anything, we just can be, whatever that is.

Nora Parkhurst:
Yeah, no, I was going to say that. That makes sense then that you're so passionate about both 'cause they do kind of pair together really nicely. I was curious if you could look back on your journey, is there anything you wish you'd done differently or even just done sooner?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
OK. Yeah, there's some things I would've liked to change, but I think the journey that I have has made me the person that I am today. So I will give you some ideas of what I would've liked to change. In high school, I was mostly stoned, sleeping through classes. I didn't really care about school. I was lazy. I almost didn't graduate from high school. And then in college, I smoked marijuana, I was out drinking. I really just didn't give a care. I did not care about school. And it wasn't until I had a brain tumor that made me realize, "Well, I'm really wasting my life. I really want to do something more productive." So I wish I would've invested more time in my early education in high school, so that I wouldn't have to struggle later on in college and then graduate school and things like that.
But I believe the things that I experienced through my childhood, my adolescence actually informs who I am today. So yes, there's a lot of things I wish I wouldn't have done, but I've learned. I think the important thing is, yes, you make mistakes, but if you take the time to learn from them, then it becomes a form of wisdom. And then when it becomes a form of wisdom, then you're able to share that with others.

Nora Parkhurst:
OK. I have one more question. How are you able to balance multiple different aspects of your life while also making time to take care of yourself? And then do you have advice for how students can do the same?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Again, I start with taking care of myself first, making a commitment to go to sleep. So then I wake up around 5:20, so that's one, just getting a good night's sleep and not getting stuck watching TikToks and even though I still do, but waking up. And again, I invest now 30 minutes of my time in terms of meditation. I do my meditation in the morning and then I'm not going to get to everything, but I can get things off the list and then it feels like I've accomplished something at least. Sometimes just getting out of bed and coming to campus is an accomplishment. And so balancing family life, again, I think the central thing for me is taking care of your mental health and well-being, investing in your mental health and well-being. And then you can manage stuff with students and what students are struggling because I feel like I can be a better educator when I am noticing my students when they're zoning out and I may have to dance or something or do something silly to wake them up, then I am paying attention.
And so just always paying attention throughout your day and doing your best 'cause when you invest that time every day, then you're a better service to students, you're a better service to your colleagues, your co-workers. And I guess one of the things that I've noticed over the years is people feel that vibe. My students will say it's a good vibe check. I don't know, it's just life becomes more joyful when you take care of yourself and then be of service to others, and that's what drives me. And that's like, if anything, when you're here at college, do something that makes you happy, do something that you find joy, that you can wake up every day and say, "Wow, I'm actually doing my dream," 'cause I'm living my dream right now, I'm teaching. This was my dream years ago after I finished my master's here at Texas State to come teach here and I'm living my dream. And yes, sometimes days will be really horrible and I'll be so exhausted and ill-prepared or whatever like that, that's fine sometimes because you are so happy about what you're doing, all that nonsense goes out the window.

Nora Parkhurst:
Thank you so much. That was a fantastic answer. Would you be comfortable, could we do a meditation here? Is there any one that you could do over the air for anybody listening?

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
So this one, this is again, whenever I would have these panic or anxiety attacks, I would go and listen to audio recordings of Dr. Andrew Weil, and he introduced the 4-7-8 breathing technique and he also taught me that we should be breathing more through our belly and not through our chest. And one of the techniques he talks about, and you can look it up online, the 4-7-8 breathing technique, is essentially you begin to exhale all the oxygen in your lungs, you take in the breath for four seconds, hold it for seven, and then blow out for eight seconds. And so there's a couple of things that are happening while we're doing the practice. When you're taking that deep breath, you're giving your body some oxygen too, you're also counting, you're also really noticing what's happening in your body while you're doing the counting and the breathing. And so if you'd like, I can walk you through three breaths. Are we ready?

Nora Parkhurst:
Yeah, sure.

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
All right. So I invite you to close your eyes and take a moment to just notice how your body and mind are feeling in this moment. And we're going to begin by exhaling all the oxygen in our lungs, taking in the breath for four seconds, holding it for seven, and blowing out for eight seconds. And we'll take that first breath in three, two, one. We will take that second breath in three, two, one. And then the last breath in three, two, one. Just take a moment and notice what's happening in your body right now. And gently and kindly, slowly open your eyes and bring your best self back to the room.
How was that?

Nora Parkhurst:
It was good. I don't know if I was doing it right. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you for talking with me today.

Claude Bonazzo Romaguera:
Thank you for having me.

Nora Parkhurst:
Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1:
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 guest, not of Texas State University.