Mechista of the Week: Juan Díaz

Juan Díaz, Class of 2015 Residential College: Morse College Hometown: Atlantic City, NJ High School: Atlantic City High School Why did you join MEChA? I joined MEChA because I wanted to get involved with the Latino community, but also do it in a socially conscious way. I knew that MEChA did a lot of cool stuff around things like immigration, worker’s rights, and other community issues, and I wanted to be involved. It has…

Mechista of the Week: Adriana Embus

Adriana Embus, Class of 2017 Residential College: Timothy Dwight College (“the BEST!”) Hometown: Columbus, Georgia High School: Brookstone School Why did you join MEChA? When I first visited Yale, La Casa Cultural was one of the deciding factors, and subsequently the diverse student groups it had to offer. Once I heard about MEChA de Yale, I knew I had to be in it; the energy and passion every single one of the members had…

Mechista of the Week: Cathy Calderón

Cathy Calderón, Class of 2017 Residential College: Davenport Hometown: San Fernando, California High School: Granada Hills Charter High School Why did you join MEChA? My curiosity and admiration for MEChA has grown over the last decade due to my involvement with an Aztec dance group called Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc, which has worked on various community events with MEChA. I had never joined MEChA because there was never an established organization at any of my…

Mechista of the Week: Isiah Cruz

Isiah Cruz, Class of 2017 Residential College: Ezra Stiles College Hometown: Union City, New Jersey High School: Saint Peter’s Prep (Jersey City, NJ) Why did you join MEChA? I joined MEChA because I wanted to contribute to the Yale Latino community in every way possible and MEChA is a great means of doing so. The group is one of the oldest Latino organization at Yale and I love the overall mission to engage in…

Mechista of the Week: Ava Tomasula y Garcia

Ava Tomasula y Garcia, Class of 2017 Residential College: Calhoun College Hometown: Chicago/South Bend, IN High School: Interlochen Center for the Arts (MI) and John Adams High School (IN) Why did you join MEChA? I wanted to be part of a social justice group that did not limit itself to one area. MEChA knows that immigration is connected to education, to poverty, to voting rights, etc. It is hard to…

Mechista of the Week: Karla Maradiaga

Karla Maradiaga, Class of 2015 Residential College: Jonathan Edwards Hometown: Seattle, Washington High School: Lamphere High School Why did you join MEChA? I joined MEChA because immigration reform has always been an issue that has been very important to me since it affects my family directly. However, I really became interested in the immigration reform debate after learning about DREAMers. The thought that anyone who grew up in this country and loved this country…

Mechista of the Week: Salvador Delgado Fernandez

Salvador Delgado Fernandez, Class of 2013 Residential College: Trumbull Hometown: Blue Island, IL (near Chicago) High School: Eisenhower High School Why did you join MEChA? I originally joined MEChA because my sister, who is in charge of Georgetown’s MEChA chapter, kept telling me to do it. I had previously helped out at the occasional MEChA event, but wasn’t an official member. Then I joined this year, my senior year, and realized that I missed…

Mechista of the Week: Cristal Suarez

Cristal Suarez, Class of 2016 Residential College: Trumbull Hometown: Visalia, California High School: San Joaquin Memorial High School Why did you join MEChA? I wanted to educate myself about issues important to the Latino community, and to discover the role I could play to encourage society to be more equal and fair. I also found that the MEChA community itself was very welcoming and I was encouraged to join by students I met at…

Mechista of the Week: Chris Teran

Chris Teran, Class of 2016 Residential College: Morse Hometown: Patterson, California High School: Patterson High School Why did you join MEChA?  One of the main reasons that I joined MEChA was to try to get more involved and educated about political issues facing Latinos and just the U.S. in general. So through the discussions at MEChA, I’m definitely able to get a better perspective about the issues and learn more about them.…

Mechista of the Week: Emma Fallone

This is a new segment in which MEChA de Yale will recognize one outstanding Mechista every week! Emma Fallone, Class of 2016 Residential College: Ezra Stiles Hometown: Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin (a suburb of Milwaukee) High School: Whitefish Bay High School Why did you join MEChA? I am Latina, and grew up in a very ethnically homogeneous area (95% Caucasian, maybe 2% Latino). So, throughout high school, I never really had much of a…