You Win Some, You Lose Some: Life in Tech From the Perspective of a First-Gen American Latina

It was early September in 2021 when I quit the only job I knew and left to Oaxaca, Mexico. As I basked in the purity that produced my childhood, aiding and accompanying my aging mom and grandmother, I was plagued by the concept of existence and mortality. It dawned on me how time was truly something so priceless and preeminent in the face of everything ephemeral. I thought about how many years I had spent away from my family in hopes to become financially independent but really just lived paycheck to paycheck— not to mention how the pandemic put the frailty of my livelihood into perspective.
I had heard many testimonies from friends and strangers alike how their life in tech had allowed them to take the reins of their life through an arduous but rewarding path. And so that September, after a lot of research, I had my heart set to take on the challenge of being a woman in STEM by taking a fast track. A one way ticket to sleepless nights (i’m being sliiiightly dramatic, prioritize your health!)and a whirlwind of technical curiosities with a door swung open to programming languages I never imagined I could become fluent in.
Everything comes at a price given price but being a double minority in the tech world comes with a little extra. There’s an air of presumed incompetence not only by potential employers and colleagues, but within ourselves as well. In Latino families, the socio-political climates respective to our countries have heavily impacted our relationship to money conditioning us to merely survive. The thought of living comfortably or even surpassing that has always seemed something unfeasible.
So here, as I begin my software engineering journey, I stand before the opportunity to tackle statistics that do not speak for minorities. Who else but ourselves to change them? And so I remind myself, who else but me? As a Mexican-American, I am able to provide new insight to problems and break cultural barriers in the tech community. Who knows? Maybe even be at the forefront of something even more revolutionary than where we are today.
But for now, let’s be students. Let’s be the best versions of ourselves, and take it one day at a time. There is an infinite amount of knowledge at our finger tips. We hold so much power within ourselves. Everyday is a challenge, and everyday there is a stone to turn. There will never be a day when one can actually claim to fully understand a language as integral as Javascript but it’s fun to pretend. As my cohort at Flat Iron come to find, everyday is a challenge and a win.