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As a Hispanic Latino working at NASA, I
do offer a unique perspective that may

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not always be readily apparent to my
other colleagues. People on your team, if

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they all look alike if they all think
alike,

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you're not going to innovate.

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[music]

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My mother crossed over from Mexico into the United States when she was four

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years old, and she tells me the story of
remembering being carried on her

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father's shoulders as he crossed the Rio
Grande.

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I am 100% Salvadorian, born in El Salvador actually.

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My family and I moved to Florida in
the 1980s during the civil war in El Salvador.

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Well I was born in Ecuador.

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when I was four years old a little
younger even my family and I we moved to

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South Florida so I identify as Ecuadorian,
although I do have American citizenship.

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And I try to go down there every two
years just to keep reconnected with my roots.

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I'm Mexican American and my
father is from Chihuahua, Mexico and came

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to the United States when he was a
teenager. My mom's side of the family is actually Spanish.

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I appreciate in my parents, specifically
my father, because when he came here he

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didn't know English, and the jobs that he was able to get at that time were with his hands.

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Labor, and that kind of instilled in me that I had opportunities that he never did.

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My grandfather so he used to live
in a trailer outside of my aunt's house.

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We would go there on the weekends. I was
always -- my mom always told me bring two

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or three cans of soup, and so I would
take my little cans of soup and I would

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knock on his trailer door. And I would hand him the soup. And he would always say

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“Tenga una peseta, mija.” And he'd give me a quarter.

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No matter where I am in the world, I always make it home for Christmas.

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My sister you know spends hours and hours making tamales

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and she does that once a year. And it's when I come home for Christmas, she always says she does it for me.

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My mom and dad took me to Kennedy Space Center and there's a picture of us

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standing next to a F-1 engine and a Saturn V engine. I know looking at that picture

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that moment built upon other moments
that put it in my in my head that I have

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to work here one day or do something
like related to NASA one day. When I

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moved to DC, I applied for an internship
with Marshall Space Flight Center. But I

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almost didn't apply for it. The reason I
waited is because I said, why would anyone

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choose me, why would NASA want someone like me?

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And someone close to me told me, let them tell you 'no,' don't tell yourself 'no.'

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I actually got to take my seven-year-old
niece Johenni to sit in in this session

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and then actually get to meet Joe Acaba. The minute he got on stage, her face

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just lit up and next thing I know she
gets up and goes to the mic and actually

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asked a question. This is all that I
work for, to motivate and inspire the

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next generation and so at that moment I
said yeah this is awesome.

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I'm thankful to be here at NASA because most people just think of NASA as an agency that

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has engineers and scientists, which they

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have great people that do those types of
jobs every day, or astronauts, obviously.

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But as an attorney, I really hope to
leave a legacy that shows that I

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contributed to NASA in some meaningful way.

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I've had the great fortune of being
selected to be a flight director, part of

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a very elite group, even more elite
than the astronauts. We've had over 500

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astronauts in the history of NASA's
space flight program, but we have had

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only 96 flight directors. And of those 96,
we've only had 16 women. I'd like to see

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that 16 number increase two, threefold over the next 10 years.

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Being a migrant Latina at NASA, there's a
lot of responsibility on your shoulders.

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And so I just hope that future
generations understand that.

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You had a lot of people that paved the way.  And it takes a lot of hard work