I was born and raised in Fresno, CA, a grandchild to Mexican immigrants.  After barely graduating high school, I was unsure about what I wanted to do.  I decided to move to San Diego and attend Grossmont College, a community college.  With the help of wonderful instructors, after two short years I was academically accomplished and motivated enough to attend the University of California at Berkeley.  At Berkeley, I helped the university live up to its radical reputation by participating in a significant amount of campus activism.  I was involved in various global justice campaigns  for immigrant's and worker's rights.  Academically, my studies complemented my activism.  I studied economic and labor relations between the U.S. and Mexico and would eventually get my BA in Political Economy, the study of government decision-making in the economy.  After graduation and a couple of unsatisfactory jobs, I decided to go back to school and try and do what I thought I would really love and teach junior college.  In short, I wanted to inspire junior college students like my junior college instructors inspired me.  I graduated with my MA from the amazing Political Science department at San Francisco State University in June 2004 and spent the 2004-2005 school year teaching part-time at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz and Watsonville.  In the fall of 2005, I was hired here at the City College of San Francisco.  I am immensely enjoying my time here at CCSF and cannot imagine working anywhere or doing anything else.  

In addition to teaching and politics, I enjoy baseball (Go A's!), eating good food (Know of any good Mexican restaurants?), watching movies, hiking, dancing, reading and collecting comics (X-men and Wolverine mostly), practicing Aikido, spending quality time with my family and friends and fantasizing about getting out of debt.