Everyone says, “be expected to change your major a bunch of times in college.” However, in my case, I kept on adding majors until I ended up with three: Spanish, Portuguese, and Political Science. I have strong personal connections to all three of these majors and did not want to choose between them, as a result, I have to explore ways in which they can be combined to meet a common academic and career objective.

I have been learning Spanish for ten years now. Starting with numbers and the letters of the alphabet, working my way up to advanced compositions. This has been my in-class experience with the language. In the few jobs I have held in the food services and the retail industry, my knowledge of Spanish has allowed me to communicate with individuals who would have otherwise gone without being helped. I remember one instance when I worked at a retail store, there was a woman who needed help buying a comforter. She did not speak English. I got called to assist her, and when I apologized for my broken Spanish, she didn’t care– she was just happy to be heard. While placing her online order, she told me about her reason for leaving Venezuela, her daughter’s life, and how she likes living in the States. By the time I finished placing her order, she had gotten emotional over the fact that someone was there to help her buy her daughter the comforter she really wanted.

Portuguese is my native language. I had no original intention of majoring in though because I already spoke it. There were various instances where I would try to talk about politics with my family from Brazil and then get frustrated when I could not express myself the way I wanted to. One day I had a meeting with my Spanish advisor, who indicated to me to a Portuguese advisor who told me, “I think it’s great you’re majoring in Spanish and Political Science, but wouldn’t you like to know about your roots and to professionalize your Portuguese skills? Think about the influence you could have in your community if you were to major in Portuguese as well”. I then declared a third major. Since then, I have loved learning about the history of my country and how it affects contemporary politics. Becoming more knowledgeable about my roots motivates me to become even more proficient in the language so that I can have conversations about intricate topics that I am passionate about. The class material has also tied closely to my lived experiences as a Brazilian, allowing me to better understand myself.

I am passionate about political science as it allows me to study the way that public policy affects the lives of a government’s constituents. There are evident inequalities that have been created as a result of how legislation has been historically administered to the benefit of the social majority. Having knowledge of Latino communities, as well as professional knowledge of the languages, will allow me to facilitate an equal redistribution of power to these communities. Latinos have always been perceived to politicians as a group of voters who are predicted to overwhelming support with the Democratic party. I think that this demonstrates how misunderstood the Latino population is in the United States. Politicians have not been communicating with these groups and have misdetermined their needs and values. The more I study Portuguese and Hispanic languages and cultures, the more I learn that Latinos are not a homogeneous group of people. As I explore my academic and professional path in these three fields of studies, I become increasingly confident that I want to combine Portuguese, Spanish, and Political Science to increase the representation of Latinos in public policy.