Meet Glenda Marisol Flores | Associate Professor, Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at UC, Irvine

We had the good fortune of connecting with Glenda Marisol Flores and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Glenda Marisol, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
One of my favorite quotes is from the basketball legend Michael Jordan. About his basketball career he said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” I love this quote because it highlights that failure is a part of success and if you aren’t failing then maybe you aren’t applying for as many opportunities or aiming high enough. This quote definitely helped me in academia when I would receive a manuscript rejection or when applying for grants.

There was one year where I was rejected for about every grant and job that I applied for. One of my dear mentor’s told me that one day I would be able to “decline” an award because I would receive more than one. She took that shame of rejection away and so I applied again. The second year I tried for some of these same grants I didn’t get them but I received honorable mentions, so I knew I was doing something better. The third time was the charm for me because I received all of the grants I applied for and my dream job. So, I was in a position to decline a grant and negotiate everything else.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I love my career today! What sets me apart from others is that my own personal background in the labor force informs what I do today. As a child, I worked alongside my parents in a dry cleaner. I started working there when I was about nine years old and labor was just something that always interested me. In college I worked at a furniture store called Dearden’s as a cashier. I remember that many Mexican immigrant gardeners would come with a stack of personal checks to cash. It was intriguing to think about their “routes” and the consequences for them if a check bounced from one of their employers. I also worked at a retirement home as a waitress. The majority of the cooks there were either Central American, Mexican or Peruvian and I was just so intrigued by the heterogeneity of the Latino experience.

What I am most proud of and excited about is that I get to do what I love everyday. I get to examine the lives of Latinos/as in different work sectors, and I also get to include examples from my own lineage like my grandfather who worked as a Mexican Bracero for the majority of his life. It is wonderful to share this with the world.

I got where I am today with the help of wonderful mentors along the way
who saw the potential in me when I didn’t see it in myself yet. I would
say that the biggest challenge for me was not having the cultural
capital to navigate many of these spaces. I made many mistakes and I
learned from them. The biggest lesson I’ve learned along the way is that
rejection is normal and more often than not it is not about you. There
are usually several other factors at play that you do not have any control over. My brand is that culture is an asset and we should teach children and families that it is valuable. My book, Latina Teachers: Creating Careers and Guarding Culture with NYU Press, explores this very message and gives readers and inside glimpse of how teachers are doing this everyday in elementary schools across the nation.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Eat La Tapatia in Santa Ana
Beachcomber in Newport Beach
Hiro Nori Craft Ramen in Irvine
Brodard Chateu in Garden Grove
In n Out on Bristol St.
Sushi Town in Costa Mesa

Drink
Vacation Bar in Downtown Santa Ana
Native Son in Downtown Santa Ana
Vaca in Costa Mesa (Top Chef’s Amar Santana’s Restaurant)

Visit
Disneyland
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Santa Ana Artwalk
DTSA Noche de Altares

Hang Out
California Adventure
Downtown Santa Ana
Aldrich Park at UC, Irvine

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The person that I would like to dedicate my shoutout to is my father. My father was a Mexican immigrant with less than a middle school education, and he encouraged higher education for all of his children, especially me as his eldest daughter. He is the person that helped me move in for undergrad and grad school. I still have the small little toaster oven that he purchased for me. He once told me that he even aspired for me to reach of the stars and become an astronaut. I think he would be proud that I’m a professor.