Duke University | Baldwin Scholars Program

A really good friend always said I was a workaholic…
I grew up listening to Pablo Milanes, Silvio Rodriguez, Mercedes Sosa, Paco Ibáñez, and Joan Manuel Serrat, a good mix of what my parents called "música de protesta." Music to protest, music for the liberals, socialists, those to the left of the political spectrum, and off course, the people. León Gieco, also part of the música de protesta artists, wrote a song called "Solo le Pido a Dios." I blame Leon Gieco for making me into a workaholic, but I am grateful he wrote that song. It goes:

"Sólo le pido a Dios
que el dolor no me sea indiferente,
que la reseca muerte no me encuentre
vacío y solo sin haber hecho lo suficiente"

I only ask God
That pain will not be indifferent to me,
That death will not find me
Empty and lonely without having done enough.

I am an only child. My mom always tells me to do my best or not do anything at all, even if I'm just washing the dishes. My dad is always telling me about God; and now I'm surprised when I find myself using his words when I talk to other people. My grandma wants to do everything for me, and when we eat dinner and I haven't picked up my fork to eat, she is already asking me if I liked the food, why I'm not eating the vegetables, and if I want more. My aunt still tickles me until I have to run from her. My little cousin is at that age when nothing is exciting and no one in the family is as cool as the other kids his own age. The youngest member of my family is a little boy that drives all of us crazy because he has so much energy and drive. He doesn't like it when I tell him he's the only one in our family that is not Colombian, but instead half-Mexican. And like his mother, he knows how to tickle me.

I plan to double major in visual arts and women's studies. Eventually, I want to go to medical school and become a plastic surgeon to do re-constructory surgery for children. I want to travel around the world. I want to meet Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende.