Escrito por: Alexa Figueroa 🇸🇻
Headshot of Angelina Santos (Diana Rivera)
Angelina Santos felt an intense adrenaline rush right before every concert. Her only ritual was re-learning how to breathe every time. El prospecto de competir musicalmente a nivel estatal y del condado con otras bandas le enseñó disciplina y continuó iluminando su pasión por la música. Receiving her point by point breakdown was the highlight of the end of each concert.
Music was her entire life up until freshman year of college. Whether it was being a singer, a music teacher or a producer, she dreamt of being immersed in the music world: until March 2020 and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Santos, a UMD communications major, suddenly found her proficiency in guitar, the clarinet, the ukulele and alto sax dwindling– along with her passion for music. COVID restrictions meant limited access to all her instruments, because she could no longer practice at school.
“I kind of just got burnt out; like it was my whole life for a really long time. It was the biggest thing I was ambitious about in high school…,” said Santos.
Creció en Gaithersburg de padres puertorriqueños, algo que a pesar de tener una comunidad latina y diversa a su alrededor, se sentía desconectada del lado puertorriqueño. En vez de vivirlo, mantuvo su cultura cerca de su corazón durante toda la vida. She often felt like she was a “minority within a minority.”
“For a while, I thought it was my appearance, like my skin color, because I am a very pale Latina. So for a while, I thought, oh, they just don't know that I speak Spanish like they do,” said Santos. “It wasn't until I was older, when I realized it wasn't that. It was just a majority of them were from one place.”
She adds that the differences in the vocabulary across Spanish-speaking countries in her community added to the disconnect.
Santos asistió a una escuela en Bethesda durante los fines de semana desde los 4 a los 17 años. donde los niños hispanohablantes aprendieron y practicaron la lectura y la escritura en español. Ella dice que podía hablar "el español de mi manera; puertorriqueña."
“Donde no había cultura latino en mis clases, o en la escuela o en otras partes de mi vida, podía practicar con otras personas que tenían mi edad y también ver otras culturas que no eran dentro de mi escuela porque habían argentinos, había gente de chile, mexicanos: it was such a big mix que creo que me abrió los ojos.”
She initially started her college career at Salisbury University but transferred to UMD her sophomore year. Decidió centrarse en una carrera de relaciones públicas dentro de la carrera de comunicaciones. During her time at UMD she worked as a marketing intern at Montgomery Community Media and has served as a managing editor for La Voz Latina.
Additionally, Santos, along withYobany Matos Jr., who has Dominican and Jamaican roots, started the Puerto Rican Dominican Association their senior year. Santos says that she enjoyed connecting with other Caribbean students on campus and their friendship inspired her to want more of it.
“Although I do feel a part of the community, it's not in the way that is always needed. I feel like sometimes you want to feel like you're at home. And like you want to be able to speak the way you speak and hear it also,"said Santos.
Santos is currently searching for jobs in public health, public affairs, communications and lobbying. Similarly to how she once felt at the close of a concert, she can now take a breath of fresh air as she begins her new chapter filled with brand new opportunities and songs to dedicate to her future endeavors.
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