Maximiliano Gonzalez-Cruz

Escrito por: Alexa Figueroa 🇸🇻

Headshot of Maximiliano Gonzalez-Cruz. (Diana Rivera)

Maximiliano Gonzalez-Cruz estaba estudiando en el sur de Corea cuando decidio visitar un restaurante mexicano. Estaba buscando un pedazo de casa a miles de millas de distancia. 

La aroma de carne frita y especias llenaron al restaurante, recordándolo de los tacos fritos de pollo que hace su mamá. Su cultura es inmensamente importante para él y considera este un momento decisivo en su vida que le mostró que las conexiones interculturales son importantes. 

Gonzalez-Cruz is the son of Mexican immigrants and spent the first four years of his life in Mexico while his mother was pursuing a  law career.  After that, he moved to Greenbelt, MD, where he was raised in a close-knit nuclear family, as the majority of his family stayed in Mexico. 

He came back to the U.S. and didn’t speak English.  He was placed in ESOL and describes the first few months as difficult. He recalls crying when he couldn’t understand his peers but had the support of his parents, and they all practiced English together. 

He says that all of his identities, being Latino, gay, and young intersect with one another, and while he is extremely proud of his Mexican roots, queer visibility in the Latino space is not common, especially if you come from an immigrant family.

Debido a su edad y a la creencia de que no es lo suficientemente sabio, se siente frecuentemente silenciado. Additionally, the conservative beliefs of  his community makes it challenging to talk about values that differ from their own. 

 “Sometimes there's a lack of diversity, or sometimes people of color in the community are pushed to the side, whereas people who are dominant, are celebrated or are more desired or more listened to. So it kind of pushes you into even a smaller community,” said Gonzalez-Cruz.

Su trayectoria profesional está influenciada por sus identidades. Gonzalez-Cruz está estudiando ciencia de la salud pública y quiere eventualmente trabajar en epidemiología 

Gonzalez-Cruz is planning to work for Teach for America and has been placed in Baltimore City as a chemistry teacher. He hopes to explore a childhood passion of teaching while also looking to pursue a masters in Epidemiology in the future. 

“ I actually wanted to be a teacher because in elementary school, I had really great teachers. And they were really passionate in showing us a lot of things outside of the curriculum, like, just showing us about other people's cultures… having teachers who really cared about you, really impacted me.”