Jessica was born in Chicago, Illinois.

She has lived in Bloomington as an Indiana University student since August 1999.

Her father is of Mexican/Japanese descent, and her mother was born in New York of Jewish American heritage (her grandparents are from Russia and Poland).

Growing up

“I knew from the time I was very little that being Mexican was bad. Because when I was elementary school I remember telling my friends that my father was Spanish from Spain, so I knew there was something bad about being from Mexico and being an indigenous person, of being a mestizo.”

What unites Latino students?

“I don’t just think that it’s our experience of alienation on a white campus that brings us together, but I think there is something more than that. I don’t think that it’s just the culture either, but also the experience and hope. Every single Latino student is kind of a bundle of hope and expectations and I guess all children are that, but especially the youth that come of migrant parents and come here with all these hopes and dreams realized through their children.”