Selina Pagán

SP: My name is Selina Marie Pagán. 

EF: Okay, uh where were you born and where did you grow up?

SP: Well, I was born in Cleveland. Um, right on the East side of the Cleveland Clinic, on the East side, and I was raised here. I went through the Cleveland public school system and everything so, I’m Cleveland born and raised. 

EF: Okay, and your heritage is…?

SP: Puerto Rican. 

Selina Pagán Youtube Interview

Selina was interviewed in Cleveland, OH.

EF: What was your childhood like growing up here in Cleveland?

SP: It’s very much different uh, I have one sibling, my sister who has an eight-year gap difference, so it’s much different for the both of us. She was raised on the West-side a lot, like her schools were in the Hispanic area. I went to schools with predominately African American, and we totally had different, different lifestyles – she had to go, she barely spoke English which was odd, she was here but she couldn’t speak it that well. I on the other hand, I was, I never really spoke Spanish that well because where I was going, everyday life at school was never, Spanish, I would say. So, it was different. Um, then getting into high school was when I got more in-touch with my roots. But my family, I visited in Puerto Rico plenty of times, that I understand my culture like, and the history. I think that’s one of the most important things that is that I know where I’m coming from. So, even though I don’t, I would say there’s a certain stereotype that Puerto Ricans look like or act like, it’s not me but I know everything that, like my history and culture. When I got to high school I would say is when like, I started to like cherish it a lot more because it was a different, like surrounding, I would say. Um, kids were like, “Oh, you speak two languages?” and all this other stuff so, it was kind of interesting. I did some immersion trips: I went to El Salvador and I don’t know why I fell in love with the culture so much more and it was nice. I think I really cherish my Hispanic culture, a lot, so. Growing up was a little different, now I’m in college so … it’s my first year in college so I’m just, I’m gonna see how that works out (laughter). 

EF: So you didn’t grow up speaking Spanish? 

SP: Uh, kind of, it was always around me but, of course my parents would yell at me like, “What are you doing? Speak Spanish! What are you doing? I’m not gonna even, pretend to understand what you’re saying until you start speaking Spanish to me.” So, to my parents out of respect and my god-family, because I think that something really big in our culture is god-family um, I spoke Spanish to them. I think, my last couple years, my Spanish has gotten a lot worse, um, just because of my surroundings and everything, I would say. (laughter)

EF: Uh, since you say your heritage is Puerto Rican, what do you remember or why do you identify as that part of you that’s Puerto Rican, like growing up, as you think back. Uh, what were some of maybe the traditions or even language or, anything that, that you can say, “Well that was, because we were Puerto Ricans we did this”? 

SP: Yeah, well, it’s a little funny—my parents are both entrepreneurs um, and as soon as I was born my mom kind of dropped me off to my god-mother’s house and that’s kind of how like, a lot of the culture I got was more from my god-family. They’re from a different part of Puerto Rico so it’s kind of funny, I see a couple different parts, of the island; and it’s a small island but, it’s just so, like, there’s so many different parts to it and different history of each part. Um, when I was growing up with my god-family it was, I was in the church a lot, my godmother was really into the church, I think religion plays a big part of it. Um, the food, my godmother taught me a lot about traditional foods and, one of the things with traditional foods in Puerto Rican food like, um, with the corn meal and things like that um, sorullos, they take time, things like, just traditional food always takes so much time to make. And so it’s a lot different. I would say, uh, it’s the music a lot too—I love the music but I, I’m not a fan of the new like ‘reggeaton’ and things like that, I love the classic like, my god-father still has little tapes of really old music and I like that, I think it’s so like, rich in just the way it sounds. And growing up with my god-family it was, just family get-togethers every week and things like that. My family’s so much smaller here because a lot of them are in Puerto Rico, my actual family like, my nuclear family. Um, and my parents weren’t really like that—they would show up to the god-family and party. So it was a lot different; my parents seemed more like, Americanized but my god-family was total opposites—my god-father, my god-mother would sit there and pick the, the beans out of the little, what are those called? They’d just sit there on Saturdays and pick beans out of the like, I’m not even sure what they call them. It was just funny to me I just, it was different. But I really grew out of that as I got older, which I don’t, I don’t enjoy because I miss those kinds of, small-root kind of things. 

EF: Yeah. You mentioned that in high school you sort of became more aware, or more in-touch with your Hispanic roots, uh, what were those things? What made you be a little more aware of them? 

SP: The high school I went to actually had Heritage class, so it was a Hispanic heritage class where Spanish-speaking students, the idea was that, many of the students that live in the states, they’re embarrassed to speak it in front of their like, to be in a regular class, Spanish class with a bunch of kids that’ve never spoken the language, but also it’s to, the class really helped kids that spoke Spanish already but didn’t speak it well, so it kind of like advanced their Spanish and things like that. With the Heritage Spanish class, there were many like, trips that we did and, as a group, and I think one of the biggest things for Hispanics is family, and at one point like, a lot of points, the group became a family, so I think that was really important, it kind of became my circle of friends. A majority were from my Hispanic Heritage class, so that kinda made it, it just made it a lot nicer because we could relate; there’s certain jokes you say as a Hispanic that only Hispanics will get, and it was nice seeing like, that group of friends that I could just, yell from down the hall and they would understand what I was saying. 

EF: Can you remember some of that? Can you give me some examples of it? 

SP: Ah, we were a little silly and teen like, we were teenagers so it would be ridiculous things but, it was, it was just, catching each other in the halls and, my, I had a really close friend who was Guatemalan so in Guatemala, there’s like this word for somebody who’s always joking-around is a ‘chapin’ so like, we would yell down the hall these little nick-names and it was just, things like that we, we, the Hispanic heritage class wasn’t just, Puerto Ricans, so it kind of gave you a little feel for other cultures and we would go out to little restaurants and eat uh, different, many different places. And, we went to Chicago, for a weekend, every year to go to different neighborhoods there, they were really diverse, so that helped a lot. 

EF: And this was throughout high school? 

SP: Um, well the high school’s in the East side of Cleveland, it’s called the Saint Martin De Porras high school, it’s a Catholic school with a corporate work-study program, so we only had classes four days a week and then we were kind of sent to um, internships basically to pay for our tuition—a very different high school, very different. 

EF: What has been one of the most memorable times of you being here in, in Cleveland? 

SP: Relating to Hispanic culture or just anything? [EF: It could be anything] anything, uh, that’s so hard I, I say I have a pretty happy life but, I would have to say one of the nicest parts would be like, every Hispanic girl’s coming of age moment was my quinceañera, which was here, in Cleveland. It wasn’t traditional, I don’t know why, I used to sway away from tradition but, it was my quinceañera, it was a time when my whole family came together, my parents eventually got divorced so that was a time when they were working really hard at, you know, coming back together to make us a family again, so that was very nice. 

EF: What has been, since then, that growth that you’ve had since high school and, and sort of developing this pride of being Latina, Hispanic in the state, what is your involvement now with the Latino community? 

SP: It’s funny that you ask that, I’d say my story right now is a lot different from other’s: I’m eighteen years old, I just graduated high school, and I actually work, I’m the administrative assistant here at the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is also known as a Hispanic Business Center so, I work at this non-profit um, and what I do is a lot of community development, so right now some of my focus is on, well we’re redeveloping the neighborhood to call it ‘La Villa Hispana’ so that’s, I don’t want to say I’m dedicating my life to it just yet but that’s one of the main focuses of my life right now. Right now, next week I have, my sister is in charge of the merchant group for La Villa Hispana, but it wasn’t an actual like, it wasn’t very concrete, it was very abstract so now, I’m taking the lead on handling the merchant group and then I also work for the Hispanic Alliance, which is a non-profit, it’s in the same building as here, actually. So, with that I work a lot with, kind of like branding and marketing La Villa Hispana, it’s a lot of, it’s so odd it’s just, it’s a lot of work for someone like me, because I just started college and so I haven’t, I don’t know what it’s going to be like just yet, it’s so far it’s gone smoothly, but I like, I just got out of class and came here so that’s kind of my life right now and it’s just constantly keep going, but what I, my goal is to transform this area into, it’s not for tourism, it’s not for business, it’s for everyone else, that’s what everybody else wants, mine’s is like cultural preservation—I don’t want to lose, I want some, I want to have a location where people can come and they can understand the way we do things. Um, there’s been talk about like, having like a market and in those markets, on those certain days they’ll be someone teaching a traditional dance, a traditional dish, or things like that so the kids don’t lose it. Cause that’s, that’s the thing, we lose it and it’s just like a culture loss and it’s, it’s sad, because I’ve gone through it and I wish I didn’t because the roots are what really matters, it’s preserving that culture so, my biggest goal is to transform the area um, I mean we’ll always have those commercial businesses and those big franchises but, I think it’s really important for us to try to try to have something that’s ours. I mean, you see it a lot in Lorain or you see it in Painesville with tons of Mexicans, so it’s kind of finding our place, and it’s not only for Puerto Ricans even though it’s, the area has a lot of Puerto Ricans, it’s, it’s the Hispanic Village for a reason—we want to be very inclusive and we just want to share, just keep sharing and spreading the culture. 

EF: Great. Um, I know you’re young, you’re only eighteen but, what has been your proudest moment, so far? 

SP: I have to say, it’s hard because, yeah I graduated I mean, that, that’s, that should be a goal for everyone, I graduated. But to me it’s the next step and I think coming to work every day, which is not usual for kids my age or, not kids but, young professionals, I wouldn’t even know what to call it anymore um, it’s quite different for me but every time I meet someone new and I meet someone and I network with them and things like that, just knowing that I’m only eighteen and I’m talking to executive directors and CEOs, it just empowers me a little bit more, and it’s nice because I also have my family who like, they’re small business owners and they don’t ever see that kind of thing and they see their daughter, she’s eighteen doing my thing, I would say that. So I think every time I just make a new connection with someone in a networking environment, I think those are my proudest moments, just because of my age and, I’m Latina um, it’s just so many different aspects: I’m young, I’m a woman, I’m Latina … there’s a lot to it. 

EF: Yes, absolutely. What does Ohio mean to you? 

SP: Not only do I, like, I love being Puerto Rican and Hispanic and Latina, I do love my city, like Cleveland, I stayed in Cleveland, I go to Cleveland State University um, but Ohio overall, I think … I just, I think it’s a great state but I love Cleveland as well, I’m a little biased, I love Cleveland um, but I’ve gone to many different, I think, a couple of weekends ago I went to the Amish Country—I love things like that, you can do that in Ohio. Um, I also went to, I like to go like hiking, there’s like Hocking Hills and there’s um, there’s multiple areas, you can do all kinds of things. You can go to Lorain, there are things to do everywhere um, I think people take it for granted a lot um, but there’s a lot to do in Ohio. And I, I really appreciate living here. Not only that but there’s also like, the, you don’t see too many tornados, you don’t see tsunamis or hurricanes or things like that, so I appreciate the location, the geographic location. 

EF: Great, excellent. I imagine that you work with the Latino population and maybe the immigrant community; what advice would you give to newcomers to, to this area? 

SP: I would have to say, I think the biggest thing is, I don’t want to say putting yourself out there but it’s always, I think this area is very like, we appreciate people who come in and they want to get to know us and they don’t judge a book by its cover. This area has had a rough history um, over the last couple years, it’s a rough neighborhood but, when you get into the internal parts of the people that own the businesses and what they want to do with the neighborhood, it’s a really good, positive message that we’re trying to send, so we appreciate people coming into the businesses. Especially, what we try to do is get new, like, businesses that are owned by Hispanic or Latinos, and we want them to see the potential we have and how good that we are and the people that are amazing here like, these people mean well and they work so hard that, you know, having more friends and having those, that, it’s like that relationship with everyone, it’s really, it’s really nice feel. I think it’s really important and people don’t do that nowadays; I think people come in, go get what they need and leave. They don’t, I think that’s one of the important more, basic parts of it I think. We need to start building relationships, people like to keep to themselves now, so. 

EF: Now this might be a hard question because, because you’re so young but, if you see yourself like in ten, twenty years, thirty years, uh, what message would you like to give to a younger generation or your kids or your grandkids? 

SP: I would like to give a generation now or a message now to my generation because, I have many friends that don’t understand, like they don’t get the way things do, and I think that they lose themselves—there’s so many things that, are just so distracting, I think it’s all distractions and we don’t focus enough on ourselves. One of the issues I think people have now, especially younger, like teenagers, they’re so in a rush to grow up. They’re so like, I know that was me at some point, but I think my life went a whole different direction um, but, being one with your family. I think there’s so much … the kids love to go hang out with their friends and, oh, it just drives me nuts when I see kids walking around the streets like, “Go home. Go to your families” like, enjoy that time. And I understand that, um, a lot of the people I know and a lot of the people in the area, the family thing doesn’t work. I don’t know why but it’s just, it’s not, it’s not a like healthy family. And so kids do, you know, leave home for certain reasons but, you have to find that family because you need the support system. I think family’s one of those important things, whether you have it or not, you have to find one. You have to find a place to, to be you. I think it’s a place where you go home at night and you, just breathe, just be one with your family, do what you like to do with your family cause, you’ll never get another family. Family is just one thing, so. I don’t know. I think family’s the most important message I would say.