Raquel Macías Del Valle, born and raised in New York City, holds an M.A. in Hispanic Literature from Brigham Young University and a B.A. in Spanish with an emphasis in literature and minor in International Strategy and Diplomacy from the same university. Daughter of a proud Puerto Rican mother and Ecuadorian father, Raquel loves to learn everything she can about her cultural background and family history. Her research interests include the Latin American diaspora and second/third generational studies with a focus on the identity formation of the Chicana, Nuyorican, and Miami-Cuban woman. She has also recently begun to explore Brazilian identity and experience within the Latin American diaspora. She has had the opportunity to present her work at various conferences, publish an original experimental study “Experimenting with List Experiments: Interviewer Effects and Immigration Attitudes” in Public Opinion Quarterly (2023), and coordinate events for the Instituto de Estudios Vallejianos. She hopes to continue life in academia and be a full-time professor. Raquel loves to do community service projects with her husband and travel whenever possible. Her favorite movie is “Jurassic Park” and if the park were open today, she would definitely still go. Her advice for current or future graduate students is don’t be afraid to go after what you want! Everything is going to be hard at one point or another, but if you love it, then it’s worth going after.