EP 135: Coming Home to Yourself — Identity, Rest & Reclaiming Your Voice with Delia Saenz Skinner

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo sits down with educator, researcher, and founder of Working with Delia, Delia Saenz Skinner, for a deeply personal conversation about identity, belonging, education, and what it means to come home to yourself after years of learning to survive.

The conversation begins where every episode of Thriving in Intersectionality begins—with identity.

Delia reflects on the intersecting experiences that have shaped her life as a woman, daughter, teen mother, formerly undocumented immigrant, educator, and community leader. She shares how those identities influenced not only the opportunities available to her, but also how she learned to see herself and navigate systems that often required her to hide parts of who she was.

From arriving in the United States without speaking English to spending nine years completing community college while raising her daughter, Delia's story is one of persistence, purpose, and profound transformation.

Today, through her consulting practice Working with Delia, she helps educators, leaders, and mission-driven organizations reconnect with themselves through rest-centered leadership, embodied practices, and sustainable ways of serving others.

This conversation isn't simply about overcoming adversity.

It's about remembering who you were before the world told you who you needed to become.

In This Episode, We Discuss

•  Growing up between cultures and identities 
•  Navigating education as a formerly undocumented student 
•  Becoming a mother while pursuing higher education 
•  The hidden cost of constantly proving yourself 
•  Why belonging sometimes requires unlearning 
•  Rest-centered leadership and sustainable impact 
•  Working with educators, youth, and mission-driven organizations 
•  The difference between surviving systems and reclaiming yourself 
•  Why rest is not quitting—it is regeneration 
•  Creating workplaces and communities where people can thrive 

About the Guest

Delia Saenz Skinner is an educator, researcher, program strategist, and founder of Working with Delia, a rest-centered facilitation and consulting practice supporting educators, innovators, and community-based leaders engaged in high-impact, mission-driven work.

Drawing from more than a decade of experience across K–12 education, higher education, community organizations, research, and leadership, Delia designs restorative professional learning experiences that help individuals and organizations reconnect with their wisdom, sustainability, and purpose. She currently serves as a Program Manager, Teacher, and Community Education Manager at UC San Diego Extended Studies while continuing to build Working with Delia. 

Learn more:

🌐 www.workingwithdelia.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deliasanezskinner/

Reflection Question

What part of yourself have you had to hide in order to belong—and what would it look like to reclaim it?

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast, a podcast that explores the real experiences of professionals navigating the workplace with layered, leaded identities. I'm your host, Dr. Lola Ateemo, the CEO of EQI Mindset and founder of the nonprofit Immigrants Incorporate Inc. I'm also an author, speaker, and a workplace inclusion strategist. I work with organizations to build communities of belonging through strategy, storytelling, and systems change. This podcast amplifies the voices of professionals from intersectional backgrounds, immigrants, ethnic minorities, first-gen professionals, veterans, working parents, individuals with disabilities, and so many more. Through solo reflections and guest conversations, we'll uncover the eating challenges, celebrate the wins, and offer insights to help you thrive, not just survive, in the corporate world. Because in today's global workforce, belonging isn't just a bonus, it's the catalyst for real growth and impact. Let's dive in. Alright, welcome back everyone. Welcome to the Thriving and Intersectionality Podcast, uh, a space where I get to interview uh founders, leaders, and just individuals who are open to sharing the layers of their identities and the context of their journey and how it continues to shape the work that they do today. And so before we get started with my guest today, Delia, I'm going to share a little bit about intersectionality. It's a word that, of course, is prominent in the title of this podcast, Striving in Intersectionality. But what exactly does it mean? Intersectionality is a framework that recognizes our multiple aspects of our identity, such as gender, culture, immigration status, family background, education, lived experience, and all of the personal history that we bring into the things that we do. How everything overlap and intersects in such a way that it creates very unique experiences that shape how we all navigate the world and especially how we lead others. And so I came into the work through Krimberly Crensher. So if you want to learn more about that word and the work that Krimberly Crenshaw does, uh check out, go to YouTube and type it in. She's still very much actively doing that work. And she did a lot of uh research around Black women experience. And so that's how I came into the word, into contact with that word uh a couple of years ago. And so continuing to grow my learning in that space as well. Uh but this framework, and I love that she used the word framework because I think there's so many layers to people, to individuals. Um, and so it allows us to explore people's experiences through a much broader lens than we typically do, especially in a world where we go by what we see. Uh, but really, everyone's experience is shaped by so much more than what is visible. And that is the through line in this podcast: exploring leadership beyond titles and accomplishment, and through the experiences that makes each of us who we are and who we continue to evolve to be every single day. And so I am excited to introduce you to my guest today, uh Delia. Delia and I met just a couple of weeks ago in person at a conference that I was attending for the first time, but she had actually been involved with. And I am so glad uh that what seemed to be like a random intro, not even during the conference session, we had some pretty good conversations, and I'm really excited to dive into a little bit more about our story um on this episode. We happen to be both from San Diego, um, but of course we're doing this virtually. So hi Delia, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I am really, really good. I'm excited to be here, even though we're so close, but I'm happy to I'm happy to be doing it however it is happening.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

I know, I love it. Um, a little bit about Delia. So, Delia Sens Skinner is the founder of Working with Delia. She's a researcher, she's an educator, she's an embodied practitioner with over 13 years of experience in education, community-based work, organizational leadership. Uh, Delia has worked across the full spectrum of the education system from direct service with on-house youth and students with disabilities to program design. She's done curriculum development, a lot of research and evaluation uh work, and also graduate level education at UC San Diego. Our work sits at the intersection of peer-reviewed science and ancient wisdom. I love chatting with Dale. I enjoyed and I felt that um holding space for people that do the most meaningful work to come back to themselves. And I think we're gonna get a little bit of that. Um, although most people that do that don't get to talk about themselves because they're they're very they're much more comfortable holding those kind of space for other people. So thanks for agreeing to be in the spotlight with me today, Delia, and and walking back through your journey.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yes, no, I I love it. I do I believe in the power of storytelling, and um I do believe that my work and it's a reflection of others, and um so I I love I love to be a mirror and I love to be a window. So if if my stories um are a reflection of others out there and and they can see themselves in me, um, I'm happy to share them.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

All right, let's go. Okay, so I you know I'm gonna ask you questions. I'm also gonna leave room for you to just explore. Like there's no script here. I really want to get to have you share your story. Um, and so if anything pops up, please feel free to share. Of course, I I always think of my conversations in three parts. Um, I think of intersectionality, what that means to you introducing yourself. I think of wanting to know about your journey. We'll talk a little bit about your work, uh, but we'll go from there. We'll go from your responses. So just giving you a heads up that I might dig as you answer. Your response is going to shape my question. So, but you've got this. All right, uh, Delia. So the first part of my conversation really is beyond the bio, you know, when you think of the word intersectionality, um, what aspects of your identity have most shaped how you lead and leave today?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah. So um, interestingly enough, I I've worked around that word and that framework a lot, um, both in my education and just in life through the work that I do. Um so um I happen to know very well that my the identities that have most shaped my journey is definitely being a woman, definitely being a woman of color, definitely being a daughter, being a mom, and having been an undocumented student in navigating navigating education as an undocumented student, as an undocumented immigrant.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I love that each of those are heavy by themselves. Um but of course I I can see how each of those layers again can sort of shape the way we show up, and but that's the intersection um that we each bring to the work to do. So I also sense that you've done some work understanding yourself and also you know unraveling each of those layers yourself. So can you tell me a little bit about your journey? Um before working with Delia, there was young Delia. So can you walk me through maybe your professional journey, your choices, some of the choices and milestones around uh your career, and anything else you would like to share?

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yeah, yes. So um young Delia um was existed in two different worlds. Um, there was what the inside of her body always told her um that was truth and that was fair and that was just, and then it was what the outside of the world or in the world told her that she was supposed to be doing and behaving and acting like um and so young Delia would get in trouble a lot. She she would always um would get reprimanded for speaking out, for defending people, for bringing home straight cats and dogs, and um I some one time tried to bring in a a person that was unhouse into my house because I was I could not understand why this person didn't have a home, and if we had a home, how come this person could just not come home with us and then that person would have a home? Um and and so I I always lived in this almost confused like state because inside of me the the the answers were always so obvious, like the right thing to do was always so obvious, but it seemed that in the world that's not how things were supposed to be done. Um so I learned quickly, sadly, that if I wanted to belong, that if I wanted to be included, that if I wanted to not be in trouble, that if I wanted validation, that if I wanted to be a part of my family and and and my community, that I needed to kind of like um put away parts of me that did not behave like the rest of the people that I was in in community with. Um and so um I began drowning little parts of of me and and who I am. And I grew up detached and confused, but very, very obedient, and very, very um, a very good student. And um and so when I came to the United States, it was around I don't know, the end of seventh grade, beginning of eighth grade. Um when I came to the United States, it was just ingrained in me that if that I could have anything I wanted because I was so obedient, because I was such a good girl, because I followed all the rules, um, that it never occurred to me that I was gonna have any trouble, especially in education, right? Like coming from um an education system where I got all the certificates, where I was like in all the the violets, all the the the um in all the festivities and all the everything, right? Because I was such a good girl. Um and so coming here and realizing that I didn't know the language, that even it didn't matter that I knew how to do the math or how to like answer the question, just because I didn't understand what the question was asking me didn't matter how easy it was. I couldn't answer it because I didn't understand what the question was. Um so like that kind of like dissonance added to I was already drowning parts of myself, right? Yeah, um, so I didn't have that safety of it's okay that I'm drowning parts of myself because I'm getting this validation, this external validation. Because now I wasn't even getting that external validation because I was not a good student anymore, because I wasn't getting those A's and and and B's because I was not getting the answers right. Um and so I started to be this angry child or a teenager at this age now. Um but then I went to the library one day, and I started reading, and so I had a dictionary and I had a book, so I learned how to read English before I started speaking English because it was words were patient, right? Like the words in the book were patient, like they would wait for me to to kind of like go back and forth between the dictionary and and the book. So I learned to also listen to my body and to to tend to that frustration, like in the time that it took for me to like read the word and then come back to the dictionary and then go back and forth. I was also like stopping time long enough to feel like what uncomfortable felt like, and what um the different sensations in my body felt like, and of course I didn't know that at that age, right? Like those are this those these are things that I understand that I understand now after like years of reflection and and and and going back and kind of like healing my inner child and wounds and things like that. But that's how wise our bodies are, and that's how wise like we are, and and we do things sometimes without even thinking um in our journeys, and until we don't take that time to stop and look back and be like, oh my god, like we really did know what we were doing, you know. Yeah, um, yeah, and so and so that's kind of like how I started to little by little reclaim who I am, and so I learned English. By the time I was in 10th grade, I was already taking AP English, I mean um accelerated English classes. By the time I graduated high school, I had taken AP English literature. So um, so I was I was able to kind of like go back to being that like, oh, I need to like I can be that kind of like straight a student. Um what I didn't realize though, it was that being undocumented meant that it didn't really matter how good of a student I was. I couldn't go to college. Um, I was undocumented before that. I'm not sure if you're familiar with what with that is. So before it I wasn't documenting before that. I'm a I'm a little older than I look.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Um well I am familiar with it, but I did want you to expand on it too, because there might be people listening that don't know what those terms mean. So um if you wanted to share more on that, that would be great.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, so so that is it's um so it's it's the dreamers, right? Like so this the young young people that were that were brought over um to the United States, obviously they have no choice in the matter, their parents brought them over. Um, and so they grew up here. That pretty much that's what they know is is is here, and they um they completed their education here. And so what that sorry my earbud is um there. Um so what that allowed them to do is is is to get this work permit. Um, this will allow them uh the right to go to college and get in-state tuition because before then, yes, they could go to college, but they needed to pay out state uh out of state tuition, which I you are you're an international student, so I think you're familiar with very high fees that that out-of-state students um I I'm pretty sure um international students is even more than out-of-state students. Yes, yeah. Um so before that you were able to go to college if you were undocumented, um, but you had to pay um out of state tuition. Yes. Um, and so with that guy, you were able to apply for financial aid or pay in-state tuition. Um, but I was going to college before that, um, so that was not available to me. And um and so I learned when I learned that another kind of like wave of despair just hit me, right? And I was I was like, well, what's the point? What's the point of being a good student and a good person, and it doesn't really matter. Um but I just there was always this little voice, right, in me. Like you just keep going, like just keep trying. And there was always little angels along my journey. Um, like I learned that I could go to community college and that there was a form in community college that I could fill out where I could pay in-state tuition because I had graduated from a high school in California. So in California, you could do it. Um, so so and and those are like things that I would have never known if I hadn't like put myself in myself in situations where I was like asking questions on behalf like of myself or or others, right? And I was definitely that person all the time, like just asking questions all the time.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

And so I learned I learned that, right? Like, so I did I decided to do that. I decided to go to community college. Um, and then I got pregnant. So I I I became a mom at 19. I still decided to continue um going to community college. Um, but now you know, like still being undocumented, having to work to pay for my tuition, um, and becoming a mom, it took me a little longer to to kind of like navigate community college. So whereas you're supposed to be there for two years, it took me nine to to go to transfer from community college to like a four-year university.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

But you did it. I did. You did it, you did it. Let's get to that part of it. It doesn't matter how it is. So many things along the way, but Delia, you did it.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yes, it took me nine. But after that, after I was after transfer to San It was say I did my bachelor's and I did my master's, and then that part was fast. I was like, okay, I can do it now. I can do it. My daughter was older, uh, she was in school, so it's obviously easier when like you have. I know.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I and I wanted to let you pause there too, because I think sometimes that's the encouragement that somebody needs, right? We can do there, could be like a ton of hard things, and but we can do hard things. Yes, and and um you did it, you know, you could have chosen to like just stop. That's a that's a lot to be going through at such a young age, too, right? And so I just wanted you to take a moment and be and be paused about that, don't just gloss over it as you share this. Um, and then you've been on that education track for a minute and and in that community and and been doing that work, right? So um we yeah, we could we could dive on into that, but let me ask you a question about that because looking back on your journey, we which is still unfolding because we haven't touched about some part of this. Um what parts of your story do you do people often not see when they look at where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 21:46

I think that part. I think people don't realize that it took me nine years to finish community college. Um, I think when people see me and they see that I have a master's. In education, that I have my bachelors, and then I, you know, that I I go to conferences, that I'm starting my business, that I teach yoga, that I, you know, that I'm just I do do do. Um, I think people don't realize how long it took me to be here right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yes. And that's exactly, I think that's why I have this podcast. I think that's why I love this podcast because we come into people's lives through what looks like a perfect story all the time. We come in contact with people. That's exactly what thriving in intersectionality is. Is there's so many layers that people that are passion and purpose driven, a lot of times I've had to like hold on to that passion and purpose for longer than others because of their story. And so thank you. Thank you for you know just your vulnerability and just sharing authentically um here today, what some of the navigation, because it's it's you know, you you stressed on it took me nine years to finish community college, but it's beyond that. You could have stopped at the community college and just said, okay, at least I finished, I'm done. But then you kept pursuing a passion that had been in you for a while, and then you kept going, and you're still going. Um, because maybe we can come back to what you do now, some of the things you do now, because you do more than one thing. So, Delia, share a little bit about that. Let's talk a little bit about what you're doing right now, um, through all of those lenses and experiences that you've had. How are you putting it all together in in this state at this stage of your life?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yes, yes. So, right now I am in the middle of launching my own company, my own organization. It's called Working with Elia. Um, and this is a space where um I hold space. I hold space for people, for for educators, for um for purpose-driven individuals, for for people that have this magic and this passion and and and this vision for the world. Um and I hold space for them to rest and and for them to to come back to themselves and for them to pause and for them to um sometimes just marvel at how amazing they are because I I've like I said, I've held many, many positions in the years that I've worked, and it's not because I haven't found my purpose or I didn't or those positions were not part of my purpose, it's because I go into a space and I see the people there, and I pour into the people and I see the system and I it's right, I do that on evaluation, like that's that's part of who I am. Um and I mend and I tend and then I move on to the next to the next stage. Because for me, so I'm a my my bachelor's in so is in sociology. That's my first passion, it's understanding why we are the way we are and and how come we're here and and how can we do better. Um, and so for me, everything, everything connects, everything matters, nothing is a tiny little detail. Um and so when I go into a space, I see it, I absorb it, and then I understand the next connection, and then I move on to the next stage. So for me, working with Delia is understanding that I cannot be in all the spaces, but I can't hold space for the people that are going to go into the different spaces, and so by me pouring into one person, then this person is going to go whole and full of renewed purpose into this space and be and have the ability to pour into the people that they come into contact with, and then those people are gonna be renewed by that person's purpose, and then they're gonna have it's gonna have a ripple effect. And so that's how I've found the way to to be able to to help mend and support and like heal.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah, I love it. Thank you. Um, thank you for sharing that. And definitely uh for those listening, I'll be sharing uh some links that would help you connect with earlier and learn more about the work she's doing now. Um but I wanted to move to the last part of the conversation, which is also connecting what we talked about in the beginning, those intersections, those identity connections, and the work you're doing right now. When when you think about your experiences growing up, your experiences um in prior to moving here as a child, and then moving here and growing, how do you think your own lived experiences continue to shape the work you do today? It's like I haven't really thought about it. How do I put it all together? I'm living it.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

No, I think I think it's it it it's big, right? Because I and I know I don't know if it has to do with being an immigrant or not. Um I don't know if it has to just to be with just being human. Um I I recently came back from Mexico City. Um I I was in Mexico City last week and um I had the opportunity to go and I and I've been there before. This is my second time there. Um, but I saw it through completely different eyes. I I went to um to Tiwacan, which is the ancient ancient city um um that was there, and and the guide that we we had, he was not a guide, like he he was a true like knowledge keeper, and he was able to tell us the story of that place in a way that I had never heard it before, and in a way that I had never connected to it before. Um and so I understood it's all gonna connect, okay? I'm not taking you on a on a tangent. I trust you um and so I understood that um we have been stripped right and and left behind pieces of ourselves not just the the land but like parts of ourselves that like to tell us and inform like inform us of like how to like ways of being and ways of loving and ways of like nourish nourishing nourishing my English doesn't want to work anymore nourishing and like pouring into each other and pouring into ourselves, um and they were replaced by um by systems that extract um extract labor, extract knowledge, extract um everything, right? Um and so for us, um and again it doesn't just have to be immigrants or people of color, I think, I think this is true for everyone, every human person. Um we were designed to to be reciprocal to the land, right? To to to give and to be given back, to receive. Um and so when when when we live in systems that don't do that, um we don't understand, and we live in this like kind of confused stage, but we keep giving and giving and giving because that's in our that's in us, like we know to tend, we know to love, we know to take care of. Um, we just keep waiting for for when it's our turn to receive, you know. Um and so when you ask me, right, like like how how does it connect the work that you do now to your lived experience? Um at the beginning, I I told you like how I learned very quickly to hide parts of my identity and to like and not only to hide them, but like to like drown them and to be like, okay, I can't be this way because I want that, and for me to get that, I need to give this, but it was a uh it was always give, give, give. Okay, I need to be this A student, okay. This is not working. I need more A's, I need to be a better good girl, I need to be a gooder, gooder girl, you know. And then I came here and it was no, okay, that whatever I was working over there is not working anymore, so I need to like readjust and give even more, more, more, more, more, you know, and and so right now the work I do now is like no, I don't need to do none of that, and you don't need to do none of that. Like, we need to be, and we need to come back to ourselves and kind of like unlearn and and and unearth all of the little things that we have put away so that we can survive on this system of extraction um that was created and we were born into.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Yep, I like that. I've never heard it communicated that way. I know we are all in this age where everybody's kind of talking about wellness and health and wellness now, but I love the way you put it. The nourishing part, we we live in a world where the systems and the processes keep teaching us to give more and suppress your desire to receive, right? But we're not that's not natural. That's definitely not natural. I love it. Thank you. I feel like all of the questions I had, you answered them in one. So you touched on so many things. Oh, there's one thing I didn't necessarily want us to move away from because we talked about the different things that you do now. I think you talked about working with Delia, but what else are you doing? You touched on them briefly, but then you didn't really talk about it. What are all the ways that Delia currently pours into the world right now?

SPEAKER_00 34:06

All the ways that I well, I do working with Delia is kind of like the professional, the way that I pour into professionals, right? Like I I can I can come into and work with the organization um in a rest-centered, kind of like professional development sort of way. Um, but if you are also an individual that wants to do this work, I can also work individually through through yoga, through meditation, through just interactions, um, and different healing modalities. I can also work with communities, with groups of friends, with groups of families. Um I also work with youth, which is my personal um passion. I I think that it's our duty to be um to be connected to ourselves as adults, so we can pass on that wisdom to youth, and so we don't perpetuate those systems of extraction. Um because I don't think there's systems of oppression, I think there's six systems of extraction. Um and so I think that when we're centered as as adults and we are we know who we are, and and we are able to pass on our the best of us to young people, then that's how we heal the world. Um, so I like to do a lot of work with with young people. So if there's any organizations out there that want to that that work with young people, I'm more than happy to work with young people. Also, if there's any grass use grassroots organizations um that think that I might be too expensive, I do definitely sliding scale. I I am a I the work for me is uh very, very important. Um so so yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Um I I think it's important to know, understand where your passion is and also who you support. I um as we wrap up before my final question, this is the question before the final, but um I did want to ask you if there's anybody listening um that see themselves in you in the way you talk about your intersections, either um it's teenage mom or it's immigrant or it's an undocumented immigrant or is a woman or you know, all of those things we talked about at the beginning. If there's anyone listening that kind of see themselves in you, what are some advice you would give to them right now? You know, just speak to them, share, share something for them to walk away with.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

I was always looking for somebody else to validate my experience and to say that it was okay for me to exist. Um so I would say there's no you don't need anyone to validate your experience just the fact that you're alive means that you have chosen to be alive and that's more than enough. Um the fact that you can breathe and inhale and exhale, um, that's more than enough reason for you to be here doing the things that you do and the things that you want to do. Um sometimes we just need to the hard the hardest part is for us to believe ourselves and to feel it, to allow it to feel it, for our bodies to feel it. Yeah, that's that's definitely the hardest part, and that's what I've learned through the somatic part of my work, through through like the yoga, through the breathing, to the merging the like the science and the and the like kind of like the wisdom, and and it's is that being in your body is the hardest part, yeah, of the work.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Yeah, I love that. Yep, and you know, one step at a time, one day at a time, like we are all the more we practice that, the more we think about that, the more we believe that, the more we continue to believe it. It's a journey, definitely a journey. I think we're all work in progress when it comes to that. Uh thank you, thank you so much. Um, anything else you like to share with my audience? Um, first, where can they find you? And then anything else you like to share with them before we close.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Yeah. Well, I am at in San Diego. So if you're in San Diego, you can find me anywhere. Um, but I am at at working with Delia everywhere and Instagram. My website is uh workingwithbelia.com. I mean working with Delia.com um on LinkedIn, Delia find Skinner. Um but yeah. Um anything that I want to share, I I don't I don't know that I want to share. Just you know, like it's it's I don't want to sound you know too woo-woo, but like rest is not it is a very important part of the work, like bringing it back to to the context of that we live in right now, and like the things that are happening in the world right now, like it's it's there's serious things happening in the world right now, like it it it is not like we're not in La La Land. I am not in La Land, like I am not a naive person. Um, I know exactly what's going on with the system of education, I know exactly what's going on across the world with our youth, with women. Um it in when you take time to rest, you're taking time to regenerate, both at a physical level, at a mental level, at an energetic level, and that's gonna give us the momentum, and that's gonna give us sustainability to be able to fight, to be able to wake up, to be able to show up, to be able to keep dreaming, to be able to keep building, to be able to remember what it could be before things were how they are right now.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

Yeah, I love that. That was good. Thank you. All right, I have a final question that I always ask all my guests. So, if you were to share a meal, a snack with your co-workers, what are you gonna pick and why?

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Oh, can I hear two?

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Yes, okay. Go for it.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

So, main dish is mole. I love mole. Have you had mole?

SPEAKER_01 41:54

I have heard of it, I haven't had it.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Oh, delicious. Mole, mole negro. I don't like all the other moles, just mole negro. Um, if there's like there's green mole, there's red mole, it the flavor is off. It like the the combination of seeds um that they used to they used to make it is it's a different um there's different seeds and mole negro it's chocolate with like different seeds, and they're just like grind together, um, and different seeds and different chiles, so it's a sweet and spicy-ish dish, like sauce. And then you can put the sauce everywhere, any any like anything. Okay, and then like a snack, papitas con chile, yeah, like chips and chile for sure.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Oh, food. Okay, now I'm hungry. You know, um, thank you for sharing that. Um, it's I I do have to mention that I had the question in my head, but I never did ask it because when we're talking about uh intersections, you never mentioned where you were born, and I think about that that we define people without knowing them by certain things. And you know, I've had that with a lot of my guests where and I do that for myself, I allow myself to go there. This is a guest I don't know. What are some of the things that I think she or he would share about the identity intersections? Were you born in Mexico? Yes, Tijuana, Mexico, yes, but you never said that when you were describing yourself, and I say that to say a lot of times for people listening, it's allowing ourselves to listen, to be present, to connect with people is usually the best way to understand them and know what's important to them. Um, because we're in such a time like these where people just put labels and there's like bias descriptions around certain parts of the world or people just by their names and maybe accents, right? But when you get to know someone, if you actually ask somebody, you can find so many things in common with each other beyond the label. So that was interesting. I I thought it was interesting that you never actually said, Oh, I was born in Mexico. No, because that wasn't a huge part of right, like when you think of your experience and in the um now the immigrant experience, you mentioned that was a huge part of your experience. Um, so I love that, and I love that you tied the food back. So thank you so much, Delia. It was so nice chatting with you and getting to capture this for my audience. And I'm looking forward to seeing you. Of course, we're both in San Diego, so we are going to connect. I'm glad to have you in my network.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Me too. Thank you for this.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

Thank you for being part of today's conversation on thriving in intersectionality. If you're an HR or DEI leader and you need employer resource group or business resource group resources, let's connect and LinkedIn and help organizations build inclusive cultures through inclusive workplace communities, strategy, and storytelling. Immigrants and first-gen professionals, join our free community at www.immigrantsincorporate.org for career support, networking and resources in community with peers who understand your journey. Tag our podcast page on LinkedIn or connect with me directly to continue the conversation. Please don't forget to rate and review to help others discover these discussions. Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters. I'm Dr. Lola Adeyemo, and this has been Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast.