When I turned 40, I hosted a “40 & Tenured Pachanga” to celebrate becoming an associate professor at New Mexico State University. I was surrounded by friends, female mentors (fem/mentors) and familia, and it was inevitable to reflect on all that I have experienced to achieve these milestones. It has been fem/mentors, like those found in the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), who have left an imprint on me as a teacher, researcher and servant-leader in higher education. However, let me share my testimonio from el comienzo.

I was born in Veracruz, Mexico, however, because my maternal side of the family was dispossessed of their land after murdering my grandfather, we left for Puebla. My father was also murdered, and in 1985, my mother, as the oldest daughter and sister, courageously decided to migrate to Los Angeles, California. I was seven years old, and I would not see my mother until 1989. Due to overcrowded schools in South Los Angeles, my younger sister and I were bused to a school in West Los Angeles. This commute, the straddling entre mundos, would become the catalyst in my educational trajectory.

In eighth grade, I was recognized as a student with “potential” after writing my autobiography for a class, and I was selected to be part of the Fulfillment Fund mentoring program. Youth were matched with fem/mentors, and at the end of high school, we were given a scholarship for college. When the time came to start college applications, it became evident that I was not allowed to do so—not with my status. I lacked the required nine digits. We had crossed the border, we had come to the U.S. sin papeles, undocumented, sin derechos, and it was then that I began to understand that I did not belong in many spaces, starting with school.

Nonetheless, hearing Cecilia Burciaga (QEPD) speak at a career day, and fortuitous events that followed, led me to attend CSU Monterey Bay as an international student with the financial support of my dear mentor Dee and her husband Michael (Flores Carmona, 2017).

I am a first-generation student and academic, and I have crossed many borders to be where I am today. I want to emphasize que nadie lo hace sola—we need fem/mentors at every level of our educational trajectory. Additionally, the education/la educación received at home—what Dolores Delgado Bernal (2001) terms pedagogies of the home—is foundational to our success. These sets of tools, gained from lo vivido, have helped me navigate educational spaces, as an undergraduate, as a graduate student, and currently, as a faculty member. In fact, my experiences have informed and transformed my research and praxis. As I reflect back, I recognize the many fem/mentors who have impacted and enriched my life by sharing their wisdom and teachings with me—too many to name here. More recently, it was at the annual AAHHE conference where it was reaffirmed for me that it is our responsibility to pay it forward and to continue crossing borders to help others succeed and thrive in academia.

Judith Flores Carmona es una migrante, border crosser, hija de Josefina y Vicente. She is an Associate Professor in Curriculum and Instruction (Critical Pedagogy) in the School of Teacher Preparation, Administration and Leadership (TPAL), with a joint appointment in the Honors College at New Mexico State University. In 2017, she was recipient of the Donald C. Roush Award for Teaching Excellence. Her research interests include critical pedagogy, Chicana/Latina feminist theory, critical race feminisms, oral history, and testimonio methodology and pedagogy. Her scholarship has appeared in Equity and Excellence in Education, Race Ethnicity and Education, in the Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, in the Journal of Latinos and Education, in the International Journal of Multicultural Education and in the National Forum of Educational Administration & Supervision Journal.