posted 06.13.07
Education professor and Barnard alumna Maria Rivera Maulucci '88
featured in El Diario article on Latinos in science
The following article originally appeared in Spanish in the June 10 edition of El Diario. Reprinted with the permission of El Diario. Click here to read the original article in Spanish.
Boricuas under the microscope
By Erica González
Maria Rivera was terrified of writing. The Bronx native was so determined to dodge a college thesis requirement that she chose a major with no writing — or so she thought.
Rivera was soon handing in term papers about biology. And her study of science, along with writing papers, was far from over.
With years of teaching in public schools under her belt, then earning a master's degree in forest science from Yale University and a doctorate in science education from Teachers College, Rivera is demonstrating that Boricua brilliance has no bounds.
Conveying that potential to Puerto Ricans and others has become a mission for Rivera. "What I do as a science educator is try to break down the barriers between children and science," said Rivera, a professor at her undergraduate alma mater, Barnard College.
In her "science in the city" course, Rivera guides teachers on how to make science accessible to young minds. From showing teachers how to capitalize on the knowledge of kids to evaluating how many times they call on boys versus girls, Rivera is developing a cadre of instructors who can encourage the learning of science among all children.
With the focus on Puerto Rican talent in other areas, Rivera's achievements and expertise in science could be overlooked.
The same could be said for Jose Morales, who studies the links between genes and disease.
At Rockefeller University, Morales has been studying fanconi anemia — a rare genetic disease that frequently leads to birth defects, increased cancer risk and bone marrow failure. Morales is searching for genes that affect specific symptoms of the disease. It's a search that could yield medication or even cures.
Morales's career as a geneticist was sown during his childhood, with a drop of water. At the age of about 10, his parents gave him a wooden microscope that he used to inspect a water sample from a Bronx park.
"It was like a little world," Morales, 45, said of the sample. "I remember being just shocked because there were so many things moving around. I became fascinated with that."
While the space missions in the 1960s and ‘70s further stimulated Morales's interest in science, his burgeoning political consciousness in college kept him focused on what was happening on earth.
"I immersed myself in politics but never gave up on science," said Morales, a Boricua also from the Bronx.
After a college seminar on how chemical mutations affect public health, Morales found that he could merge his two loves in the environmental justice movement. That activism laid the groundwork for his doctorate in environmental oncology from the University of California at San Francisco.
Morales and Rivera were both drawn to science by early, positive experiences. (Rivera said family camping trips stimulated her love of nature and the outdoors.) But responses to them provide snapshots of some of the challenges for Boricuas in science.
"They don't realize that you're the professor, not the student," Rivera, 40, said of the perception of Boricuas and women. "And it doesn't help that I look younger than my age."
As a student, Rivera did not find herself in the company of many Latinos. "I was always the one Hispanic or one of the few," she said.
Morales, on the other hand, benefited from academic programs supportive of people of color. One professor, however, threw a wrench into his dreams.
"I had a professor try to convince me not to major in biology," Morales said. The professor claimed that biology would be too difficult for Morales, then a college student. Years later, Morales learned that the same professor had also tried to discourage other students of color.
Bias against Hispanics and systemic educational failures help project science as a field for only "certain" people.
Rivera says that mentality has to shift in order to track more Hispanics into the sciences. Appropriate facilities and instruction are also critical. "A lot of times, school science can fail to draw on the cultural resources children possess," Rivera said. For example, kids who help their parents cook are already familiar with scientific principles related to heat and boiling.
Morales pointed to also the complexity within communities that are marginalized in science. He referred to social distancing. "People assume that I'm going to laud over them when they find out I am a scientist."
But in a society short on recognizing the breadth of Puerto Rican accomplishments, Morales is an affirmation of the limitless intellect of Boricuas. "I'm a reminder that we do science too," Morales said.
As role models and in their work, Morales and Rivera are proving that hypothesis every day.
Click here to read the original article in El Diario. |
