DIVERSITY INTERVIEW

Fresno Pacific University

ECD 310- Human Diversity and Relations

Dr. Peter Kopriva

Signature Assignment – Diversity Interview

Michelle Jaramillo

November 10, 2016

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For my interview I choose to interview a coworker her name is Timberly Romero. From a

young age her personal experiences in society were not too great and played a huge effect in her

life as she entered adult life. Timberly Romero was born in Germany, growing up her father was

in the military which required for her family to move often. In her elementary years of growing

up she attended 20 different schools throughout her time. Her cultural and ethnicity background

is Caucasian and the average family who is just trying to survive making ends meet. She was

born into a family which included a father, mother, sisters and one brother. Her father was often

gone due to the military so her mother was basically a single mother covering all of the

children’s needs and household duties. They grew up very poor and often struggled to cover

monthly necessities when it came to the cost of living.

Because of the financial struggles and hardships of her family they had to live with

outside family member’s multiple times while her father was in the service. Her father had got

injured in the military and this is when their struggles as a family came strong. Because of their

family circumstances they were often judged and looked down upon. The whole concept “white”

people do not experience prejudice is not true. Many times she and her family have been looked

down on as they enter stores and new schools her and her siblings would transfer to and from.

When they would enter a store several of customers and cashiers would look at them as if they

knew they did not have enough money to purchase those items. Attending several schools made

her feel insecure about herself as she continued to grow older. She was teased and picked on a lot

because not only was she a young girl who came from a poverty family, but she was the “new”

girl on campus as well. Her mother would make all of her and her sibling’s clothes all on her
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own. They were a family who passed down hand me downs and has to share everything because

resources were limited. No matter how rough things got they always remained a family.

As she entered her adult life her self-confidence was still not very strong. She married at

a young age because this was the first person in society to have ever given her attention. In

school as a child all she had ever wanted was to receive attention, and here this young man was

wanting to offer her attention. Her first marriage was not successful because they were young

when they married and he instantly began treating her wrong. He was verbally abusive and

always putting her down, since her self-esteem was down already as a young child she did not

notice the signs prior to marriage. Never the less she got her and their first born child out of this

situation and quickly moved on in her life. She did not have quit the support system because her

family was going through their own life struggles and she felt like she had to hold in all of her

hardships because she did not want to be a burden to her immediate family. She began to work in

her self-esteem and building her self-confidence after coming out of a verbally abused

relationship. She remarried while she was still young and had 3 more children with her new

husband; she married a great man who loved not only her but her and her daughter as well. For

many years she was a stay at home mom raising four children they are all now gone living on

their own and have attend college. She and her husband are still married to this day 30 years

later.

She has been employed for 9 years here at the agency of Parenting Network; she is

currently enrolled in the Bachelors program at University of Phoenix. Her interview was

inspiring to me and she shared so much information from the beginning of her struggles to the

end of her achievements. She went on to say many times people think they have to stay at the
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poverty level but just because you are born into that economic status does not mean dreams and

successful is unreachable. When you work with people you think you have this concept of who

they are, when in reality we all come from different walks of life. One of her favorite songs she

quoted, “take a sad song and make it better” (The Beetles, 1968)

The second interview I happened to interview a good friend of mine who I have known

for years growing up. He is a young man who was raised in a Christian based home growing up

and when he became an adult at the age of 35 he came out and broke the news to everyone that

he was now a homosexual. Mind you he was a married man at the time he and his wife also had

two children who were elementary aged children. When we were little kids everyone knew there

was something different about him, he was really feminine and did not play sports or have any

interest in what other little boys his age were doing. He liked to be around girls and rarely hung

out with the boys. All though elementary school, middle school and high school he showed these

different characteristics. He dates a few girls in his young days but nothing really serious until he

met his wife their senior year of high school. They were both high school sweet hearts who

arried right after high school and immediately started their little family. Over the years he could

not fight who he was any longer, he has to breal the news to his family that his prefence was

men. Of course his family were hurt and his wife was heartbroken to find out that he had an

affair with another man. His children immediately became embarrassed of him because what

would their friends at school say about their dad now being with a man. As a friend I have seen

him overcome many battles and heart breaks, his own parents were even embarrassed about his

big news and for a quick minute they had even disowned him.
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With his faith in Christ and many years of counseling and therapeutic services he

overcame many obstacles and little by little his “new” life was all coming back together again.

His children are now in high school and junior high and his ex wife now remarried and had more

children with her new husband. His relationship with his children is great and his relationship

with his ex wife is amazing to this day they are friends and they have learned to forgive him. His

wife knew by loving the lord, she had to learn to forgive him and love him just as Christ did. His

parents are very much involved in his life and he is not in any serious relationships at the time he

is just dating. He was often judged by many friends and family and many people often would ask

him why he broke up his family and did what he did to them? Yes he did hurt his family and

break the heart of many, but what people fail to realize is the pain he felt having to hurt those he

loved because he could no longer live the way he was. Since he was a young boy those who

knew who he really was, this was no secret of him being a homosexual. He often felt alone and

left out because during this time of him coming out he was no longer invited to certain family

events or functions. He is Caucasian and his family roots come from Europe but he was born and

raised here in the United States. Many of his values, morals and beliefs remain the same in

comparison to my own culture; although many were hurt and upset by his actions he always had

a heart of gold. Knowing him since he was a young boy it hurt as a friend to interview and bring

up such history he had healed from. I know that his intentions were not to hurt his wife or his

children, but he had fought the feeling so hard that he tried to be “normal” for too long and he

just could not live that life any more.

The family values through his upbringing were also very similar to the Hispanic culture

in ways such as not matter what your child does or says as parents you love that child
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unconditionally. Family is family no matter what, so of course after the flame flared down this is

how the family began to welcome him back and to have a clean slate. Although they did not

agree with his actions or choices, he was still family regardless of the disagreements. The

family’s religion was also very similar and in the Christian religion the bible tells us to love such

as Christ does. We love the sinner, but not the sin. The research of the diverse culture and gender

preference influences society greatly and in many different ways. For example, many young

adults are facing this problem of having fear to be who they are, homosexuality, lesbian, and

same sex relationships are very hard for many in society to deal with. The fear of being

disowned, the fear of being mocked or judged, and the fear of taking their own life due to the

shame and hurt people make them feel. Although each of us have our own beliefs about same sex

relationships we still have to treat people as human beings, and to show love and kindness. More

people need to become bold with who they are and this is what society needs more of, the

boldness and knowing who they identify as. I am very thankful despite our differences of

sexualities he overcame those tough obstacles and learned to identify with who he really was.

Many times we hear of those who take their own life because they just cannot deal with the pain

of people judging them, and being so harsh and mistreating them just because they choose

differently. Many people like to spread harsh rumors such as homosexuals may have developed a

form of mental illness, this was something always told to him as if he was not in his right mind.

During the interview people thought he was going through some type of mid life crisis because

why would he want to leave his wife and his children. Rumors and myths can be harsh and create

damage to an individual.
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The findings throughout the report and interviews the outcomes found came from two

different people who live two different lives but yet still have common characteristics of morals,

values and beliefs. Just because a person lives life differently than how we see things does not

mean a person’s set of views is wrong or makes them a bad person. Both participants were both

parents to children but yet had a different preference in genders when it came to their partners,

did not mean one parent loved their children or viewed the values of family differently. As

professionals we will come across several walks of life and this is not our area to judge.
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References

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html