Interview, Shawna Koetz

Shawna Koetz was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975 and raised in Gallup, New Mexico. She and her five siblings were raised by their mother and father with an emphasis on the importance of education and family traditions.

In this interview, Shawna Koetz discusses her relationship with education based on watching her mother receive her nursing degree, the importance of food-based traditions in her family, and the family ranch that she went to frequently when she was young. She explains some of the trends she noticed in the Hispanic community she grew up in, such as family sizes and an emphasis on gender roles. She also discusses how she feels about the “lazy Mexican” stereotype and some of the discrimination she recalls witnessing in her youth.