10/06/2026
Meet our 2026-27 Otter Cross Cultural Center (OC3) Team
Victoria Gómez (She/Her)
Associate Director of the Otter Cross Cultural Center
What is a piece of media (book, music, movie, poem, etc.) that helps your identities feel represented, seen, and celebrated?
I feel represented by various art forms, and I really appreciate art. Being a mixed Indigenous-Chicana, it sometimes feels like I have to separate myself in identifying with various media- I feel like I can resonate with my maternal side of my ancestry being from the Pueblo Nation of New Mexico and I can resonate with my paternal side which is Mexican, but it’s hard to find media that represents both. A medium that I feel seen and celebrated through is Lowrider music. I’ve been thinking about lowrider culture since we recently had the car show here at CSUMB, hosted by El Centro. Much of lowrider culture is Chicanx- a political identity of those who are of Mexican descent, but also honoring one’s indigenous roots; this is not only me- being the first generation on my paternal side to be born outside of Mexico- but it also lets me embrace both being of Pueblo and Mexican descent. I grew up in proximity to lowrider culture and would hear lowrider music in my neighborhood, in the car and at home with my parents, and also in the places I would work during college.
