Paola Sofia Euyoque wears many hats: she is a Luckday scholar, member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and clarinet player in the Ole Miss Band and Wind Ensemble. The junior music education major is also a first-generation college student.
“My first semester here, I was this first-generation person who hadn’t had a parent who went to university, and I was suddenly having to take 19 credit hours a semester,” Euyoque said. “I am a first generation (student), so having the staff and faculty to help me has just been amazing because I really did not know what I was doing when I came here.”
The Philadelphia, Miss. native shared that her mother and father both immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before they reached adulthood, so pursuing a college degree was not a feasible option for her parents. However, they encouraged her to gain an advanced education.
“Because my dad owns a restaurant, he didn’t want to pressure us to go into that industry, so he really had an emphasis on us to go to school and have a stable career and to do something you want to love,” Euyoque said. “I didn’t want to put any pressure on my parents to pay for my school, so I decided to work hard in high school and to do good and get my scholarships to come here.”
Euyoque’s ambition and dedication ultimately came into fruition, as she earned a full scholarship to UM to study music education with an instrumental emphasis. Euyoque’s affinity for music blossomed from her Mexican roots.
“Music is very important in Hispanic culture,” Euyoque said. “I have an early influence from my great grandpa, Papá José. My only memory of him is from when I was very, very young. He was playing the guitar and playing Mexican songs in Spanish on our back porch. He is what I think about when I think of music. He was my first ever memory and connection to music.”
Euyoque revealed that her relationship with her Hispanic heritage established itself within her familial relationships.
“I grew up with my grandma and grandpa, my dad’s mom and dad, right next door to my house,” Euyoque said. “I would grow up after school going to their house and drinking coffee as a little seven year old, as we Hispanics do at a young age.”
Bridged between her parent’s origins in Mexico and her upbringing in the U.S., Euyoque often felt as if her Hispanic identity was not properly acknowledged or recognized at all.
“Growing up, I had an identity crisis because of cultural differences in school,” Euyoque said. “When I would take home papers to my mom, who barely knew the proper words on a form, Hispanic was rarely even an option, it was always considered to be in the ‘other’ category.
Euyoque expressed that while Hispanic Heritage Month, an annual celebration of Hispanic American influence ranging from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, is intended to uplift the Hispanic community, its intentions are not always known by the public.
“I believe that if people were more educated about Hispanic Heritage Month and why we celebrate it and why it’s so important, then people would become educated about what Hispanic heritage means,” Euyoque said.
