María Elena Pulido-Sepulveda stands near the library on Sacramento State’s campus. Pulido-Sepulveda is descended from the Caxacan and Otomí and studies sociology at Sacramento State.
November 10, 2021
Growing up, Pulido-Sepulveda always stuck out as the only girl with a braid in her hair. While she was raised Chicanx and grew up speaking Spanish, Pulido-Sepulveda said she always felt out of place.
She said through taking Native Studies classes, she was able to better understand which identity reflect her experiences.
Pulido-Sepulveda is now 39 years old and a sociology major at Sac State. Originally starting her higher education journey at American River College, she said she decided to take a college class when her youngest child started kindergarten, admitting she was “kind of jealous.”
It was not until taking the Native American Experience class at Sac State, alongside researching her own genealogy, that Pulido-Sepulveda embraced being Indigenous.
“It took me getting my education to be able to feel comfortable identifying as Indigenous,” she said.
Being with other Native students, especially with ENIT, has helped Pulido-Sepulveda feel a sense of belonging in a place where Native students are the smallest ethnic group on campus, she said.
[I’m] just setting these examples for them so they can see I didn’t give up and I didn’t stop at just a high school diploma.
— María Elena Pulido-Sepulveda
“The ENIT club is where I feel I belong because it’s the one community space that I know of [where] ‘existence is resistance’ and ‘respect our existence or expect our resistance’ isn’t a threat, it’s a norm,” she said. “It’s not about ego, it’s about resilience even in the places you are least wanted.”
For Pulido-Sepulveda, she said her relationship with her children has motivated her to continue to pursue her education. After her son died in a car accident when she started at Sac State, Pulido-Sepulveda said she had two choices: to be upset and depressed or be a good mom and look after her three other children. She chose the latter, continuing to work towards her degree.
“[I’m] just setting these examples for them so they can see I didn’t give up and I didn’t stop at just a high school diploma,” she said.
With aspirations to go into grad school, Pulido-Sepulveda said she currently advocates for Native students and is vocal about providing more support for them on campus. For example, in the state of California, Native students have the lowest college-going rate and highest high school dropout rate of any ethnic group in California.
“When we talk about Native students not getting into higher ed[ucation] or even out of high school I advocate for students, and so I know that our Native students specifically need more support, and they’re not getting them,” she said. “So even if they have the federal recognition or state recognition, [that] support isn’t on the campuses.”
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