Hispanic Individuals with Disabilities – 102 Webinar

My name is Eduardo Parra, I am a Mexican-American graduate student studying in the Masters of Rehabilitation program at the University of Texas at El Paso. I was born in East Los Angeles to two Mexican-American parents. My father is a retired professor who served in the marines during the Vietnam war, and my mother is a retired teacher from Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico. I was raised simultaneously in the US and in Mexico; during the ’90s my mother felt East Los Angeles was not the best of environment to raise us due to the escalating gang violence, so my parents decided that they would raise my siblings and me in Chihuahua. However, these plans changed once again due to the mounting violence from the drug cartels in Mexico. They decided that El Paso would be a good middle ground to settle in since it was close enough for my mother to visit her parents in Chihuahua, and for my father to visit us with more frequency. Having a unique understanding of different communities thanks to living and engaging with said communities was one of the influencing factors that made me interested in becoming a counselor.

Veronica Estala-Gutierrez is the Director of the Rehabilitation Services Clinical Teaching Laboratory and a Lecturer at the University of Texas at El Paso. She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC). She holds certificates from the University of North Texas in Job Skills Training, Job Coaching/Placement, and Supported Employment and is fluent in English and Spanish.