Elvira Cruz-Cruz: A Latina Looking at the Stars

Qué Pasa, OSU Features Editor 23′-24′

by Adrielys Calderon Ortiz                                                                              Graduate Student, Comparative Studies

Elvira Cruz-Cruz, a young Mexican woman from California, fell in love with Astronomy and Astrophysics at the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS). After seeing the Milky Way Band for the first time, astrophysics enlightened her future. This experience led to her completing a bachelor’s degree at UC Irvine in Physics, specializing in Astrophysics. Consequently, her love for looking at the stars brought her to Ohio State University to pursue a Ph.D. in Astronomy.

Elvira Cruz-Cruz, Graduate Student, Department of Astronomy

Her path to becoming the astronomer she is now, as the receiver of one of NASA’s 2023 Future Investigators NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant, is motivated by her experiences coming from a big family.

She sought a career that fulfilled her love for astrophysics and could provide a stable future with time for her family. The stars weren’t always aligned; college life had its hardships and rewards. Elvira found inspiration to continue her work by being positive, building a foundation through church, engaging with the Latinx community, and participating in programs on campus. These core enga gements during her undergraduate student life gave her a sense of home, far away from home.

As a coffee enthusiast, college life was exhausting but invigorating. Additionally, she feels what got her through the tough times was taking initiative, asking questions, and persevering. It was this take on life that motivated her to reopen the undergraduate Astronomy Club while at UC Irvine, creating a place to look at the stars through their 11-inch Celestron, forgetting for a moment the stresses of school and life.

As a Ph.D. student in the Department of Astronomy, she finds community building a core for her graduate experience as Mexican and Latina, particularly through creating community within her department and outside of it by meeting other Latinx people. Furthermore, Elvira expressed her love for outreach work and connecting with people to give them help. This summer of 2023, she created an organization called Astro Latinx. She aims to give back to the community, mentor students on how they can study astronomy, and show them that it is possible for them to pursue higher education.

For Elvira, creating spaces that provide knowledge, share experiences, and promote resources to those who don’t know about them is crucial. She states, “If we share everything we know as we do with our folklore and storytelling, these stories will also lead them to better futures.” From this, she aims to become a professor after completing her Ph.D. to help and nurture students like her; Latinx students who need to see Latinxs in the spaces they dream to be in the future.

Elvira believes that co-creating a future as Latinx in academia happens when we work together. She shared that less than 10% of the Latinx population has gotten a PhD in Astrophysics. She constantly contemplates how being a graduate student at Ohio State, as a Latina, can create opportunities for other Latinxs interested in the field she loves. As one of the recipients of NASA’s FINEST grant, this is a moment of representation with evidence of all her work and efforts as a Latina in the field of Astrophysics; her hard work is validated. She realized at that moment that it was possible because she shared her experiences, advocated for herself, and was confident in her skills and abilities. Elvira received this grant and wishes for it to be another opportunity for Latinx to be represented and seen in spaces lacking in cultural and racial diversity.

Across our conversation, Elvira and I considered how doing outreach work and being in her position as a Latinx in a predominantly white space such as Astrophysics is an act of love. According to her, you are grateful for the opportunities, but you also feel a stronger love for your family that has supported you, for the culture you represent, and a growing affection towards those who look at you as an inspiration.

“Having people that believe in you is important, but more important is to believe in yourself. Put yourself out there, apply to every opportunity you find, and give yourself that option. Because you don’t know that you are going to do it or get it until you have done it.” – Elvira Cruz-Cruz