Leticia Márquez-Magaña: For a male Latino, what I would tell him is that, I will always remember when I discovered something, and for a few minutes after that, I knew that I was the only person in the whole universe who knew this new something. This is also true for a female Latina, but also as a professor I have a lot of flexibility in my day. I give classes two or three times a day… a week, and then I have some meetings. So the advantage is that there’s a lot of flexibility, so a career in academics is perfect for those who want to become mothers.

Erika Montero: You are listening to the Cielo y Tierra podcast, La Clara Voz.

Through her personal story, Dr. Leticia Márquez-Magaña offers us a unique point of view about the benefits that a graduate degree and an academic career in science offers Hispanic women. We spoke with her at the SACNAS Conference.

Erika Montero: Doctor, why is what you do important?

Leticia Márquez-Magaña: For many reasons. I think the most important for the Latino community, is that through my scientific research I help students with their training to continue their studies in graduate school. So, many of the students that study with me continue on to a doctorates degree, the School of Medicine, Pharmacy School, to different careers. That’s one of the greatest successes of my program. Another reason is the kind of science in which I work, we are trying to understand how a bacteria makes decisions to survive. We are working on finding the molecules and how they work in turning genes on, and off, since these are responsible for making the protein needed by the bacteria to survive.

Erika Montero: Was there something in particular that helped you decide to become a scientist.

Leticia Márquez-Magaña: I think it happened when I was a little girl. My parents are immigrants, and they feared us going out of the house, because in Sacramento, California sometimes things happened. They always wanted us to stay in the house, so I watched television and in the cartoons the scientists had a lot of power, they could change many things and they were always having fun. So I thought, “Well as a scientist you always have lots of fun, you have power and can change things.” That influence made me think I wanted to be a scientist.

Erika Montero: Now, changing the subject, as far as the information available today to all of us, how do you know what available information is true and which is not true?

Leticia Márquez-Magaña: I believe that the scientific truth is not the same as the truth in our daily lives. The truth is that the scientific method doesn’t prove anything, it only proves what is not true. We use models, do experiments and decide which hypothesis has backing, but we never prove anything. I think that science is a process, so what’s true one year might not be true the next. Truth changes through discovery.

Erika Montero: Now thinking in a scientific way, what is the mental process you use to select information, to use it in your personal life?

Leticia Márquez-Magaña: I think one needs to find out what’s the source of the information. If it’s a trustworthy source, if it’s the internet, well I don’t trust the internet. If it’s a website from a recognized organization I might trust it more, but if the website is from an unknown source I don’t trust it at all. I trust scientific publications. Mainly I believe that if you say to yourself, “There is this data, if it all fits like the pieces of a puzzle, then I will believe the conclusion.” So one needs to analyze several sources of information, decide how trustworthy they are and if all the pieces of the puzzle fit right. If they don’t, then something is wrong.

Erika Montero: Now let’s talk about being here at SACNAS, what would you tell a young Hispanic person, who might not be considering science, to inspire that person to consider science as a career?

Leticia Márquez-Magaña: The answer would be different for a male Latino or a female Latina. To a male Latino, what I would tell him is that, I will always remember when I discovered something, and for a few minutes after that, I knew that I was the only person in the whole universe who knew this new something. And at that moment you get goose bumps when you realize you are the only person that knows this information. That’s what discovery is.

This is also true for a female Latina, but also as a professor I have a lot of flexibility in my day. I give classes two or three times a day… a week, and then I have some meetings. My son always says, “Who is your boss?”, and I say “I am my own boss.” So I am able to be with them at school, to take them to soccer. Sometimes I get home at 3:00 p.m. to be with them, I cook, then they go to sleep and I work, since I can work from anywhere. All I need is my computer and I can start working. So the advantage is that there’s a lot of flexibility and a career in academics is perfect for those who want to become mothers.

Erika Montero: Now as far as your work as a scientist, how has it affected your decision making in everyday life?

Leticia Márquez-Magaña: My children say I always work in the scientific method. They tell me, “I don’t want to be a hypothesis any longer.” But for example, if we are going to do something I ask them, “What do you predict will happen?” And then, “Why do you think that?”, “What would you change to change the outcome?” I am a very logical person, but in science there’s protocol, especially in the field of molecular microbiology, where we study the genetic of microbes. And it’s basically a cooking recipe. So when I cook it’s as though I am in the laboratory. I say, “Look, I have this amount of time to make dinner.” So I think, “Well this will take fifteen minutes, this will take half an hour, I have to do this first and in the mean time I can do this other thing.” Cooking is just like being in the laboratory and organizing an experiment so that everything works out as it should, so I am a very good cook. I’m not sure if the fact that I cook well makes me good at the lab setting, or the fact that I am good at the lab setting that helps me be a very good cook.

Erika Montero: Our thanks to Dr. Leticia Márquez-Magaña. To receive this podcast subscribe at espanol.earthsky.org. I am Erika Montero and this was La Clara Voz podcast, produced by EarthSky Communications.