Transfer Student Maya Diaz-Villalta ’22 Creates First Indigenous Student Club at SMC
Getting involved with campus activities was important to them. When they saw that Saint Mary's didn't have its own Indigenous student club, they decided to create one.
After transferring to Saint Mary’s from Sacramento’s Cosumnes River College in 2019, Anthropology and Dance double major Maya Diaz-Villalta ’22 (they/them) knew they wanted to get involved as much as possible. When they saw a need for an Indigenous student club on campus, Diaz-Villalta formed the Native American and Indigenous Student Association (NAISA).
“Saint Mary’s was probably my first choice for schools,” Diaz-Villalta says. “I was looking for private colleges because I really wanted something small and cozy. When visiting different colleges, it just felt like the one that was home.”
Since then, NAISA has hosted a range of educational events open to the entire Saint Mary’s community. Diaz-Villalta, who identifies as Xinca, P’urépecha, and Pipil, says the club provides a space for students to reconnect with their Indigenous heritage and learn about Indigenous culture.
“It’s definitely a small population,” they say, “but I think the people that we get aren’t necessarily people who have seen that as part of their identity before, or maybe it’s something they’re trying to reconnect to, which is really important and amazing. And people, even if they don’t have Indigenous ancestry, want to be learning and educating themselves.”
A Force for Good
Diaz-Villalta also serves as a Seminar Governing Board Student Representative and started an initiative to represent Indigenous voices at Saint Mary’s. “From a more institutional perspective, we’re trying to integrate more Indigenous work and theory and philosophy into SMC’s Core Curriculum,” Diaz-Villalta says. “I also have been trying to push in the right direction to make sure Indigenous people have access to the land and to classrooms, and if they want to have events there, that it’s an option available to Bay Area Natives.”
This summer, Diaz-Villalta conducted anthropological research in the bordertown of Ruby, Arizona. “I went through IFR [Institute for Field Research] for the program, so it wasn’t necessarily through Saint Mary’s, but I am getting credit for it as a field school class. Essentially, we were working with the Undocumented Migration Project, which does research-based work for migrant communities.”
For Diaz-Villalta, this has deep personal meaning. “I wouldn’t be alive if not for migration,” they say. “So I think it’s really amazing to witness but also horrible to see what everyone is going through.”
“Professors and professor support is amazing,” Maya Diaz-Vallalta says. “You can really tell all of the professors want people to learn and be curious.”
Diaz-Villalta thanks their professors at Saint Mary’s for inspiring them to continue learning. “Professors and professor support is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad professor here,” they said. “I’m always thinking about learning to learn and being curious about the world. I think SMC emulates that in a classroom setting. You can really tell all of the professors want people to learn and be curious.”
What advice does Diaz-Villalta have for Saint Mary’s transfer students? “Join NAISA! Get involved with clubs, with different affinity groups that apply to you, the Intercultural Center, which is a good resource, and finding community and talking with people. I think that’s my thing that I always stress—finding community.”
Story updated March 10, 2023
LEARN MORE about NAISA and stay up to date on Native American Heritage Month events. Follow them @smc_naisa.