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I am Margarita Ochoa and I'm interviewing Mary Durón for the Inclusive History and Images Project, a project which seeks to recover the untold histories of the diverse members of the LMU family.

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We are on the LMU campus in the Creative Spaces studios, and today is Tuesday, December 20, 2022. Um, I have a question for you before we begin. Uh, do you give me permission to interview you for

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the inclusive History and Images project, and do you allow the recording to be used in accordance with the stated goals of the project? Yes, I do.

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Thank you. Let's begin with some biographical questions. What is your name now? What is your full name now and what was your

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full name when you were a student at LMU? It's Mary Salinas Duron and whilst I was here it was Maryea Salinas. How do you spell?

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V E L I A. Thank you. Um, when and where were you born? I was born in Los Angeles in 1952.

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Where, well, you're born in Los Angeles. Do you consider Los Angeles your hometown, or is there another area that, uh, you consider your hometown? No, I consider Los Angeles my hometown.

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I grew up in Watts actually. Um, so a lot of, um, my foundation is growing up in, in that community in Watts, and where do you currently live?

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Live in Montebello. Um, what is your current occupation? So currently I'm a senior community affairs specialist for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

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And how long have you been doing that? 12 years, almost 13. Was there, um, was there an occupation, uh, that you had before this?

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Yes, most of my career was a banker and still in a sense a banker because the FDIC is a banking regulator. And um and this this final question, this final biographical

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question is about identity. How do you identify yourself today? I identify as a Chicana, (as a Chicana). And do you remember how you thought about yourself when

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you were an undergrad at LMU? Yes, I mean, very quickly I identified as a Chicana. I didn't come onto campus that way because I didn't really understand it, uh, but that's where I found, um.

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A place for myself that I could identify within the context of what a Chicana was and what is that context? So the context is that you know we don't really

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we're really not Mexican and we really aren't American and so Chicano was like we're that hyphen we're in between we we have a foot in both cultures we're definitely American because this is where we were born.

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But it was when I came to campus that I discovered I was different because when I grew up in Watts, um, it was very diverse, you know, now it's not, but at that time was very diverse we had

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neighbors down the street that were white, Black. Mexican Americans and and so growing up I didn't really think of racial issues. It wasn't until I set foot on the LMU campus

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that I discovered I was different that you discovered you were different and then you became Chicana? Well, I discovered I was different and I didn't know where to belong, although I came to campus with 4

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or 5 other um. girls from my high school, everybody sort of split up, right? So into different majors, so you don't find yourselves on

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campus. And um I had to write a paper in my first English class about in. Department or something about the university and I was really

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shy and didn't know like who would I go to to ask about this and so I read about MEChA in the newspaper and that they were having a meeting and there might have even been flyers so I figured

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I could go to MEChA and you know, ask them what they were about and use that information to write my paper for English class and they were so welcoming and made me feel part of

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it that that was my first sense of community and from there, uh, being part of MEChA understanding the terminology of what Chicano/Chicana was is where I really got my

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Uh footing on this campus. Wow, thank you for sharing that, um. I'm gonna backtrack just a bit and ask you a couple of questions about IHIP and then we'll come back

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to your student experiences um, uh, just, um, so the first question, how did you learn about IHIP, the inclusive History and Images Project? That's very interesting.

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Um, recently this year, uh, LMU had a reception downtown at the um. Um, At the center, which one of the LMU, uh, graduates is, uh, Ella Plaza, Ela Plaza, and she's the

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new executive director, or rather she's the president and CEO, and so she hosted an alumni event and that's where I went and I started talking to some of the LMU officials and they're the ones that raise um.

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This opportunity and uh I can't remember the individual that talked to to us he's no longer here. He, he left, um, so that's how we learned about it.

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Well, I'm OK. Well, I, I hope to find out who that individual was, but I'm glad they told you about it and thank you again for coming and um.

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And on that note, um, what made you want to take part in this project? Well, you know, as you look back and you think about how you got to where you are today and

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um if in sharing that story, it helps others as they try to, you know, go through the university process um and as well as historically, you know, sharing, um. What we went through I think is an important element

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of, you know, the overall um historical perspective. Thank you for that. Thank you for taking the time. um, I, I, I would agree with you.

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I think that's one of the most significant parts of IHIP right now anyway, um, but let's come back to your, um, student experience, um, uh, and, and. So, let's see.

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Um, what years did you attend LMU? So I was here from 1971 to 1975. And what were your majors? What was your major?

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and if you had [Cough] a minor, what was your minor? So I actually entered as a major in math and quickly discovered that I couldn't, I had no support system and it was so challenging, um, so ultimately, um, I

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actually in at the end of my freshman year. I applied uh to enter the School of Business and that was under Loyola University so that's why I had to apply I couldn't just switch majors and I was

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accepted into Loyola University um for the school of business and I started there and I always had Spanish as a second major and. You know, as we talk more through my activism as

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well as a change from quarters to semester, I changed, I, I just didn't feel I could finish the business administration major, so I switched and made Spanish my major and had enough to make Economics my minor.

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So ultimately it became Spanish and economics, Spanish major and Economics and Economics was key for me to pursue my Master's in Business Administration. That's great.

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And besides your major, um. Were there any experiences at LMU that helped lay the foundation for your business career? I know here you're talking about this process of going

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into business school at Loyola U and then and then right landing on Economics, um, but were there other experiences here on campus that that you feel are directly connected to your career?

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Not so much because it was very interesting at that point in time in the early 70s, you know, Chicanos were pursuing Legal, Medical, Social Work, teachers, so to think about going into business or pursuing really a business major

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was not like one of those big things on the items to select. But as I pursued my activities and and Business was, you know, um.

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Just the vehicle passed math because most of the Business Administration is all about math and so that was a natural for me to pursue it and that's why I did um but it was actually in my junior year

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when I was on campus and I was thinking about all the different things that we were going through. That I sort of had a an epiphany as I was sitting on one of the steps in front of

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Saint Robert's Hall that what we were missing in the in the Chicano community was uh access to economic empowerment. And that capital was key to success and that's what geared me then to say that's what I'm interested in.

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I wanna figure out how I get my door into the banking world because in my mind at that point in time that's where the money was indeed. But that's so powerful that that that that you had

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that realization that epiphany as you say right that that um that as as Chicanos and Latinos on campus you needed right access to economic empowerment. I I I feel like I hear that argument even

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today amongst um sort of the Latino/Latinx community um and so I'm it seems like we haven't quite figured it out for the entire community, but that's that's amazing thank you for sharing that um.

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Yeah and uh you know a little later I'll share some more of how um the choices I made related to that and to this day I'm still uh pursuing and and have the opportunity to work on economic empowerment

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in low and moderate income communities and communities of color. I mean, would you, we could talk about talk about it now, yeah. So I went on to pursue my MBA from UCLA

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and whilst there, uh, we used to have the corporations come on campus, you know, to pitch their institutions so one of them was what was then called United California Bank and so I went to their bank night.

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And I asked them if they had an internship so I could check them out and they could check me out and they told me no because of the recession and so forth and that was like a Wednesday night

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Friday the uh Chicano Management Students Association, which we had one at UCLA um. We had a day on the job at United California Bank and so at the end of the day.

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They asked me, uh, to that they wanted to talk to me and when I, um, everybody wanted to talk to the recruiter so she says call me when you get home so I did and so basically they offered

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three of us an internship that summer and so I was. You know, learned how to be a banker. I'd already been a teller during, um, uh, my college

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days as one of my part time jobs. I'd been a teller and so I went into East Los Angeles is where I requested and I learned how to do consumer lending that summer.

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And uh what today is called the micro loan was the a loan that I uh advocated for you know I had no signing authority so to the manager, and it was a loan for a Mexican woman who wanted

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to borrow $250 to buy a sewing machine so she could. Work at home, you know, this is all what today, you know, everybody's calling gig economies and so forth, but

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that was my first experience of what we would call today a micro loan and so I went on and graduated and then got a full time job at United California Bank.

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Went to through their training program and then I ended up being um a commercial loan officer in their East Los Angeles branch. And a few months after that, I got a call

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and they asked me to sit on a Uh, Board of Directors committee, you know, I was so young I what did I know, but I said, OK, because, and we'll go back to some of the things

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I learned at LMU. You don't turn down an opportunity even if you don't know the full extent of it. So I said yes, which ended up being this committee

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that was looking at the emerging markets and this was in 1979. And so we, you know, I'd go to these meetings and we'd work on this proposal and all these other

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departments in the bank and, and ultimately I made a presentation to the board of directors saying that the emerging market was a Hispanic market and that they should pursue um having a department to address it.

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Initially they wanted me to do it and I said no, no, no, because I was on the committee I shouldn't do it um and ultimately they came back and said nobody else is more qualified so I landed up

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in 1980 being the Hispanic projects manager which was the first introduction. of Hispanic marketing in the banking sector, wow, and I created a department that was not just about marketing and

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products but had a com component of community outreach because I convinced them that how could I know the community if I wasn't out attending events so I got a budget to pay to go to events and sponsorships plus

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my marketing plus products. In Spanish and brochures I went to Mexico City to see what products they had so this was the beginning of ATMs nobody had checks in Mexico because the paper

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was worthless, you know, and so we came back and we translated all of the ATM information and I created a little. Um, slide in for the checkbook so that people could

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learn how to write, you know, 51 dollars and so that was all that part of it, so I really felt good about what I was doing. Nobody else was doing.

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I also incorporated recruitment, so I actually had an internship program for MBA students, um. And then um in the mid mid um 80s, you know, they decided they didn't need it anymore, so they

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moved me to community affairs and I ended up working on a loan program which I really thought I didn't wanna do because that's where they always put the minorities was in community affairs, but it led me to.

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Being at the right place at the right time when the Community Reinvestment Act, which is a federal law that requires banks to meet the needs of the communities they serve, including low and moderate income neighborhoods, of course within

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the boundaries of safety and soundness and so I landed up being in a position and became a CRA manager and this is all about bringing economic development, access to capital in low and moderate income communities.

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And that became my job and the first exam we got by that time United California Bank has changed its name to First Interstate and uh we got an outstanding CRA rating the first time around and so for the

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rest of my career I was a Community Reinvestment Act manager um and in California banks and then. Uh, when our bank got bought out, um, after 17 years being there.

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Had a couple of other bank positions and ultimately went to work for Countrywide and headed up their emerging markets as well on the prime side we did I did I personally never worked on anything that was subprime, but

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it was all about finding down payment assistance programs to assist low and moderate income individuals be able to purchase a home. I used to review all these programs across the country,

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so it's a National position. That's, that's so fantastic. I can't help but say wow. Apologies for interjecting with all the wows, but, but this

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is, I can see, um, the direct connection to this moment you said no, it's about economic empowerment and information and just empowering right through micro what what are now called micro loans through all the way through being the

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CRA manager and. Thank you, yes, it was an it was an exciting time and then of course you know we got the Great Recession and we got, um, Countrywide got bought out

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and I didn't make it through the transition and so I came back and worked at a bank for a short stint and whilst I was applying and applied to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and so what I currently

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do. It's a lot of convenings and I bring banks and community based organizations serving low mon income communities to see what uh what opportunities are there for the banks to

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engage and to meet their community reinvestment uh responsibilities and for the FDIC I oversee an alliance for economic inclusion in Los Angeles. Which has over 100 participating organizations and so I'm still

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doing what I thought about on the steps here at LMU. Thank you. That is an an amazing trajectory.

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Um, you're really, you're really an inspiration to the community. um, earlier you said that, uh, what did you say? when you were, you said when you first came in you were a math major, eventually you became an economics

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major, but. Uh, in essence, as as a student, as an undergrad at LMB that was focusing on business as a Chicana, focusing on business, you, you didn't say this word, but

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it's almost like you were an outlier because, um, Chicanos were focused on legal careers, medical careers, education, um, this is, this is an amazing story, yes, but I was very involved in MEChA

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So it, it, I understood all of that and then what, you know, we weren't getting was funding from from the student government, right? So it's all about money.

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So in at the end of my sophomore year, we ran a Chicano block. To gain control of student government. What is that, to run a Chicano block?

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Well, we put a whole, uh, uh, a group that was 10 people in student government, and we ran a slate. And back then it was divided between residents and commuters,

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female and male. So three male on each side and two women on each side. And so I was a commuter, so I ran as

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female commuter. And five of us won. And so we control student government and how the budgets were allocated and

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You know, of course, the white students didn't like that, so they changed the constitution. Hm. Uh, to create a different kind of student government.

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And that became known as the student Congress. So in my senior year I ran again and uh we still won not to the same level but we still had a majority and and there was um liberal

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white students as well and I think uh Black student on student government so we, we had a coalition, you know, so senior year was about learning how to create a coalition.

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And work through this, but I was president of Student Congress uh in my senior year. Let me see if I, if I, uh, just for my notes here, so, so prior to Student Congress or

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rather student Congress was a result of the constitution of the of the student government being changed by white students you said students who were opposed to this kind of increased representation, especially by Chicanos, um, you know, on student

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government, um. That's, that's impressive, uh, the kind of sort of politics that is happening at the student level here on campus, but just, um, just so I can have it clear

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on the record, what was, what was student government called before it was called Student Congress? That's an excellent question. I don't remem I don't remember, um, was, you know,

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we ran for student government, um. I don't remember the exact name. I just remember the, the new name became Student Congress, and I think they eliminated the requirement of, of, of

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fema- you know the number of female and male slots, and they might have even removed resident and commuter, you know, there was some different changes in the regulations. There was a president position.

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And um a a woman won that and but she was very much in support of our work, so it was good but then the Congress was comprised of ten people and they elected me to be chairman or president,

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I guess. And that was your senior year, that was my senior year. Let me see where I could go so the reason

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I say this is because I didn't consider myself an outlier, you know, in terms of the business. I just, everything we dealt with in student government, so forth all had to do with money and who had

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it. So that's where this thought about what was missing in the Chicano/Mexican American community was we didn't have access to capital, yeah.

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That is, uh, like I said, that is still a a a part of of current conversations, um. This is, this is such an eye opening conversation, um. Let me, um, let me just clarify some, some dates

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here. Um, so you were at LMU, uh, you said from 1971 to 1975 and just to sort of fill in some gaps here, um, do you recall why you decided

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to come to LMU? Oh, that one's easy. [Laugh] So I went to an all girls high school. So after Watts we moved across the tracks to Southgate,

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and so, um, I would take the bus and I went to Saint Matthias Catholic Girls High School and so I was an A student, but no, I didn't really have counseling that said I could have gone anywhere I

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wanted to and so one day, um. Recruitment day, LMU came to campus. And of course it was Marymount College. I was talking about how they were gonna be on

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the same campus and they said You know, it's a great place to meet a husband. Hm. So I said, oh, and it's Catholic, and so I

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know that's the only place I applied. I was accepted with honors at entrance. And um I had a godmother who helped me uh fill out the financial aid forms because my parents didn't

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understand it and in fact my mother was opposed to me coming to college so it was a challenge every day when I was a freshman because I was a commuter right so every day I had to deal with

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the fact of why was I going to this place, this college, university where you could potentially meet a husband, um, what do you mind speaking more about that?

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Um, you said it was a challenge, right? and your mom was opposed. Is it how what what was the basis of that opposition you think?

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She didn't think schooling was for girls and um she you know grew up in a she grew up in a ranch in Mexico so very conservative um she came to the US on her honeymoon and you know lived

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here to to today Mom's 92, um, and she just didn't understand it because I had gotten a job, a part-time job at Saint Francis Hospital. And I was a front desk receptionist.

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I wore a white uniform. Mom thought that that was a great career, you know, I had a white collar job and that I could continue doing that where, you know, going off to college

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to university was a perdición, you know, um. And so, uh, she just really didn't didn't understand it so I basically between my scholarships and that's why I was um you know a commuter student because there wasn't

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any other money and I worked part time um is is how I supported myself uh coming to the university. Thank you for sharing that. I, I asked, I poked a little more because I.

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You know, in my time at LMU I've been here for uh for just over ten years and you know I'm, I'm a Latina, I'm a Chicana faculty member in the History department and I've had the chance to mentor

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students and um and to mentor students who are. Uh, who are first in their families to go to university, Latinas, um, but also in some cases undocumented, but, um, but this comes up, you know, where the parents

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are opposed and it's, and it's an, it's, it's an opposition where they're not opposed to to this to the person right bettering themselves they're just, it's just that they don't quite understand what is happening and they want what

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is best for you but but sometimes it's, it's not they just don't understand that this could be a good path. Yes, because my mom was really very supportive of my

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education through high school. I mean, we made a move just so that, you know, I could commute to school and she would feel safe about it.

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Um, I think I was an A student because she didn't understand a lot of it, but she rewarded me with 1 dollar for each A and so you know that was a huge incentive and um.

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So it, you know, there. Let me just say this that when I had my first daughter, she said. I'm opening up a savings account for for her so

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she can go to college. So I think she rec- it was all an unknown, you know, it was an unknown. I mean, I'm the first in my entire family to

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ever go to college and so there was no nothing for no one that she could share with what is this university, what does it mean? It was just an unknown and she was concerned as

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a, you know, being protective of me as a as her daughter as a female and all the things that could [laughs] you could get entangled in in the real world.

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That's right, that's right that's that's those are the conversations I have with um with these students and it's I, I really appreciate you sharing this um because it's something that I could also share with my students as well,

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um.