For someone who emigrated from Guatemala, spoke at the United Nations, and worked with the Clinton Administration at the White House, Yoland Treviño has remained incredibly humble.
“I think my greatest accomplishment has been to remain who I am, authentic to my roots, and not be led astray by any positions that I’ve held or anything else,” Treviño says.
It’s important to her that the things that she does connect with her values as an indigenous Mayan woman. When speaking to her, she emphasizes the pronunciation of Guatemala as “Guatuh-maya”—the indigenous name for her country. Her respect for her heritage is underscored by the years of hiding it in order to get to where she is today. According to Treviño, families in the Mayan community often hide the true identity of indigenous children so they are able to get educated.
“My family knew that in order to make it in the world, you needed an education,” Treviño says. “In Guatemala, there was terrible discrimination against indigenous people. There was a lot of internalized oppression and they didn’t want me to speak our language or wear our native dress because they wanted me to be able to have opportunities.”
This led Treviño to immigrate to America with her father and siblings when she was just 15 years old. Her first years in Los Angeles were tough—she went from having a tight-knit community in Guatemala to experiencing isolation and an entirely new culture.
That all changed when she found Pacific Oaks. Treviño connected with Pacific Oaks’ vision of education, and even moved to Pasadena in 1974 to be closer to the school and send her boys to Pacific Oaks Children’s School.
“As a mother, I’m the steward of my children. They were given to me to love and to nurture. It was my duty to help them become the best human beings they could be. In looking for that, I found Pacific Oaks,” Treviño says. “From the time I learned about it, I felt like I had found my home. I felt like my values were represented here, and that the school was reflective of what I thought was a true education.”
This commitment to her values continued into her career. She became the director of the Vaughn Family Center in Pacoima, California, which garnered national and international recognition for their innovative programs. The team there evolved the concept of an Urban Village to help families—usually immigrants or people transplanted from other cities—find a community, something that Treviño herself could relate to.
“When you come to this country you experience such cultural dissonance,” Treviño says. “You’re inundated by
memories of your old community, where you knew your neighbors and they looked out for you. We aimed to recreate that at the center.”
The White House caught wind of the center and asked Treviño to come share about the social innovations of Vaughn Family Center, as well as be a member of the Domestic Policy Council. Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton even visited to learn about the center’s approach (according to Treviño, Clinton’s book, It Takes a Village, was influenced by this visit).
Another opportunity arose when the United Nations invited her to speak in India. After her visit, Treviño decided to move to India to create different social programs using the strength-based approaches she created. Despite living far away, Treviño continued to serve on Pacific Oaks’ Board of Trustees, participating in meetings by phone or returning to California. Her heart was always back in Pasadena, the first place she felt a connection in the U.S.
“While I was living in India, my sister was challenging me and saying, ‘Why don’t you come back to Pasadena and bring all that you have learned there, here?’ So, I did.”
In 2010, Treviño and her colleagues founded the Pasadena / Altadena Coalition of Transformative Leaders. She has served as its executive director since then. In spite of all of her success, Treviño emphasizes that her degrees, accolades, and awards don’t matter at the end of the day—what matters has been her ability to remain true to who she is.
“Essentially, who I am and the way that I do the work is based on my indigenous background, because we learned that we are all interrelated,” Treviño says. “We also learned that there is no ‘other.’ We are mirrors of each other. These are the kind of values that I grew up with and that I use in my everyday work and interactions.”
Read articles from the Summer 2019 issue of Voices:
Under the microscope: Education in America
Out with the new, in with the old
Per-spec-tive: A word from President Dr. Jack Paduntin
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