“Before I began working on my research project, I was under the misconception that most research occurred in STEM majors. As someone studying English and Ethnic Studies, I wasn’t sure what research there was for me to do. My mentor, Dr. Ed A. Muñoz, told me about the  Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research. From there, I began working with Dr. Muñoz on an oral history project he had started featuring interviews from a Baile Folklorico dance group and a Bomba dance group.

For my Research on Capitol Hill poster, we decided to focus on the Bomba dance group because we feel Puerto Ricans are often underrepresented in conversations about being Latino in the United States and Utah.

I have had a lot of fun participating in research. It has added a lot to my undergraduate experience that I would not have done otherwise. I have always wanted to be a writer. Though I didn’t start working on research until my junior year, this experience supports my goal of going to graduate school to earn an MFA in creative writing. I want to write stories about the Latinx experience in the United States. Latinos are not a monolith, so I can’t just draw on my own lived experience. I will need to do research to be able to represent to the best of my ability the lived experience of the people I want to portray.

I am very proud to be representing the School of Cultural and Social Transformation at the 2025 Research on Capitol Hill event. I know a lot of the projects will come from the STEM fields and I am excited to be bringing an ethnic studies and humanities lens to the event while representing some of Utah’s Latinos.”

— Marylinda Gonzalez, a senior majoring in English and ethnic studies from Kearns, Utah

2025 Research on Capitol Hill participant