Dr. Anadeli Bencomo and Rafael Valadez

[00:00] RAFAEL VALADEZ: Hello. My name is Rafael Valadez. Today is January 5, 2023. We are in El Paso, Texas, and I am interviewing Dean Anadeli Bencomo, a colleague and friend of mine.

[00:18] ANADELI BENCOMO: My name is Anadeli Bencomo I am 57 years old. Today is January 5, 2023. We are in El Paso. Tejas and Rafael Valadez, my colleague and friends, will be my interview partner today.

[00:35] RAFAEL VALADEZ: Great. So I think that the first thing I wanted to do was kind of go back in time, of course, and start from the beginning and see if you could speak a little bit about you growing up in Venezuela, how your childhood was, and really what, what is it that formed you as a younger doctor? Annadali Bencomo.

[00:59] ANADELI BENCOMO: I grew up in a place called Punto Fijo in la peninsula de Paraguana. This is the north part in Venezuela. This was a coastal town and an oil town. My dad used to work in the refinery, and I had a really happy childhood, really happy four siblings. I am the second one. And I was a solitary soul from the beginning. Very introvert, I think. So I used to go into the back part of my house, the backyard, and invent all type of stories. And I was. I spent, you know, hours and hours there, just playing with my imagination, playing different roles. And, you know, my daughter, my, excuse me, my sister was close to my age, but instead of playing with her, I just was there on my own. And I was also a reader very early on. My mother is a great reader, also my father. So there were plenty of books, and I think that was one of the sources of my imagination and also my way to know the world, because this was a small town. So literature was always my way to scale, I think the borders of my town and go and dream and dream. We had a house by the beach, so we went there almost every weekend. And my family was really big into doing traveling in the summer. My grandparents were in different cities and different regions, but my father said that before traveling to anywhere in the world, we needed to visit every single state in Venezuela. So we did. So every summer, we went in a caravan with other families, and we visited all the 24 states in my country before I could ever dare to ask to go into a different country. I was annoyed because everybody was going to Orlando, right? And that was the big trip. And I knew that I couldn't ask my father to take us to the states because, yeah, the rules were clear. You have to visit every single state before going away. I was very shy, extremely shy, the second one of the siblings. And so my mother teased me, saying, oh, my goodness, you know, you really are. You don't know how to behave in public. So today, when people tell me how energetic and extrovert I am, I say they don't know where I come from in terms of personality and my own history. But I think having a happy childhood, a great family, was maybe, you know, the solid grounds I needed to grow up.

[04:56] RAFAEL VALADEZ: So I'm going to go off of what you said about reading, was that perhaps the first signal that you would be taking a path down literature? Because I know that you deviated a little bit initially in your studies, but was perhaps all that reading you were doing a signal of what was to come?

[05:14] ANADELI BENCOMO: Yes, I think so. My mother was a member of circulo delectores, who was before Internet, of course, that was the only way we could get books, because there were not bookstores. This is a really small town, but we had that window. We have that person who visited Mayenne maybe every three months. She came with a catalog, and that was, like, the biggest day for us. Right? They didn't have, like, young adult literature. It was just fiction. But my mom included us right into the selection. And so being around books was always something in my house. But I never thought about literature as a profession. Right? Being surrounded by engineers, that was the path I took. I went to the university to study engineering, and I had two years into that path until I realized that literature was a profession, that I could get a university degree in literature. And that was one of the happiest moments in my life, when I realized that I could indeed go in and study literature.

[06:53] RAFAEL VALADEZ: And that path you took, that you mentioned took you through the United States, of course, right? Originally, you came here for graduate school or graduate school related reasons. How did you go about navigating this country as a student and an immigrant at the same time?

[07:13] ANADELI BENCOMO: You know, I had the fortune of living in Paris for two years before moving to United States. So that experience of living in a different country was already there. But the experience of getting to United States, a country that I have visited only once before moving to Pittsburgh from graduate school, it really felt like a strange country to me, very foreign to me. Right. In Pittsburgh, every time I went to the grocery store or anywhere I went, the moment I opened my mouth, there is every single time the question, where are you from? So I said, oh, my goodness, I just wish that I had. Could be, you know, I didn't have an accent or. But that question felt really, you know, reminding. Reminded me every day that I was not in my country, in my country of origin, I will say. So it took me an adjustment also going through winters was really an extreme experience for me. I have lived through winters in France, but Pittsburgh being so gray, very cloudy city, and then those temperatures that were so low for so long, that was a big adjustment for me. And that was one of the reasons when I decided to stay. I said, I need to move south because I don't. Genetically, I am indisposed to winter. It was, you know, in previous move, right. I moved from that old town to Caracas, Venezuela, for my university, then from Venezuela to France, then back to Venezuela and then here. I always had a network of support that I built to protect myself, and that was mainly my female friends and classmates that are my closest friends until this day. So I had to build this family abroad. And that was, I think, my safety net. And one of the things that surprised me when I arrived to the states and one was going to the grocery store to get some popcorn, and then, you know, I just wanted to get the. How you get the kettle to make them in a pot. And then I get there and I see 16 different flavors, right? Butter, whatever you want. The kettle, the sweet, the salty. And I said, what is this? I just want popcorn. I said, I don't want it. So that there. And I wrote a piece on that. I went home and I wrote a. Because that was one of the moments that I said, I am a foreign here, because, you know, this idea that you have at your disposition, 28 flavors of popcorns, is new to me, and I don't know if we'll adjust well, because, you know, it's like you have everything in excess. That was my impression that, you know, everything was in big amounts. And so for me, that was, I was in awe. Right when I went to Washington, DC, to see the museums and again, to see the Smithsonians and rooms and after room and room and room. And I said, my goodness, but even the museums here are just so big. And so that idea of, of abundance in that scale was new to me.

[12:06] RAFAEL VALADEZ: You talk about, obviously, that culture shock, which we all go to when we enter a new culture, when we become part of a different country, a community. Are you able to recall ever, are you able to recall a moment when you felt more at ease or that you felt like you fit more here in the United States, whether it was a week ago or years ago, what was that like? Or when? When did you understand this to be your home? I guess could also be another question.

[12:43] ANADELI BENCOMO: When in the 1999, when I was interviewing for jobs in the south, because I was clear that I wanted a warmer climate. I interviewed in several universities in Texas. So when I arrived to Houston, I left Pittsburgh and the temperature was probably 34 degrees. And then I get to Houston this very same day with, you know, maybe was in this maybe 68 degrees. This was January of 1999. And then when I get to the hotel, I call my husband and said, we are moving to Houston. And he said, what do you mean, you haven't gone through the interview? And I told him, you know, leave it to me because I said, if you could see the sky here in Houston, it was a blue, beautiful sky, not a cloud inside. And the people. And, you know, I went to the university and I saw all those posters, right? So it felt more. It felt closer to my experience of being in a college in Venezuela, right? It was people moving from one classroom to another, listening to Spanish, being spoken by the students. So there, I said, I found home, and then I got the job. And we moved to Houston in July of 1999, my husband and I.

[14:45] RAFAEL VALADEZ: And I'm glad you mentioned Houston. And of course, you were in Houston. And there you were, a professor for a long time, an educator. And over the span of your teaching career, you garnered a few awards on your teaching and your teaching approaches and practices. I'm wondering about the changes that you've experienced along the way. How has your teaching changed over the time? What have you learned or learned not to do from being a professor?

[15:19] ANADELI BENCOMO: I love teaching. Since I was a child, I always told my mother or my parents that I was going to be a teacher since I have memory, right. I never had a doubt that that was my call. And when I was in middle school, in the summers, I used to teach my classmates, the ones who needed to retake some exams. So I went to their houses and spent my summers or my mornings, eight in the mornings, I was there teaching chemistry, physics, whatever the subject was. So I really like that. When I was at the university, when I was studying for my bachelor degree in literature, I started working in a middle school in Caracas. And that was a really beautiful experience. And then I. From then I went to teach at the university, and then here we are. But, you know, I always consider myself a good teacher because that's what I like to do, and I think I do it well. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I think that's what I like to do. But, you know, I think the biggest learning from me in terms of my teaching and my reaching out to the students and their learning experience was through Covid. Recently, right. I have taught a hybrid class several years ago, about ten years ago, all before this, you know, remote learning. And, you know, I did it. I didn't have much, you know, it was a good experience, but I prefer the face to face, so. But then when I had the opportunity of teaching my classes online, something of the dynamic in my approach to the students changed. I always invite them to my office hours. Then they don't come. Not all of them will come, right? And if they come to the office hours, they come because they have a question about the class and the content. But since the class was, the classes I was teaching were asynchronous, right? I was not seeing them. They were not seeing me. They were seeing me in the PowerPoints or videos that I recorded. So I requested, was mandatory that they meet with me 15 minutes for me to know, to get to know them, because I couldn't see myself teaching people that I didn't see and I didn't know. So that experience, those 15 minutes, became, you know, when they came and I asked them a very simple question. Tell me about yourself, who you are. Why are you taking this class? Because there was the class being taught also in face to face. It was later during the pandemic, right? So I tell them, why are you taking the class online? And tell me about yourself. So that question about, tell me about yourself opened a door that I have never imagined. And those 15 minutes became, in many cases, 45 minutes, an hour. And they were, you know, I realized that as a professor and as a teacher previously, I invited them to come to my office as students. I taught them as students, I graded them as students, but I didn't see the people, right. I saw just a part of them, right. The person sitting in a classroom and a student. And when I saw, you know, that was so eye opening for me. And I said, I will never go back to teaching in the same way I did before that, because something changed my mind and allowed me to see beyond the student, allowed me to contemplate their struggles, their, you know, that hour or 2 hours that they were with me, that was just a minuscule part of their life. And so that idea that I could see more. So when I went back face to face, I requested that they came to my office not to talk about the grade, but to ask them that question, who are you? Why are you taking that class? And I think that really made me a better teacher because, you know, I was not seeing that essential part of my students for many years.

[21:09] RAFAEL VALADEZ: I'm wondering if some of that, that thoughtfulness that you're expressing of approaching a student also comes from the fact, of course, I know that you're a first generation student. I'm wondering if that comes into play or how that affects your teaching or when you taught.

[21:27] ANADELI BENCOMO: Oh, definitely. Oh, my goodness. Definitely. When I first went to Caracas to get my education, I went to study engineering. I was the first one, my sister went to kind of a community college, right? Sort of. It was not a university. So I was the first one in my family attending a university. And I was a very, very good student in high school. So I, you know, I was confident in terms of my degrees, but I was so clueless. Oh, my goodness, I was so clueless. So not only was I was the first one in my family, but I had to move from the small town to the big city, right? So I was so naive. So I learned, you know, I, until this day, I am so grateful to the teachers and the advisors who made me feel that I belong there at the university. I had good grades again. So it was not an issue of the grades, but it was an issue of feeling the impostor, imposter syndrome, right? Saying, oh, do I belong here or do I not belong here? I was always the best in my class in high school. When I go to the university and I didn't get the best grade, that was the biggest shock to me. And when I was into the orientation and everybody, I was the only one in 35 in a group of 35 that was not from Caracas. And so I started noticing, you know, maybe I didn't dress in the way that the other students dress. I was not just naive, I was ignorant in so many ways, right? I was a reader and I learned a lot from books, but I had a long way to go in terms of getting a, the sophistication that other students had, right? So the professors, those ones that took the opportunity to tell me, you know, you are, you are good, you are bright. And because, you know, I never, I didn't participate matching class. I was, you know, that child student. So when they were giving up, returning the exams, they said, who is an Adele Hibern como? And I raised my hand in some of those classes and they said, oh, my goodness, who are you? How come I haven't, you haven't participated? You know, your exam is so insightful and I have never seen you in class. So that idea that, you know, and then they invited me, some of them, not everything was nice. I also had some bad experience before the me too movement. About being harassed by some of the professors, because, of course, knowing that I was from provincial, right, from a small town, not from the capital city. Yeah, I was an easy prey. And I was so, again, so naive that I didn't realize that I was in trouble until I was in a really difficult and uncomfortable situation. And again, I look back and I said, oh, my goodness, I was so clueless. And so, again, it was some of the teachers who helped me to overcome that feeling, that imposter syndrome, and those friends that I mentioned, that network, that really embraced me. And I didn't know so many things. And they taught me from what some appeal was and anticonceptivos was, I didn't know. So my friend said, okay, sit down. We are going to teach you one on one. And for them not rejecting me, but saying, oh, my goodness, you need to get up to date. So those are. You know, I am always thankful for that, for helping me to get, you know, to feel that I belong.

[26:51] RAFAEL VALADEZ: Well, you've definitely left a mark along your career. For example, over the past few years, you have not only been an educator, but of course, you've sought out various leadership positions within academia as a chair or head of a department, later an associate dean. And currently, of course, you're the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. Given your experiences and then, of course, your background as a first generation student student, how have you approached these leadership roles within academia?

[27:35] ANADELI BENCOMO: You know, when I came to Pittsburgh for my PhD, I got my master degree, my bachelor, and my master degrees in Venezuela. So I came to the University of Pittsburgh for my PhD, and then I realized the gender discrimination that I haven't experience before. When I was a student in engineering in Venezuela, you know, that's a pretty common degree. So we were in the classrooms half and half. You know, there is nothing like the STEM field being dominated by male students. It was pretty balanced in literature, there was predominantly female students in my master's degree. My brightest professors were women. And then I arrived to Pittsburgh, and I started noticing a dynamic that was new to me from the professors and from the classmates. So being a female, that was the first time, and I was almost 30 years old, the first time in my life that I. I realized that I could be treated differently because of my gender. That never happened to me in Venezuela. It happened to me in Pittsburgh. So that was one of the learning experiences. And I mentioned that I have a happy childhood, and my father was a feminist before. You know, feminist was a thing. And my daughter and my sister and I were the oldest one in the family. And some of the people said, oh, you don't have boys. But he was so proud of us. And from, I can remember from the day, my memory, maybe my first memory, my father was telling us, my sister and I never stop because you feel that, never let anybody tell you that you cannot do something because you are a woman or a female. She said, you know, women can do as much as men. So that confidence that he gave me, saying, you are going to get along, you are going to reach all the dreams that you set for yourself. If you work hard, if you work hard, you will get there. And then that was one of my regrets right now is that he is not alive to see me reaching these positions because, is because of his love for me. And saying, you are going. When I told him that I was living engineering to study literature, he said, go for it. You are going to be the best person in literature because that's your passion. So if anybody tells you that, you know, literature is not a good choice, don't listen to them, because I know in my heart that you will be, you will go so long because you are listening to your heart and because you are intelligent. He always said that, you know, his children were really bright. He was a good father. And so when I that was not planned, I never saw myself into leadership positions. I was appointed. Bye. A dear mentor of mine, Dean Roberts, to be the chair of the department. And then I again opened a door that I have not contemplated before. And I realize how much I enjoy helping others, serving an institution that has been so good to me. So, you know, that gave me a gratification that was really fulfilling. And so when this position opens and I was contacted by you, Tep, that was one of the happiest moments in my life. And so I really feel fortunate. I tell all my friends, all those that network of friends, that they shouldn't stop dreaming that your dream job can become when you are in your mid fifties, right? Because we are raising this idea that we are going to, we have to chase our ideal job and get it in your twenties. But no, at this point in my life I realize that I have been preparing for this, not just by taking classes and by my experience as a teacher, but then you realize how important the lessons of your family are in shaping who you are.

[32:57] RAFAEL VALADEZ: Thank you. Since you mentioned your father and you were earlier, you were discussing how he would, he had asked that you travel to all the regions in Venezuela before you travel beyond the country. I know that you are someone who loves to travel and you've lived in various countries. What is it about traveling that makes it special to you? Is it, in part, maybe that connection to your father from earlier travels? What is it that makes you want to grab your bags and jump on a plane to the next destination? And what do you learn from it? What do you gain from that? Travel?

[33:40] ANADELI BENCOMO: Yeah, I think this is a part of his legacy, and this is my legacy to my children as well. I have traveled with them to so many places and I tell them this is the best legacy I can give you. Traveling is, you know, keeps your curiosity alive, right? So you can really learn from seeing. I just came back from Costa Rica. That was such an amazing experience. So that idea of allowing yourself to be surprised, to learn, right? To see how the sun shines in a different place. So I think, you know, that gives you excited. It's one, for me, it's one of the biggest motivations in life. And I want to travel as much as I can before I die because I think that really, you know, thinking that I grew up in such a small place and that I have going to so many places and yes, I think that is my family legacy, certainly.

[35:05] RAFAEL VALADEZ: And I guess maybe looking back at all your accomplishments, right? You have a great career, you've studied at various institutions in this country, in Venezuela, I believe you studied in France for a while as well. You have a family. So if you were going to go back to the end, talk to your younger self, what advice would you give her? Or what would you tell her if you were able to open a portal? Of course, because we see you opening portals in every movie nowadays, you open a portal and you go back to ten year old Ana deli bencomo. What do you tell her if you're able to tell her something, whether it's an advice or nothing?

[36:01] ANADELI BENCOMO: Yeah, probably. I think that I will tell her that little girl that was working so hard, trying to be the best in the class, don't work so hard. But that working so hard is what brought me where I am today. So what I will tell that little girl that was studying so much, although again, I have a happy childhood. I was going to parties and doing sports. It's not like I was not exclusively a nerd, but I will tell that girl, keep dreaming, keep your dreams alive because they are reachable. That was what my father told me. Right? Dream big and you will get it. If you work hard, of course, not just dreaming big, but also working. If you work hard and you prepare yourself. You will get. You will reach your goal. So I will tell that girl that was probably, you know, feeling that she will never make it. Say yes, you will believe in yourself. You are in a good path. And, you know, I think, yeah. Saying you have a great family. I think I never told my parents. I did tell my dad before he died how fortunate I was. But I will tell that little girl, you know, you have the biggest asset. You have a great family that loves you and supports you. So take advantage of that sophistication. You can buy it, but you can get it.

[37:53] RAFAEL VALADEZ: That's lovely. Thank you. I want to thank you for sharing this experience with me and sharing your story with the world, whoever listens to this, I've had the pleasure of knowing you for a few years, but even before this interview, I felt like I've known you for a longer period of time. It's been a great experience here. And again, thank you for sharing this with us.