Interpreter Spotlight: Santana Chavez!

RGC Access could not do what we do without the amazing community of interpreters we have right here in New Mexico. Many of whom were born here all their lives. (If you are not from this beautiful “Land of Enchantment,” you may not have heard this local colloquialism! ) With all of the rich talent in the New Mexico signing community, we would like to do a series of Interpreter Spotlights to showcase a few of the many New Mexico interpreters making a difference in our community. Our interpreters work hard throughout their careers to develop their own unique paths and we want to brag about the great work they are doing!

We are going to begin our Interpreter Spotlight series with the lovely Santana Chavez! Santana is a true New Mexican and was “born here all her life.” Raised in Dora, New Mexico (15 minutes south of Portales), Santana attended UNM and graduated in 2016 with a degree in Sign Language Interpreting. After graduation, Santana joined the interpreting team at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and worked in their interpreting department for 3 years. Santana returned to New Mexico in 2019. We were thrilled to have her back in our interpreting community and signed her up immediately to work with us!

Santana has the heart and skills we are looking for in an interpreter. She is community focused and works diligently to better her interpreting to provide the best possible access for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. We are so excited to announce that last month her hard work paid off and she became RID Certified! We are SO proud of her!

We met with Santana and asked her a few questions about her journey into the field of interpreting. We’d love to share what we learned.

What inspired you to become an interpreter?

At 15 I started learning sign language from a Deaf friend in my hometown of Portales. I wanted a profession working with the Deaf population, so after graduating high school I decided to go to Eastern NM University for speech pathology. It was not long before I realized that interpreting would be a better fit for me. I love people and I love learning new things, so after meeting interpreters at Deaf events I decided to change my plan and I went back to school to be a terping gal!

Getting into the field of sign language interpreting can be challenging. Did you experience any barriers? What can we do as a community to help break down these barriers for future interpreters?

I don't feel like I had any real challenges other than that damn certification test! That said, I think that formal mentoring is really the only way new interpreters can make it. We have to learn the language diversities, the bookkeeping, the networking, etc; the initial process is daunting.

I think that regardless of formal programs, all new interpreters should have surrogate mentors to aid in the school to work transition. Having gone through this process myself, I know mentoring newbies will be on the horizon for me.

Now that you have passed the NIC RID certification exam, what's next?

I love medical work so I'd like to get my Certificate in Healthcare Interpreting from RIT, and then perhaps the QMHI…if I have brain cells left.

We just learned that Santana was recently accepted into RIT’s Certificate in Healthcare Interpreting program and will be starting that in the Fall to further her education in the medical field. Cool!

When Santana isn’t interpreting, she is enjoying the outdoors with her sweet pup Chito, hanging out with friends, making pottery, and taking care of her plant babies. We want to thank Santana for her time and continuous dedication to the interpreting community. If you see her out in the community, which I’m sure you will, please congratulate her on her new RID certification! We could not be more proud of her. Way to go, Santana!