Finding her passion through singing and Spanish

In high school, Viviana Guerra ’25 knew two things. The first was that she wanted to be an English teacher someday. “I was dead set on it,” said the Chicago native.

Guerra was also dead set on never taking another Spanish class ever again. “My high school was a Spanish–English dual language school, and in classes like AP Spanish, you’d read this really dense textbook, you’d write an essay about it or take a test and that was sort of it,” she said.

As so often happens, though, everything changed in her first year on campus. “Of course, I had to fulfill my language requirement,” she said, landing in Spanish 212 with Professor Nieves Romero-Díaz. “The class was so enriching, and the discussions were so wonderful. It was like taking [a humanities class] — but in Spanish. I was [thinking], wait a minute, I think this is what I want to do.”

Guerra was ready to declare as a Spanish major in her first year. Romero-Díaz wanted her to explore all her options and urged Guerra to wait until sophomore year, but Guerra never wavered. On the first day of classes during her sophomore year, Romero-Díaz presented Guerra with her declaration paperwork. “I celebrated by going straight to the declarations office,” she said.

Guerra’s experience with embracing a wholly unexpected academic path is emblematic of her larger Mount Holyoke experience. “One thing I have loved about Mount Holyoke is that I have had the opportunity to explore whatever I wanted. I never felt like I was stuck in a box.”

During Guerra’s first year, she auditioned for the a cappella group Nice Shoes. Singing in a group wasn’t something she’d ever done before. Guerra was so nervous before the group’s first performance (which included her dressing as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and singing BETTY’s song “First Date”) that she only made it onstage thanks to a last-minute pep talk from the group’s veteran members. Stepping out of her comfort zone and trying something totally new led to a four-year involvement with music on campus, including joining two different bands and winning a battle of the bands competition.

Guerra took another step out of her comfort zone when she decided to add a film media theater minor late in her junior year. “I had always been interested in media studies and how media shapes society, but I also felt like, what am I going to do with that as a major? In the spring of my junior year, I took Media and Performance for fun, and I realized you could apply the skills — interviewing and research and paper writing and video projects — to everything.” Together with faculty in the Department of Film Media Theater, they figured out a pathway that wouldn’t delay Guerra’s graduation date.

Looking back, Guerra may have been wrong about her course of study and career path in high school. However, she was right about the most important thing: that Mount Holyoke was the perfect fit. Her parents, however, hadn’t been so sure. Guerra credits her high school counselor for convincing her parents, who are Mexican immigrants, that Mount Holyoke would be the right place for their daughter. “My parents went into the meeting with her [saying] ‘I don’t think so,’ and came out saying, ‘You’re going to Mount Holyoke.’” Guerra adds that it probably helped that her counselor was a Smith alum.

Guerra is now planning a return to her hometown with hopes of getting involved in nonprofit work. She’s particularly interested in working in Chicago’s theater and arts scene, helping nonprofit arts organizations create community through performance, storytelling and outreach. And she plans to thank her high school counselor. “I really should ask her what she said that day,” she said.