Search the site...

SOL DE MEDIANOCHE
  • MARCH 2023
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • JANUARY 2023
  • DECEMBER 2022
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • AUGUST 2022
  • JULY 2022
  • JUNE 2022
  • MAY 2022
  • APRIL 2022
  • MARCH 2022
  • FEBRUARY 2022
  • JANUARY 2022
  • DECEMBER 2021
  • NOVEMBER 2021
  • OCTOBER 2021
  • SEPTEMBER 2021
  • AUGUST 2021
  • JULY 2021
  • JUNE 2021
  • MAY 2021
  • APRIL 2021
  • MARCH 2021
  • FEBRUARY 2021
  • JANUARY 2021
  • DECEMBER 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2020
  • Advertise with us!
  • OCTOBER 2020
  • SEPTEMBER 2020
  • AUGUST 2020
  • JULY 2020
  • JUNE 2020
  • MAY 2020
  • MAR - APR 2020
  • JAN - FEB 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2019
  • SEPTEMBER 2019
  • JULY 2019
  • MAY 2019
  • MARCH 2019
  • FEBRUARY 2019
  • NOVEMBER 2018
  • SEPTEMBER 2018
    • Yes on Salmon
    • Become a citizen
  • JUNE 2018
  • APRIL 2018
  • FEBRUARY 2018
  • DECEMBER 2017
  • SEPTEMBER 2017
  • JULY 2017
  • MAY 2017
  • Spring 2017 - No. 5
  • Winter 2016 - No. 4
  • Fall 2016 - No. 3
  • Summer 2016 - No. 2
  • Spring 2016 - No. 1
  • Contact
  • MARCH 2023
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • JANUARY 2023
  • DECEMBER 2022
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • AUGUST 2022
  • JULY 2022
  • JUNE 2022
  • MAY 2022
  • APRIL 2022
  • MARCH 2022
  • FEBRUARY 2022
  • JANUARY 2022
  • DECEMBER 2021
  • NOVEMBER 2021
  • OCTOBER 2021
  • SEPTEMBER 2021
  • AUGUST 2021
  • JULY 2021
  • JUNE 2021
  • MAY 2021
  • APRIL 2021
  • MARCH 2021
  • FEBRUARY 2021
  • JANUARY 2021
  • DECEMBER 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2020
  • Advertise with us!
  • OCTOBER 2020
  • SEPTEMBER 2020
  • AUGUST 2020
  • JULY 2020
  • JUNE 2020
  • MAY 2020
  • MAR - APR 2020
  • JAN - FEB 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2019
  • SEPTEMBER 2019
  • JULY 2019
  • MAY 2019
  • MARCH 2019
  • FEBRUARY 2019
  • NOVEMBER 2018
  • SEPTEMBER 2018
    • Yes on Salmon
    • Become a citizen
  • JUNE 2018
  • APRIL 2018
  • FEBRUARY 2018
  • DECEMBER 2017
  • SEPTEMBER 2017
  • JULY 2017
  • MAY 2017
  • Spring 2017 - No. 5
  • Winter 2016 - No. 4
  • Fall 2016 - No. 3
  • Summer 2016 - No. 2
  • Spring 2016 - No. 1
  • Contact

Victoria Vargas

​“There is no dream that can’t
be fulfilled”


​BY carlos matías

Picture

Victoria Vargas-Forest is 18 and was born in Anchorage. She is of Hispanic descent with family backgrounds from Mexico, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. She is “Latina on all sides” and, at the same time, a proud Alaskan who loves Alaska. Victoria is an example of a “ courageous girl”: a young woman who has overcome all the difficulties that have come her way, as a Latina and as a woman. “There’s no dream that can’t be fulfilled,” she says. She is living proof. Her goal is to become a lawyer.

Victoria Vargas-Forest has an above-average IQ. She doesn’t want to put a figure on it, out of modesty and because she has never stopped to calculate it. Not that it worries her at all. But with total certainty her IQ (Intelligence Quotient) exceeds the index 115 over the maximum of 120-129, which is the highest level in the current intelligence indexes.

This has allowed her to always do very well in her studies and to have an excellent academic record. So excellent, that she has been able to complete college level courses while in high school, with two years of law courses at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, because she wants “to be a lawyer.” Quite a feat of effort. And of study.

“And why do you want to be a lawyer?” we asked her. “Because I want to be useful to the community. Above all, to my community, which is the Hispanic community,” Victoria answers without a moment’s hesitation.
“I believe that being determined, has helped me a lot to overcome the difficulties that have come my way,” explains Victoria. “All kinds of difficulties because I am a girl and because I am Hispanic. The United States does not provide equal opportunities to the different communities that make up its population. The proof is that Justice does not behave in the same way with white Americans as it does with Latinos and African-Americans or Asians, for example.”

Victoria resorts to statistics: “the majority of those convicted in trials are people of color or Hispanics, and not because you are African American or Latino you have no gene that drives you to criminal behavior to a greater extent than whites.” This girl speaks crystal clear.
“That’s why I want to specialize in criminal law,” adds Victoria. “Because I feel like my community needs me and there are very few practicing Latino lawyers.”

“Have you felt discrimination for being Latina?” we ask again. “I certainly have,” she replies. “For being Latina and for being a woman. But none of this has slowed me down in my path of striving to achieve my goals. The studies are very hard, especially at the University. But when I finish here, I will move to Seattle, Washington, with my grandfather Hugo, and continue my legal studies there; I will get my law degree and do an internship. I’ll work in a law firm, save money, and then I’ll come back to Anchorage, to my Anchorage, to my Alaska... And I’ll settle down here. I’ll also get my law license so I can practice law in this state and open my own practice.”

“You have very clear ideas,” we tell her. “America is a land of opportunity, even if it doesn’t always give the same opportunities to some as to others. But there is no dream that cannot be fulfilled. With determination and effort, you can,” she replies.
​
She is a woman, 18 years old, born in Anchorage and as American as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, or Abraham Lincoln. Or as Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, or Mercy Otis Warren. Her name defines her determination and trajectory, an example for anyone looking to make their dreams a reality. She is Victoria.

PROUDLY POWERED BY SOL DE MEDIANOCHE NEWS, LLC.
Sol de Medianoche is a monthly publication of the Latino community in Anchorage, Alaska