Like many first-generation Americans, Marisela Ballesteros grew up blazing a trail. As the oldest child of Cora natives who emigrated to the United States from Mexico, she was the first in her family to learn English and the first to go to an American school. She was the first to graduate from high school and enter a job market where she could reach for her dreams. Where they would take her, she didn’t quite know.
She watched neighbors in her tight-knit Cora community work hard in the service industry or start businesses of their own, largely enjoying the opportunities afforded them as they made lives in their adopted country. But Ballesteros (’21 Business, Spanish) also saw the limitations they had to overcome in a place that struggled with its identity as a ‘nation of immigrants.’ There were family vacations not taken, opportunities that weren’t available, and housing that was out of reach.
She was old enough to see the injustice around her and would someday be ready to confront it. First, she would need to find her footing in life, and for that, she needed a job.
“I knew entrepreneurship was a huge influence here in Gunnison,” she said. “It’s something I always thought would be accessible to me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be in charge of something.” So, she enrolled in a cosmetology program in Grand Junction, thinking that she might like to open a salon. Then, one day, when she was working as a stylist and thinking about her future, someone sat down in her chair who would help her see that her purpose wasn’t to bring about change from the middle but to lead change from the front.
A Chance Encounter that Changed Her Trajectory
Her client was Jim Harriss, a professor of banking and finance at Western Colorado University. Like many people sitting for a haircut, Harriss filled the silence with small talk. Except his small talk was about big ideas, and those ideas had a big impact on Ballesteros. “Certain topics of finance are things everyone will need to know sometime in their lifetime, like insurance, loans, mortgages, credit scores, etcetera,” he said, not knowing the impact his words had that day.
For Ballesteros, it was a gentle nudge that changed her trajectory entirely. She knew what Harriss had said was right. She should learn more about how money works and how to take advantage of a system that controls so much of the world around her. She should learn how to make the system work for her, she thought. She wanted to make it work for her community.
While a cosmetology certificate was a step in the right direction, she knew she wanted to go back to school for business. So, in the Fall of 2016, she enrolled at Western Colorado University, majoring in Spanish and Business Administration, where she was immersed in finance and accounting. “I loved it,” she said.
Becoming a community advocate at Project Hope
At the midpoint of her college career, Marisela Ballesteros started looking around the Valley for internship opportunities in finance. She found it at Project Hope of the Gunnison Valley, which helps victims of domestic violence.
As someone who is fluent in English, Spanish, and Cora, which is the name of a people indigenous to Mexico and the language they speak, she was much more valuable to Project Hope in a frontline role than in an office balancing the books. Before long, she was promoted to the director of operations and then interim director while the organization was between leaders.
Through her work with Project Hope, Ballesteros learned to advocate for people in the Cora community. There can be generational trauma from experiences in Mexico and during migration or after arriving in the U.S. “But it doesn’t matter where you come from. Everyone struggles and deserves to be heard if they want to be,” she said. “Everybody deserves to have a space to be who they are here in Gunnison.”
Using her experiences to make an impact
Project Hope provided the experience Marisela Ballesteros needed to prove that anyone has the power to make positive change. It was just a question of scale. Making an impact on an entire community seemed out of reach, but her advisor, Western Spanish professor Dr. Lorena Gómez, saw it differently.
“She was always on me. She reminded me of my dad … one of those people who thought they knew my potential. But at that time, I didn’t want to hear it,” Ballesteros said. “She was that one who always said, ‘You can do better than that. I think you can do more than what you’re setting yourself up to do.’ She’s a sweetheart, but she’ll tell you if you can do better. Now I can see that she just knew I could take it, and she was right.”
That kind of tough love resonated with Ballesteros. Not long after she graduated from Western, she put her name on the ballot to run unopposed for a Gunnison City Council seat.
Advocating for the Cora community through Gunnison City Council
After she was sworn in on December 12, 2023, she immediately brought a fresh perspective to city government and a direct line to the Gunnison Cora community, which is the largest community of its kind anywhere outside of Mexico. Their concerns were her concerns and she wanted to be the voice they’d never had. But the exchange went both ways. Marisela Ballesteros was also bringing her experience in the Cora community, which, like Gunnison, is a close-knit community where people work together to solve problems.
“We put ourselves aside and become a team when we need to be. Because at the end of the day, what matters is our town,” she said. “I want there to be equity among everybody. There needs to be equity in the economy, in access to basic needs and housing opportunities. And if we can’t have equity, I want to make sure there’s knowledge about any barriers people might .”
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Author Credit: Seth Mensing
Photo Credit: Courtesy
