Mar Erisnelida Ruiz Barraza

Mar Erisnelida Ruiz Barraza, is 27 years old, and has been a high school teacher for almost 5 years. She was raised between the cities of San Luis, Arizona and San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico; the most perfect border towns to grow up in. She is currently a graduate student in the Bilingual Journalism Master’s Program. As part of her master’s project, she decided to show the positive sides of the border and border towns by using the “5 senses”. Part of her project is showing the taste and smell of the border, which consists of showing typical foods that are cooked between the communities within the border towns. Thanks to the Student Research Award from the UA Center for Regional Studies, she was able to purchase ingredients for the people who helped her by cooking their typical and favorite Mexican dishes. She is happy that they didn’t have to spend money on ingredients.