he Keizertimes welcomed Carlos Cruz to its staff as a Spanish-language translator in September. Cruz graduated from McNary with the class of 2020 and is currently attending Corban University for Political Science.
“Originally I was going for bio-med but I switched over to political science,” Cruz said. Though he was nervous to tell his parents about the switch, he thinks it’s an acceptable trade.
“I think they’ll be ok with my switching from dentist to president of the United States,” Cruz said with a chuckle.
He isn’t entirely sure what he wants to do with the rest of his life, but he knows he wants to spend it helping people. He would like to get involved with the political scene in Salem, but he isn’t limiting himself to just that.
It was his desire to help people, and encouragement from his parents, that drove him to become fluent in both spoken and written Spanish.
“[My parents] thought it was important to translate for others and be able to speak with people who also speak Spanish,” Cruz said. His Spanish started out very choppy, but he has improved it by taking Spanish classes in middle and high school.
“It’s something that I pride myself on, having good grammar in English and Spanish,” Cruz said.
Cruz has joined the Keizertimes staff in an effort to better serve the Spanish speaking community in Keizer. Once a week we will have information in Spanish in the paper and online to communicate important information to our Spanish speaking neighbors.
In his free time Cruz enjoys writing, music and spending time with his friends and family, but his passion is helping others. He also tells jokes, which he said are hilarious.