Jesus Urbano Gonzalez

Class of 2024

Advisor: Jonathan Rosa

Jesus Urbano Gonzalez was born in Mexico City and raised in Santa Ana, California. Jesus graduated with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies. Before finishing his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, Jesus acquired three Associates of Arts with Honors from Santa Ana College.

As an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, Jesus was a linguistics research apprentice for the Mam Language and Culture Class. This particular experience opened his eyes to the dire translation crisis happening in the US immigration system, hospitals, and schools where there are not enough interpreters that speak Indigenous languages. In addition, his time as a linguistics research apprentice motivated him to write an Honors thesis that examines the challenges that speakers of non-dominant languages -particularly Indigenous Latin Americans that speak one of many varieties of an Indigenous language- face when seeking asylum in the United States.

As a master's student at CLAS, Jesus intends to continue his multidisciplinary approach to the translation crisis by taking courses in Law, Education, and Linguistics to promote scholarship that contributes to solving the translation crisis that makes seeking asylum more complex for speakers of non-dominant languages. 

During his free time, Jesus enjoys learning new languages, mentoring California community college students with the transfer application process, listening to music from all over the world, going to museums and restaurants, and enjoys eating chapulines (grasshoppers)!