Oral History with Pablo Isaza, March 4, 2020 (Ms2021-023)

Jessica Taylor: Hello, today is March 4, 2020. My name is Jessica Taylor. I'm interviewing Pablo Isaza. for the Voces Oral History Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Please know that this recorded interview will be placed in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at University of Texas Austin, and it may be available online via YouTube or a similar platform. If there's anything you do not wish to answer or talk about, especially given that you're recording purely online, I will honor your wishes. Also, if there is something you want to talk about, please bring it up, and we'll talk about it. Because we are not conducting this interview in person, I need to record you consenting. So I'll ask you a series of five questions. Please say "yes, I agree" or "no, I do not agree" after each one.

There are three questions we need to make sure you agree to before we go on. Voces' wish is to archive your interview along with any other photographs and other documentation at the Benson Library at University of Texas Austin. We will retain copyright of the interview and any other materials you donate to Voces. Number one, do you give Voces consent to archive your interview and your materials at the Benson library?

Pablo Isaza: Yes, I agree.

JT: Do you grant Voces copyright over the interview and any material you provide?

PI: Yes, I agree.

JT: Do you agree to allow us to post this interview on the internet where it may be viewed by people around the world?

PI: Yes, I agree.

JT: We have many questions in a pre-interview form that you already filled out. We use that information from the pre-interview form to help and research. The entire form is kept in a secure Voces server. Before we send it to the Benson,

we will have stripped out any contact information for yourself or family members, so that will not be part of your public file. Your public file will only be accessible at the Benson Library. Do you wish for us to share the rest of your interview in your public file available to researchers at the Benson?

PI: Yes, I agree.

JT: On occasion Voces receives requests from journalists, who wish to contact our interview subjects. We only deal with legitimate news outlets. Do you give consent for us to share your phone numbers or your email with journalists?

PI: No.

JT: Okay, so let's actually do this. Tell me a little bit about your experience with COVID-19.

PI: It's been about a year actually. I think next week is in March, like one year.

So it has definitely been a really tough time for me and my family, not only just like financially, but I think mentally as well as like emotionally. I don't think anyone expected it to be prolonged, like for this amount of time, at least in the United States. The biggest thing for me, as a student, is how mentally draining all my classes have been. That's the biggest hit for me. Just talking about it with a lot of my peers, they would also agree.

JT: How did you first learn about COVID-19?

PI: I heard about it back in late December, early January. At that time, it sounded like something we had heard about in the past, like Ebola or maybe some other type of disease.

It didn't seem super serious. I remember people kind of making jokes about it. I just read it in like a news outlet.

JT: What was your initial reaction to what was going on in December and January?

PI: My initial reaction, I did not think about it for too long. I just thought this is just another disease, and then they'll figure it out and we'll get over it.

JT: What was the point at which you realized that it was serious?

PI: I remember the day that my mom, and in my house, and some friends of mine, kind of started panicking. I remember the moment feeling like, oh, we have to go to the store and grab supplies for like the next couple of weeks because things might run out.

At that moment panic kind of started setting in. It was weird. It was a really weird feeling and felt like you were kind of in a movie, like, we're going to be stuck inside for I don't know. How long am I? Like food was going to be available? What was going to happen? hat the world was going to be like? Definitely stressful.

JT: Absolutely. You mentioned that COVID had impacted your family. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

PI: Yeah, it impacted my mom's job, my step-dad's job, they had to start working from home, like adjusting to that balance. Personally, it also affected me in my work. I start working from home. I missed out on some job opportunities because of it.

Just because of the field that I'm in, that tough work wasn't being handled at the time, because of COVID, because of the restrictions that people didn't know how to handle it, like a lack of preparation. That part financially was hard. Academically, I definitely felt like institutions were not prepared to format that kind of online learning experience. It was tough. It was hard.

JT: What do you do for work? Where did it impacted you in this?

PI: At the time, I was working with an electrical engineering firm. I was an electrical designer for them. Of course we had to transition to fully work from home. Since a lot of the work that we were given was government contracted, we had to stop a lot of for operations just because a lot of the things that we were doing were in person.

We had to do some buildings and construction, so none of that could happen. So that had to stop.

JT: What about your parents? What did they do where it affected their work?

PI: My mom, she works in the public sector, and it affected some of her contracts. She's a consultant. Just because of, I guess the lack of people being able to go into the offices and whatever, contracts were not being handed out as often as they were before.

JT: In terms of other organizations you're involved in, like church or fraternities or anything, are there other ways that they were affected by COVID?

PI: I wasn't super involved with church, but I still got all the emails and everything. These two started doing online mass. They probably handle it better than most other organizations that I know, honestly. At the time, I wasn't with any fraternities or anything like that.

JT: The church component is something that the people involved in the project are interested in. Can you say a little bit more about how that affected you moving from real mass to online mass?

PI: At that point, we weren't going to mass super often, but I do remember all youth group activities were put on hold for that time. Then later on the church developed a Zoom type of session or mass holding.

They would send you the link. They would be like, this is how we're gonna do mass from now on, but that was later on. It took them like a few weeks to set that up.

JT: Did it affect things like Christmas mass or anything that you may be more likely to go to?

PI: Yeah, for sure. My parents are Catholic, both of them. Religion is a big part of their lives. We have not gone to church since the outbreak happened.

JT: Do you remember specific moments where they were affected by not being able to go?

PI: I wouldn't say it affected them super harshly emotionally. You can still pray at home and you can still live a fulfilling religious life. No way.

But it's kind of like a tradition just to go. They didn't enjoy it. It was something that they did on the weekends, and of course, like Christmas. I'm sure they missed it.

JT: Yeah, absolutely. Beyond your immediate family did COVID affect any extended family members in any way that comes to mind?

PI: I don't think any of my family members actually had COVID fortunately. Most of them live outside of the country anyways, so they were not super affected. My family always did a good job at staying home and kind of isolating. We were not super affected by the illness itself and being contagious or anything like that.

JT: Just in terms of experience, how was your family outside of the country affected?

PI: They live in Colombia. To this day, cities are still pretty under lockdown. I know my grandparents were terrified of it, not only because of the repercussions of the illness, of the disease, but also just because since it is a third world country. You don't know when you might get vaccines. You don't know how the healthcare system might react to it. In the United States, it's very very different than in those countries. I lived in Colombia for fourteen years, so I know about it. I just remember them being pretty scared to even see my uncles, and my little cousins, from March all the way up to Christmas time. They barely saw each other.

JT: How did you stay in contact with folks from Colombia during the pandemic?

PI: Through WhatsApp, mainly, like social media. We would have family Zooms, I remember that. Even with cousins that we hadn't seen in a long time. For Christmas, and all that, we have Zoom meetings. Whereas in other years, maybe we'll go and visit them. So that's how we handled it.

JT: Absolutely. In terms of who you physically interacted with, have you done a lot of traveling since the pandemic started?

PI: No, I haven't left Virginia since. I think the first time I even left, I was in Fairfax, at the time. That's where my family lives, like at Fairfax.

And they're all like Northern Virginia area. I didn't leave until I had to come back to [Virginia] Tech, so in August. I've just been traveling from Blacksburg to my parents house, and that's the only real travel I've done.

JT: This is a weird one, but how has your family changed what you take with you, when you leave your home?

PI: A lot of hand sanitizer for sure. Then cars in the beginning especially was running out. I think my parents ordered it from some online site or whatever. It took a few weeks for it to hit us. Fortunately, we had some in the house. One of the main things was we would disinfect all for food right after we would come from the grocery store. I don't know if other people have been doing that or not, but all produce, everything, we had to disinfect it.

We had areas in the house where we would keep food from the point where it was from Costco, the grocery store, or wherever and that was like the designated area and then we would clean it, and then we would store it in the fridge. My brother, he worked at Whole Foods, the work clothes that he would have or not allowed him to house, and he would have to change before coming in the house and immediately wash those clothes. Life, I guess in that sense, changed.

JT: Definitely. So what about wearing masks? How do you and your family feel about wearing masks?

PI: We never had a problem with wearing masks or following like any of those mandates. We struggled in the beginning to find the right mask.

We didn't really know if they were N95 or those regular blue-ish masks that nurses and staff wear or used to wear. We ordered our own masks and we washed them. Everyone in my family has a few that they just kind of rotate.

JT: We talked about this a little bit, but COVID has changed the way that you receive education. Do you want to talk a little bit more about why that's been challenging?

PI: Yeah, colleges are not very very well prepared, especially in the beginning to give an online format. I know, with myself, and a lot of my friends, it's such a different learning environment, from going to in person. Even professors feel that way.

It's such a weird time in the world. It feels like school is not the most important thing at times; like, there's so much else going on. I don't really know if like calculus homework is really the most important thing in my life right now. That's one part. Then in the second, it's the format: the way tests are giving. From a stress standpoint, a lot of people don't like lockdown browsers because they feel like it disturbs their privacy. Having to show your whole home and like every single little bit and everything, and it just makes people feel really uncomfortable. I get it that obviously there's honor codes that you need to follow, but you can't move away or look the other way when people tell you that their mental health is not okay because of it.

Just being in Zoom, obviously, you try to make the most of it and waking up and try to go to class and keep yourself like focus. It's definitely such a big change from being on campus and actually doing a physical class. Rather than just like waking up and maybe even having your computer on your bed, and going through the motions. In my opinion, that's not really learning. At that point, you're just completing assignments. I think that's not what college should be about. That's not what universities should be about. You're trying to be in an environment that helps you learn and guide you to achieve future things in life. And at that point, you're just going through the motions of schoolwork. That's what I think.

JT: In terms of what's helped you get through it, do you have resources or tools that you have employed in order to keep going?

PI: I've tried to set a pretty busy schedule, at least with like working out and doing stuff outside of the house. I think that's one of the biggest issues that I've encountered. Also just people want to have encounter. You're just inside your house all the time; that can be very draining. We're humans, most of us need social contact, we need to talk to other people. Having a schedule is definitely super useful. Going out for a walk or run is also pretty great. This past year, I learned about like the Pomodoro Technique, so that's been super great for me personally because it keeps me motivated. In the beginning, I said okay, I'm just gonna stay in my room, like do like eight hours of work. But when you do that for months at a time and don't talk to anyone that can affect your mental health.

I might put sticky notes around my room or whatever, tell me to complete tasks. I think that's mainly what I've been doing.

JT: Were there particular classes that proved challenging or like particular moments in spring or fall that were challenging for you?

PI: Yeah I used to work around thirty hours a week when I was a full time student. Having to transition from that routine of like, I would go to work from 6:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m. and then I would have my classes and everything, to now. Everything's like online and work is just weird, and no one really knows how they're going to manage it. Also, like school is not very clear. The way tests are doing so I would say spring of 2020 was like super hard: March, April, May.

JT: As knowledge of COVID came out over the course of 2020, how did your concerns about your own health and the health of your family change?

PI: Especially in the beginning, we didn't really know who was mainly at risk. I think we understood that people with preexisting conditions were mainly at risk. So my parents, I was super scared, to be around them, really to see anyone. We kept a pretty close circle. It was really just me, my brother, my mom, and my stepdad for like, a lot of months. I think it's just scary. You didn't want to be the person that gave your parents something. You also didn't want to get it because you didn't know what was gonna happen. It was a bit frightening at first.

JT: You've mentioned mental health a couple of times. Do you want to expand on that from a personal perspective?

PI: We were all pretty used to a way of living before COVID. It's kind of hard to understand that, we're most likely not gonna be like that ever again. There's life pre-COVID and there's life post-COVID. It has changed so much about our lives, and it will continue to change it because of the precedent that it set in. That's hard to understand. You would want to be able to go to the movies or a concert or whatever, but you just don't know how likely it's going to be.

On top of that you have to stress about, okay, I have to keep on having my responsibilities, pay my bills, getting schoolwork done, and maybe I don't have enough money because COVID, financially just set us back. On top of that, the government is not really helping out right now. It's a lot of stuff kind of tied down together. It's all connected at some point or another, and it can be hard.

JT: Were there moments where you realized, like, mentally or emotionally "this is difficult."

PI: Yeah, especially, financially, when you didn't feel super comfortable.

That's mainly what I felt. It's stressful not having enough money to feel like you can go to the grocery store. That can be impactful on your mental health. On top of that, having ten assignments to the week, and then your mom got sick. My mom got sick at some point during May or June, and obviously, we were super scared because we didn't know what's going on. Thankfully, it wasn't bad. She just got sick from the cold or whatever else. She was bad for a couple weeks, and we didn't know what was going on. Also, in the beginning, testing was super weird. I don't know if people talk about that, but people paid hundreds of dollars for tests because they weren't easily accessible. It's a similar situation to what's happening with the vaccines, that people were only like political figures and the most important people were getting vaccines, not the general population.

JT: That was gonna be one of my next questions-- how did access to healthcare change for you over the course of last year?

PI: Thankfully, my family and I have a good healthcare provider. We're really blessed in that way. In that regards, nothing changed. We were super blessed because we had healthcare. I cannot imagine what it must have been for people that didn't, like if they got sick. I don't even know how hospitals or Intensive Care Unit or anything handle that or how much it costs were. Imagine being sick, and then you go to like an Intensive Care Unit, and on top of that, you can't pay your bills and like everything's just falling down. It was awful for a lot of people.

JT: Yeah, definitely. Speaking of vaccines, how do you feel about the vaccine rollout at this point?

PI: I'm glad that they're starting to roll it out. Better late than never, but I don't know the guidelines aren't super clear to when people are gonna start getting it. I actually received an email about a week ago from my healthcare providers saying like, we'll put you on a waitlist. I think right now that's how they're handling it. I would gladly take the vaccine. I would have no problem with it.

JT: How does your family feel about it?

PI: They feel the same way. They're already on the waitlist.

JT: Another thing that came up briefly is about the government response. How do you believe politics has affected how COVID has been handled?

PI: It's political propaganda. They were trying to say some politicians were lying about it to make it seem like whatever. I don't even want to get like too much into that. I don't really understand exactly what's happening or what people were doing for political gain. I just think the United States being the United States, being the country that it is, it should have handled it a lot better than it did. Whoever was in charge, whether it was Democrats, Republicans, or whatever you want to call it, I don't think they handled it well. They should have done more for society here and its citizens, and protecting them, not only physically so with vaccines, with testing with mask mandates, but also understanding that a lot of people were going 27:00through huge amount of stress because they lost their jobs because of unemployment. There should have been some financial incentives to maybe keep them healthier, in a way. I think they failed, largely, and compared to a lot of other countries that managed to keep their citizens safe.

JT: Have you been looking for work again since COVID started?

PI: I've been a full time student so no.

JT: We talked a little bit about finances already. Do you contribute financially to your family, either your immediate family or your extended family?

PI: Yeah I pay for my own stuff. I don't pay their mortgage or anything like that, but I take care of a decent amount of my own costs.

JT: We've talked a little bit about this, but has COVID affected your ability to continue to do that?

PI: Yeah, for sure. It's the same issue. A lot of my work was given through contracts, and that stopped because of COVID. The federal government wasn't running anything at that point.

JT: How has that affected your career aspirations for like post-grad life?

PI: I would have wanted to save up a little bit more money than I had, and save that for grad studies or whatever.

I had to use a lot of the savings that I had on this year, just to live. That's how it affected me.

JT: Are there any concerns in your family at this point about documentation status that have changed since the last year happened?

PI: Documentation status regarding what exactly?

JT: Like immigration.

PI: No.

JT: There's also a lot of social movements happening at the same time that all of this is going on. What current social movements have affected your daily life in the last year?

PI: Obviously, the Black Lives Matter movement has been huge. That's been the biggest thing along with COVID for the past year.

The way it's affecting me? I definitely support it. I'm definitely a lot more socially conscious. I think to what maybe I was ignorant about a few years ago, just trying to learn more about it. Trying to understand what some people go through, like African Americans in our country. That's how I've supported and I didn't go to any rallies or anything like that specifically, but just from my own personal view that I support it.

JT: Were there particular moments that expanded your thinking that made you pay attention to it for example?

PI: Yeah, one of the main things was the January sixth, and the capital riots.

Seeing all those people inflict so much violence on what is supposed to be like 31:00a sacred--well not sacred, but maybe like a really important place in this nation, such an important building, and seeing police officers-- We kind of just let the man in and create that much chaos, and the whole world was watching. That was super crazy to me. Literally, the whole world was watching, everyone. That was the only thing people talked about for about a week. No one was tear-gassed, no one was, to the extent of what happened in Black Lives Matters protests all over the country, which were still happening, to a certain degree at that point. It just helped cement the fact that there's, huge racial inequality in the United States, and that it's very real, and that we're still living through like, racism, medicine is not a thing of like, the 17- or 18- or 1900s. It exists right now. We're still going through it today. I 32:00think that was a big moment. I was a combination of mad, sad, frustrated.

JT: Has COVID influenced the way you think about these inequalities?

PI: Yeah, for sure. A lot of people that lost their jobs, that were unemployed, were people of color, who also couldn't even apply for unemployment benefits. Of course they were hugely influenced by that.

JT: One of the things you had said earlier was that there are more important things than like this homework assignment. What has been on your mind? What's been foremost on your mind?

The last year when it comes to that shift away from school. What are you 33:00thinking about more than you would?

PI: I realized that as a person, you kind of have a lot more power, and you're a lot more impactful than you realize. Especially when groups of people come together and as individuals, we don't really realize that. With all of these movements, with everything happening, I was like, well, we need not only reforms, and a lot of the systems that we have in place in the country, but people that will lead these changes and people that are genuinely wanted better for society. Not just individual gain, or maybe like, corporate gain, which I see a lot of, and it's the kind of already doing interfaces, and they don't care.

There needs to be maybe better political leaders in the country.

JT: Do you feel differently about the government response in 2021, than you did, maybe a little less than a year ago in 2020?

PI: Regarding the change from Trump to Biden? Is that what you're referring to?

JT: Yeah, definitely or just the change in strategy overall.

PI: I haven't really seen a change in strategies, like to be completely honest with you, with Biden. Maybe there's a change in who controls whatever like the House and the Senate. But I haven't seen huge change. The promises that they made, they're still out there. Just because the person in charge changes, doesn't mean that things are actually gonna change.

JT: Is there anything else you wanted to share about your experiences with COVID 35:00that we haven't talked about yet?

PI: No. The only thing I would say as professors, at least in my experience, have been super understanding. A lot of them are going through the same thing that us students are going through. My experience with the professors themselves, not the institution's, not the universities, they have been pretty great to be completely honest. Personally, like my president, super understanding. They know, and even they have more stuff going on. I know a few of them who got sick with COVID, so they understand what it's like. I don't know exactly who's running stuff behind the scenes or what's going on, but from personal level, when I speak to individuals, I think everyone's 36:00pretty much on the same page. There's a huge disconnect at some point. I just don't know where it is, that's all.

JT: Well thank you so much.

[End of interview]