Teresa Valdez Klein

Ooh, a blank white box! I’d better fill it up with stuff about myself.

I’m an American woman in my early 20’s. I graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in Psychology. It was the best four years of my life and I miss it terribly.

I’m half Mexican and half European Jew, but my skin looks rather white, so nobody can tell just what I am until I tell them. This makes for some very interesting quandaries about ethnic identity. But I come from two incredibly strong groups of people, so I try to carry that with me.

I am engaged to a man I met when we were both sophomores in college. He’s smart, funny and incredibly, unfailingly kind. My favorite thing about him is how he can cut any tension between us with sweetly stated honesty. Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person in the world because I found someone so amazing long before my biological clock started to tick. It’s not all peaches and cream, it is what it is – and I like it.

My two greatest skills are my talent for the written word and my singing voice. My two best personal traits are my loyalty and honesty. My biggest weaknesses are my perfectionism and the sense of entitlement that comes from growing up with money in America. I’m working on that.

My favorite song at the time of this writing is “Jerusalem” by Matisyahu.

“Rebuild the temple and the crown of glory Years gone by, about sixty Burn in the oven in this century And the gas tried to choke, but it couldn’t choke me I will not lie down, I will not fall asleep They come overseas, yes they’re trying to be free Erase the demons out of our memory Change your name and your identity Afraid of the truth and our dark history Why is everybody always chasing we Cut off the roots of your family tree Don’t you know that’s not the way to be.”