Dedicated to Public Service
As a diplomat and now as a member of the Ecuadorian Parliament, Esther Cuesta Santana ’02, ’09 MA, ’15 PhD works on the ground and across the globe to listen to, act on, and respond to the needs of Ecuadorian citizens.
“My main objective is to work toward more social equality in my country,” she says. “Latin America has the largest gap of social inequality in the world. While in the last ten years there has been a lot of reform toward bridging the gap between the rich and poor, through access to education, healthcare and social services, there is still a lot of work to do.”
A career in diplomacy was not on Dr. Cuesta Santana’s radar during her time as an undergraduate. Passionate about film, feminism, postcolonial and diaspora studies, Cuesta Santana says she immersed herself in learning languages and finding connections among humanistic, economic, anthropological and sociological studies, as well as geopolitical structures of power.
“As a student at UMass, I conducted archival and field research in Europe, and studied the cultural production and dominant representations of migrants, all of which gave me a series of analytical and linguistic tools,” she recalls. “Reading and examining literature and other cultural representations has helped me develop a certain sensibility and attention to detail and the type of message we communicate to citizens.”
Cuesta Santana’s niche for languages, comparative and critical analysis resonated with those whose paths she crossed, and it wasn’t long before she was approached for public service. While working on her doctoral research in Italy, which investigated the Ecuadorian migration to the European Union, in November 2009 Cuesta Santana was offered a diplomatic position as Consul of Ecuador in Genoa.
“My humanistic studies have been essential when making social and political decisions and implementing public policy,” she notes. “They’ve helped me understand how to improve people’s quality of life, open a wider access to continuing education, and how to listen to and interact with other people. Novels, testimonies, documentaries, and feature films are representations of people’s lives and deeper consciousness, and understanding these has given me a more critical perspective on diversity and political and social action”
In 2016, Cuesta Santana was appointed vice minister of human mobility at Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held that position until she ran for the Ecuadorian Parliament (Asamblea Nacional), representing the Ecuadorian population living in Europe, Asia, and Oceania, composed of nearly 800,000 migrants. Elected in February 2017, Cuesta Santana became the asambleísta (parliamentarian) who obtained the largest number of votes in the Abroad Districts (Circunscripciones del Exterior); and was elected vice president of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Sovereignty and Security, where all international agreements are debated and approved for further consideration by Congress’ General Sessions, and also president of the Italian-Ecuadorian Parliamentary Group, an all-party interparliamentary body that promotes commercial, cultural and political relations between both countries.
As a migrant who left her country at the age of 19 and obtained her higher education in the United States, Cuesta Santana says she channels her own personal experience to guarantee the rights of migrants and their families abroad and in her native Ecuador.
“As a representative of migrants in Congress, “I’m constantly communicating online with my voters, listening and responding to suggestions, proposals, petitions, and requests. I try to keep communication as fluid as possible.” In addition, Cuesta Santana’s work hits the ground as well, volleying from country to country to attend meetings and gather perspectives from migrants, fellow Parliamentarians, and the civil society.
“There are different aspects of my job. I meet local authorities, social organizations, non-governmental and international organizations, and public officials from the different powers of the Ecuadorian State, while participating in the Parliament’s General Sessions where we debate and approve laws, international agreements and resolutions” she says. ”
Throughout her admittedly unexpected career in politics, Cuesta Santana asserts that her professional training in the humanities has been crucial on how she makes decisions everyday, how she legislates, how she interacts with citizens and how she understands other people’s perspectives and world views.
“I advise young people to constantly try to learn as much as possible because you never know how or when you will use a particular skill or knowledge in your life,” she remarks. “We need to intersect the different knowledge that we have acquired and view our experiences in a larger, broader scope. In whatever career we choose, we as UMass alumni, as citizens of the world, have acquired the necessary tools to excel, which for me means, working to improve our communities, wherever they are.”
By Samm Smith ’08
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