Our January 2026 Departmental Spotlight features our undergraduate advisor, Francisca Cázares, interviewed by graduate student Endria Richardson. Francisca also serves at the undergraduate advisor for Gender and Women's Studies.
Tell me about your work. What do you care about in the world, and how did you come to care about it?
Shortly after I graduated from Berkeley in the 90s, I returned to campus to work in my first full time career position where I advised prospective graduate students and managed admissions for the School of Education. And I enjoyed the advising part the most! Before joining AfAm this past August, I had only advised Ph.D. students. While undergraduates have different needs, I am still able to utilize the advising skills I cultivated during nearly two decades of cumulative advising experience on the Berkeley campus. Helping students navigate the more challenging situations is by far the most fulfilling. And I think the fulfillment I get out of it all is that as someone who was once a student on this campus, and in particular as someone who identifies as a person of color, and was a first generation college student, it feels like I am giving back. This has been a lifelong career for me now, and it always brings so much joy when I see students I’ve advised cross the finish line.
Who do you love? Writers, thinkers, artists, parents, friends—who has inspired you to be in the world the way that you are?
As I write this, my father lies unresponsive in a hospital after suffering a stroke. He turned 100 this past May. 100! His parents came to California on the heels of the Mexican Revolution, and he was born here in 1925. When he was seven, his family was forced to leave their home in Berkeley and repatriate to Mexico around 1933. After two stints as a bracero worker, my dad made the decision to reclaim his U.S. citizenship. And in the 60s, he brought my mom and my brothers to California. I think about everything he sacrificed to give the six of us kids what he didn’t always have: stability, food on the table, and an education. One memorable story is about the time he was hit by a train. He fell asleep in his car after an overnight shift while working multiple jobs to support us all. The train pushed him in the car. Somehow he escaped unscathed, and walked away to tell the story. We can laugh and feel awe at how resilient he’s been, always surviving. But now that I face the reality that by the time this makes it to print he may not be with us anymore, I have to say that if anyone questions where I get my persistence and will to survive anything: it is from him, the man not even a train could stop.
Where do you come from? Is there a place that feels like home?
I am the daughter of Mexican immigrants. And although I was born and raised in California, there is nothing quite like the sensation of home when I arrive in Mexico. Michoacan, the state my parents’ families are from, and where my mother was born, has a special place in my heart as my parents took me to visit throughout my childhood. After my mother passed away in 1999, I felt such a need to return and visited often while working through the grief. It is the place where my mother first took air into her lungs, and so more than home, it always feels like I am returning to her, even now, more than 25 years after her passing.
What are your meaningful pursuits outside of work? What do you do for fun, or to relax?
I enjoy tapping into my creative side when time allows. I paint a bit and have even sold a few paintings. But lately what I’ve been doing more of is crochet. I mostly make clothing items, but currently, I am working on a baby blanket as a friend just became a first-time grandma. My mom crocheted a lot, but I never had the patience to learn from her while she was alive. After I had my own children, I decided to learn. And I am largely self-taught. It’s a meditative practice, provides some ancestral connection, and at the end, you have a sweater, hat, summer top, shawl, or a whole blanket!
Do you have an alternate-universe life in which you spend your time doing something totally different from this life? What do you do? Why?
My alternate universe life is what I do in this life when I’m not immersed in higher education advising! Years ago, I began reconnecting with Mexican indigenous spiritual practices. And I was initiated by a Mexican healer/curandera in the jungle of the Yucatan as a sahumadora (bearer of the sacred fire). This initiation came after a period of deep work with my teacher and the sisters in my cohort. Walking the indigenous medicine path has been a revolutionary act, but especially in the current political climate. It has been a big piece of my personal decolonial practice. And while completely different from working at Berkeley, I do a lot of the same: listening, guiding, and advising, but in a more esoteric way!