“I used to clean houses and today I’m trying to find out if there’s life in another planet. My name is Diana Trujillo and I work with robotic arms to collect samples on Mars.”
A few weeks ago, the world watched in awe as the Perseverance Rover touched down on the surface of Mars. We were especially inspired by one of its flight directors and engineers: the Colombian-born Diana Trujillo.
Trujillo was born in Cali, Colombia. She recalls the violence of her country at the time, and how looking up at the stars in the sky felt like her safe space during her childhood. At the young age of 17, she decided to emigrate to the United States, arriving with $300 in her pocket and without speaking any English. She began to work housekeeping jobs to pay for her education at the University of Florida, where she almost accidentally decided to study aerospace engineering. She was in line to declare her major, not knowing what career she wanted to pursue, when she glanced at a magazine with an image of female astronauts. Being also aware that she was one of the few women and few Latinos in that line, she decided to declare an aerospace engineering major, which would in later years allow her to break glass ceilings for women and Latinas everywhere. In 2007, she joined NASA.
At NASA, Trujillo is part of the Jet Propulsion Lab and worked with the team of engineers that created the robotic arm to collect rock samples in Mars. The Perseverance Rover is set to spend a year performing surface operations on the planet. “What we’re trying to do is to rove around the surface of this unknown planet to try to find out if at some point there was life on the surface of Mars,” Trujillo explained.
She credits her immigrant experience as her motivation to always put her best foot forward and take advantage of every opportunity around her. “I saw everything coming my way as an opportunity,” she said. “I didn’t see it as, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this job at night,’ or ‘I can’t believe that I’m cleaning. I can’t believe that I’m cleaning a bathroom right now.’ It was just more like, ‘I’m glad that I have a job and I can buy food and have a house to sleep’,” Trujillo said. Additionally, her experience as a woman growing up in Latin America’s machista culture motivated her to go into the field of space to prove some relatives wrong. “I wanted my — especially the males of my own family — to recognize that women add value. It came from wanting to prove to them that we matter,” she explained.
According to the Student Research Foundation, only 8% of the STEM workforce is Latino, and Hispanic women comprise only 2% of that number. Being the only woman—and the only Latina woman—in the room became a common theme throughout Trujillo’s career. The experience has made her realize that she is representing more than just herself. “I know I’m not walking in there alone. I’m walking in there and every single thing that I do, I’m representing my country, my culture, my heritage, my people, and I have to give my best every single time,” she said.
Trujillo believes that the way for women to break the glass ceiling is to have more role models and visibility of Latinos in the STEM field, which influenced her decision to host NASA’s first Spanish language broadcast for a planetary landing as the Perseverance Rover touched down. The broadcast, called “Juntos perseveramos,” has hit over 2.5 million views on Youtube. “The abuelas, the moms or dads, the uncles, los primos, like everyone has to see this,” she said. “And they have to see a woman in there, too. So, that they can turn around to the younger generation and say she can do it, you can do it,” she said.
Photo: NASA