Q&A: Lily Alonso

Lily Alonso, 2018 alumna, is one of the women featured as part of The Signal’s #HawkHerStory coverage, celebrating Women’s History Month. This special coverage focuses on the stories and perspectives of the various women within the UHCL community.

Read The Signal’s Q&A with Alonso below and see the other Q&As conducted with students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni here.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, on both a personal and professional/educational level?

A: My name is Lily Alonso and I am an artist and hardcore cinephile! I work at a public library and am currently in the process of getting a Master’s in Library Science.

Q: What are three things you can’t live without?

A: Movies, the Internet, and sunflower seeds

Q: Who are some women (real or fictional) you look up to most? Why?

A: Ana Lily Amirpour is a director that I have been an avid fan of and I look up to her a lot. She is what I always imagined myself to be when I was younger, I wanted to be a movie director so bad growing up because I loved movies and was fascinated with the process of making them and all the behind-the-scenes, and I completely respect those tenacious directors that know exactly what they are doing and why, and can geek out about what inspired them. Ana Lily Amirpour is clear in her inspirations, she writes her own movies and makes them on her terms and I feel that you don’t see that very often see that especially with a female director and on top of that, a female director of color! We also have the same name so that’s cool too.

Clementine Kruczynski of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, played by Kate Winslet. Clementine is so sure of herself and knows exactly who she is and I admired that a lot. As we meet her in a kind of backward order in the movie, we see her at her “worst” to her “best” all the while still charming. She is also impulsive and it’s viewed both as a good and a bad thing in the movie which helps make her a fully developed character in the movie because you get to see her highs and lows, good and bad. I love that she does not put up with Joel (Jim Carrey’s character) and his shenanigans and tells him outright she is not a concept, she will not complete him or make him alive with her spontaneity. It’s so easy in movies to have the female character be just that the male character’s savior or muse and not have her be her own character separate from him. Also her hair, inspirational! “I apply my personality in a paste.” Same, my hair is currently blue and heavily influenced

Q: What are some problems you anticipate/have encountered as a woman in your field?

A: Being heard! In the past, it has been very easy for some around me to dismiss me, but in speaking up I feel I end up fitting the “fiery Latina” role and ultimately being further dismissed, at work at least.

I have tried to learn to ease my temper in that and speak more diplomatically and it is a struggle because I feel I wouldn’t have to under other circumstances.

Q: What advice would you give to other women and young girls?

A: Don’t settle and push yourself. For a while, I feel I was drifting through life not really sure if I really wanted my education, working passively and not getting or doing what made me happy, I was just setting and coasting through, but I ultimately got tired of that. I realized I was kinda bored with life and didn’t want that anymore so I started being more direct in my needs and going for what I really wanted. I realized I didn’t really have people pushing me forward, if anything were keeping me back and stuck so I learned to push myself and find others that would help, and it was to my benefit!

Q: Is there anything you would like our readers to know?

A: Please don’t forget about your local public library! They offer so many cool things for free and all you need is the FREE library card. Throughout this pandemic apps like Libby and Axis-360 made so many audiobooks and ebooks available to me to read for classes without having to pay a subscription.

There are countless programs offered that help out the community and resources available that sometimes people don’t realize are offered.