Nicole Sotelo
Passion for Justice
January 29, 2007 | by brett | Permalink
I received an email from Jonna Sotelo, a real estate agent that had come across what we were doing, and referred me to her sister, Nicole, for a possible interview in Chicago. In my exchange with Nicole I learned a few things from our correspondence.
1) She was passionate for making a difference through striving for women’s equality within the Catholic church.
2) At age 28, she recently was coming off a battle with cancer.
3) She graduated from Harvard with a full tuition scholarship.
Needless to say, it was enough to get our attention, and little did I know that this brief description hardly scratched the surface.
Nicole’s passions can be traced to her childhood, where her characteristics and interests originated through education and family. Her father is Chicano, (Mexican-American) and while he was growing up in a minute town in Arizona, he was subject to a lot of discrimination and suffering. She often heard stories about how her grandfather helped to unionize the mines he worked in, and how her father had struggled to make it through education as a minority.
“I would have to say that my passion for justice and struggle came from him,” Nicole proclaims in the Starbucks on North Michigan Avenue where we met.
Nicole’s passion for religion can be accredited to her mother’s deep spirituality, whose faith trickled down and was instilled within her daughter. One of her first experiences that sparked her passion for religion happened in third grade, when a priest came into her class to ask if anyone wanted to be an alter server in the church. Nicole thought to herself that she would love to be an alter server, but the priest chose only boys. It was the first time that she had been discriminated within her faith based on her gender, and the fire inside her was ignited.
When it came time to go to college, Nicole ended up moving from Arizona to Massachusetts to attend Wellesley, an all women’s school with notable alumni including Hilary Rodham Clinton and Madeline Albright. The school has a legacy for women that have pursued their passion, and was the place where Nicole discovered and developed her passions.
Nicole went into the undergraduate program wanting to become a teacher, but after going through some courses she realized that obtaining a little more “life experience” might be in order before devoting herself to the profession. She majored in English literature and Religion, and as graduation approached Nicole was forced to face the inevitable question, “What do I want to do with my life?”
Out of interest, she enrolled in a course called “New Testament Studies,” in which she realized that she loved learning about the New Testament from both a historical and social perspective. The course had such an impact that she decided to double major in English Literature as well as Religion, and Nicole’s passion moved her closer to answering the question.
Once out of school and faced with the heavy burden of paying back student loans, she worked at Bank of America for one year in San Francisco to relieve the financial obligation. The following year she worked at NETWORK, a Catholic Social Justice Lobby, in Washington, D.C.. But her love for education came back and she felt the urge to go to graduate school. Wanting to go to a divinity school, she applied to four schools, and was accepted to all four. Two of those schools (Yale and Harvard) offered full tuition scholarships, and she eventually went with Harvard because of their Women and Religion Center.
She spent three years at Harvard expanding her educational horizons, and upon graduation she started to work on pursuing her passion of addressing the need for justice within the Catholic Church. Additionally, Nicole wanted to fight for women’s equality while helping women that have been abused. She decided to do this in a number of ways, one being in the form of a book that was released in November for Christian women that have been abused in domestic violence situations, and the other was joining the non-profit organization Call to Action.
But there was one minor setback to her desire to make a difference, and that came in the form of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer that had developed on her right leg at the young age of 27. The phone call came when Nicole was about to go down to Mexico, but the doctor told her that she needed to drop everything and have surgery.
If she had gone to Mexico, the cancer could have spread to a lymph node and she could have been facing a death sentence today. Fortunately, the doctors did catch the cancer in time and Nicole started the process of rehabilitating. Because her leg had been in a cast for so long, she even had to learn how to walk again. And this long, unexpected journey all came at a time where she had just graduated from Harvard, was diligently working on a book to address the key issue on the abuse of women, and was looking forward to joining a meaningful non-profit organization dedicated to activating justice in society and within the church.
Regardless of the unfortunate situation, Nicole faced it just like she has facedother topics which society avoids addressing. Topics such as domestic abuse, justice and war and has gone on with her life. She was able to start working for “Call to Action,” a few months later. She wears many hats within the organization including Church Reform Organizer and Media Relations Coordinator. She is also actively involved in a group made up of young adults ages 20-30 who have the common goal of bringing justice not only within the Catholic church, but society as well.
As we neared the end of our interview, almost on cue as she was delivering her last words about letting your voice be known, the song playing at Starbucks coincidentally switched to Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up For Your Rights.” The song was representative of Nicole and all the positive energy and passion she has put into her work.
Here are a few quotes about what Nicole had to say in her mission to make a difference, the importance of using your voice, and passion.
“People that are pursuing their passion is not just a matter of looking at their own gifts, but it is also looking at the suffering of the world, and being motivated to combine those two things together. I think that is what we are all called to do. You have to look at your gifts, look at suffering, and combine the two to make a difference. And when you have a passion, money isn’t the most important thing. It’s about bringing about justice. That’s where the real riches are.”
On her motivation to continue her quest to make a difference in the Catholic Church…
“I believe that if the Catholic Church becomes more just, then it will influence society to become more just themselves.”
On the advice that she gives to students:
“I would tell students that first of all you’re a student, and you have so much opportunity and education open to you in the United States that most people your age only dream about. Probably ninety percent of the world or more never gets past elementary school. So I would say embrace your opportunity for education, and use that time of education as a real time to discern what your gifts truly are. Figure out what you enjoy doing, what am I talented in, and look around to see what touches you the most in the world. Then use those gifts to address what touches you.”
One of the things that Nicole stressed to us in the interview is that everyone has a voice, and encouraged everyone to use that voice to provoke positive change. Nicole is using her voice to address the suffering of women’s equality, rights for gay people, and the awareness of women’s abuse in war. Again, stressing the importance of making your voice heard, she offered a way that this could happen. One way is to call the White House comment line, because they do keep track of the calls coming in. She wanted us to post their number, just in case any of you wanted to voice your opinion. She whipped out her little black book and flipped to the politics page, where she gave us the number to dial. You can reach the White House Comment Line at (202) 456-1111, and if you want to call the House of Representatives or their Senators, you can dial the Congressional Switchboard 202 224-3121. You can say I’m from Arizona and I want to talk to my senators, and they’ll direct them to you.
PTP Commentary: This interview opened my eyes up to things that I never would have thought about, and never would voluntarily think about either. Some of this stuff was very heavy, but it was reality. Through Nicole’s passion and suffering to make use of the life she has, despite recognizing the fact that there probably won’t be a drastic change within the church in her lifetime was truly inspiring. As a society, we tend to turn our backs on the important issues that were brought up in this write-up, like abuse and inequality, and some of us don’t even think that this stuff still goes on today.
Nicole started talking about a small success story that happened in the spring of 2006, where one of two bishops in the U.S. still refused to let girls serve as alter servers, even though the Pope allowed women to serve. Groups held vigils outside of a church and staged other actions for years, The bishop finally relinquished and allowed ladies to serve, as alter servers. It’s just small things like women’s equality that you would never think still goes on today.
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