It’s a common college misconception that faculty members are one-dimensional and hired to make students suffer through all-nighters. But that’s a false assumption, for there are many who have chosen to dedicate their time to aid the building of the future that each and every one of us have dreamt of reaching. One such person is lecturer Coral MacFarland-Thuet from the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.
MacFarland-Thuet was born in sunny San Diego but was raised in Tijuana, Mexico, until she was 11 years old. Regardless of the stereotypes, MacFarland-Thuet loves Tijuana for all it has and remembers being happy there, even through the ups and downs.
“You really had to be in the moment and be present because life threw you curves right and left,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “Sometimes there wasn’t any water and sometimes there wasn’t electricity. I mean, I lived in a nice neighborhood but there was a lot of spontaneity … That’s what was difficult when I came to the U.S., that everything was so orderly and in its place. There were sidewalks. Not where I lived, I lived on a dirt hill.”
Previously in Tijuana, MacFarland-Thuet attended a Catholic school separated by sex. A different environment plus a language barrier could have been a recipe for disaster, but she says she wasn’t phased by it.
“The language was not that difficult to learn because I had heard it my whole life, but adapting to the new culture was harder,” MacFarland-Thuet said.
In a couple of years, MacFarland-Thuet was speaking English fluently.
After adapting to American culture and the different ways people relate to one another, her future calling came from a mistake she committed in high school. In the act of avoiding another English class, MacFarland-Thuet joined what she thought was a speech class, but turned out to be a speech team.
“That was a life-changing moment for me because I had to go to a competition for a grade,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “My teacher at the time asked me to go to a Toastsmasters competition in Mexico because I was the only one who spoke Spanish, and I won first place and beat all the speakers from Mexico and the U.S. I got first place and I said, ‘Gosh, if I could do it in Spanish, I can do it in English.’ That was a real confidence builder for me.”
After graduating high school, MacFarland-Thuet attended Southwestern College where she continued to compete with a speech team and won many awards. She recognized that her early success came from the help of Sharon Taylor, who also teaches at SDSU.
“She mentored me,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “She was an incredible person, one of those people that change your life, so I owe a lot to Dr. Sharon Taylor.”
After Southwestern College, she continued her education at SDSU studying oral communication and ethnic studies. She chose ethnic studies alongside her other talent because it seemed natural for her.
Shortly after graduating from SDSU and teaching at both Southwestern and SDSU, MacFarland-Thuet dedicated her life to music.
“I always had two careers,” she said. “I would have a full-time job and then I would do music as well. And around 1985, I quit everything and committed myself 100 percent to anything that had to do with the arts.”
MacFarland-Thuet began her music career by starting a band and worked hard to become successful.
“It’s a lot of work,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “It’s really hard. It’s a very difficult business because it’s not steady. But I was able to make it my living, which is pretty amazing. A lot of people have a difficult time making a living through music, but I did because I complemented my shows with doing studio work, and that’s doing commercials and jingles, recording on albums and doing back-up vocals. That was kind of the moneymaker. Then I would do my own shows and my own concerts.”
MacFarland-Thuet has recorded back-up vocals for famous Mexican singers like Luis Miguel and Cristian Castro. She has worked with many jazz artists such as Gary Foster, Jaime Valle, Peter Sprague and Allan Phillips. She’s done shows such as The Brilliance of Mexican Composers and sings in four languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese and Ladino. Apart from singing, she has worked for KPBS, had her own radio and TV show and also participated in many theater productions like “Real Woman Have Curves” and “Ballad of the Blacksmith.
It’s no wonder why MacFarland-Thuet can’t pinpoint her most favorite moment in her career.
“It’s hard to say one thing because I can tell you 20 moments that were my favorite,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “Most of them were while singing. My favorite moments are when everything is coming together beautifully… When I have great musicians backing me up and when I am part of that and we are all in communication … It doesn’t matter if it’s a big or small concert but when the music is fantastic and great, those are the highlights for me.
But for now, MacFarland-Thuet said teaching is her favorite. She’s been a lecturer since 2007 and for the last few semesters has been teaching four classes, including Mexican and Chicano music and U.S./Mexico border folklore. She enjoys teaching and sharing the knowledge she’s gained throughout the years. To her, music and culture are essential for society.
“Music is everybody’s language,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “We learn about history through music and everybody’s open to music. I get students from every walk of life and different cultural backgrounds. It’s not all Mexican or Chicano students that take my classes … What we find out is how much we have in common and how much we borrow from each other in music. I think that’s an indicator of what happens in real life. Sometimes we separate ourselves but through music we find how much we share and how connected we really are. And if we can apply that to our everyday life, it’s really a learning experience.”
MacFarland-Thuet is an extraordinary teacher. The mixture of communication and culture in her classes and in her own music is definitely unique and powerful. She owes her success to her education and recommends students to keep pushing through school.
“Don’t give up, follow your heart, but with intelligence,” MacFarland-Thuet said. “Do what you should be doing in your life … I followed my dream but I was smart. I got an education. I’ve been able to do millions of things but I had a lot to draw from because I had an education … Don’t take anything for granted. Take advantage of the time you are here and take advantage of learning form everyone. We’re all teachers and we’re all students all the time.”
