In Conversation with Constanza Castro Zúñiga, Part I

"I became acutely aware at a very young age that foreign policy had a direct impact on my life."

Home as recognition and remembrance and in people as much as in places has helped Constanza Castro Zúñiga metabolize life’s blessings and blows in kind.

As skilled and ambitious as the most successful in her field, it’s the deliberate consideration of those moments of impact — the welcomed as well as the bruising sort — that stands out.

A Foreign Service Officer and a Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellow, she received a Master's in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor's in political science at the University of Kansas. In the first of our three-part conversation below, she muses on “the bigger, grander issues at play” in witnessing her mother’s civic engagement, the impact of her own immigrant experience on her professional aspirations and the significant failure that helped her “recalibrate" for a bigger win she “genuinely, deeply wanted.”

Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this conversation are her own and do not state or reflect the positions, views or official policy of the Department of State or U.S. government.

Enjoy!

As the plane was landing, I saw the mountain for the first time, and I just started sobbing.

Part I: Your Life

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE CHILDHOOD BOOK OR SERIES OF BOOKS [TV SHOWS, MOVIES OR GAMES ALSO WORK!].

I always find this question really interesting because I vividly have a childhood book in my head. I immigrated to the U.S. when I was three, and so I had already learned how to speak Spanish and read in Spanish before I came and then I didn't start school until I turned five. I spent five years only thinking and being surrounded by others speaking in Spanish.