The ”Encuentro de mujeres en Topología, Geometría y sus Aplicaciones” (The Women in Topology, Geometry and their applications Conference) is a conference thought to strengthen the network of women in the mentioned areas. It also intends to be a safe space to reflect the challenges that women in Mathematics face, so we can support each other, and lastly, it ends with outreach activities for high school girls to motivate them to pursue STEM careers, and raise awareness of what Latin women are working on currently, to expose them as role models.

My experience in this conference was great; it allowed me to share Mathematics in my native language and create a new community of women who work in similar fields. From the first day, it felt safer than a mixed conference, the organization exceeded my expectations.

The researchers were truly open to answer questions, from the most basic ones to questions that could lead to new results, and no one was afraid to ask, the environment was full of empathy, genuine interest and collaboration, most of them included PhD opportunities where they work, which was a great networking opportunity. There were several student talks and a poster exhibition. After seeing many of them, I felt motivated to give a talk or show a poster next year. It was a huge learning experience, and I felt like they were holding my hand from the basics all the way through some of the toughest Mathematical ideas I have heard so far, I’m looking forward to what comes next in my academic path.

On Wednesday, there was a Colloquium, the speaker was my bachelor thesis director, a scientist I admire deeply, she just won an award in Brazil for her relevant contributions as a woman in Mathematics: here. As an alumni of the University of Chicago, and my mentor, she encouraged me to keep pursuing this dream. We shared some Midwest stories, talked about researchers at UWM in our field and future collaboration opportunities in Mexico and in the US.

At the end of the conference, I participated in one of the outreach workshops, it was a game about turning gigantic pants inside out without lifting your feet from the floor, this has a very deep mathematical concept that can be applied by anyone without knowing they’re doing Math! This is the beauty of Topology; it is a lot of motions that do not ”break” apart. Our other game was about twisting ropes and rotating them to untie them, turns out, all these motions are a funnier way to look at the fractions we all hate in 4th grade! And applying a little bit of Knot Theory, which is the branch of which I dream of learning more. Being able to inspire future generations of female scientists was amazing.

During these days, we also had the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Guanajuato, a very colorful colonial town on top of a mountain. Locals say its beauty inspires minds to do better Math. The impact of the CLACS award in my participation went from my discovery of the center and its mission, to the funding of the trip. Without this award I could not have attended. It also opened my mind to understand the importance of creating a Latin learning community, which was the focus of the conference. As a Latin woman in Mathematics, this undoubtedly helped me to start building what is sometimes difficult to find in the US as a minority. After hearing about CLACS, and before the conference, I started attending and getting more involved in Latin American student activities.