Yuma native returns from D.C. internship

Marisol Marquez, a Kofa High School graduate and current student at the University of Arizona, spent eight weeks this summer interning in Washington, D.C.

She was one of 34 young Hispanic university students in the nation who earned spots working for Congress through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's Congressional Internship Program.

Marquez worked for eight weeks in the Washington office of U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Yuma.

She did research, went through letters and e-mails, answered phones and attended hearings, all the typical duties of an intern. She was in Washington while the last effort at immigration reform was working its way through Congress. Though it ultimately failed, she said being at the Capitol gave her a new appreciation for how much actually does get done in the political process.

"When you go up there, you see all the little details, all the hearings they have to attend ... the meetings they hold with constituents. You don't see that when you're over here," she said.

Marquez, the daughter of Martin and Nohemi Marquez, was born and raised in the city of Yuma. She graduated from Kofa in 2004 and went on to the UA.

She interned at Grijalva's Tucson office in 2006, but she said even that didn't prepare her for her experience in Washington.

"At first I went up there not really knowing what to expect, because I've never really left home. I mean, I went to the U of A but it's three hours away."

She said her time at the Capitol was definitely well spent. She not only got an upclose glimpse at the political process, she got to live and breathe life in Washington.

"I was able to wake up, run seven blocks, and I'd be running by the White House."

The best part of the experience, she said, was meeting the 33 other interns in her Hispanic Caucus group. It was made up of a variety of young people from different ethnic backgrounds, from Puerto Ricans from New York to Cubans from Florida.

Marquez said some of the most interesting debates she had about immigration came from within that group.

"We have border issues with the U.S.-Mexico border ... as opposed to one of the fellow interns who was Cuban, who come from Miami. They don't have that immigration issue the way we do ... and in New York, with the Puerto Ricans there, they're citizens of the U.S."

But, she said, when they all returned to their dorm rooms at night, they tried to leave heated political debates at the office.

"We just had random debates about our schools, about the West Coast versus the East Coast and about sports but ... for the majority of us, I think it was more interesting to just talk about back home and talk about little funny things and our friends."

Marquez returns to UA this month, where she's majoring in political science with a minor in pre-law.

She said she plans to go into politics herself one day.

"I definitely want to later. I want to go to law school first and then, slowly, start getting my foot in the door."