Words will make you free. Words will make you safe. Because the connection that they offer you is the most magical reciprocal relationship. They just ask you to know them, to pay them some attention, and to listen to them. And in return, they will give you immense power to create, express, and evolve.

Words are able to show. To persuade. To generate feelings. With their chameleon soul, they are the perfectly suited to dress up each one of the emotions that flood your soul.

Words are my sword and my shield. My wings and my nest. My home and my refuge. Words are my tools that I use as an intern copywriter at Milagro Marketing. They help me to push out all that I have inside.

Words, my dear friend, and partner, the ones who gave me the chance to be here today. The ones who gave me the opportunity to show my talent. Thanks to them, my work is exposed on this marketing agency’s web page. With them under my arm, I walked through the local Telemundo studios. Coming out of my mouth slowly and fluently, they gave me the chance to amuse people at the Addy awards celebration.

They allowed me to make cities alive. They made me float up to the ancient, revolutionary Mexico. They showed me the power of this culture, their traditions, their signs. They introduced me to the beautiful Catrina, and they let me show what she had inside. They let me look at things from the other side, give her a second chance, paint on her a soul and a heart. We construct love. Trust. We construct emotions for where emptiness is found.

But the most important of all: they take me back to my most early youth. They let me express with the words of an adult what this small, five years old kid was able to see through her innocent, pure eyes. They establish the most real connection between all the facets that shape me. And because of that, they will never be enough words to express my gratitude to them.

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On January 19th, our eyes met again. Although we both perfectly knew what that day would come, the tension in the air was more intense than ever. That huge attraction/repulsion. How bad was our starting, and how tasty was the risk to take.  All relationships have that magical honeymoon period, where everything seems beautiful and every step you take is idyllic. But with time comes reality, routine, wear; and where the rope you easily walked all this time starts to tighten. I really tried. I tried for the both of us. And the connection was there, it was not only an illusion. But our natures were very different… like the sun trying to reach the moon. And when two strong personalities crash,  you get the chance to know the other’s strengths, and their flaws.

I was broken. She broke me into thousands of pieces. She trampled all my dreams, my values, my hopes. Not intentionally, I know, but she did it. And it would be impossible to count how many times I fought with her. I know when she saw me the first time she totally underestimated me. The little girl with a child’s face, with that strange accent and with her hair shaved, trying to confront her. But like they say, not all books match their covers.  She did not need much time to see how intense the fire inside of my soul burns. And when someone can make a strong soul feel smaller, that always make them counterattack, trying to destroy them.

Violent, selfish love. She wanted me, she wanted me selfishly, only to be hers. She didn’t know how to let people fly, so she cut their wings to tie them next to her. She made me feel insecure. She made me feel unuseful, she took from me hours of sleep making me adapt to her. She made me feel like a toy, she made me feel like I didn’t have control of my own life. I live tired, threatened, exploited and silenced. Nobody seemed to listen to me, to what I had to share. So I left her. I left Kansas. But I knew I would have to come back anyway.

We spent a month separated. Without any new contact, with any new chances. She knew I didn’t want to know anything about her, even though she knew I had to do it anyways. And the dreaded day came… but this time, I found somebody new. California was waiting for me. And with a warm sunbeam, she repaired my wings.

California is a smile the first hours in the morning as she contemplates her sunrise. She not only loves my freedom, she also encouraged me to not be afraid of taking as many risks as possible. Instead of being afraid of my strength, she embraced it allowing it to grow. California knew that letting me be free was the only way of making me fall in love with her.  Because sometimes, letting the people you love fly far away is the only way to make them truly stay.

My wings spread out,  my creativity flying around my whole body.  And I deliver to her each one of the thoughts that get born inside my head, a necessary and reciprocal gift.  And, finally, all that inspiration accumulates in my soul, running out between my fingers, creating new art every day. Her streets take in all that she has to offer me, to arrive at my new home. A place that gave me the chance to express what I have inside, where I can show what I have to offer without feeling threatened or rejected.  A place where I learned how to transform thoughts into gold. Here, despite being a foreigner, an unknown little girl, I took a chance. A chance that turned into an opportunity to show what I am able to do. And for the first time in my life, I received something better than any grade. I received support. I received faith. I received the chance of dreaming big without fear of falling down.

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My summer internship may be coming to an end, but I couldn’t be happier to say I’ll be sticking around here at Milagro! I’ve got a lot on my plate; from managing a street team to keeping up with social media posts for a variety of clients, the work never ends. I’m so happy to say I’m still enjoying it all. I came to San Jose State thinking I wanted to pursue business, but now I can’t imagine pursuing anything other than advertising. My favorite professor became my boss in a matter of months and I’m still in disbelief that so many doors have opened up for me this year.

Having to teach myself the basics of excel was interesting. I never thought I’d be using this many spreadsheet on a day to day basis. I also never envisioned myself thinking about work 24/7, not yet anyway. I catch myself constantly checking on clients’ Facebook pages, seeing how well their posts are doing. I absolutely love social media but I never realized how much time and planning goes into managing each client’s account. It requires staying in the know, in all aspects; sports, pop culture, local events, etc.

I’m really looking forward to taking part in this year’s Día San Jose, as I have been considering minoring in event management for a while now and this could be a huge learning opportunity for me! Plus, Day of the Dead has always been one of my favorite traditions growing up so I’m sure you can imagine how excited I was to hear that this is actually a Milagro event.

All in all, I’m truly grateful for my time spent at Milagro this summer. I’ve gained so much knowledge from the other interns and the Milagro staff in the last two months that I highly doubt I will ever get out of a classroom setting. Now, let’s see how well I can balance Milagro and school. Wish me luck, this is only the beginning!

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After years of trying to convince myself that I’m a decent juggler, I have come to the conclusion that I am not, and that’s totally fine.

Growing up, I would constantly get in trouble by my parents for two of the same things over and over again: bruising all of the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen and always being out and about with my friends like a “niño vago.”

I was determined to become an expert juggler as much as I was determined to make it to every event or outing my friends would plan. Going into my fourth and final year of college, I think it’s about time I take a break from juggling, both literally and figuratively.

This is not me giving up but rather coming to a realization about myself. I get so caught up in trying to juggle and balance my work, personal, and social lives that it becomes so hard to focus and pay attention to what really matters.

Like mi jefe used to tell me, “Hay un tiempo para todo.” There will always be other concerts to go to, nights to hang out with my friends, and weekends to visit my family. However, some opportunities only come once and only multiply if they are seized.

As we approach the end of our summer internship, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside some creative and driven people. I have learned a lot about myself and my skills that will allow me to grow both as a person and professionally. This internship is the beginning to my growth and future in advertising.

Who knows, maybe I’ll pick up juggling again sometime down the road, but for right now, it’s time for me to settle down, focus, and ponerme las pilas.

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I’m writing this late, not just a little, but a lot. A full week late in fact.

For most of my life I procrastinated all the time (Now it’s just some of the time). I have no illusions about the annoyance it causes others. But I will say this: sometimes not getting work done is a good thing. If there’s one thing  being a procrastinator teaches you, it’s how to find a creative solutions to problems. Granted, some of those problems probably shouldn’t have existed in the first place, but I digress.

For example: I never did my Spanish homework in high school. But, I knew that our teacher used cards to decide who would be called on to answer each question. All I had to do was remember how many people it had been since I was last called on, and count the number of people in class that day. This let me figure out, in advance, which problems the teacher would most likely ask me to answer.  In a class of 30-35 people I was doing 1/10th of the homework and still passing. Looking back I was only denying myself the practice that would have made the homework 10x easier and actually taught me a language I now want to learn again. But still, at least it kept my blood pressure up.

What does this have to do with Milagro?

Well, just last Friday we had a shoot for our Día San Jose campaign that I was planning to take panoramic shots for. Jesse and I went out to test it the day before (see, not procrastinating that much). Out of the 8 or so locations I tested it, only one stitched together properly in photoshop.

Cue Jaws theme and flashbacks to high school.

With two people we didn’t really know coming in to do face painting and modeling for the shoot the next morning, and several locations expecting us to show up, the thought of executing without a plan would be enough to make most people nauseous. Having forced myself into the path of tidal waves of overdue work many time before, this felt more like high tide slowly lapping at my feet. Like any good procrastinator, I wrote off the idea of spending all night getting my original idea to work, and instead turned to people who had already done the work for me. I turned to a couple friends named Hopper and Caravaggio. If those two names don’t ring a bell just do a quick Google image search.

Although our work on the campaign is not done yet, when you see it, my hope is that that you can see the influence of both of these artists in the photos. Because If it wasn’t for those two long dead men creating the dramatic lighting and compositions that I used to come up with the shots, well… I might have actually had to figure the panoramic thing out. And had I done my blog post on time I wouldn’t be stressing about it right now. That probably would have been more straightforward. But where’s the fun in that?

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I’ve been with Milagro for over a month now and so far, so good! It’s been an extremely rewarding experience and I’ve learned a lot about myself and my strengths along the way. This internship has been a lot to handle, considering I’m balancing two other jobs and a summer class on top of that but I truly wouldn’t want it any other way.

It’s so self-fulfilling to see a project I’ve helped coordinate come together. I had the chance to help produce a commercial for a client; that was quite the experience. I’ve also hosted a training for members of a street team we have for another client, and I get to start working on Día San Jose next week! I’ve been involved in various Day of the Dead events in the past as a performer, so now that I’m no longer dancing I am beyond excited to have the opportunity to celebrate it through Milagro this year! I’m ecstatic to be representing la Catrina in our Día San Jose promo campaign (be sure to keep an eye out for that!).

I’ve learned the importance of networking and making connections with as many people as you can, especially in this field. You may end up hiring a vendor you meet at a client’s event for your own! There’s a lot more to email etiquette than I ever would’ve expected (such as e-introductions; how weird). I feel like I’ve grown up a lot in these last few weeks working such an “adult” job and I have David to thank for that. I never envisioned myself interning for such a cool agency at 19 but I am so glad the opportunity arose because now all I can think about is my future and where else I may find myself working in the next few years.

It’s empowering to work with such driven and ambitious colleagues who don’t hold back their opinions and are constantly pushing me to improve with their high expectations. This job has become routine and it continues to be the only job I look forward to going to in the morning, even on the most hectic of days.

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¡Hola amigos! My name is Jesse Santos and I am one of Milagro’s newest interns for the summer.

It’s been about a month since I first started interning at Milagro Marketing and so far the experience has been rewarding in multiple ways. As a proud Oaxaqueño, con el nopal en la frente, it is rewarding to be interning at an agency that caters to the Hispanic communities and businesses. Nuestra raza. I believe the advertising industry has gone way too long without properly addressing the needs of the Hispanic and Latino communities. It makes sense to have someone that belongs to one of these communities to have a say in the way we are portrayed and advertised to through the media. That is why I am a proud supporter of agencies like Milagro.

I am only a year away from graduating from San José State with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Mass Communications and an emphasis in advertising. Interestingly enough, my first advertising class at SJSU was with David Ocampo during my second year. When he asked us to create and brand a Tequila Bottle as our final project, I instantly knew he was going to be a compañero of mine.

Fast forward two years later and I now find myself in his office 4 days a week working alongside two other creative and driven interns. With all the Spanish rock music playing on repeat and the Mexican influenced decorations around the office, I feel like I belong. Some of the projects David has assigned us to have included shooting events for clients and filming and editing a short movie theaters spot for San José City College. It is empowering to be able to work with clients that are working towards empowering the Hispanic and Latino communities as well. It gives me the ability to really immerse myself with the work we do here at Milagro.

So far I’ve learned the importance of having backup plans and the right gear when it comes down to shooting video. I have a lot to learn still but I am extremely grateful for all of the feedback I have received from the rest of the team. Being able to collaborate with other creatives who are passionate and driven is a rewarding experience that gets me excited for my career in advertising. Interning at Milagro Marketing has taught me so much in such a short amount of time that I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds for my colleagues and I.

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Hey there! My name is Cullan and I’m just  ⅓ of the Milagro summer intern squad. If you were wondering already, yes the exposure on my photo is entirely correct, I am in fact a white guy at a Hispanic marketing firm. However, I do come armed with four years of high school Spanish (of which I remember ~5%), and I can do a mean Google Translate. You could probably say I’m fluent in Spanish… you’d be wrong, but you can still say it. Other than my extensive knowledge of foreign languages I’m a design major at SJSU, and I’ve been doing freelance design for the past few years.

After walking the lonely road of a freelancer these past couple of years, I have come to greatly appreciate being able to count on, and learn from others. The presence of people like David and Sergio, who have been doing this for years, is incredibly valuable for any number of reasons. But what I believe to be the most valuable part of this experience is the ability to say ‘we did that’ instead of ‘I did that.’

At the end of the day, we’ve each only got so much energy, bandwidth and time to put towards meaningful tasks. Individually this doesn’t get us very far, but that doesn’t have to be the case when we have other people around us whose motivation is contagious, whose strengths are our weaknesses and whose successes are also ours.

All of the above describes not only everyone at Milagro full-time but also the other two interns Jesse and Cosette. Jesse is a great person to bounce ideas off of and has a patience for editing video that I don’t think I will ever have. Cosette has a natural ability to organize and plan both events and projects that I am incredibly thankful for, and envious of.

The  best way I can sum up my experience so far is that working at Milagro is something different everyday with great people, and all I can hope is that it continues!

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Hi everyone! My name is Cosette Velazquez and I am one of Milagro Marketing’s newest interns. I haven’t been here for long, but there are no words to describe how amazing this experience has been so far.

I am going into my second year at SJSU, majoring in Advertising and plan to minor in either Event Management or Marketing. I started working for Milagro in the spring as part of a street team for one of their clients, and there is no way I could ever turn down the opportunity to intern as well!

I’ve learned so much more than I could have ever imagined in such a short period of time and I could not be any more grateful for this wonderful opportunity! I wake up excited to head over to the office each morning because each day is so different; I may be picking up a print order, working on a blog post for Milagro’s site, or going out and taking photos for a client. I’ve already had the chance to take photos at two different events for separate clients and it took me back to my high school yearbook days. I had forgotten how much I enjoy taking photos and I’m glad I get the chance to do that again.

I’ve learned the importance of tone of voice when it comes to posting on different clients’ social media pages. I’ve learned how to use a few different softwares I had never even heard of prior to this internship, and they are already making my life so much easier. I’ve also learned a lot from the other two interns, Cullan and Jesse, considering they’re older than I am and know a lot more about what it’s like to be an Advertising major at San Jose State.

I absolutely love the office space, love the work environment and couldn’t have asked for better teammates! I’m just so grateful for the opportunity at only 19 years old to already have my foot in the door working for such a great agency. I’m very excited to see what this summer has in store for me. There are some things that simply can’t be taught in a classroom and I’m very glad I get to go back to school in the fall with all of this insight on the reality of how agencies are run. I am confident the skills I will gain here at Milagro will be a huge help in the long run and I’m beyond excited for all that’s to come.

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Graduation season is upon us and the Milagro Marketing team has been busy working closely with the Latino/a Education Association of San José City College to produce a variety of different marketing pieces for their annual La Raza Commencement Ceremony. La Raza Commencement is a familial occasion which allows for a more intimate, bilingual/bicultural celebration of the 67 graduates. The celebration gives graduates the chance to give their gratitude to their familias and all those who played a role in their success. This year’s graduates are pursuing all kinds of career paths, ranging from alcohol & drug studies to mathematics to kinesiology and everything in between!

So, what do you do when the illustration provided by the client is a copy of a copy of a copy that’s nowhere near clean enough to use? La Raza Commencement was eager to let us bring out our creative genius and refresh their brand, updating it with cleaner, stronger lines and a splash of color. We adjusted the faces; rather than looking up at the stars, we wanted them looking straight forward so that they reflect being in the present, a definite force to be acknowledged for all they have brought to the SJCC campus.

The new illustration became the central theme for this year’s Commencement program, establishing a strong brand presence throughout the event. We are super excited about how the new logo turned out, and it is all thanks to our illustrator, Will Orozco!           

In addition to the logo refresh, we also helped create an environment that highlighted this newly revised brand with two different backdrops. One was displayed front and center, right on the stage as a background to all of the excited graduates receiving their diplomas. The second featured the event sponsors and was used behind the “purple carpet” providing the perfect background for graduates to take photos with their friends, family, and loved ones and of course, to share with all of their friends on social media.

Congratulations to all of the grads, we wish you nothing but the best of luck in all of your future endeavors!

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