What's in a Name?

Marianela Treviño

Marianela Treviño- Mexican ancestry; Marianela is an overweight student at the high school who is caring and loyal and has a welcoming attitude, despite her struggles with her self-image. The daughter of undocumented immigrants from Sonora, Mexico, she was born in Tucson, Arizona and is a natural caregiver whom endlessly provides support and assistance to her family members. She offered to look after her younger brothers Joaquín and Lisandro and baby sister Citlali as her parents worked long hours to help sustain their children financially. Despite seeming humble at first, she is very confident and assertive when she needs to be and can easily silence people when she truly needs to. Although frequently mocked or ridiculed for her plump and rounded appearance, Marianela nonetheless tries her best to ignore outside commentary as she works diligently at her part-time job as a team member at Subway. She is a thoughtful and hardworking girl who seldom judges or forms strong opinions about others and claims to want to give people a fair chance. She likes to journal and is constantly planning ahead and thinking about the future, proving to be multitalented in various areas at school, which include languages and her sharp memory. She tries to avoid jumping to conclusions as to who people are and tends to see everyone that she encounters as a potential friend until proven otherwise. Marianela is mentioned to be a good student who excels in her English courses, being enrolled both in honors sophomore English and offering to tutor other students after school in Spanish. She is helpful and benevolent, willingly offering to come to her classmates' assistance if needed and treating others with kindness regardless of their occasional cruelty towards her.

Her mother Brisa Treviño is a pretty woman with a sweet-tempered personality who works cleaning hotels, and she is noted for her attractive curves and having a soft voice that exudes a "honeyed warmth", according to Marianela. She likes Malta Goya and has an assortment of Tupperware, and the chancla is the real disciplinarian in the household, but only when necessary. Marianela was raised as a member of Jehovah's Witness as well and actively participates in her church, singing in her church choir and doing volunteer work in her community with some of her friends from her church group. She has an exceptionally close relationship with her father Germán, a jolly, good-humored man with a rotund, portly appearance who works in construction and always has a compliment for his daughter. She has still undergone some difficult times when she was trying to confront her fragile self-image, which has been distorted by the poor treatment she has received from men in the past. She had struggles with polycystic ovarian syndrome from early on that led to her experiencing a hormonal imbalance, causing her weight to continuously fluctuate over the years. Marianela was always considered somewhat chunkier even as a child and had difficulty fitting into social groups due to her weight, being picked on for wearing her pants above the waist. Her more corpulent appearance was not quite as apparent until she began junior high school, during which she began to compare herself to her female classmates. She began to feel self-conscious showering and changing in front of other females in the school's locker rooms and was often flippantly dismissed by males she had attractions for. This led her to become more avoidant as she faded into the sidelines to prevent further scrutiny from her peers, with the girls making fun of her by saying she'd be an "old maid". 

Marianela experienced a series of toxic, one-sided relationships, particularly with a shallow, arrogant Hispanic boy named Erick Montenegro who often scrutinized her for her looks and personality. She also encountered a deceptive African American male named Kwame Barnes, whose insecurities caused him to fail to respect her physical boundaries. The negative reception she received from her male classmate often caused her pain, along with the social pressures she began to experience to conform to common feminine beauty ideals. It was the relationship she experienced later on with a well-meaning white classmate named Zeke Hutchins that somehow prompted her to realize her inner beauty however. Regardless of her failure to adhere to conventional beauty standards, Zeke found that Marianela's vibrant personality compensated for whatever amount of physical attractiveness she appeared to lack. While Zeke's affection toward Mariana was not mutual, they nevertheless established a lasting friendship that prompted the two to engage in meaningful conversation that allowed Marianela's to ultimately radiate her intelligent, introspective nature. Zeke found in Marianela a person full of depth beyond her homely demeanor and realized that beneath the surface lay a significant amount of ambition. He noticed Marianela's dreams of someday becoming a social worker in order to help underprivileged immigrant populations whom experienced struggles similar to those of her own household. As a curious individual, Marianela also had a desire to travel abroad and experience different cultures, with her ability to empathize with and quickly befriend people from backgrounds that differed from her own. 

Zeke's compassion and affection offered her the encouragement to begin to work on herself and establish a stronger sense of identity from within, leading her to eat more healthily and start an exercise plan that caused her to begin losing weight her junior year of high school. At 5 ft. 2 and 180 lbs., she was considered chubby by many of her peers with a chunkier, overweight appearance and a pear-shaped face. She wore glasses and was considered average, if somewhat unattractive, due to her weight and modest appearance, with hooded, slightly downturned brown eyes and a light, pasty complexion, with a tendency to wear dresses and occasionally frumpy clothing. Marianela's best features were described as being her dark hair, which falls down her back in soft, spirally curls, and full, defined lips. Despite her chubbiness, she was noted to still have a proportionate upper and lower body, albeit with a full, fleshy, and heavy torso. She is described as having trusting brown eyes, medium-sized "goldilocks" lips, and a fair complexion, with a splatter of freckles upon her nose. She often dresses in a modest and casual way and despite her introverted personality, is considered "nerdy cute" by her peers. Marianela began experimenting with makeup, changing her wardrobe, and removing her glasses after receiving corrective eye surgery. She remained close friends with Zeke over time and choses to stay close to home by attending Stony Brook University in Long Island with while majoring in social work. She is a late bloomer when it comes to romance and didn't quite focus on finding love for the initial part of her college experience. She eventually began a relationship with a handsome, kindhearted young man of Nicaraguan descent named Saúl Calderon, who shared her passions for helping others and had aspirations of becoming a registered nurse. 

Marianela eventually married Saúl in her mid-20s after a year of dating and gave birth to their first son, a boy named Guillermo with the help of some fertility treatments. She gets her PCOS medically treated and manages to stay in shape by frequently incorporating exercise into her daily routine. She is quite accident-prone, but also very friendly and devoted to her family and friends and dreams of becoming a fantasy author one day. She does not have many friends and is not very well-liked due to her slightly awkward personality, but is befriended by Alicia Morales who quickly becomes her closest friend and often tries to extend a helping hand to her. Although she struggled with acne for the early part of her adolescence, Marianela's complexion cleared up significantly with time after detoxing her body, as well as several visits to a local dermatologist. She continued to slim down over the years and was at a healthy 135 lbs. by the time she reached college, during which she developed better lifestyle choices. She makes a habit of dieting and eating healthily as she works out on the elliptical machine at the local gym. She also helps her parents become US residents as well and continues to take care of them even as they approach old age. Marianela is shown to be living in Chula Vista, California by the time she is in her early 40s, having opened her own practice and passed the exam to become an LCSW. She battles breast cancer in her middle-age and undergoes a lumpectomy, although she survives and is shown to be in remission after 2 years. She pursues new hobbies and begins reading different novels such as a A Song of Ice and Fire and develops an interest in cooking, being known for her Chile en Nogada. She also spends a lot of her free time watching lifetime films but will also put on the news channel to remain aware of current events. INFJ 2w1