Nicole Alvarez
Bronze Bird Brooch
14K Yellow Gold Princess Cut Ruby Eternity Bands
Available at: Gabrielle Jewelry
Photography: Jillian Clark
Location: Guest House Raleigh
Interview by:
Charman Driver
Nicole Alvarez | Cuban-American Architect. Guest House Raleigh Owner. Mental Health Advocate. Perfectly Imperfect Human.
“There’s still a void of women of color in leadership positions.”
– Nicole Alvarez
CD: I’m always struck by the lack of women of color in the field of architecture. Why are we still lagging behind?
NA: When you think back to the great architects that shaped modern architecture, names of individual, white men come to mind. We learned about them in architecture school, and as students we all aspired to be them. It was a snapshot of that era, which really wasn’t that long ago.
My female professors and mentors have told me stories of struggling through school and their career simply because they were women. It’s not until I started doing my internships that I realized I had the option to work at local firms that were owned and led by women architects.
At my office, Clearscapes, it’s at least 50/50 men and women architects on staff, and, as of recently, there are a few women stepping up leadership/ownership positions. I am so excited for them, and I personally find it encouraging and empowering.
It’s hard to be going into a profession and not seeing yourself reflected in it, and in leadership positions. There’s still a void of women of color in leadership positions. Architecture hasn’t had time to mature enough as a profession to have those of us that have gone through school reach those leadership positions yet and to start showing more diversity. Hopefully it’s changing to reflect the actual demographics of the real world.
CD: Hopefully its changing. It may be harder work to find diversity but firms have to do it—and it’s worth it. The research has been done! Workplaces are better off and more successful when there’s diversity and different perspectives at the table.
It’s really encouraging to hear that Clearscapes has many women who work there. Of course, seeing more women of color would be awesome and then more kids will say, “look at her, she looks like me and I can do that too. I can go into that profession”.
Have you found in the world of architecture that you’re accepted as a woman? Do you feel like you belong?
NA: I am fortunate to surround myself in supportive professional relationships where I feel like I belong. But I’m always hyper-aware that I’m a woman in a field that doesn’t have many women. I find myself trying to overcompensate so that people know who I am. I like to wear my hard hat during site meetings, so people know I’m the project manager.
I have felt some subtle disrespect from an older generation of professionals and those incidents can be more challenging because I don’t understand it until I think about it after the fact. Whereas it can be more obvious with work crews on construction projects. While at site visits, I’m always aware of my surroundings. I’ve always been super-sensitive to catcalls, it makes me feel so invaded.
I deal with it at different levels—and probably daily—related to architecture and in life.
CD: As women and people of color we have to deal with blatant and more nuanced condescension regularly. It makes us more competent and adept at dealing with life. We can deal with anything because we’ve literally dealt with everything. Why wouldn’t an employer want a woman to be the boss? We’re more equipped and experienced than anyone out there to manage people—we’ve seen and heard it all!
NA: Exactly! I can relate!
CD: Tell me about your Cuban heritage.
NA: My father came from Havana with his family when he was 9 years old. They were forced to give away everything they had in Cuba and came to the US with nothing. They lived in the projects and built their life up from there. My mother was born in the US of Cuban immigrant parents.
CD: It’s amazing the resilience of people. So many leave awful situations and come to this country for a better life for their families and they build one from nothing. How could you not want a country full of immigrants?
You’ve talked about being disconnected from your Cuban identity in the past. Do you still feel that way?
NA: Today I was listening to the Codeswitch podcast. This particular episode called “Racial Imposter Syndrome” was talking about grandchildren of people who have immigrated. It was expressing how feeling of belonging to that original culture was tied strongly to how fluently you can really speak the language. It resonated with me.
Spanish was my first language and when I went to preschool my mom had to teach me how to ask to go to bathroom in English. But right away I started speaking English at home and then my younger sisters came and it was only English all the time. That’s what we spoke at school, so there was always this feeling of wanting to belong. I wanted to speak English with my friends at that point.
It was one year in middle school, in eighth grade, when I was friends with two Mexican girls and I’d hang out with them all the time and only speak Spanish. The year before that I was in this clique group with all the white girls and we had a little journal we’d write back and forth to each other. I can think back to a time when I completely immersed myself in one language, and then completely immersed myself in the other.
In college I found myself really trying to connect with my Cuban heritage—studying it and acquiring it—instead of it being innate. I have memories of my dad joking and making fun of us because we couldn’t say words properly in Spanish. But I’m like, hey, you should have helped us. Or my cousins in Florida looking at me so confused when I was struggling to have a conversation with my grandma.
I was recently talking to one of my longtime friends from college about a time when I had made a comment about being white. Back then my friends were looking at me perplexed and told me, “You’re not white”. They said, at the time, I had looked so confused. I don’t remember that specific conversation, but I remember another friend from that time telling me I only got a certain position because I’m a minority.
I’ve been able to identify as completely American and completely Cuban and loving both. The way the Codeswitch podcast talks about it is, because you don’t fit in 100 percent into one, you feel like you’re faking both. That resonated with me and it was nice to hear that it’s very common. My Cuban heritage is something I can be proud of.
CD: How can you not be proud of what you bring to the table? It’s beautiful. I love everything diversity brings to the table and I think women love reading about other women and being inspired by them.
To you, what does it mean to be nourished?
NA: Starting this year I made a resolution to take baths. In the past I didn’t have a tub that was worthy of baths. My mind is racing all the time and to have a dedicated time when I am just quiet and able to tap into other senses (besides my racing mind) helps me calm down.
Baths help me to mindfully connect to the moment—the present moment. Baths reminds me just how physical and mortal we are and to focus what matters and forget about what doesn’t matter. I try to create other moments similar to that, like going for a walk while listening to the birds and other sounds around me. Getting out of my head to reset is the way I try to nourish myself and my soul.
CD: What is it to be empowered?
NA: Being able to trust yourself that you’re enough and that you simply—can. It’s so hard to find that for yourself and a tiny injection of other people’s support can help with that.
Your simple question asking about identity and culture made me feel like I can be prideful of it. It’s so valuable to share as women. Just a simple compliment or a pat on the back is empowering.
CD: How do you see yourself empowering others?
NA: Vulnerable conversations and being the perfectly, imperfect human that we all are. It helps open up honest and meaningful conversations. I love to encourage people to follow their passions, to be self-forgiving, to believe in themselves. Honestly, I find it easier to empower others than to empower myself.
CD: How do you shape your body?
NA: I have so much going on right now and I’m still I’m trying to find balance. Right now walking is great. For me exercise comes down to what it does for my mind, too, and those mental health benefits. Walking helps with clarity, with reconnecting with my husband, Matt, at the end of a long day and reconnecting with myself at the start of the day. It also gives love to my dog!
Shaping body is acceptance of where I am in my body right now, and that it’s enough. What we do to improve it is so much more about the inner health than outer appearance.
CD: What is it to be transformed?
NA: I think about transformation as it relates to my counseling and how I’m a work in progress. I have improved relationships with friends, with family and, most importantly, with myself. The biggest transformation I’m trying to work on is self-love and self-confidence. I’ve been going to counseling for three years now and I wish I had gone sooner. I just didn’t know how to start. That’s one reason I started talking about it more because the hardest part was figuring out who to go to—and that it’s ok to go.
Everybody should go to counseling. It helps so much to untangle all of those feelings about life. There’s so much benefit that comes from releasing those feelings and putting them out there, but also of having someone else to give perspective and validate those feelings. I don’t have to hide those feeling. I can be real—and its ok.
Recently I posted a photo of the view from my counselor’s downtown office. So many people wrote me back asking for recommendations. It opened up really vulnerable conversations about mental health with other people too.
CD: How do you show up for community?
NA: After college my husband and I thought about moving to a bigger city or exploring other places, like so many of our friends did. What kept us here is the community that we’ve created. Being able to walk around downtown and literally run into so many people that we know, left and right, has deepened that feeling of belonging—and home.
Through Guest House, we put our own stake in the ground. We’re growing roots from that to figure out how this business we’ve created connects in different ways to the community. So far, it has been the catalyst to collaborate on projects with our talented friends.
We are working on another project two doors down, the Roger’s Cottage, that will be an extension of Guest House. That space is going to be even more collaborative, working with lots of local artists and designers.