Pi Phi's Foundations, as Hard as Big Hearts

Pi Beta Phi Sorority sits in the middle of fraternity row on Piedmont Avenue in Berkeley, California. In a certain given week, passersby may hear high-pitched shouts coming from inside chanting, "Who are WE? PI PHI! ..." during recruitment week. Girls come and go throughout their college experience, and some boys even slip in. The house is kept up by the National Pi Beta Phi Foundation, but there are a few individuals that often go unseen and are arguably more of a foundation to the house than anyone else.

Juana, Tomas, and their son Victor have worked in the Pi Phi house for over a decade now; they have seen thousands of girls live in the house and have worked with a handful of house moms through the years. Humbly working the kitchen, they not only feed the bellies of hungry college girls, but they fed my soul with their kind hearts.

Juana and Tomas looking good for their nephew's wedding

Juana and Tomas are from Mexico and are some of the hardest workers I know, enduring so much and making a livelihood for their next generation in the family, always with a smile. Paths crossed in the kitchen corridor as I learned more about their family, and as I was invited to Juana's birthday party, and her nephew's wedding. I learned something different from my time with them than my education at Berkeley. The people I meet are my education, and these two were my Berkeley parents. After a long day at work, I would come home late for dinner, look around for some leftovers, and chat with my favorite company.

It's amazing what kind of impressions can be broken when you talk to someone, when you listen to someone. At first glance, these two were the Pi Phi workers, and that defined them in this house. They are more to me than that now; our encounters at Pi Phi were just a way of getting to know what they were all about- beyond the facade of a sorority house. 

These two are exemplary figures in their family of strength and hard work. They have built a beautiful life for their family in Berkeley and that feeling resonated to my friends that went to the nephew's wedding. It resonated when we went over to their house for Juana's birthday celebration. It resonated again when I recently visited them a year after graduation. They welcomed me with open arms at Ashby Bart station. A dinner out, a visit to Victor's family's house, and a cozy night's sleep- my mind swirling with the rusty Spanish I used all day- and I could not have felt more love and friendship.

I wish I had the talent to draw this feeling of coming back from a long school day to my Pi Phi parents, sitting on the stool in the kitchen eating my dinner, chatting with the lovely pair, and feeling at home. You will just have to imagine it yourself.