By Minnie Stephenson

Marlon Cruz is a lot of things. He’s a first generation student. He’s an engineering major. He’s a Nicki Minaj fan. But he’s not eating at the dining hall or hanging out on the quad. Instead, he spends his free time on his county council. 

He joined the Prince George’s County Council as a community liaison when he was 18. He is about 20 years younger than the next oldest person. And he loves it — helping out at food drives, translating council meetings so Spanish speakers can understand them. He loves all of this more than going to college. Maybe even more than Nicki Minaj. 

“I’m very used to being the youngest one in the room,” he said. 

The 22-year-old has nose and ear piercings. His nails are dotted with pink rhinestones and charms. He has a tattoo of a heart on his ear, a large horse on his calf and an elephant on his thigh. On his back, he has a tattoo of an acronym that stands for “Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana” or “I do what I want.” 

The University of Maryland is huge. There’s tons of activities to participate in and people to meet. But Cruz would rather be right in the community where he grew up. 

Cruz has been active in his community for years, even before his time on the county council. Ever since moving to Prince George’s County when he was seven years old, Cruz has come to love that place more than anything. He feels a call to serve Prince George’s County, and he recognizes its beauty, even when others may not. 

Before calling Prince George’s County home, Cruz was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where his father worked at the time. But when Cruz was only three months old, he and his mother moved back to Guatemala, her home country. 

Cruz, his mother and his three older brothers stayed in Guatemala. Cruz’s father worked in the states. When Cruz was in first grade, his mother got pregnant again and traveled back to the U.S. for doctor’s appointments. After his mother miscarried, the family decided to stay, specifically in Bladensburg, Maryland, for better job opportunities. 

Cruz didn’t know a word of English. He was enrolled in the English Speakers of Other Languages program, or ESOL. 

Making the transition easier, however, was the abundance of Spanish speakers in the area. Bladensburg, and Prince George’s County overall, is mostly Black and Hispanic. 

“I didn’t feel like an outsider at all. That’s why I loved where I grew up. I love Prince George’s County.”

Cruz’s parents also made sure to stay connected with extended family, including relatives who stayed in Providence. Cruz’s cousin, Iris, remembers being together for hours. In middle school, Iris would even let Cruz do her and her sister’s makeup for fun. 

To this day, when Cruz visits, the pair rarely speaks English. And Providence isn’t known for its Spanish-speaking community. 

“Sometimes, we just don’t want anybody else to understand what we’re saying,” Iris said, chuckling.

After starting sixth grade, Cruz was more settled and outgoing. 

“He was a guy that everyone wanted to be friends with,” said Alejandra Perez-Valasquez, a close friend of Cruz. 

Others at his school were joining a popular afterschool program called Port Towns Youth Council, and he decided to join, too. There, students could learn leadership skills and volunteer in their community. 

In middle and high school, Cruz would get up early on weekends to go to community garden cleanups or plan events for senior citizens. Soon, he was interning at a hospital while his friends were still stuck in the gardens. 

“Everybody was required to do [the community gardens], but I didn’t do it because I was a little more special,” he said, smirking. 

Cruz found himself being introduced to local legislators, helping him get a taste of local politics.  

During his first semester of college, the leader of the afterschool program called him and said one of the county council members needed a translator. Cruz thought it was a one-time gig. It turned out council member Jolene Ivey needed a community liaison, and Cruz fit the bill. 

His tasks early on were translating and occasionally going to events. But soon he was running Ivey’s Instagram, connecting with other local legislators and attending community functions weekly.

“I just got good at doing a lot of different things,” Cruz said. 

His colleagues on the council think so, too. Amy Fry, District 5 chief of staff, said she was “pleasantly surprised” to see someone Cruz’s age so well-rounded.

“… He is so good at so many different things that I have to be careful not to give him too many things to do,” Fry said. “He can take any task and he just does it. He’s so good.”

He feels a sense of community in the council, even though he’s surrounded by peers in their mid forties and fifties. 

But that sense of community doesn’t follow him to college. Even though the University of Maryland is just down the street from where Cruz grew up, it is a completely different world to him. 

“I think about it all the time because people who come to UMD, they don’t know what’s two blocks away,” Cruz said. 

He felt a distance between himself and his fellow engineering students. For one thing, he wasn’t as prepared as his peers for the engineering curriculum because of a lack of resources at his high school. He also felt he couldn’t relate to anyone else in his classes. 

“People don’t look like me. Especially with engineering, it’s just white men,” Cruz said. 

Cruz bemoaned the forced diversity, equity and inclusion talks that the engineering professors would have with their classes. 

“I could’ve spoken up and even talked about my experience … or even contributed to the conversation, but I felt like I didn’t owe that to those people. I didn’t owe that to my white male peers,” Cruz said. 

Eventually, he found a few acquaintances in the engineering school, but his closest friends remained the ones from his hometown. 

Perez-Valasquez is also at UMD, and has similar feelings about the whole thing. 

“[Cruz and I] can talk about the more confusing elements of coming here and realizing that, despite being in PG County, it’s nowhere near the same amount of people that were attending our high school where it was majority Black, majority Latino,” Perez-Valasquez said. “We have to figure out how to fit in.” 

It’s not like Hispanic people are absent on campus. But Cruz felt like he didn’t get to interact with people who had backgrounds similar to his. He tried to join the university’s chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, but still didn’t feel the sense of community he was hoping for. 

“Those are still people who come from these more white, more affluent communities … They’re more Americanized and had some of these same benefits that these white people had,” he said. “It’s not the same experience [as me].”

Networking in the engineering field can also be fraught. Cruz carries himself very professionally in these settings, but he doesn’t dull down any aspects of his personality.

“I don’t care what they think and I feel like I also need to … have my nails done and be flamboyant. Because I want to make it okay for the future generations and people behind me. I want them to be comfortable.”

Another thing Cruz won’t sacrifice is his social life. No matter how busy he is. 

Recently, he and his friend bought Nicki Minaj concert tickets for two nights in a row — Baltimore on Monday, Washington on Tuesday, barely getting any sleep the night in between. And pretty much every weekend, Cruz will jump around happy hours, bars, clubs — you name it. He enjoys going out with friends from home to experience a more diverse nightlife scene. 

“I get the best of both worlds because with my Black friends, I go to Black clubs, I go to African clubs with them and that’s really fun,” he said. “This past Friday I was with Hispanic people, so I was at a Hispanic club and I had the time of my life,” Cruz said. “I love dancing, I love having a good time.” 

His friends agree. 

“He’s the fun one that always wants to keep going,” Perez-Valasquez said. 

That’s not to say all the stress melts away every weekend. While his responsibilities on the county council are pretty worry-free, pressures from engineering can eat away at him, he said. 

“Nothing stresses me more than school does. During finals, I study so hard that as soon as I get into my car, I start bawling my eyes out,” Cruz said. 

Having a heavy personal life on top of that doesn’t help. 

Cruz has always had ambitions of running for elected office, and in 2022, he wanted to petition his town to lower the minimum age requirement to run for town council. 

But in November of that year, his father was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Cruz’s ambitious plan was disrupted. 

“That really changed my whole family’s … day to day lives because my dad was the only provider in my family,” he said. 

Cruz no longer had the financial support of his parents to try out new things. He needed his hourly wage on the county council even more. He needed to focus on school to secure high-paying internships. 

Looking to December, when Cruz graduates, financial stability will be everything. 

“There is no money in doing government and politics. Like, I’m gonna work in engineering full time, probably for the rest of my life,” he said. 

Confronting this hard truth has not affected Cruz’s passion for service. Currently, he’s going to multiple council events a week, live translating two-hour long meetings and writing newsletters. He even organizes events of his own. 

Last October, Cruz put together a Hispanic Heritage Month event for the county that drew in almost 300 people. The event covered all ground — nonprofits and different organizations focused on helping Latinos, food trucks, performances from different cultural groups and even free meal tickets for children.

One of the most fulfilling parts of the event for Cruz was recognizing local Hispanic mayors and council members. 

“They were very appreciative that we did that because they were telling me that they’ve never really been recognized as a county like that or they’ve just never been recognized, period,” Cruz said. 

Hosting came very naturally to Cruz. He finds joy both in public speaking and one-on-one conversations. At every event he attends, he talks to as many people as he can, making sure they feel welcomed and that their voices have been heard. 

“His care for other people … It’s not restricted for friends and family, it’s like, everyone,” Perez-Valasquez said. 

While engineering is his probable post-grad career, Cruz wants to be as involved as he can in local politics after college. He hasn’t forgotten his plans to run for office one day. 

Fry, his chief of staff, hasn’t either. She definitely sees it in his future. 

“People are naturally drawn to him,” Fry said. 

A politician makes people believe. A politician makes people think. Check and check. 

“He is someone that, after you’re done hanging out with them or having a little conversation with them, you walk off feeling more … inspired,” Perez-Valasquez said. 

Whether he is just talking to his friends or someone 60 years his elder in his community, he is making an impact. Cruz is itching to hit the ground running after graduation. He is already jogging, basically. 

“I’m here to make that change,” Cruz said. “I’m here to make that difference.”

Featured Image: Cruz (far left) and Prince George’s County community leaders at the Hispanic Heritage Month event on October 10, 2023. Photo from Marlon Cruz.