Adriana González Carrillo, former head of the Consulate of México in Fresno, returns to México

From a very young age, Adriana González Carrillo, former consul of the Mexican Consulate in Fresno, knew that she had a different sexual orientation and preference than the majority.

“I was very clear about that,” said González Carrillo, who is one of the few consuls of the LGBT community that México currently has who is openly lesbian.

When González Carrillo decided to open up to her family and others, what she received from them was acceptance.

In her political career, González Carrillo said that she focused on ensuring that the laws and the constitution protected not only democracy but the human rights of all people, which led to a reform in 2011 when the international treaties on human rights that México signed were placed at the same level as the Constitution.

“And it was the fundamental pillar to achieve all the changes that México needed,” said González Carrillo, adding that “the Mexican State only recognized the rights that the Constitution recognized mentioned there.”

With the 2011 reform, all human rights, for the simple fact of being a person, are recognized in the constitution, including that “it does not make a distinction between gender or discrimination if there is a different sexual preference or orientation,” she said.

González Carrillo said the changes “have allowed us to make gender reassignments for the trans community. They derive from the human rights reform, without a doubt.”

As a public figure it was at the event “Stop the Hate Town Hall: Keeping Fresno’s LGBTQ Community Safe” presented by The Fresno Bee and Vida en el Valle at Fresno City College last September where González Carrillo believes that “for the first time openly in a public event broadcast on social networks, I said I am a lesbian woman, which makes me very proud to be one, and also share everything that México has done in favor of our community.”

“We were doing (at the consulate) many things in support of the (LGBTQ) community. For me it had been very important that the consulate participated in the Pride Parade for the first time, we did it, we did it”!

A goodbye

After four years of serving the Central Valley, González Carrillo returns to México. Her last day in charge was Feb. 29.

Consulate serves the counties of Fresno, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Merced, Madera, Kings, Tulare, Kern, Mono, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo.

“I am very happy because for me it is also the end of the cycle,” said González Carrillo, who arrived in Fresno on Nov. 15, 2019. “I intend to return to México, and continue taking my shoulder therapy, I had surgery last November and I want it to recover 100%.

“I’m going to continue my therapies. That’s one of my, let’s say, most pressing priorities.”

González Carrillo plans to take a gap year.

“Because I have been in public life for many years, as a public servant and in politics,” said González Carrillo, 48. “I believe that other people should also come to fill those positions and I am considering that after the sabbatical I can have a much clearer decision about what is next and what I should do.

“What I am sure of is that I cannot stop serving, I just have to look for another trench to serve, because I want to give priority to having my own family,” said González Carrillo, who returns to México this month in time to celebrate her March 16 birthday.

González Carrillo said that the first time she was elected was at the age of 25 as a leader of the PAN youth in the State of México.

González Carrillo sat down with Vida en el Valle on Feb. 26 to answer 10 questions to get to know her in a more personal way. This is what she told us.

Q. When did you come out and what was that experience like?

A. “I think it’s something that I was very aware of before I turned 10. However, many things happened for me to literally come out of the closet. I could say that in general my family and my friends told me, ‘That is, the only one who needs to accept yourself is you. We all know this and the one who needs to fully accept yourself as a lesbian is you.’ When I decided to open up to my family and others, what I received from them was an acceptance - ‘We will always love you and we have always loved you just as you are.’

“In general I am a person who keeps my private life private, but I do not hide from anyone and I am not afraid to say openly that I am a lesbian woman. And I am very happy that I am serving a government that has many progressive policies in favor of the community.”

A. If you were not in politics – either as a government representative in the consulate or as an elected representative – what would you have liked to be?

A. “Well, since I was ten years old I knew that I wanted to be a politician. My family taught me a lot to serve and enjoy service to the community. That fills my soul, that is what makes me happy.

“I studied International Relations, and I have done a master’s degree in Human Rights, but I think that over time I could say that perhaps I should have studied political science. I don’t know if I would have followed exactly the same career, my political career. I don’t know if I would have done a political career, but I really like political science. In fact, my teachers at the university always told me ‘Adriana, these jobs, more than about international relations, are about political scientists, about political science.’ So I think that, if I had had another second chance to choose a career in school, it would have been political science.”

“I really like speaking in public, I like helping people and sharing the knowledge I have. I think it’s something that has characterized me since I was very little and that I learned at home.”

Q. What would you say is your favorite place to visit here in California?

A. “I think I fell in love with Yosemite. For me, Yosemite has everything. And I love that you ask me this because when I arrived and went to Yosemite for the first time and saw the Half Dome, I said ‘I want to climb the Half Dome.’ And then I started to find out that there is a hiking called Cables of the Half Dome and in July of last year (2023) I climbed the Half Dome.

“It was an amazing hike I did, I trained every day before my shoulder surgery I had last November. It is a walk that starts at 5 in the morning and ends at 8:30 at night. We were back at that time, we went up and down the same day.

“It is a very beautiful walk. When you get to the point where you have to submit the permit, you wonder if you are ready because it is so strong.

“And prepare yourself mentally for the challenge, which is to climb first the subdome and then the Half Dome. It was the best hiking of my life and I will never forget that moment when I reached the top.

“You ask yourself a lot of things and you value every second of life. I was very grateful to reach the top, I was very grateful to be able to do it. It was a personal challenge. When I got to the top I said ‘Now I can go’ (laughs). I enjoyed it a lot. The descent was another challenge. I came back with several blisters.”

Q. What is your favorite book and why?

A. “There are many. But rather I would like to share with you a book that I read recently. It is a very special book, it is very particular. It is a book called ‘Many Lives, Many Masters’. It is a book that is out of the ordinary. all politics and international relations, which is unusual for me to pick up a book this way, but it came into my hands and I read it.

“It is a book that talks about teachings, from a therapist. Brian Weiss is the name of the author. And it talks about a person who has reincarnated 84 lives and when he tells, let’s say in hypnosis with his therapist, he tells all his stories. There are many very nice messages that he shares and I was very impressed because I think that in general in life, all people tend to be afraid of death.

“But our original cultures did not have that same conception. For our original cultures, it is to transcend and not for the Mexican ones, but for the most ancestral ones, they think that there are states of life that advance and that the soul is learning on earth.

“And it impressed me because it makes a lot of reflection about life and death. Although it is a book that you have to have an open mind to read, I think that the greatest lesson is that one can value life and everyday life, and live in the present.

“That’s what guided me in these four years of my work here in Fresno. That’s what I came for, to work hard, to work hard, to do more for the people who need it most. And I believe that, if we live life without fear of death, and without fear of living life fully, we will increasingly become better human beings.”

Q. Do you have a favorite meal to cook?

A: (Laughter) “I am a very bad, very, very bad cook. But what I learned in these years in Fresno, I was already alone, because I came alone, my family is in México. Something I learned is to eat healthy, to nourish myself. I am one of the people who constantly gains and loses weight. I get a little careless, I gain weight, I exercise and I go on a diet and I lose weight. And then I started eating, especially during a pandemic, which I also worried about That I was healthy, that I wasn’t going to get sick, that I had all the nutrients, I started eating a lot more fish.

“And my mother just shared a recipe with me. In México, it is customary to eat, for example, papered trout. It is a trout that they put tomato, onion, cilantro, chili, butter and it is wrapped in aluminum foil. They put to cook and they are very rich, very tasty.

“But now the new family dish that my mother taught me to make, which is not complicated at all and I share it so that those who want to do it, buy the piece of fresh salmon, not frozen, and put butter, add mustard, capers and “It is wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked (in a pan and covered). It is very juicy, very soft, and with a very rich flavor.”

Q. If you were sentenced to death, what would be the last meal you would want to eat?

A. “Wow. I love that. I love Thai food. I love Vietnamese food. Then I would order the rolls, eggrolls, which are fried. Preferably without oil with an air fryer, and a beef Pho (soup), “It has garlic, cilantro, and vegetables. I love soups. I could have Pho for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

Q. Do you have a favorite movie?

A. “Yes, I have several. I just saw a movie. It’s nominated. Well, I saw several. Especially for this Oscar season. But the film that was nominated for the Oscar in which Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are involved, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, is a film that I watched with great attention and that made me reflect on progress and native communities.

“ But I share this movie (Killers of the Flower Moon) because it also made me reflect a lot about what progress means, understood as having more roads, more access to people outside the community, vehicles, and even economic resources.

“What is the challenge for indigenous communities when the world or these other civilizations arrive with different values, with different beliefs and many times to dispossess them, as happened here in the United States and as we can also see what has happened in Mexico and other places of the world.

“We forget that there were people in our territories who also had very valuable ancestral knowledge, very different practices and values, who are also part of our community and who must be valued for all their contributions and do not have to be seen as different or much less with less value. And this film made me reflect, in addition to the acting being incredible, the photography is by a Mexican, Rodrigo Prieto, and he has also been nominated for an Oscar. And when I see this type of film, the reflection is the world. It belongs to everyone and for everyone and we must all learn to live together without wanting to take something from the other.

“So that the world and humanity can have harmony, we need to recognize and value everything that others have in their ancestral knowledge and in their lives.”

Q. Do you have a favorite singer or actor?

A. “Well, my favorite singer at the moment is María José. She has been my friend since childhood. I have seen her grow as an artist and as a person. We have walked our lives together. I know all her songs, some of which are songs from the eighties, which are now made, let’s say appropriate to current times, with different rhythms or different musical elements. But, I always listen to her and I love it. And when I go to her concerts, which she always invites me to, I sing all her songs and I love it because I know the work and effort it has taken to get to where it is.”

Q. What was your first impression of Fresno when you got here?

A. “Being from México City, I am used to crowds, traffic, and many buildings and Fresno is the opposite. Fresno has few inhabitants compared to México City. It has little traffic, in fact, there is no traffic compared to the City of México and has few buildings. But the quality of life that Fresno has is incredible.

“You can go to your house to eat, something you can’t do when you’re in México City because of the traffic, it’s not even because of the distance, but because of the traffic. Well, we say here that you already became a citizen of Fresno when You say ‘That’s too far, it’s 15 minutes away,’ right? But in Mexico, I used to leave an hour before my appointments because you don’t know how long it’s going to take.

“The quality of life here is great, it is very good. And people say it and they are absolutely right. It is the best place in California to live because it is close to everything without having the problems of a big city. Of course, Fresno has its challenges, for sure, but it’s located in the heart of California. You have access to the big cities when you want, the big attractions when you want. They have the best national parks nearby, Sequoias Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park are the best national parks and I have seen quite a few in the United States.

“So I think my first impression was as a city woman, I had never lived anywhere other than México City, it was a challenge to get used to.

“But today I think it will be a challenge to get used to returning to México City and once again facing the traffic, the crowds, not being able to go home to eat every day, and having everything so close. But perhaps, something that Fresno has is that it also has a lot of people who do a lot of good.

“And today I can say that, while Fresno has great challenges and the entire Central Valley of California, there are also many angels, many people who are doing extraordinary work and those people make a big difference here in the Central Valley of California. California”.

Q. If you had a wish to fulfill, what would that wish be?

A. “I have a very special one. I have always wanted to win the lottery in California to be able to help more people, non-profits, the entire community that expects much more help in every way. And yes, it has been my “I wish, I haven’t been able to get it, but I keep buying the lottery ticket hoping that I can have money to be able to help more non-profit organizations and be able to help the community more. That is my dream.”