Olympic bronze medalist, National Wrestling hall of famer, immigration lawyer and Class of 1997 alumna Patricia Adura-Miranda shared her varied experiences with students during a tutorial and lunch visit to campus on April 18.
Miranda’s parents immigrated to Canada and then the U.S. from Brazil. Her mother died when she was 10, leading her to feel that she too would meet an early death. While she started wrestling in 8th grade, her father pushed for her to focus on academics and made multiple attempts to pull Miranda out of wrestling tournaments.
After a talk with her father, Miranda managed to balance both her career and grades by sacrificing her social life: She spoke about how she went to practices after school and would return home to focus on school work until 1 a.m., leaving little time for a social life. She continued the sport with the support of then-assistant principal Karen Hyde. She, 43, works as a partner in Miranda, Magden & Miranda Law Group in Salinas.
Sophomore Rebecca Bossow participates in club wrestling and saw posters of Miranda around the school and wrestling room. After connecting with Miranda for her Hall of Fame video, Hyde reached out to Bossow, who asked principal Greg Louie to coordinate the event.
“I’m the only girl sometimes and that sometimes makes it a little less fun and makes me less inclined to go every day,” Bossow said. “But she was inspiring.”
Junior Shayda Oliaei, who is also the daughter of immigrants, said Miranda’s story resonated with her.
“She’s an immigrant and the fear that grades are your only lifeline and that you have to get good grades and that’s the only path to success because you have no one and nothing in the US to fall back on is a sentiment that really resonated with me,” she said.
Oliaei has no family in the U.S. and understands that she has to survive on her own if something happens to her parents, which adds to the need to get good grades and secure her future.
“There’s the saying you can only have either grades or a social life, or grades and mental health and sleep, but you can’t have everything, and I feel that’s really true,” Oliaei said. “I think to achieve that amount of success, you probably can’t have all that.”
With many commitments, Miranda said that not everything is possible and that certain sacrifices are inevitable, which students like Oliaei identified with.
“I was super impressed by her,” Oliaei said. “It’s insanely amazing how she is fighting for female representation in a sport that historically just has not been for women, while also achieving success as an immigration lawyer. That was really cool.”