By Itzel Chavero
From being a first-generation student to working in one of Illinois’ most important government offices, Christian Huerta, who works alongside Illinois U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin, breaks the cycle in his family by pursuing a career in government.
On Sep. 9, 2025, Dominican University celebrated Hispanic Serving Institution Identity Week and Hispanic Heritage Month by inviting keynote speaker, Christian Huerta, who is an outreach coordinator of Senator Durbin’s team.
Having spent most of his childhood in Durango, Mexico, though he was born in the United States, Huerta still had a rough transition when he moved indefinitely to Elgin, IL when he was 15 years old.
Just like the English as Second Language program at Dominican, Huerta was placed into ESL classes to help him learn English. Looking back on that time, being fully involved in Senator Durbin’s office was not something he expected to be doing as a job.
“With my parents, my dad worked at a fish department for a long time, and my mom worked at a deli department,” Huerta said, “So, it certainly was not in my plans to go to government.”
After hearing about the opportunity to start as staff assistant he decided to step out of his comfort zone and applied for the position.
His role now as an outreach coordinator consists of ensuring and raising awareness about the existence of programs so that everyone has equal access to state resources.
He mentioned one of the most important parts of the job was his work towards helping people. From having to know about lead piping replacement in communities to immigration and violence prevention, the work is aimed to expand engagement.
“To me, it’s seeing older people who need help with their social security. I think that, to me, it’s a pleasure to help them just because I think of my grandparents.”
As he refers to college students during his keynote address, his words of advice to young college students wanting to make a change and become directly involved with politics is to “be curious and a good person.”
Like many of the students at Dominican, Huerta comes from a Hispanic background with no one in his family having a white-collar job, thus making him the first one to do so. So he encourages students to be ambitious.
“I was once a college student eager to learn, and I was upset with what was happening, and it’s easy to become disillusioned with what’s happening in the world,” Huerta said, “and just say nothing’s going to change. But I would say to young people to dare to dream big.”
In light of the ongoing ICE raids occurring all over Illinois, Huerta encourages the unity and organization of communities to advocate for immigrants, and for families to have action plans.
An action plan would be ensuring legal guardianship of younger siblings, having important paperwork, and considering financial strays.
“I wish people didn’t need to have these hard conversations, but we need to have them, you cannot afford to not be prepared,” he said. “Focus on the things that you can do. Prepare an action plan and advocate at your own pace.”
