By Virginia Barreda, Des Moines Register
Des Moines, IA-During one of her first interviews as a teenager, Mary Campos remembers a hiring manager saying she would not get the job because he didn’t know how the office would react to having a brown colleague.
It’s been nearly 80 years since that experience, but Campos says it’s stuck.
Since then, Campos has spent much of her life advocating for immigrants, as well as youths and adults of color. Campos, who celebrated her 95th birthday in November, said by teaching them reading and writing, she’s helped about 200 people become U.S. citizens.
Campos, whose grandparents immigrated from Mexico, was born in Oklahoma but has spent most of her life in Des Moines. She is a co-founder of The Brown & Black Forums of America. She has served in multiple organizations including the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and League of United Latin American Citizens.
In 2017, Al Éxito, a nonprofit that empowers Latino Iowans through education, established the Mary E. Campos Scholarship to help students of color pursue higher education and leadership roles. The nonprofit raised $20,000 for the scholarship program in 2025.
Below is a Q&A with Campos, whose answers were edited for length and clarity:
Register: What types of unique challenges do Latinos in Des Moines and Iowa face?
Campos: They’re all in the uncertainty that they can become citizens because (President-elect Donald Trump) made that clear.
And that isn’t right because they should have every opportunity that anybody from any other country (has) to become a citizen.
We’re still not that nation that can say, ‘no matter what color you are, you have a right to have a profession.’ That’s what I’m fighting for: For young men and women to go to school, to finish college, and be part of this industry, business world that we’re in.
What are some community impacts you’ve seen come from the scholarship?
They’ve gone to college and are getting ready to graduate and they’ll be able to have a job and say, ‘I went to school, I went to college, and here’s my credentials.’ And they can qualify for a job.
Yet we’ll see there’s people that don’t want to hire them because of their size or shape or color of their hair. That prejudice, we just have to forget that. Color cannot make a difference. I’m looking at a person, not the color. You’re a human being.
And if you read those letters, you’d be crying how they want so badly to be awarded a scholarship to help them go to school, to help them so they can help their families.
Even though I didn’t get to go to college, all of these young men and women have an opportunity to go to college. So that’s what makes it so great.
What do you want your legacy to be?
Treat me like you’d like to be treated. I’m just another human being.
You know, I’ve made a lot of noise, and sometimes people don’t have the guts to complain. They’re afraid. There’s no need for you to be afraid.
That’s why I say when they’re trying to stop people from coming to this country to become citizens, and they’ve lived in this country ― and these DACA kids have paid their money for Social Security and income tax ― they’re not here just living off the country, they’re here contributing to the country.
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