Makers, Dreamers, Doers

In episode 10, Morgan talks with her friend, Queren King-Orozco, who is a Master Gardener, herbal aromatherapist, event producer, and Mexican Immigrant (Dreamer) & mother to two (including a child with disabilities).

Queren shares her immigration story — she and her family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 2000. She talks about what it was like assimilating to American culture as a child while her life was in upheaval, including the deportation of her father and brother (her brother is still not able to join his family in the US, almost 20 years later). We also talk about learning a second language and the discrimination and prejudice Spanish-speakers face in the United States.

Queren's son Asher (age 2) was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder, called AUTS2 syndrome. AUTS2 syndrome is an 'intellectual disability (ID) syndrome' caused by genomic rearrangements, deletions, intragenic duplications or mutations disrupting AUTS2. Queren talks about what it's like raising a child with disabilities, including balancing caring for a child with special needs and a healthy child (her 7-year-old daughter, Bostyn). We talk about her hopes for Asher's future, and how Queren does her best to remain grateful for and present in the reality of where Asher is at developmentally and health-wise today, as well as the evolution of the language used when talking about people with disabilities and accepting the label of 'having a child with disabilities', and how Queren takes care of her own physical/mental/emotional health as a mother.

About AUTS2 Syndrome - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9008325/#:~:text=AUTS2%20syndrome%20is%20a%20genetic,19)%20of%20the%20AUTS2%20gene

The research paper Queren references in our conversation - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27075013/ From the article: "All patients have borderline to severe ID/developmental delay, 83-100% have microcephaly and feeding difficulties. Congenital malformations are rare, but mild heart defects, contractures and genital malformations do occur. There are no major health issues in the adults; the oldest of whom is now 59 years of age. Behaviour is marked by it is a friendly outgoing social interaction. Specific features of autism (like obsessive behaviour) are seen frequently (83%), but classical autism was not diagnosed in any. A mild clinical phenotype is associated with a small in-frame 5' deletions, which are often inherited. Deletions and other mutations causing haploinsufficiency of the full-length AUTS2 transcript give a more severe phenotype and occur de novo."

Book mentioned in the episode:

In The Country We Love, Diane Guerrero

Follow Queren on Instagram at @amongthethistle

Follow Morgan on Instagram at @morganbarrett__ and learn more about her at morganbarrett.co