Southwest Flavor Ep. 181 - Mariah Zavala & Bill Kimbley

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Ron Arenas (0:14)

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Southwest Flavor. Happy Tuesday to everyone. We have a great show for you today. We have our cohost Ron Kirk from Arcadia Landscape.

Ronald D Kirk (0:23)

Good morning, Ron, how are you?

Ron Arenas (0:24)

I'm doing well. Good, good, good. On a nice rainy morning?

Ronald D Kirk (0:28)

Yes, they say we're supposed to be getting like two inches of rain or something from this hurricane.

Ron Arenas (0:32)

Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, they say lots of stuff.

Ronald D Kirk (0:35)

Yeah, that's one drive you could have in life. So keep your job.

Ron Arenas (0:40)

But we have a great guest today and I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_5 (0:44)

Mariah, yes.

Ronald D Kirk (0:46)

Good morning. How are you?

Ron Arenas (0:47)

You're from from Local First and you're from Pima College. And you've got all kinds of hats that you're wearing.

Mariah Zavala (0:52)

I sure do. Thank you for having me on this morning. Yeah, I thought I thought hurricane season was over, Ron.

Ron Arenas (0:58)

Yeah.

Ronald D Kirk (0:59)

Well, night just gearing up.

Mariah Zavala (1:01)

Yeah. Buenos dias. Quechamalea. Inepo. Mariah Zavala.

Buenos dias. Good morning. My name is Mariah. I'm extending my greetings in Yoheme Spanish and English. I'm a member of the Pascoyaki tribe Zapotec in Puerto Rican. So as a way to get grounded in the space, I like to introduce myself in that way and how my mom has taught me and a good way to just get ready for the day and things like that. As Ron number one over here mentioned, I am the Ron number one. It was just the order in which they introduced themselves to me.

Ronald D Kirk (1:35)

I'm not always going to be chopping block around here.

SPEAKER_7 (1:39)

It's okay.

Ron Arenas (1:40)

We know the order, so it's okay.

SPEAKER_7 (1:42)

I get the pecking order.

Ronald D Kirk (1:43)

Yeah, I got you. Now you're at DEFCON 5

Mariah Zavala (1:46)

I love it. I'm the Tucson Business Engagement Manager over at Local First, Arizona. I recently returned to Tucson as of July 1st at the peak of summer, which meant I was able to find an apartment.

SPEAKER_4 (1:58)

Yay.

SPEAKER_7 (1:58)

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_4 (1:59)

That's true.

Ron Arenas (2:00)

That's true. Our population is at the lowest in July.

SPEAKER_7 (2:03)

Exactly.

Mariah Zavala (2:03)

They were like, please, we'll give you free rent.

SPEAKER_4 (2:05)

Come move in and hydrate when you do.

Ron Arenas (2:09)

Like driving is the best because there's no traffic in July.

SPEAKER_7 (2:13)

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_9 (2:14)

Yeah.

Mariah Zavala (2:14)

Recently came home this past summer where I got to join Local First Arizona. I spent the last seven years in Flagstaff, Arizona. I went up there for school and ended up hanging out and doing a few different things.

SPEAKER_9 (2:24)

Okay.

Mariah Zavala (2:25)

Up there with my Hopi and Danae relatives and happy to be back home.

Outside of what Ron mentioned with Local First Arizona, I'm also coaching over at Pima Community College. I'm a Pima alumni. Shout out to all my community college people.

All my siblings and I, including my mom, we all got our associates there to go transfer over to universities. So I'm the assistant track and cross country coach there. Really excited to be back and I'm just settling back in and seeing what's going on. Tucson's actually very different than it was when I left in 2019 Yeah.

Ron Arenas (2:59)

You left right before COVID.

SPEAKER_7 (3:01)

Yeah.

Ron Arenas (3:01)

There's been change.

SPEAKER_7 (3:03)

Yeah. There's been change here.

Mariah Zavala (3:04)

You can just tell from the number of cars on the highway.

Ron Arenas (3:08)

Yeah.

Mariah Zavala (3:08)

But good to be home and see what you guys want to chat about today.

SPEAKER_7 (3:11)

Yeah. Welcome home.

Mariah Zavala (3:13)

Thank you.

Ron Arenas (3:13)

We're going to chat about all kinds of things today.

SPEAKER_7 (3:15)

Sounds good. Okay.

Ron Arenas (3:16)

Aside from NAU, what else did you do up in Flagstaff?

Mariah Zavala (3:19)

Yeah.

I went up there to go become a dental hygienist. When I was really younger, my mom was a dental assistant on the Basque Yaki reservation and she went through a workforce development program. My mom's pretty much a single parent. The oldest of four, shout out to all my eldest kids.