Employee Feature: Cassandra Tuiasosopo

Cassandra Tuiasosopo was aware of her Hispanic roots from a young age, but it wasn’t until she turned 15 that she became more fully immersed in it.

That’s when the Kraken director of sales and service and fourth-generation Mexican American says her maternal grandparents, Jesus Mendoza and Guadalupe Ancira, became more involved in her immediate family’s daily life in her native San Diego. Both insisted she celebrate her 15th birthday with a traditional quinceanera – a religious ceremony followed by a party with food, music and dancing meant to celebrate the transition from girlhood to womanhood.

“That was a big moment for me and my cultural realization,” Tuiasosopo said, adding that roughly 200 guests attended. “And we just continued to learn together.”

And she feels Hispanic Heritage Night, pres. by Modelo, taking place Saturday as part of the Kraken Common Thread commitment to inclusivity and unity within the team’s community, is an important part of mutual learning as well. Her mother, Sylvia Mendoza, had grown up moving around with her family due to the Navy postings of Tuiasosopo’s grandad and in a way also lacked strong roots. So, Tuiasosopo and her mother began researching the family’s history more extensively.

As a child, Tuiasosopo visited the Texas border-area property with Mexico where her great-great grandparents first settled after crossing the Rio Grande from their native Monterrey. But it was in her teens and adulthood she truly came to realize the family’s sacrifices made; enduring hardship, racism and stereotyping along the way.

“I’m truly a product of my ancestors who worked so hard and went through so many trials and tribulations to get to the United States and build a beautiful life for their family,” Tuiasosopo said. “And for me to have the freedom to be able to do something I love is very special.”

But while men in her family back then often worked as farming field pickers and the women more traditional homemaking roles, there were stark contrasts as well. Her grandfather, upon leaving the Navy, pursued higher education and later got into teaching. Her mother became an author and journalist. Tuiasosopo graduated from the University of Colorado with a master’s degree in marketing and eventually met her future husband, Timothy, a longshoreman whose last name she took as her own, before moving with him to the Seattle area.

Tuiasosopo joined the Kraken in August 2019 and is conscious of her director-level, revenue generation role providing a chance to represent – and hire and train -- people of color, Latinos and Latinas in a sales and services field where “historically, we just haven’t been represented.”

Prior to her marriage, Tuiasosopo went by her father’s last name McCulley. That neither name is indicative of her Mexican heritage is something Tuiasosopo sees as a great indicator of the “beautiful blend of cultures and generations” taking place within American life.

“I think you’re getting to that point where you can’t really know right off the bat about someone’s ethnicity or cultural ties based on a name or how someone might appear,” she said. “So, that’s something I really love. Celebrating my culture and bringing that knowledge to people who might not even expect it and know that it’s a huge part of my life.”