This month, we have celebrated the Latinx youth who power our work from organizers in our network organizations to our very own Executive Director, Sarah Audelo. They all show us that when we bring our full selves to our organizing work, including our culture and heritage, we build a beter world for us all.
Here are the stories of three powerful Latinx and Chicano organizers in the Alliance Network.
Rita Carmona
she/her/ella | Chicago, Illinois
Reimagining Democracy Organizer with Chicago Votes
▼ How does your heritage and background influence your organizing?
For me, being Latina influences my organizing because it influences the way that I do everything. It’s a part of who I am and so it’s a part of the way that I live my life. I think that as a person who knows what it’s like to be separated from people that you love, as a person who understands the way it feels when someone sees you and thinks certain things before they give you the chance to show who you are as a person, who has been underestimated, and to feel like I feel I have to prove myself in a way that other people don’t, that’s something that I can relate to and lots of different kinds of people in lots of different kinds and spaces. And I feel like the more that I show up and who I am as a Latina as, you know, as all that I am, the more that I can be in community with others.
▼ What issues do you see as most important for young Latinx voters?
I think for young Latinx voters it’s really important that we get involved in different communities because there is a lot of diversity within Latino/Latine experience and identity. And those different experiences, those different communities are all going to have different needs. So when we can do a better job of educating ourselves on what the community we live in needs and the communities that aren’t as represented in the vote or who don’t have the ability to vote and what is important to them.
▼ What does a loving, safe, just, and thriving future for young Latinx youth look like?
The future that I Imagine for Latinx youth is one that is full of love in action and in practice and in ideology. I think that that world is possible when we are united, when we stand together, when we speak for ourselves, and we speak for our communities, and when we give space for others to speak for theirs. I think anything is possible when people work together. We Latinx people are powerful and we are overwhelming and we are passionate and we are soft and we are strong and we can bring all of those things into every space. And that’s the future that we’re working towards.
Brandi Hernandez
she/her/ella | Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Political Organizer with Leaders Igniting Transformation
▼ How does your heritage and background influence your organizing?
I’m a second-generation migrant farmworker and that very much influences my organizing, who I am, and how I present myself in this world. My grandparents moved here from Cheran Michoacan and they did a lot of migrant crop work all around the country. When my dad moved here he did the same thing. When I was born my parents did that work and I also did that work at the age of 12 along with my brother and my family when we needed to do it. That upbringing and the things that I went through growing up all influence how I organize and why I’m here. I strongly believe that the people who feed us, the people who are out there every single day picking cucumbers, picking all of these different crops deserve a livable wage and that very much influence is how I organize.
▼ What issues do you see as most important for young Latinx voters?
One of the issues is student debt cancellation. The reality is that once Latinx students leave universities, whether that’s a technical school or whether that’s a public/private institution, they leave with a lot of debt. Also Black and Indigenous students in comparison to their white counterparts. Regardless of someone’s race, of someone’s gender, of someone’s immigration status, higher education should be accessible. If we choose to go we shouldn’t be left with this burden of having to pay all this money and barely being able to have our basic necessities be met.
▼ What does a loving, safe, just, and thriving future for young Latinx youth look like?
A loving, safe, just, and thriving future for Latinx youth looks like having families together. It looks like not having to worry when you’re going to eat your next meal. It looks like having a healthy neighborhood and being able to step outside and not being afraid that something’s going to happen to you. It looks like being able to just live and not be afraid that if you get pulled over by a cop that something bad will happen to you. I dream of the day when all of these injustices is that we see are just no longer here. I know that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done and that’s why we have young people like myself, others at LIT, others that work with the Alliance, other in the world that is moving all of these movements so that we can live in a just and equitable world.
Victória Sandoval
they/them | South Texas
Field Manager with MOVE Texas
▼ How does your heritage and background influence your organizing?
My community has really taught me how to bring people together and how the nature of being who we are as Chicano people. I think we inherently know how to organize people around an issue around and the things that we need. We always know that there are people who will show up when they see how critical the need has.
▼ What issues do you see as most important for young Latinx voters?
There is so much on the minds of young people in Texas right now but I feel like what’s really taking shape and what people are really organizing around is abortion access, reproductive justice, and ensuring that Congress passes a pathway to citizenship this year.
▼ What does a loving, safe, just, and thriving future for young Latinx youth look like?
The future that young Latinx people deserve is one where we’re able to shape our lives, choose our path, and live the kinds of life that we want without bearing the burden of constantly having to remind our elected officials who they should remain accountable to.