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Photo by Julio Morales in the Calexico Chronicle

Storytelling of my Community

Link to Story

Mutual Aid and Encampment: How Grassroots Organizers Broke the Border in 2021

This storymap follows a farmworker encampment I encountered in high school. Through a podcast interview with Ismael Arvizu and Joey Espinoza, I tell the encampment's story through their eyes as organizers.

(un)home and home
poetry series

Despair and Dispossession (Poem #1)

in places where despair and dispossession live rampant
those who can leave, leave
but let me tell you tales that question resilience and prosperity

a single mother of 3, works 2 jobs, crosses back and forth to feed her family
the mother weeps and weeps over how to pay her bills
but she has to get up to cross back to Mexicali to take care of her sick grandmother
my love, is this place just full of despair
or is it full of much more?

a married father of 2, deported back to Mexicali, sends his son to Calexico for education
not knowing how to support him, his son goes to a top university, studies engineering
he lands a job but far from his family
knowing his mom is waiting for him at home, making his favorite meal

an orphan child, unhoused at the age of 2, adopted by his aunt, sends him to Imperial for education
his girlfriend holds his heart when he remembers the hypervigilance of cartels and border patrol
but his heart is hers, and she holds it gracefully

my love, this place is full of love
no despair or dispossession can change the way love flows like the rivers that make the world go round

Photo by Ashton Dolce

Farmworker Symposium

Held at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, the two-day symposium highlighted the continued struggles of farmworker communities and ongoing efforts to organize California laborers.

The symposium hosted representatives from a variety of different groups, including the United Farmworkers (UFW) Foundation, Tierras Milperas, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and was funded by a grant from the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education (VPUE).

Photo by Cecilia Juarez

Environmental Justice Week Organizer and Presenter

Heroes and Leaders: Re-Thinking the UFW and Social Movements

Within this Zaplatica, hosted at Casa Zapata's Burciaga Lounge, Undergraduate and Graduate Student Angel Manuel De Dios López and Undergraduate Student Jorge Ramos ask us to (re)think how we engage with social movements and leaders. Grounding the conversation in the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement as a basis for analysis, Angel and Jorge ask us to consider the constraints and limitations imposed and practiced by racial capitalism and colonialism on social movements. We also base the conversation on how our genealogies, individual memories, and public memories can help us understand our position in relation to the movement and how we engage with it.

(un)home and home
poetry series

Long... (Poem 2)

i think it’s been 4 years
since i left my pen and heart
somewhere on second street
but when i come back
strangers look at me
“who are you”
the pain of leaving and coming back
no one talks about it
but what do you do when you find salvation outside
and you’ve been looking inside for it

i think it’s been a while
since i gave my heart and it got ripped to shreds
some may that’s dramatic
but my eyes see something done
something not like before
where the dead stand outside

step right out
i’m from nowhere anymore
not from the bay
not from calexico
not from mexicali
no longer from these places that gave me a light
no one will ever understand
the pain of leaving for long
the pain of leaving for long
the pain of leaving quickly

i think it’s been a while
and no one understands
where i stand
where i come from
who i am
i’m a mythical creature
without the magic
without the joy
if making these spaces shine like i did
but if you entered
would you shine
i ask myself that question

and if i made new places
new spaces
would you shine with me
can i shine alone
can i be alone
maybe i deserve to be alone
what if
it’s been long

Environmental Justice Conference @ the Border

I participated as a panelist at the first-ever environmental justice conference at the border in Mexicali, Baja California.

Panel Name: Agua y Medio Ambiente