I grew up as the daughter of immigrants in a poor Chicano neighborhood. My parents worked jobs that did not value them. But they worked anyway because they wanted opportunities for their children. I watched them and I learned what resilience looks like. I learned that ordinary people have extraordinary strength. I learned that injustice is not inevitable. It is structural. It can be changed. Growing up I experienced racism directly. That created a fire in me. I wanted to understand why there were systems that told me I was wrong. I wanted to dismantle those systems. This fire led me to community organizing.
Growing Up on the Margins
