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THE J IS FOR JUSTICE.

We are a political home for Latinx and Chicanx people who seek racial, economic, gender and climate justice. Often we are told as Latinxs that in order to get ahead we need to just work hard and not ask questions. We believe the opposite - we need to hold our heads high and speak out. Mijente helps people do this through campaigns, connects people across a wide network and serves as a hub for culture, learning and advocacy.

OUR PRINCIPLES OF UNITY.

OUR PRINCIPLES OF UNITY.

We are Latinx and Chicanx people that are part of movements for justice and self-determination for all people.

We are Latinx and Chicanx people that are part of movements for justice and self-determination for all people.

We are pro-Black, pro-indigena, pro-worker, pro-mujer, pro-lesbian gay, bi, trans and queer, and pro-migrant because we hold all of those identities, and because our unity against shared oppressions is central to our vision for change. We cannot sustain and thrive in isolation or in movements that exile parts of our community or expect us to hide who we are to participate. We are Latinx and Chicanx people who want to see our entire community thrive, brought together by a shared consciousness of the challenges we face and a deep seated need for co-development and kinship across identity, generation, language and place.

We believe transformative change requires more from us, not just more of us.

We believe transformative change requires more from us, not just more of us.

It has been predicted that demographic change, particularly tied to the growth of the Latinx and Chicanx community, will lead to progressive change in the United States. But demographics is not destiny. We believe that the transformative change we need is not a given and that both external and internal factors threaten it. Latinx and Chicanx people need to organize, spark, sustain and nurture movements to ensure transformative change happens and combat the ways our community is held back. We see our liberation as bound to Black Liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, economic and climate justice and other liberation movements.

We are creating a leaderful space that is accountable, transparent, and continues evolving.

We are creating a leaderful space that is accountable, transparent, and continues evolving.

We have too many climbers and not enough lifters. For too long many of those who claim to be leaders of the Latinx and Chicanx community have served themselves first rather than demonstrating the courage to work and live in the service of community lifting itself up. We often see this in elected leaders, but these dynamics are not limited to political office. Trust and power are lost when community leaders are unaccountable, don’t share information, close off input and room for others’ leadership. We need more not less leadership; and we seek to lift up all the different forms of leadership people bring to justice work. We strive for a leader-full space, in which we hold ourselves and each other accountable, share information and resources, listen and implement input. We believe Mijente must be a space where we develop and make room for new and seasoned leaders to continue evolving our political home.

We organize people, technology and resources to get the goods.

We organize people, technology and resources to get the goods.

Our foundational approach to change is through organizing, bringing together people and sustaining collective efforts to achieve change. Sometimes, however, in our work for change we are resistant to change. We cannot deny that technology has deeply impacted how and with whom we are able to communicate, connect or collaborate with. As a result, how we make social change is changing.

We believe our communities and organizing efforts can and should harness the possibilities of new technology, without ever losing the power of in-real-life connections. We believe we can and should examine and innovate on how best to accomplish our goals. Towards these goals we are open to experiment with new partnerships and ways to generate resources beyond philanthropy. We need to build power through organizing in URL and IRL (online and In Real Life) and seek to create digital and physical space for Latinxs to connect and build with each other.

We are loyal to our ultimate goal of achieving el buen vivir and self-determining our future, not to singular tactics, strategies, or dogma.

We are loyal to our ultimate goal of achieving el buen vivir and self-determining our future, not to singular tactics, strategies, or dogma.

Being ‘right’ or the ‘most down’ is not our ultimate objective. If we understand our problems are systemic, we must also acknowledge that those systems are complex and constantly changing. There are many and changing paths to victory; we therefore must contend for power on all fronts. We build power and challenge it by working outside, against, and from within the state. In that spirit, we recognize that all of us find ourselves living and working within these complex systems and have different gifts and contributions to offer in movement. As individuals and organizationally we will work in different fields and formations as parts of a multi-pronged strategy.

We don’t throw each other away.

We don’t throw each other away.

The word “family” carries significant and sometimes painful meaning. We do not take it lightly and our experiences show us that it is complicated. Whether it is family as determined by blood or family we choose, it takes work. There will be mistakes and growing edges, and they will have impacts. We know everyone is capable of being harmful and of being harmed. Conflict is inevitable and necessary for honest discourse and unity across differences. We believe building a space that can hold disagreement can lead to greater accountability, resilience and antifragility. This means we won’t condone call-outs and exiling each other, or playing oppression olympics with each other. But this also means we don’t allow things to fester inside. The state has often robbed us of our ability to transform conflict and hold relationships with one another. Thus we believe principled struggle is central to our capacity to self-govern and build for the long haul.

We acknowledge and value that part of the work is to recover, unlearn, and remember.

We acknowledge and value that part of the work is to recover, unlearn, and remember.

We live with the complexities of the present, and with what has been passed down. Like all colonized people we hold that double consciousness of what we have been told versus what we know to be true. Colonization has forced Latinx and Chicanx people to assimilate into values that work against our own self-interest and fragmented who we are for generations. We owe it to those who will follow to do the work towards wholeness, wellness, and healing. Part of this is unlearning lies we’ve been told, remembering who our people are and where we come from, and living the legacy of radical love, resistance, and resilience of our ancestors.

OUR ROOTS

Over the next few decades, the Latinx population is set to double. Alongside these shifts are predictions that the power and influence of our community will grow as well. Given the history and current reality, we cannot make this assumption. Alongside these numbers of growth is the proliferating criminalization in our communities, deportations and discrimination. It’s getting harder and harder to find stable work, attain a quality debt-free education or get help in tough times. Not to mention climate change. As the youngest community demographically, our young people and future generations face even greater challenges.


Despite this, we have seen over and over that Latinx people work to make this country run and are throwing down to make things better. We are part of the labor movement; we are media makers, base-builders, artists, action-takers and those who want to get involved but don’t know where to start. That’s one of the reasons why we started Mijente, to provide that starting point.


Mijente was born in 2015 after the #Not1More Deportation campaign in recognition that we needed to build a vehicle to confront the challenges of our time and respond to the growing threats to the Latinx community. For too long we have been conveniently portrayed as a voting bloc that only cares about immigration. To add insult to injury, we’ve seen immigrants’ lives worsen. Our futures are peddled and traded off as if they are pawns in a political game.


It’s said that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu - or they expect you to pick, cook and serve the food. We believe that the change we need isn’t just going to happen, we have to make it happen. To do that, we’ve got to organize. We’ve got to become the people who make things happen rather than those that things just happen to. At Mijente, no venimos de rodillas. We want to feel pride and confidence in our communities’ ability to not just survive, but thrive and bring about tangible change.

OUR PEOPLE

Our leaders are not just pro-Latinx, but pro-woman, pro-trans, pro-queer, pro-worker, pro-Black, pro-indigenous, pro-Earth... because our community is all that and more.


We are Latinx and Chicanx people across generations (shout out to our bebés and elders en la lucha) and across the country who believe in putting community first. From our schools and neighborhoods to detention centers and prisons, from civil service to worker cooperatives- we organize wherever our people are.


We work hard, play hard and bring our sazón to everything we do. With our culturas, we center our community’s joy, struggles and abundance. With our people, we heal and we build.

“I joined the movement because we are being attacked. Immigrant communities, queer communities, vulnerable communities, are being attacked. By the state and especially by this administration. And the best way to fight back is to find meaning within each other. To support each other.”

ISA NOYOLA

National leader in the LGBTQ immigrant rights movement and the deputy director at Mijente

“I joined the movement because we are being attacked. Immigrant communities, queer communities, vulnerable communities, are being attacked. By the state and especially by this administration. And the best way to fight back is to find meaning within each other. To support each other.”

ISA NOYOLA

National leader in the LGBTQ immigrant rights movement and the deputy director at Mijente

OUR MIJENTE TEAM

MARISA FRANCO

Executive Director

ISA NOYOLA

Deputy Director

RODRIGO PAREDES

Managing Director

TANIA UNZUETA CARRASCO

Political Director

JACINTA GONZÁLEZ

           

Senior Campaign Organizer

SALEM ACUÑA VÁZQUEZ

Director of Membership Administration

SOFÍA CAMPOS

           

Education Coordinator

ARIANNA GENIS

           

Director of Local Partnerships

MARISOL VALLES

           

Finance and Operations Director

           

ENRIQUE CÁRDENAS SIFRE

           

Communications Director

CHIO VALERIO-GONZÁLEZ

           

Organizing Director

LUCIA ALLAIN

           

Director of Creatives & Influencer Partnerships

CRIS BATISTA

           

Digital Organizer

JUANA GUZMAN MATA

           

Organizer

           

ALIANA BIGIO ALCOBA

           

Content Creator

LEMY GARCIA

           

Organizer

           

VANESSA MARTINEZ

           

Organizer

           

MARICARMEN RODRIGUEZ

           

Operations Manager

ALANIS ALVAREZ

           

Social Media Manager

JORGE GUTIERREZ

           

Fellowship Manager

CINTHYA RODRIGUEZ

           

Organizer

ISAIAS VASQUEZ MARTINEZ

           

Operations & HR Manager

IRMA CORADO

           

Associate Data Director

ADOLFO CARVAJAL

           

Organizer

OUR WORK

Organizing has taught us that no one is coming to save us. We transform ourselves in order to save ourselves, and each other.


We see a need to move as quickly as life moves today. We need organizations that are built to be nimble and flexible, that adapt and experiment more than they predict and forecast. Because of that, we are calling Mijente a hybrid form, a hub, a bee hive, part digital and part bread and butter ground game organizing. We seek to engage people at different levels, from online to the streets, in partnership and through collaboration.


We believe our best bet at winning is through organizing at the grassroots level, in electoral fights, through direct action and digitally. We’ve witnessed magical connections when we come together, so we’ll always keep a foot on the ground through our events, local circles and crews, and valued partner organizations. But we don’t believe location is a restriction, so we’ve expanded our roots to the streets of the internet.


We’re first responders any time there’s an attack towards one or many of our people. We work tirelessly to reduce harm done while staying alert for trends and opportunities to throw a wrench into the machine (targeting systematic oppression by turning on the light on bad políticos or corporates).


We believe our people can’t afford 4 more years of despair, fear and growing systematic criminalization. Our plan of attack is to win at the ballot box by mobilizing Latinx voters against Trump. They say hierba mala nunca muere, so let’s boot the hierba mala out of office.


When we say political home, what we mean by that is a space for connection, for respite, where we can sharpen our strategy and co-conspire in our own community and in community with others.

“A political home promises the idea of a warm place to come in from the cold, a place where we can sit easy and leave anew, ready to keep striving for something better, for all of us.”

Marisa Franco

Mijente Co-Founder

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Paid for in part by Mijente PAC, 734 W Polk St., Phoenix, AZ 85007, not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.