New Chapter, Same Grit: I’m Running for Office

I’m so happy to share with this little corner of the internet that after a lot of consideration I’m running for local office; Alderman for the 25th ward here in Chicago (your city may call them council members). I’m incredibly excited to start this journey and eager to put my leadership skills and legal knowledge to use in a new way that creates more impact and support for families.

You are first to know because I wouldn’t have reached this decision without the last 11+ years of our community. I wouldn’t have the same motivation, sense of courage, and resolve as I do now from getting to see so many of you take huge leaps of faith in your own careers/educational journeys, disregard stats that say you couldn’t, and succeed in ways I could have only imagined as a student and young professional.

Why am I running?  

There are many reasons but they all connect to the same motivation–I love this city, I love my neighborhood and I owe it and the people a debt of gratitude. I grew up in a turbulent space, a space that felt limited and pre-determined. What kept me focused, aside from wanting to become a lawyer, was a promise from Chicago, specifically Little Village and Pilsen. A promise that said if I moved here, I could build a safe and stable life. It seemed possible because when I would visit I saw families that looked like mine running small businesses. Young woman earning their own money as cashiers and servers. All of them immersed in their culture. They represented autonomy and self-determination; no angry man in their homes limiting their options.

I moved here as soon as I could and have committed my career to helping others as much as I can. Beyond wanting to support the community that empowered me, it is time to run because we need genuine leadership that understand complex systems, can negotiate, advocate, take competing concerns seriously and is focused on local issues and local needs.

If you are not local, why should you care?

Because leadership transcends borders. Policies, resources, and innovative programming at a local level can be mirrored and implemented in other spaces. Supporting good leaders, whether you’re their constituent or not, can provide you with examples and ideas that you can ask of from your local electeds.

And, like other spaces of power, Latinas are woefully underrepresented, making up less than 2% of the 500,000 elected positions in the country. If you think that Latina leadership matters, the impact we make, and the lived experience we bring to the table, then you should consider supporting even if this isn’t your local race.

What does this mean for LU:

I’m not going anywhere but I’m also going somewhere, so things will be fluid. I want to be honest that running means a serious pause on content creation, at least until I get into the swing of things. Latinas Uprising continues to be one of the things I’m most proud of and I won’t walk away, but for now the focus has to shift for a bit. However, I am still here for those 1:1s, to help answer tricky questions!

Ok, I’m in! How do I help? 

Thank you for asking! You can learn more at Nubiafor25.com, that has more info on supporting, including a donation link. Please follow the social media pages as well. In addition to the traditional support, what I would really appreciate is your help as a validator of our work. Supporting community takes on many forms and I am so proud to have helped so many bad ass leaders in a virtual space and in a format beyond traditional organizing and engagement. Politics gets messy and I don’t want this “content creation” to be dismissed as something vapid; our connection deserves more than that. If you could give the social media pages a follow and share on your own stories, that would help me get started on the right foot.

I know the next few months will be an adventure, complicated, difficult and challenging. I find myself thinking often to the summer when I applied for law school. The determination I had to dig into, pushing myself to keep going even when I lacked the resources or knowledge to apply the “right” way. I feel that fire emerging again and I know that as challenging as this will be, I’m as determined as I was 20 years ago. The biggest difference is how grateful I am that you will be on the.journey with me.