Empowering Women to Change Laws: How Latina Activists are Making Waves in Oregon
Cristina Delgado holds a sign at the Oregon State Capital in Salem, Oregon.
Empowering Women through Education, Enterprise, and Leadership & Advocacy
When Adelante Mujeres began in 2002, its goal was to provide education to Latina women coming from low-income backgrounds. As the organization grew, a second pillar was added – Enterprise – aimed at providing small business opportunities to Latina women. And in early 2022, a third pillar was added to Adelante Mujeres – Leadership & Advocacy. This new department, which is currently experiencing a surge in growth, is working to solve the issue of unjust or deficient policies at their roots by empowering and resourcing Latinas to lead through advocacy.
“While this third pillar is new, we’ve been empowering women to lead since we opened our doors 20 years ago,” says Bridget Cooke, Adelante Mujeres Co-founder and Executive Director. “When it gets right down to it, we are all leaders. Sadly, many women are unaware of the positive ways they lead in their homes and in the community. Sexism and other cultural norms deny women’s voices and try to silence the wisdom that’s been earned through hard work and experience. By creating this new Leadership & Advocacy department, we’re able to increase our support for Latina women so they in turn can build the family and the community they want to see.”
Staff members of the Adelante Mujeres Leadership & Advocacy department.
Fighting an Oppressive System with Knowledge
Through culturally responsive training and coaching opportunities for the Latinx community, as well as the wider BIPOC community, the Leadership & Advocacy team is helping to increase civic engagement in Washington County, Oregon. “If our voices aren’t represented, other people will speak for us,” says Cristina Delgado, Adelante Mujeres’s Leadership & Advocacy Program Manager.
When U.S. policies have deep roots in a racist past, having a diverse group of voices in decision-making rooms is vitally important when it comes to creating a more just society for all. And that’s exactly what the Leadership & Advocacy team at Adelante Mujeres is setting out to do. “It’s a very oppressive system,” says Verónika Núñez, Adelante’s new Leadership & Advocacy Director. “There is a lot of knowledge in our community that needs to be elevated.”
Verónika, who grew up in Venezuela, has always been drawn to justice. “Venezuela, my country, has been going through a lot of political, economic, and social change since I moved to the U.S.” She says that seeing the power of grassroots efforts there has shown her that when people organize, change is possible. “Women having access to resources, to education, and being able to make decisions and have choices, is very important for me,” says Verónika.
Verónika Núñez, Adelante Mujeres Director of Leadership & Advocacy, at the Oregon State Capital.
Verónika and her team facilitate trainings for Latina women, including Immigration 101, Know Your Rights, Community Organizing, and more. Most of the trainings are facilitated in Spanish, while others are in English with interpretation services available. Participants of the trainings come from many different countries such as Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. From understanding the deportation system, knowing how to give a testimony to legislators, and being informed about how a bill becomes a law, alumni graduate with new knowledge that has the power to change a community, and many women continue by forming action teams that lead community organizing efforts around the bills.
Verónika says that creating a space which feels safe for women, particularly Latina women, is key to igniting their participation. “We are an organization that is mostly women,” says Verónika, “so that is very unique in the way that we think and create. I think that brings a different perspective and a different energy. I’m working with a team of only females, and it creates a very nurturing, safe environment for other women.”
Through community listening sessions, the Leadership & Advocacy team and program alumni worked together to thoughtfully gather testimonies from community members to identify priorities to focus on. “Part of this role is cultivating people who are eager to advocate and fight for these rights, and at the same time are very good listeners,” says Verónika, “because we can’t forget who we are fighting for, and along with.”
Immigrant rights activists gather at the Oregon State Capital to celebrate International Women’s Day.
When Bills Become Laws
The hard work of the Leadership & Advocacy team, the women participating in their trainings, and community members fighting for justice is paying off – big time. During Oregon’s 2022 legislative session, all four bills that the women focused on supporting passed, including Universal Legal Representation and Farmworker Overtime Pay, two laws that greatly impact many women who come to Adelante Mujeres for services.
“We do see a lot of farmworkers here in Washington County and the surrounding areas,” says Cristina Delgado, “so it’s more than likely that our program participants are going to be impacted.” The exclusion of overtime pay for farmworkers is rooted in the racist 1938 Federal Labor Standards Act, which “sought to exclude Black farmworkers from this benefit” (Fair Shot For All). With this bill becoming a law, farmworkers will finally get paid what they deserve.
For Cristina, this bill was personal, and she shared part of her story with legislators. In her testimony, she explained that her father was a farmworker for most of his life. “He needed to work extra hours because he was the main person supporting his family financially”. Due to working in extreme climate conditions and consistent exposure to pesticides, he developed heart and bone issues and passed away from heart problems when Cristina was nine years old. “I wish my father would have benefited from laws that pay overtime to farmworkers. This would have allowed him to have a longer life, a healthier life and more memories with us, his family.”
Cristina Delgado, Leadership & Advocacy Program Manager at Adelante Mujeres, gives a speech at a rally for International Women’s Day.
After months of events, town halls, testimony training, social media posts, and meetings with legislators, the Leadership & Advocacy staff and participants – along with participation from other organizations – virtually watched as the legislator votes were cast and the bill passed. Reflecting on that day, Verónika says, “It was really surreal for me, and I’m just so happy for my team because they worked so hard for this.”
Cristina says that during nerve-racking voting sessions like that one, you wonder things like, “What’s going to be the impact? Is my testimony really going to matter? Is my phone call really going to matter? At the end of the day when we see those votes, the answer is Yes, everything matters.”
While there is still much to do regarding farmworker rights, and immigrant rights in general, the Leadership & Advocacy team at Adelante Mujeres is celebrating these accomplishments, because reflecting on progress is crucial when it comes to sustaining energy for this long-term fight for a truly just society for all. Looking forward, the team hopes to expand their reach, empowering more Latina women and BIPOC community members to lead and advocate for change.
“We have power in numbers,” says Cristina. “What we learn in the process, to me, is the most important thing.” She reminds us that education is something that can’t ever be taken away from someone. It’s forever within them – a gift that can then be passed on to others. And when this collective knowledge is used to create a more just society, we can’t help but stay hopeful about the future. Adelante.
. . . . . . .
If you would like to support the work of the Leadership & Advocacy team at Adelante Mujeres, you can donate here.
If you are interested in enrolling in a Leadership & Advocacy training, click here to learn more.