Sheroics Ozy Media

Camila Chavez, executive director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, is the daughter of the iconic American labor leader Dolores Huerta, who—alongside Camila’s father Richard Chavez, and her uncle, the legendary Cesar Chavez—has improved the lives of millions of American workers through relentless activism, advocacy, and love.
 
Resources:
Dolores Huerta Foundation

Jess Morales Rocketto is a community organizer who has been on the front lines of several battles in her life. She has advocated for the rights of domestic workers as Political Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Helped to reunite families on the border as the Chair of Families Belong Together. She has fought for women’s rights, voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and so much more.
Jess believes that a better world is not only possible, it is inevitable.  And her latest effort in pursuit of that better world might prove to be her biggest triumph yet.

When COVID hit, longtime activist Valerie Tulier-Laiwa knew her neighborhood would be greatly affected. With the help of several childhood friends, she jumped into action to meet the needs of the Latino community and beyond.
Transcript:
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: What you see here are like I said, the manifestations of about three or four of our committees. The Latino Task Force has a range of services that we provide. 
C. Yulin Cruz: T his is Valerie Tulier Laiwa, one of the leaders of the Latino Task Force. During the early days of Covid 19 pandemic, the group came together to provide their community with essential services like testing, vaccines and food. 
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: Everything we see here is related to a hub, so that testing and vaccine hub, food hub, resource hub, which we'll see upstairs.
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: That's chef Julio.
C. Yulin Cruz: Valerie took us through the group's headquarters on Alabama Street, in the Mission District of San Francisco. 
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: Here they sort the food. So I wanna be very clear about this. We call this a Mission Food hub. We don't call it a food pantry. We don't call it a food bank, but bless the food pantry and bless the food bank. Nothing's wrong with that, but there's a stigma attached to those words. 
C. Yulin Cruz: Valerie has been serving the Latino community in the Mission for decades. 
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: Go ahead, pick that up. Up. Pick this up. See? 
C. Yulin Cruz: She loves her people and she knows them inside and out. 
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: So we give people culturally appropriate food. We give them arroz, we give them beans and they have a choice too.
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: We give three types of beans. Cause not everybody's, not everybody who's Latino is Mexican and eat pinto beans, right? So we offer black beans, red beans, and pinto beans and rice. 
C. Yulin Cruz: She also knows how to get the best out of each one of them. 
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: So the women, it's really funny cuz you have volunteers, they have tables set up and they're, we buy these huge bags of beans and rice and they would bag them.
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: And if you try to help them, they'll tell you no, this is my area I'm bagging. And so we say okay. So they take it very serious and many of the people who volunteer at the food hub are actually people who were in our food line for so they became that. So let's come on over here and that's why I say again, is food up.
C. Yulin Cruz: I'm Yulin Cruz. In this episode of Sheroics we are talking with Valerie Tulier Laiwa about what it takes to preserve and protect a community besieged by sickness and hardship. Valerie and the Latino Task Force are showing how deep community roots, organized leadership and love can transform lives and create a platform for support that is more potent and more capable than any governmental agency.
News Clip: The breaking news, stay at home. That is the order tonight from four state governors as the Coronavirus Pandemic spreads. New York, California, Illinois, and Connecticut, all ordering non-essential employees to stay home. Those orders cover 75 million people across the United States,
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: So I remember March 20. I remember that we had a very abrupt shelter in place order from the mayor of San Francisco. She said, beginning tomorrow, everything shut down. Completely shut down. And I remember where I work at, there was a huge event that was supposed to happen. I'm like, oh my God, can't we just shut down on Monday?
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: Can't we just get through this Saturday event? But it was like no.
C. Yulin Cruz: It was soon clear to Valerie and other leaders in San Francisco's mission district that the citywide shutdown was just the beginning. 
Valerie Tulier Laiwa: The Mission is very strong in terms of, of movements in terms of community organizing around different issues. So we all knew each other. We were all oh, okay, you're handling that, you're

What does it take to be the voice for freedom? Berta Valle, a former television news presenter, has become a tireless advocate for the freedom of her husband, Felix Maradiaga, and the other 200-plus political prisoners under the Ortega dictatorship. Her husband’s crime was announcing his intention to run for president in 2021, which got him arrested and sentenced for treason by a Sandinista kangaroo court. Valle is now raising her voice for freedom wherever she can — for her, her husband, and their young daughter.
Transcript:
[00:00:00] C. Yulin Cruz: Protests are the lifeblood of a democracy, and in 2018, thousands of people in Nicaragua took to the streets to fight for theirs.
[00:00:19] C. Yulin Cruz: The unrest was sparked mid-April by social security reforms. The protests swelling into a broader nationwide revolt against Daniel Ortega's 11 year rule.
[00:00:32] Berta Valle: And then, you know, people just started coming out to the streets and then the first kid was killed.
[00:00:42] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta Valle, a TV presenter and her husband, Felix Maradiaga, a college professor where among those watching the violence unfold in their home country. 
[00:00:57] Berta Valle: And Felix, Felix told me this is going to be very, very bad. And that night was one of these first days that he received the calls from students telling him, Professor Maradiaga, they're killing us. We need help.
[00:01:17] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta and Felix had both been politically active for years. They had bonded over how to improve their country, but this time was different.
[00:01:34] Berta Valle: And I remember Felix, like it was around 10 in the evening, 10 at night. He, he told me I have to leave. And I said, where are you going? I'm going, I'm going to help the kids. And he left. And that was the day that I realized that all the conversation that we had before, you know about Nicaragua , about the fight that people have to, fight back to stop the dictatorship. It was really happening.
[00:02:06] C. Yulin Cruz: Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega has continued to consolidate his power over the small Central American country in the years since 2018.
[00:02:17] C. Yulin Cruz: Félix Maradiaga is now a political prisoner in a Nicaraguan jail. And Berta Valle finds herself in exile, fighting to save her husband and hundreds of others like him, while also trying to raise a daughter in a new home. 
[00:02:35] C. Yulin Cruz: Welcome back to Sheroics. We're sharing stories about some amazing women creating transformational change for the world.
[00:02:44] C. Yulin Cruz: I'm Yulín Cruz. In this episode, we're talking with a shero that inspires me with her courage and resilience. Berta Valle's story is one of separation, hope and perseverance, but it's really a love story. It's about love for one's partner, for one's family, for one's country, and for democracy itself. It's about what it takes to hold onto them during the most challenging of times.
[00:03:18] C. Yulin Cruz: What better way to begin a love story than with a celebration of poetry? As a teenager, Berta lived with her family in Ciudad Darío named after Rubén Darío, Nicaragua’s most celebrated poet. 
[00:03:33] Berta Valle: The way we celebrate Rubén Darío's birthday, it was by having this event where they elected the Musa Dariana. So it was like the muse that inspired Rubén Darío's Poetry.
[00:03:47] Berta Valle: So the girls of the city, they participate and the contest is about, saying the poems of Rubén Darío and also we have several questions about his life. And in 2000, I was participating and it happens that they invited Felix to be one of the judge. 
[00:04:11] Berta Valle: He was maybe 21, 22 years old. He already finished the university. 
[00:04:19] C. Yulin Cruz: Look at the, look at the way your smile changes. 
[00:04:23] C. Yulin Cruz: Yeah. 
[00:04:23] C. Yulin Cruz: as you think about that, as you can see , so was it love at first sight?

Uvalde, Texas sits at a literal crossroads. U. S. highways 83, from Canada to Mexico, and 90 from Florida to California cross right through the middle of town. But the city is at a different crossroads, too; an emotional one. It's at the intersection of fear, cultural division and grief - all of which were amplified by the horror that took place on May 24th, 2022. A gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 children and two teachers. Police stood for over an hour in a hallway outside the classroom while the shooting was in progress. Over the last year, much has been revealed about the inaction that day. We recently learned the Uvalde County Sheriff’s office didn't have an active shooter policy in place, and a senior law enforcement official on the scene didn't complete an active shooter training course. But, we also learned about the brave citizens who stepped up that day and who have continued to work for systemic changes that will improve the lives of Uvalde citizens and, hopefully, prevent another tragedy. Angela Villescaz, founder of the Fierce Madres, tells her story to Yulin Cruz.
Transcript:
On May 24th, 2022, there was yet another mass shooting in the United States. 
We are following the breaking news out of Texas and it is heartbreaking news. 
This one at an elementary school in Texas, in a town called Uvalde, just west of San Antonio. 
Tonight inside the unspeakable horror. Officers running to the scene with the 18 year old gunman already inside Rob Elementary where second, third, and fourth graders were in the middle of their day. Authorities say he got in through a back door, slipping into a classroom and opening fire on fourth graders and their two teachers. 
The gunman killed 19 children and two teachers, while police stood for over an hour in a hallway outside the classroom they were in. In the wake of the tragedy, devastated parents and residents sought answers from the local school board.
And I can't help but wonder if they just didn't find our children worthy of being saved.
The town's collective grief soon turned into collective action. 
More calls for action in Uvalde today. The families of the children who were killed and local teachers lined the city plaza calling for change. Organizations, We Are Your voice, Esse, and Fierce Madres are pledging to rally every weekend.
The group Fierce Madres has been especially vocal since the shooting in Uvalde. Its members are proud, passionate women; mothers, and grandmothers who are determined to hold those in power accountable, and make their schools and communities a safer place. 
I've always been fearless. The founder of Fierce Madres is Angela Villescaz.
She attended Robb Elementary as a child and lived in Uvalde most of her life. She is known to many in the community just as Tia Angie.
I believe that something good can come out of all of this. 
I'm Yulin Cruz. In this episode of Sheroics we are going to talk with Angela Villescaz and hear more about Fierce Madres and what it takes to turn an unspeakable tragedy into a force for change in the world.
The day after the shooting in Uvlade, Texas Governor Abbott held a press conference. It had been just four years since another school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas had killed eight students and two teachers.
As horrible as what happened, it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do.
So it all started at the press conference where I'm the woman in the black hat standing behind Beto O'Rourke. 
Beto O'Rourke, a democrat, was running against Abbott in the Texas Governor's race, and he was not happy with the official response to Uvalde.
Governor Abbott. I have to say something. The time, the time for you to have stopped this was was after Santa Fe.
Sit Down!
After that press conference, I went to the Uvalede Memorial Hospital to see if there was any families there that, that I could help or meet with.
But no one t

Meet the Women of Torres de Francia. After Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico in 2017, a small group of women from a local housing project in San Juan rushed into action by organizing community soup kitchens and feeding hundreds of families. They saved lives and their efforts became a model that was replicated across the country. 
Transcript
It's been more than five years since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September, 2017. But for those of us who lived through Maria and its aftermath, it still feels like yesterday. The category four storm devastated our island. It led to unimaginable hardship and misfortune, but in every taleof suffering there is another story, one of overcoming.
When I recently returned to Puerto Rico, my home, Maria was at the forefront of my mind, and so were a group of women who still inspire me. 
 I visited the women at their home, a public housing project called Torres de Francia, located in a very poor neighborhood in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. The day Hurricane Maria struck and the days that followed still haunt the residents of that community.
It was raining very late at night. It was also windy, but when the water began to pour in through the windows, I went into a state of panic. My apartment was completely filling with water. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get the water out. The more I tried to push the water out, the more the water came in.
Maria turned public housing projects like Torres de Francia into human prisons, potential death traps. But the women who lived there quickly turned panic into action, setting up a makeshift kitchen to feed hundreds in their community. When I saw these brave women again, I remembered why they have remained tattooed on my soul from the moment I met them five years ago.
Their passion towards the wellbeing of others, their relentless pursuit of what was right for their community, even when faced with disaster is still palpable.
When there is a crisis and people's lives are at stake, there are only two options. You either stand up and speak up and take on whatever, or whomever you must, or you stand down and be quiet and allow yourself to become complicit to a narrative that will only end up costing more lives. So standing up is not only something that has to be done, it is something we have to be committed to doing.
The women of Torres de Francia never thought they had an option, a plan B. They just did what had to be done. They knew after Maria hit their community faced starvation if they did not act quickly. Sometimes doing the most ordinary thing, like cooking, is the most heroic thing that can be done under extraordinary circumstances, and it begins with a simple act of will. 
We're going to start from scratch, but we are starting.
Welcome to Sheroics, a new podcast from Ozy. I'm Yulín Cruz. I was the mayor of San Juan when Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico. In my career as a public servant, I've been fortunate to witness what it takes to fight today's battles for social change. Sheroics, it's about women creating transformational change for the world, and they're doing it one community at a time.
Each episode, we will meet an activist, advocate or citizen working to make her corner of the planet a better place. These are the stories of women who lead from the heart. Stories we hope might inspire you to take action when your time comes.
I wanted to begin this series with a personal story that is very near and dear to my heart. I realized during Hurricane Maria that as long as a tragedy touches another human being, it's also touching me and that I had to use my platform and my voice to help others be heard. I've learned that leadership is not an issue of titles or positions.
Leadership can be found in the most unexpected places. You don't have to be on the six o'clock news to be a leader. Every day in every community, there's almost always a woman or a group of women who are the ones who p