My Candidacy Statement
for the At-Large Seat of the East Bay DSA Steering Committee
Who am I?
I’ve lived in the East Bay since my family moved from San Francisco in the early 90’s. Although my parents left El Salvador because of the civil war, they were never involved politically in the revolutionary struggle. They were young immigrants escaping the violence like the countless others who left during that 12 year period of war. As a result, my youth was devoid of any type of politics and it wasn’t until my world history class in middle school that I began to develop, what I now recognize in retrospect as critical consciousness. I remember asking my teacher why we didn’t learn about the history of the people of the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. Years later I would participate in the historic 2006 mega marches for immigrant rights, but it wasn’t until I took a class in the College of Ethnic Studies while an undergrad at San Francisco State that I would begin to identify myself as a radical and leftist.
During undergrad, I began working in the Central American Solidarity Movement, coordinating the Bay Area Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). The solidarity work with the people of Latin America would confirm and strengthen my commitment to defeating capitalism here and abroad. Once I graduated, I became a union organizer for SEIU Local 87, the janitors union in San Francisco, where I had my first true test as an organizer. Although it was very challenging, I continue to draw from the lessons of that experience.
When I decided to apply to graduate school for public health, it was with the intention to further my work as an organizer and activist. I spent my summer practicum working for the Ministry of Public Health in Ecuador, which was undergoing the Revolucion Ciudadana (Citizen’s revolution) of Rafael Correa. Since then, I have returned to San Francisco State where I teach Ethnic Studies and where I am a member of the faculty union, serving on the campus chapter’s executive board. Through my role as an educator, I’ve continued to remain connected with the community, primarily the unincorporated community of Alameda county where I live and serve as a public health commissioner. I also sit on an ad-hoc committee that is charged with forming a Municipal Advisory Council, which will serve as representative political body for the residents of unincorporated Alameda county. All of these experiences have influenced my ideas about socialism and the struggle to achieve it.
Why I am running for leadership?
After bouncing around several socialist organizations (including the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism where I served briefly on the national coordinating committee in 2009), I was beginning to lose hope that I would find a leftist political home. Like many of you, I was inspired and reenergized by the presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders and I decided to join East Bay DSA shortly after elections. Since joining, I’ve participated in a number of canvasses for Medicare-for-all, served as an alternate delegate to the DSA national convention in Chicago, participated in the mobilizer pilot program. Additionally, I’ve been informally organizing the Socialists of Color Socials, as well as the San Leandro-Hayward Socials, with the goal of expanding our work beyond the hubs of North Oakland and Berkeley.
East Bay DSA has experienced unprecedented growth as a result of the Sanders campaign and has been committed to continue building on this wave of membership. Has this wave of new members been representative of the working class communities in the East Bay? There is no question that there is a critical need for more people of color in our membership. Our organization is at a turning point and I have decided that I can no longer wait for things to magically change on their own and that the time to act is now. We need more people of color in leadership, especially people who are rooted in communities that our chapter is not ready to engage with, but who will be needed in the struggle against capitalism.
My objective for running for the at-large seat is to begin to address this need. I believe we can achieve this through collaboration, strong coalition, and broad based building. I want East Bay DSA to be an organization that strives to represent the interests of working class and poor people and that recognizes that we cannot build working class power without a multiracial and multicultural base. Vote for me and we can begin to make East Bay DSA reflect the world we are looking to build. ✊🏾🌹
