We are thrilled to announce that Rocío García has joined the UWF staff as our Membership Director. Prior to joining the UWF staff, Rocío was a dues-paying individual member who helped organize member canvasses and orientations. As Membership Director, Rocío will continue to grow and build our base of working-class people who are ready for a political party for the many—not the few.
Read her story in her own words below:
Born and raised in the southwest side of Chicago in La Villita, I am a proud daughter and granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. Both of my grandfathers were recruits of the Bracero Program which brought them and their families to Chicago in the 60s and 70s. My earliest memory is my father taking me to a protest. I grew up watching Pedro Infante’s “Ustedes los ricos” (You, the rich ones), a golden age Mexican cinema film where I quickly learned about the attack on the working poor and later connected it to how it played out in my own upbringing. As a kid I never asked for a new backpack or new shoes before the start of the school year because I knew that my family could not afford it. My mother taught me about resilience when she was forced to feed my two siblings and I with a baggie of fideo and a single tomato. She maneuvered in her ESL English through a system that was not made for her and challenged her sense of belonging every single day. My father would leave jobs or would get fired because he would stand up for himself and other workers when the boss would steal their wages, mistreat and overwork them.
Through my work, I honor my family and my ancestors.
As a woman of color who comes from a working poor community, an immigrant family and a first-generation college student, it is important to me to help make others feel seen and heard; to build horizontal power together; to be inclusive of the most marginalized as we strengthen our movement. Grounded in community organizing, I have learned about building people power via organizing with immigrant moms and young people. Alongside madres líderes, we co-developed popular education on sanctuary schools using anecdotes from real-life experience as our teaching tools. We organized around the elimination of discriminatory federal background checks that challenge a sense of belonging for Local School Council members and school volunteers. I felt it was crucial to make available spaces where young people could grow as organizers thus, co-designed and co-facilitated an organizing training for youth to learn about power and privilege, systems of oppression, gentrification, racism and other “isms” that impact their lives. I was trained as an interdisciplinary thinker at DePaul University, City Colleges of Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University where I received a BA in Latino and Latin American Studies and Political Science. Through McNair Scholars, I conducted research on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and access for undocumented youth.
Before joining the staff at United Working Families, I was a dues-paying member, collaborated on the membership orientation, organized a joint canvass for endorsed candidates, was nominated for delegate-at-large, and was elected as co-chair of the organizing committee. My work builds people power. I find it my duty to ensure a sense of belonging for other folks like myself to build power together, strengthen our movement and grow our political home. We cannot and should not make decisions or policy recommendations without the people who are the most impacted at the center of the conversations. I am committed to building our movement in the south and west sides of Chicago, centering people of color, women, undocumented immigrants, and LGBTQ people, creating language accessible spaces, and unapologetically organizing to win for the many and not the wealthy few.
