I am a Bronx native. I grew up in New York City my entire life. Um, I was born in Brooklyn, but raised in the Bronx. My family's from Ecuador. I guess, like, growing up, New York City's a little tough.

I currently work in city government. Growing up in the Bronx, is definitely very different from any of the other boroughs. I think it's very similar to Brooklyn, in terms of culture wise, but in my community, I grew up in a very Dominican community. something that played a lot is being able to have that sense of togetherness, but it was tough. It was one of those things where kids in my neighborhood were often talked down to or there's this negativity or, I guess this, when I tell people I'm from the Bronx, they go, “Ooh, I'm sorry.” And I am super proud of being from the Bronx. I'd never take, that, like when I hear that, when I say that, or growing up when I was in school, I love to read. So by nature, the way I speak and the way I present myself is something different. I went to college and I learned, and I'm also in city government, so public figure, right? I have a lot of people who would say, “Oh, you speak so well for someone from the Bronx.” And I'm like, what is that supposed to mean? in school, I had teachers tell students, they would staple McDonald's applications to kids and say, this is where you're going to end up in life. Or I had people who would tell me that I'm going to end up in jail, you know, and it was, it was disheartening. And that's not something that I take for granted because not everybody has that strong forward mindset, that is going to be able to overcome some of these things. I think for me, it fueled me. I was angry. I was like, I'm going to prove the world wrong that kids like me, kids from the Bronx can be successful and that we are important. That's, that's what I do for a living, is being able to help or create experiences for young people across the city. I think that there's a lot of work that needs to be done. But I think it taught me not to be scared. It taught me to stand up for myself. It taught me, street smarts, knowing what to do.

I was the first born in the US in my family so I felt there was a lot of pressure. I had to do all the translating, I had to do all the other stuff. My older sisters, I have two older sisters and a younger brother, they kind of carved the path. Cause they were born in Ecuador, so they came here.

I think the legal system wasn't in our favor, and my mother spent some time in jail that she didn't have to. They took her away from me, because she was proven innocent, it was the process. And at that time, I had, again, lawyers who would be like, “Oh, your mom's not going to be able to get out of this charging so much.” Initially, this started in Ecuador. She got arrested there, but it took a little while. It wasn't, it wasn't crazy. Then let her go. And then when she got to the US she got arrested again because they said, we don't know the laws in Ecuador. We don't know if you did something wrong. And I'm like, but she was proven innocent. Like, what do you mean? And they took her to jail. I think I was about 10, 11. I was like in the fifth grade. This is right before I hit puberty and stuff like that. So, at that time, I didn't, I didn't have my mom to explain to me what the hell a period was. I was angry, you know? I was angry at my mom too because she wasn't supposed to be in Ecuador. She went anyways, you know? And at that time, my brother also went with her. So she told everybody she was going to Mexico and she took my brother and I was so jealous, you know, it's like, why you don’t take me, but my brother experienced that trauma. He saw my mom get arrested. I wasn't old enough, to be able to visit her. My sisters were, so I never got to see her in jail, but it was a big absence, a motherly absence, so I was upset. I didn't know how to react.
What I wanted from my mom, that she didn't give it to me often, because she didn't feel like I needed it. I thought I needed it, but she's there like I'm okay. She got a whole community for her. Ny brother needed it because my brother didn't really have, like he wasn't the best student. He, he, he, he, my brother needs validation. I didn't, I thought I did. I wanted it. I didn't need it. I went from being able to go hang out with my friends, to be able to hang out with my dad, things like that, to my mom wanting, because she wanted to spend time with us. It's also because she was so scared of us getting into trouble and things like that. But she came back and she like took my freedom away. And I was like, “you've been gone for two years. What do you mean?”

And then I think one day I had to do a project for school and I did an interview with my mom about her journey coming to the US. She told me things that about like, cause she crossed the border, and the experience and the journey, she almost died, you know? And I think that opened my eyes and I said, I can't be angry all the time because one day she can die, one day she's not going to be here. And the last thing I'm going to say that is I didn't tell her I loved her. When that happened, I think I connected with her a little bit quicker. I understood why she's not so loving or, why she's not like, in Spanish it's cariñosa, but like, when you want to smother a kid, I understood why she was so tough and she felt like she had to be the man and the woman, and had to make sure she had her life together, but she didn't, and she had kids at a young age, so she didn't have fun.

It's really hard to tell my mom what I do. She still doesn't understand what I do. But the easy thing is they're like, in order to be successful, what they see the visible success is being a doctor, being a lawyer, being an accountant. They understand those things. Being a business owner. If you talk about other stuff, they go like, what is that? What do you do? A part of that one was one like, my mom, to make my mom proud, I wanted to be a lawyer. And I was in a program, it's the Saturday Night Lights. It's a sports program, that they used to use funding from cases that they would win. So the Manhattan D.A.'s office would do cybercrime or bank busts or drug busts. And they'll take that money and put it back in the community to reinvest in these kids. And I thought that was like “they do that and people don't know about it.” And I think that kind of changed my directory a little bit because I started, I started managing this program. They invited me to be part of the team. I now have this ability and this power to bring people together and organize. I think being with my mom and seeing her, she still expects a lot from me. Everybody says it, like they go, she talks so well of you. She doesn't do it to me directly. I know she's proud.

I was always too subconscious because I was a public figure. I was like, t I can't post things like that because I work in city government.” I think this last year was the year that I decided I'm going to control my narrative, my story, who I am, who I want to be. I just had so much fun dressing up and, and people would notice, they go, “Whoa, where'd you get that from?”
I always try to make a statement, I want to be remembered.
I can't walk around in the Bronx in a red suit or a blue suit. It's not smart. Red and blue. It's a gang color. Red is blood and blue is crypt, so depending on the area you're in, it can be mistaken or taken a certain way, so you have to be careful. I remember once, someone tried to do a logo for us, and they put red and blue, and I said, “uh uh, you can't do that, this is the Bronx, you can't do that.” So there are certain parts of this, certain colors. I'm in certain neighborhoods.

I already stand out, so I'm already displaced, but I don't ever want to feel like I don't belong.
I think that's a bigger piece of politicians being a public figure. A lot of the time they disconnect. They don't live in our communities anymore. They live in these nicer towns and then they are representing us and they don't really understand our problems. And I don't think they realize that that's a big piece to it, right? Then when I came back, I realized I need to be here. Because I wasn't being, I wasn't understanding, I was complaining, I was saying, “That doesn't make any sense.” Now I'm living it, and I go, “Oh my god, why are we all, we're experiencing it together?” And I think that's the power of that. And I think with my quilting, with my fashion, it's there like, try to make people smile.