Episode Description: MacArthur Fellow Cristina Jimenez shares her powerful journey from living as an undocumented teenager in fear and shame to co-founding United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the United States. In this deeply moving conversation, she reveals how finding her voice didn't happen in isolation—it happened in community, through action, and by refusing to let fear have the final word. Cristina offers profound insights about courage, community organizing, and why moving through fear (rather than eliminating it) is the key to creating lasting change.

What You'll Learn:

• How to build courage when the stakes feel impossibly high
• Why community action multiplies individual bravery
• The difference between hiding for safety vs. organizing for protection
• How to transform personal struggle into systemic change
• Strategies for moving through fear rather than being paralyzed by it
• Why silence and invisibility often increase rather than decrease risk

Key Takeaways:

• Courage isn't about eliminating fear—it's about feeling afraid and taking action anyway
• Individual voices become powerful through collective action and community organizing
• Your lived experience, however difficult, contains wisdom that the world needs
• Moving through fear rather than around it builds the muscle for sustained brave action
• Democracy requires all of us to participate, regardless of background or status

Time Stamps:

• [00:00] Introduction and Cristina's background
• [03:00] What it's like living as an undocumented American
• [08:00] How 9/11 intensified fears in immigrant communities
• [14:00] The transformation from fear to finding her voice
• [19:00] Managing hope and hopelessness in activism
• [24:00] How individual courage becomes collective power
• [30:00] Advice for taking action in overwhelming times

Lift Her Up

Support immigrant communities:

• Donate to United We Dream (UWD) and other immigrant rights organizations
• Contact your representatives about comprehensive immigration reform
• Learn about and support local immigrant-serving organizations in your community

Amplify the conversation:

• Share Cristina's book Dreaming of Home with your book club or social networks
• Attend local town halls and community meetings where immigration policies are discussed
• Follow and share the stories of immigrant organizers and activists

If You Liked This Story, Check Out These Episodes:

Susie Jaramillo: The first Latina CEO of a US media company, who nominated Cristina for The Uplifters

HMelissa Aviles-Ramos: NYC DOE Chancellor, who is championing immigrant student rightsost Bio: Aransas Savas is a leadership coach, behavioral researcher, and host of The Uplifters Podcast. With over 20 years of experience conducting research and design for companies like Disney, Weight Watchers, and Oprah Winfrey, she brings both analytical rigor and deep empathy to conversations about courage and change. Find her on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, or at theuplifterspodcast.com. Subscribe to The Uplifters on YouTube for full video episodes.

Keywords: immigrant rights, activism, courage, community organizing, DACA, undocumented Americans, MacArthur Fellow, social justice, fear, collective action, United We Dream, immigration policy, finding your voice

TUP EP 126

I might have burst into tears upon seeing her because her work has moved me so much. [00:00:45] Christina Humanez is an Ecuadorian American activist and community organizer. She's best known as the co-founder and former executive director of United. We Dream the largest immigrant youth-led [00:01:00] organization in the United States, and a key strategist behind daca.

A roadmap to show us how to face our fears, whatever they may be, how to find our [00:01:45] voices, no matter how much the systems may try to silence them, and the power of uniting as a community and how that can literally change the world for millions of others. She is brave. She is [00:02:00] badass, and I am really freaking excited to introduce her to you, Christina.

I'm crying

Cristina Jimenez: again.

Aransas Savas: Thank you for

Thank you.

Literally every [00:03:00] tiny thought and decision you made about where to travel, how to approach your education, where to work. But because most of us live in echo chambers, and I'll be honest, I grew up in Texas in the 1980s. I [00:03:15] felt like I should have known and had. I had a much deeper understanding of what you were describing than I did, but we live in echo chambers and we're only paying attention to what's impacting us directly as humans.

Cristina Jimenez: You know, it [00:03:45] was, it was truly a dream to be able to be at a place where our voices, people like me, get to tell our stories and be part of history and the [00:04:00] conversation, and to explore the contradictions and also the commonalities that many of us, as you know, whether you're an immigrant or not, that we share.

But then at 13, experiencing what it, what it's like to lose everything that you know [00:04:45] at home. The situation in Ecuador becomes unattainable. Like there's crisis of jobs, political crisis. My parents lose their jobs. So we end up fleeing poverty in 1998 and arriving [00:05:00] in Queens and sharing an apartment with a total of like nine different people in a one bedroom apartment in Amhurst, Queens, you know, very immigrant neighborhood and growing up.

And then you layer that the [00:05:45] fear that you and your family could be abducted and separated by immigration agents every day. Like the smallest thing, like go into the bank or walking to school or looking for a work

Cristina Jimenez: Totally outta your control. I talk about how, how I was so afraid in school of hanging out with different folks because I knew [00:06:15] that any interaction with school police or with NYPD, with law enforcement could lead to my deportation or the deportation of my family.

Became intense and overwhelming post the terrorist of nine 11, because [00:07:00] when that happens, and at that time I'm a, I'm a senior in high school, I literally. See more ice presence in my neighborhood. I hear of neighbors, Muslim [00:07:15] and immigrant that are disappearing. You see the news raids that are happening in the workplace and you start thinking, I'll be next.

And it's then where me and [00:08:00] you know, hundreds of young people and undocumented communities start getting engaged to fight these deportations and in that fear that I could be the next person. And I remember Marie Gonzalez been one of the first [00:08:15] young people I met. Not in person, but on the news, fighting the deportation of her and her family.

I live in shame. I have believed these lies that I have no right to ask for anything in this country, and yet I was just part of an effort that stopped [00:09:00] a deportation of a young person like me, and that taste of the kind of power or community protection that. Accomplish when we act together, even in some of the greatest and [00:09:15] most difficult moments, was what transformed my life, my voice, and my sense of self, and how I found my voice and, and power eventually.

Aransas Savas: today. Yeah. How are you feeling today because you wrote this book in a very different climate?

And what I will say is that actually the first Trump administration was one of the motivators to get me to write this book because if there was [00:10:30] one thing that got me through. Difficult years where we also saw mass separation of families, deportations. So much pain in our communities. It was community and it [00:10:45] was collective power that got us through it.

And so I, I named this because again, I feel like we're in a, in both like a new moment, but similar. And I think that the answer to this moment. We have to be sober about what we're facing. We are [00:11:30] facing undemocratic conditions in this country, and that should worry. Yeah, all of us, not just immigrants, all of our rights, the right to speak, to use our [00:11:45] constitutional rights, to share our perspectives, to take action, to get engaged, to just be our being.

[00:12:30] And so I do think that that's. Opportunity. That's where my hope is at, and I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it happen across the country, but I do think it's important to not kid ourselves about the dangers and the [00:12:45] threats that we are facing. Using immigrants as a way to test how far they can go, how fast they can destroy.

Aransas Savas: Yes. And I think [00:13:15] to your earlier point. The entire system is designed on making us feel like we can't use our individual and collective power to resist.

Whereas you were worried about getting abducted, you were worried about spending years in inhumane treatment in detention centers, right? Like mm-hmm. The scale of these issues are very [00:14:00] different, and at the end of the day, we all have to figure out like how to use our voices regardless of what our fears are and mm-hmm.

I mean, I don't wanna be alarmist, but. Be honest, we all are at risk of ending up in detention centers right now.

Aransas Savas: And I think facing those fears and finding your way through community, no matter what we're trying to do, if it's to write a book or change the freaking world, absolutely. Is [00:14:30] a lesson we can take from your journey.

Cristina Jimenez: Oh yeah. As I've been touring the country, talking about dreaming of home and, uh, bringing communities together to share our stories, I get often the question, you know, in both like young and older folks have asked me [00:15:00] this question, like, how do you shed the fear?

Fear in many ways for me, you know, has not fully gone away. And because as [00:15:45] we've seen like. Regardless of your immigration status, and this has never been about legality, which is what I tried to show in my book. It's about who we define as American, who we wanna be included in, [00:16:00] that we as Americans, and it's so racialized.

And also [00:16:30] fear does not have to stop us and define who we're. What we're capable of doing. So for me, it's not, you know, the question is not like, oh, how do we get rid of fear? Lemme lemme give you, you know, the, the top three things to get rid of your fear. [00:16:45] You know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not here like sharing a self-help book around, like, how do we get rid of our fears?

She has no, and then you [00:17:30] see this transformation that happens when I meet other young people fighting for their rides and against tuition hikes in New York City, immigrant and non-immigrant alike. And I started thinking, well, people think that they could do that. Wow. And then [00:17:45] I meet people that are fighting deportations.

It doesn't mean that you have to end up being an [00:18:15] organizer and you know, a leader and in the movement you could choose how to engage, but we're not defined by the fear. And so what I wanted to do is offer dreaming of home as a guide. [00:18:30] How we can go ourselves through a process of transformation, of finding our own power and tapping into that and finding power in community to create change and to address the injustices that we [00:18:45] may see in our communities and in the world.

Aransas Savas: Yeah. Well, and I think so much of our [00:19:15] collective inaction right now comes from a deep.

Getting these little signals that like things are getting better. Yeah.[00:20:00]

Yeah, [00:20:30] I feel worried and, and overwhelmed and just uncertain about the future. So, you know, I, I definitely wanna be very real that, that it's part of our lives right now. Like, if we're not going through those like highs and lows, [00:20:45] like we're just not human. Mm-hmm. And again, that was again, part of my goal and my, my intention in the book that I'm just telling the story of.

Every day. That's just not the truth. Like, you know, our authentic lives right now is that we're going [00:21:30] through those highs and lows. So I'll say that every day is a practice around this for me. But what I will say is that when I start to feel just very overwhelmed when I can't see the answers and I'm feeling like I'm not doing enough and what I'm [00:21:45] doing may not get us to even make an inch of change, the thing that helps me change that and shift that.

It isn't those conversations that I'm like, oh my God. It's like we're the majority. Yeah. Look at all of us doing all of this work. But I will say my call and then when I get very like, you know, I think this conversation not only gave me hopeful, but they [00:22:30] gave me bumped up and then like very serious about like, okay, we are on the business and building power, building change and we gotta be disciplined about it.

Or trans communities that are also in the front [00:23:15] lines of many of these attacks. It's up to all of us. Mm-hmm. To make sure that we create the change that we wanna see in this country. So that's the assignment, you know? So then the question is how do we do and what do we do? And [00:23:30] I think the thing that I'm conscious about is that, you know, I was really afraid of even like the book being out in this moment.

The added layer of protection that I have now as a naturalized citizen. And I think about for the people who are undocumented and they're leaving in such a moment where they cannot even go [00:24:15] outta their homes to my groceries, how am I showing up with the added protection privilege that I have for them and for this country?

Aransas Savas: Yeah. I think it's hard to know what that role is and where we can [00:24:45] get involved and where we can use our privilege.

Cristina Jimenez: so important and I'm so glad that you're sharing that because that may sound so simple, but [00:25:15] I have to tell you this, immigrants people close.

Sharing dreaming of home with your neighbors and with your networks so that people start understanding like, what is this all about? Why are we even here? And or joining, you know, local community [00:26:00] organizations in your neighborhood, in your state, or even just sharing with immigrants around your life that you care about them.

All of that, all of that matters. So you know, there's no one way you shouldn't make whatever you think about perfection being the enemy of the good. Mm-hmm. Actually, all [00:27:00] of it helps in a moment where the goal is to dehumanize immigrant communities and lock them up and de them to other places in the world.

And you found your way out from the [00:27:45] shadows and your voice grew by just sort of stepping in and engaging. And so I think what I'm taking from your story and from your advice right now is. Tiptoe in, if you must. You don't have to start with a helmet and a protected [00:28:00] vest, but step in and then see where that takes you.

Cristina Jimenez: Yeah. You know, and the biggest thing I'll say is that alone and in isolation, we'll lose. Mm-hmm. In silence, we lose. Mm-hmm. In community, we can win [00:28:30] an

Aransas Savas: invisibility.

Cristina Jimenez: In silence and in hiding.

Taking action, becoming more visible, being part of a community. Actually, it's where I'm safe. It's what makes them [00:29:30] more safe. I do think that that stays true today, but I'll say that for undocumented people who like right now, like don't wanna share their stories, don't wanna like, you know, put themselves out there, it's like, so, mm-hmm.

Aransas Savas: Us. Yeah. And I think that is such a, an important point here is that. Number one, we're all immigrants except for the indigenous Americans.

It's true for all of us. We're all, we are all new Americans really? Because America is new.

I mean, fact is what inspire. [00:31:00] Seek refuge and to seek a new life here. And at the same time, and this is, you know, why in German of home, I also, uh, help the reader and invite the reader to connect some of the historical dots here. But so [00:31:15] important to anchor ourselves on those values that in many ways drive migration.

And so we, you know. Before 1920, the country had technically an open border policy. Mostly people from Europe were coming, uh, to the country. And all they had to do was like sign up, register, [00:32:00] and they could live here, reunite with their family members. Our government used to help them reunite with their family members, right?

So you know, a lot of us dunno that. I certainly did not learn that. I didn't know it. No. American history doesn't teach that. Imagine. You know, the eugenics scientists, right? Like, we're like using [00:32:45] all of these scientific data and writing the SAT questions. That was another

Aransas Savas: big shock for me in reading it. I was like, what?

Yeah,

Who are white from South Africa. Mm-hmm. And at the same time, the Knight Refugee and asylum for [00:33:30] black and brown people, you know, seeking refuge who've grown up here. Yeah. And is trying to basically take away the immigration status of many people that are here already legally. So, you know, I think that if we like [00:33:45] become more just aware of how the history and our, our legacy as a country has shaped many of the policies, I think that we start understanding why we're here, but also what would it take to get us to building a multiracial [00:34:00] democracy that stays true to is aspirational values.

Cristina Jimenez: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Here can't be themselves [00:34:45] here.

Of the military of some countries around the world. Even in the midst of that, there was a movement that was born of [00:35:30] young, courageous, undocumented people. Imagine that. Undocumented people who were risking their lives and who were risking deportation built a movement. I would also say not alone. Mm-hmm.

And so I truly believe that this is the moment [00:36:15] with a new movement. When a new movement, it's gonna rise.

Aransas Savas: I

Cristina Jimenez: believe it

For how we can lean into creating change instead of hiding and hoping that it'll change on.

Cristina Jimenez: Thank you. So good to be here.

And I got to like garden with Christina and go to the store with Christina and we just got to have like our lives together because she was just coaching me and talking [00:37:00] to me the entire time. So highly recommend the audible version and then I'll share all the action steps and bullets that you outlined.

Wherever you get your podcast and like, follow and rate our show, it'll really help us connect with more uplifters and it'll ensure you never miss one of these beautiful stories.

With that all hindsight, bring the sun to twilight. Lift you up.[00:38:15]

Musc: Lift you up.

Lift you up. Whoa, lift you up.

lift, you

Beautiful. I cried. It's that little thing you did with your voice, right? In the pre chorus, right? Uh, Uhhuh. I [00:39:00] was like, mommy, stop crying. Mommy. Stop crying. You're disturbing the peace.