4. Mónica Ramirez - Justice for Migrant Women

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Welcome to the Wealth Gap warriors podcast where we dive deep into the pressing issue of wealth inequality in communities of color, cultural money beliefs and personal finance. Some of our families are struggling. Even people are actually homeless. Join us as we interview inspiring individuals and organizations across the United States who are dedicated to eradicating this disparity through their creative solutions and innovative approaches.

Together, let's explore how we can build a more equitable society for all. Here's your host, Luis Barajas. Let's get into it.

Well, everybody, welcome today to our podcast Wealth Gap warriors. And we are so excited to have Monica Ramirez. I'll tell you how excited we are is that my wife, my co host, my guest co host today has joined us because she wants to learn more about Monica Ramirez, founder and president of the nonprofit justice for Migrant Women. And I want to share with you a little bit of her bio. I guess I can go pages and pages and pages, but I'm going to read this because she's just amazing. Monica Ramirez hails from a farm worker family that settled out of the migrant stream to live year round in rural Ohio. She's a longtime advocate, organizer, social entrepreneur and attorney, fighting to eliminate gender based violence and secure gender equity for over two decades. Probably more than that, she has fought for the civil and human rights of women, children, workers, Latinos and immigrants. In 2003, Monica created the first legal project in the United States dedicated to addressing gender discrimination against farm worker women, which she scaled to create Esperanza, the immigrant women's legal initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition to founding justice for Migrant Women, she co founded Alianza Nacional de Campesinos and served president of their board until 2018. Monica is recognized as a thought leader and prominent voice in the Latinx community. She's been awarded numerous awards for her work, including The Harvard Kennedy School's inaugural Gender Equity Change Maker Award, the 2022 James Beard Leadership Award, the Feminist Majority's Global Women's Rights Award, and inclusion on Forbes Mexico's 2018 list of 100 Most Powerful Women, among other distinctions. Monica is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago, the Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, and Harvard Kennedy School. And we are just so proud, Monica, to have you here today. And I'm really super honored. And I think that as you know, we're starting this podcast. One of the goals and purposes is for for you to share context, not as much as what you do, not for your nonprofits, which we'll get into. But I want you to jump in and give us some context about your life that led you to work in this area. Like your why share your personal story, why you've given up everything working at high profile law firms to focus on, on exactly what you're doing now.

Thank you. And just thanks so much for having me. And it's, and it's wonderful to have your co host here too.

You know, I'm actually sitting right now in my hometown, Fremont, Ohio. It's where I was born and raised and my why is my family and our families and our community.

You know, I'm the proud daughter of migrant farmworkers as you mentioned, and my family was really fortunate because we were able to settle out of the migrant stream for decades. My family used to literally crisscross this nation picking fruits and vegetables in different places and living in migrant camps and enduring a lot of really bad conditions. And they were lucky because two different farmers, one farmer helped my mom's family and one farmer helped my dad's family. And you know, my parents started working in the fields when they were 5 and 8 years old. So little, little kids. And so the fact that we were able to break out of the migrant stream is really significant and I'm really fortunate that I was able to grow up in a place year and stay year round. I didn't have to migrate for work like my parents did and my family did and. But in the process of growing up, my parents wanted us, myself and my siblings to know where we came from. And they always would say to remember where we came from. And it wasn't so much our like the need that as much as it was about coming from this humble background of coming from a migrant farm worker family. So when I was a kid, I think I was probably like 12 years old and my dad took us back to Mississippi where he used to pick cotton and he took us to see the one room shack where he and my grandparents and his siblings used to live. We met the farm owner who at one point his farm, the farm he worked at was a plantation. You know, so like the history is deep. And when I was a little kid, my parents made a point of teaching us our history and making us understand that there was struggle and there's been success and but there's also more work to do and that we, myself and my siblings, that we had a responsibility to give back. And so you know, when you read my bio, you said, you know, for more than two decades, as I've been an attorney for more than two decades. But to your point, like I started My activism when I was 14 years old. And that was possible because my parents taught me as a little girl to be proud of where I come from and to fight for what's right. So that's my why, you know, there's.

It'S, it's just an incredible story, but I want more context because what happens is that I grew up in the Battery of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles, and Angie did too. Right. And so what happens though is our parents didn't have any education. My dad came from Mexico with a very little education. I think my mom dropped out of high school when she had me at the age of 15 or just turned 16 years old. And usually there's a person in your life or a teacher or somebody who had this life defining moment in which they had a conversation which they believed in you, where you felt like you can transition to a completely different world. And I see a different world because, for example, like, I had never really been out of East Los Angeles and I got accepted to UCLA and Stanford, but it was only like UCLA was only like 20 miles away, but it was another world. It was another planet as far as I'm concerned when I got there. And so was there anybody besides your parents that gave you the confidence, especially as a Latina woman, to go into continue college and then get. And go and get a law degree? Who. You know, I feel like I'm missing a key person in your life on the education side that inspired you to take that, that path.

You know, it wasn't one person. It's been many. You know, I think a lot of us, especially where, you know, you're, you're very accomplished people and I've been fortunate to do some stuff that I think is pretty important in my career and, and it's been many people along the way, right. So I would say my parents first. But, you know, the way I got started as an activist was the local newspaper had an entire pullout section of the paper that was dedicated to fishermen who came to my town every year. And they didn't include farm workers. And I didn't understand why. And my dad said that I should go ask them. I should go ask the newspaper. And so being from this little tiny town in Ohio, I literally rode my bike to the newspaper to ask them why. And the editor of that paper was probably the first person because I think, number one, I embarrassed him. He hadn't even thought of it. They hadn't even considered it. And he actually was the father to some kids that went to the same school. That I attended. And so rather than telling me to just go away or, you know, bug off or whatever, he, he said write about it. And so that person, Roy Wilhelm, gave me my newspaper beat. I started writing about farm workers and Latinos in my area, my community.

But after that, you know, there were numerous people of teachers, Deb Streaker, who, you know, when I was a freshman in high school, I experienced a situation in which a good friend of mine yelled some racial slurs at some Latino boys. And it was really like heartbreaking for me and confusing. And I talked to my teacher, who was my Spanish teacher, Deb Streaker, and told her I wanted to create a club to educate people because I thought we just needed to educate people about our differences and then that would then stop incidents like that, right? So Deb Streaker helped me start the Multicultural Club, which was the first thing I ever created. And so it goes on and on, right? I mean, even most recently when everything happened with the Times up movement and the Dear Sisters letter that I wrote that was published in Time magazine and helped to create what is the, the Time's up movement, that was a very overwhelming time for me. I mean, I was already a practicing attorney for many years, working in two different part time jobs in Washington D.C. trying to make ends meet. You know, I had already graduated from all my degrees, you know, I'd graduated from Harvard and law school and all the places. But I wasn't equipped for that moment because overnight after the letter went viral, my whole life changed. And I remember just crying because I felt so overwhelmed. And there was somebody named Christy Halbaker who you might know, who at the time worked for caa. And she just sat me down and basically said, you've got this and we're going to help you and we're going to support you. So I can't attribute it to one person because the reality is it's been many people at different stages who have just been saying, like, keep going, like, we believe in you, we see you, we're going to help you, we're going to support you. And, and they.

Have been so important because for just as many people as there have been who wanted to support, there have probably been an equal number, if not more that have not been supportive, who told me not to go to college, who told me not to become a lawyer, who told me I couldn't, you know, practice law, you know, like, I shouldn't be doing X, Y or Z things. So, you know, it's really been those different figures along the way through my Education, my law practice, creating different nonprofits that have kind of held me at the most critical moments to not let me stop.

That's amazing.

Very similar stories. I interview people across the country. It's almost synchronistic. It's almost like God puts people on their path to continue their journey to what they were born to do. Because from I'm hearing you at the age of 14, not a lot of 14 year old anybody, girls or boys, are paying attention to what's happening around them that's affecting their community. Right. And you already had, you already had that. You could feel when something was not right and you would do something about it. That's, that's amazing. So they share with us about your organization, share with us.

What you do, why you started it, how you started it, what was, what were your intentions when you first started it. Are you already doing that kind of work or do you still have a lot more work to do? But guide us, tell us what are you doing?

Well, so justice for Migrant Women, which is one of my organizations because I have justice for My Women, the Latinx House and then Poderistas, I'm also co founder of that. I do a lot of things. I'm like you, I'm like an entrepreneur. I'm out there just kind of moving where we need to move to make change. And so for justice for Migrant Women, we focus on the civil and human rights of migrant women workers. And it actually.

Has taken two decades to really build it into what it is. So it started off as a legal project in Florida. That first legal project that I started back in 2003, that was the first iteration of what's become justice for Micro Women. Then I scaled it, I took it to Southern Poverty Law center and turned it into a national project focused on immigrant women workers, not only farm workers. And then finally in 2014, I was able to spin it off to become its own nonprofit organization. And we actually didn't become a nonprofit, a fully recognized nonprofit until just a couple of years ago. So it's been this 20 year journey. And we do a lot of different work. We provide humanitarian aid to migrant women and their families in Ohio, where we're headquartered, but also in different parts of the country. We do policy advocacy, we do community outreach and education. And a big part of our work which probably will resonate with you is narrative change. We do a lot of narrative change work around who are migrant women, who are migrant people in this country, but also who are rural people. Because we're very much focused on the needs of migrant and rural women. And a lot of the work that we do related to rural women focuses on leadership development. And the narrative work is kind of changing this misconception that rural America is just white men, because that's really what people think when they think about rural America. So we do a lot of narrative work to try to change that perception. And then justice for migrant women incubates the Latinx House. And the Latinx House is the organization that I co founded with two filmmakers, Olga Segura and Alex Martinez Kondraki, and that is focused on Latinx representation. We actually launched it Sundance film festival in 2020 and have been doing a lot of different work, you know, to really amplify the many contributions of the community. And the most recent big endeavor that we've had as an organization is the creation of a festival called Raisado, the Latinx House Festival, which takes place in Aspen, Colorado.

So go ahead. Well, I was going to say this is where Angie's going to come in, because last night when we were having a conversation about you, she was also asking about. I'll let Angie ask. Go ahead.

Okay.

So I was going to ask to what you were saying, you prepared the women to educate them to get better jobs or what does your nonprofit do?

So we work with migrant women to lift up their power. And the training that we do, the education that we do is really around their rights. So, for example, we just had a delegation of women that we took to Washington, D.C. they were migrant women workers who were from eight different states, including California. And we took them to meet with members of Congress in the US Department of Labor. We've taken them to meet with folks at the White House and they are advocating for their rights. In particular, on this last visit in September, we talked a lot about mental health and the mental health stressors of being migrant women in this country and being low paid and, and some of the changes that they want to see Congress make as well. As, you know, when we had the meeting with the Department of Labor, they were really clear with the Department of Labor that there needed to be more done specifically to address this issue of mental health, but also just generally to improve the workplace condition. And so we don't really do job training, but we do a lot of leadership development. So this Saturday, we had a program called Rural Women Lead. We just announced it, we're launching it formally in February, but we had a branch here in Ohio and we brought about 70 rural women together for this, this branch where we were focusing on rural women's Leadership. So from volunteerism to seeking a political appointment to running for office, and really kind of seeing ourselves in all of those places because we do lead our communities as you know, and so now kind of helping people to understand what is the highway of opportunities that exist and what are the on ramps and off ramps to be able to get those opportunities. So that's more of what the education work is like that we do.

Well, that's amazing, because being a woman and being, you know, working in the fields and being able to go to Washington, D.C. i mean, the confidence that they have and they. They learn more about what's really out there and the goals that they could reach one day, that. That's amazing.

They are amazing. You should just see them in action, you know, like the last day, you know, because I met with them the first day to help prepare them, to get them ready, and they were feeling shy. They didn't know each other. It was like the time that they had met because they came from eight different states. And the last day, it was incredible because they were, you know, speaking out for each other. You know, there was one woman who was on the delegation. Sadly, her husband passed away, also a farm worker. He passed away from cancer. And someone else in the delegation, you know, got up in this room full of these folks from Department of Labor and said, you know, we don't. I don't have it as bad as this person has it. You know, this is what's happening in her life, and we need you to take action for her. So seeing that kind of like bonding and solidarity and not only speaking out for themselves, but for others and for each other, it was. They're amazing.

Share some stories to our audience of what migrant farm workers, especially Latina migrant farm workers, deal with or struggle with, because, you know, we've talked about. We're giving them. You guys are working together to. To give them more confidence, build leadership roles, be able to speak up. But what are some of the atrocities or inequalities or things that women. Because again, because even Angie asked me, well, is it just women? Are they helping migrant farmworkers, the men? But what is it that the women. What is it that Monica is so focused on the women and what are they going through that she feels that they need that extra special attention and help?

Yeah. So, you know, when I started my kind of journey doing this advocacy work in a more formal way, I was. I was 18 years old, and I got a job, a summer job working at a legal services office that helped farmworkers. And I was the summer.

Assistant. I was a summer secretary, and I answered the phones, you know, did all those sorts of things. And I remember really clearly that this woman called, and it was before human trafficking was even recognized by the law in this country. And she was a victim of human trafficking. And she shared with me about how her documents had been taken and how she'd been locked up. And, you know, somehow she miraculously was able to make a call. And I remember telling these other people in the office about it, but she was one woman, and that office had very limited resources. And the cases that they tended to take were cases that impacted many people. They were impact cases. And so that one woman situation was not something that they could address, because it was one person, you know, and that. That memory is really what motivated me to eventually create my first legal project. Because over time, I realized, you know, farm worker women are estimated to be between 25 and 30% of the population of the workforce. About a million farmworker women exist in our country, are working in agriculture. And so for a lot of people, because they were only a minority of the workforce, even though farm worker women have these very specific, unique issues, they weren't. People weren't focusing on them because they weren't the majority of the workforce. And so as I started to do my research and my work and, you know, I went and I worked in the field so that I could better understand because I never had to work in the field. And the more I learned was like, one, they have these unique issues, and two, people aren't focusing on them because there isn't. There aren't enough resources, there are not enough dollars to be able to support the work, to be able to, quote, unquote, justify focusing on it. So, you know, what I learned early on was that these issues that I'm going to talk to you about are still existing today. Number one, sexual harassment is a rampant issue.

It is so rampant that the two studies that have been done on this issue out of California, one in the late 80s, indicated that 90% of the women interviewed said sexual harassment was a major problem for them. The second one that was done in 2014, 80% of the women said that sexual harassment was a major problem for them. You know, sexual harassment is so widespread that there's this very famous article that was published that talked about how farm worker women refer to the fields, the green motel. Sexual harassment is considered. It's like a term and condition of employment. It's expected. People expect to be sexually harassed, and the violence is. It's you know, it runs the range to some of the most egregious things you can imagine. So that has been the specific focus of my work, is addressing workplace sexual violence. And many of the cases I brought early in my career were focused on that issue, which is a difficult issue for lots of reasons, but one of them being that that's an issue that's taboo. People don't talk about it. People are afraid to come forward to get help. And there isn't a lot of help to work on that issue because there aren't a lot of bicultural bilingual services. If people are undocumented, it's very scary to try to get help. There's so many reasons why. You know, I wrote a report called Injustice on our Plates and co wrote it. And in it I talk about this problem and I call the farm worker women and the immigrant women who are experiencing this problem. I write that they are considered the, quote, unquote, perfect victims in the eyes of the perpetrator because they are undocumented. They don't always know their rights, they don't always speak English, they don't know where to get help, they're not connected in the community to be able to find support networks, et cetera. And so all of those things are things that make them particularly vulnerable and unfortunately have resulted in these very high rates of violence against them. So that's one issue. But then you take that issue and it's coupled with wage theft, pesticides exposure, women are the first to be laid off. They tend to be segregated into jobs that are considered, quote unquote, women's work, which tend to pay less and have less opportunities for advancement. Still today, farm worker women are being paid on their male family members checks. So they themselves are not being paid their own paycheck, which is really bad for a lot of reasons. You know, if you're a victim of domestic violence, you don't necessarily have your own money to be able to leave if you need to, because your pay is not even being given to you. You know, someday if we see immigration reform in this country, farm worker women who have not been paid their own paychecks aren't going to have those wage stubs to be able to show how long they've been working or where they've been working. So there's all sorts of reason, you know, issues that farm worker women are experiencing in my work over time. It started with farm worker women and I believe that as we help farm worker women who are the centers of their families, that we are by extension Helping their entire family and helping the entire community. But I focus very Angie, because there wasn't a focus there by a lot of advocates because there were too limited resources for people to feel like they could actually just, you know, specifically spend their time representing farm worker women. And I was lucky because I was able to get, you know, special grants to be able to do that work and to create those projects. But my work has evolved over time because what I realized as I've been doing the work is that first of all, farm worker women are not only farm worker women, they're domestic workers, they're restaurant workers. Right. They're doing like two and three jobs at a time. And across these different industries, hotel work, restaurant work, all these low paid industries, many of the same harms exist. And so over time, my work, which began specifically focusing on farmworker women, it started to broaden to other low paid workforces who are experiencing similar issues and whose kind of.

Connectivity, I guess really is around the shared experience is around being low paid immigrant women in this country who are then being exposed to some of these terrible situations like economic and sexual exploitation.

Have you seen any women succeed in that? I mean, have they been, been able to get to a point where they're the manager now and they're able to, to take more leadership? And it's not just all men anymore. Have, have you seen that?

I have. And you know, actually I was at.

And I was at an event recently, a couple weeks ago, and I had someone come to me who now works for a big company and he said, my mom still works in the field, but she became a crew leader and she has an all women crew. And that's what we've started to see. We've started to see women become crew leaders and they have started hiring other women and they are keeping each other safe by working together.

That's amazing. We got to get more women up there.

I want to share with you that everything that you talked about of what the immigrant women go through is just astounding. I mean, you sit there and you don't realize the struggles that they have. Right. We talked about the leadership, but they're the day to day struggles that they have are just sometimes so complex. Right. There's a lot of issues because all of those issues that you mentioned not only focus, they focus on the heart, they focus on relationships, they focus on money, they focus on Andy, you know, mental health. I mean, there's only so much a human being can take after a while. And so the question that I have for you is. Are you right now, is your organization basically focused on Ohio, or is it a national. Are you give a national platform? Because one of my goals after this, you know, is how do I let people know of the work that you're doing? Because we're in California, and as you know, in central California, you have so many migrant farm workers there, and how do you have an outlet there that you focus on? Because.

The need is so, so big. But at the end of the day, sometimes I who advocate for building wealth of the Latino community, most of the time, I'm preaching to the choir. The people that I really need to get to don't have time to watch a YouTube video or listen to a podcast or read a book that I've written or whatever. Right. We're talking to each other. And so the people that need it the most are the ones that are getting the least amount of information to be able to do that. I don't know if that's a frustration for you. I don't know if you want to address that, but that's how I feel.

Well, I think there's a few things there. So, one, we are a national organization, but our work actually extends internationally. So we're actually working on a project now related to sexual violence, and we're bridging between migrant women in Ohio and migrant women in South Africa. So our work is national. We are headquartered in Ohio, which is where I was born and raised, but we do work in other parts of the country. Our relief efforts that we've led, especially during COVID they actually reached 35 states in the country and Puerto Rico. So the advocacy happens by having people on the ground in different places, but also because we have a very large network of partner organizations that we work with, and some of the women who participated in our programs, like our Healing Voices project, which is a mental health project, and our farm worker ambassador program, they actually. In California. Healing Voices was piloted as a project in California. So we do have that connection as well. And in fact, most. One of the recent things I did last year or this past year was during Coachella, we used the Humans who Feed Us project that we created, and. And we focused on migrant women in Coachella, and we did portraits and profiles and a video and a couple of events at Coachella Music Festival to elevate.

What a great venue.

So we. So we've done different work in California. But whether my frustration. Whether it's a frustration that exists around wealth, you know what my frustration is around wealth is that people, I don't Think that communities, like the community I serve, should be educated on things like wealth because there's this perception that they have so little. Right. And there's always this. This idea that, like, power and wealth go together and that somehow if you're poor, you don't have power, which we don't believe that at all. Right. But people aren't doing courses with farm workers on wealth. You know, like, that isn't a focus. And when my Thea passed away, actually, she was a farm worker her whole life. And when my Thea passed away and then my cousins were going through her belongings, they found all these, like, purses and different things. And my Thea had been saving money, like, for years and years. We don't even know for how long, but they found, like, five dollar bill or ten dollars bill. Like, they found all this cash that she had been putting in different places. And so, you know, no, it's $100,000 at a time, but, like, 10, 15, $20, like, that's. That's part of. That's part of the conversation about how we build wealth and how we save. Right. But I don't think a lot of people are doing that work to get that message to our community because there is a bias that. Because they are poor, that isn't a conversation that they want to have or that they need. And so I'm grateful for what you're doing, and I'm grateful for your attempts to figure out how to reach them, because they, like everyone else, they want to know how to do better, not just for themselves, but for future generations. Like, how do they make sure that their kids are going to be okay and their grandkids are going to be okay?

Yeah. Well, then maybe, you know, you and I have to have a conversation after the podcast or sometime in the near future to talk about maybe building some kind of wealth program for migrant farm workers.

That's my purpose in life. My passion is to help give access to, you know, competent, ethical, fiduciary advice to people who don't have that access. It's always been that way for. And I've done it for my grandmother and my parents.

So what do you struggle with today? What are your biggest frustrations? Not with migrant farm workers, but in building your organization, Whether it's raising money, whether it's having politicians support you, whether it's not having enough resources. What do you tolerate? What are you supporting? What. What do you need help with that? Sometimes you just kind of throw your hands up or do like, you know, the, The, The. The emoji that goes like this, where you.

Yeah.

And over your face. And I was like, I can't believe it. What are you tolerating still? Because I cannot see. Right anybody, after listening to you, who wouldn't have the heart to want to help you out. But at the end of the day, we know that the reality is that we live in a world where everybody's focused on so many different things that, you know, they hear the story, but then they move on to something else.

Yeah.

So what are your frustrations?

Well, for the. For the Latinx community, the frustration is that, you know, philanthropy is still only giving, like, 1% of all contributions to our community. And we're 65 million people and growing. So that's a huge frustration because we feel the effects of that. You know, we're. We're not actually specifically a Latinx serving organization. We serve migrant women, and they come from different backgrounds, but because I'm Latina leader, we are. People view us as a Latinx organization, and so we feel the effects of that.

And. And have. You know, and it's a struggle. Like, most people don't realize that this organization, justice for Migrant Women, we did not receive any funding until 2019.

So prior to 2019. So from 2014 to 2019, when I started spinning it off to make it its own nonprofit, it was funded by my credit cards and by my. My family savings account. That's how we paid for the work, because we didn't have money. And so it was myself and one other volunteer, and we were just building the organization with those little resources that. That I was fortunate to be able to put towards the work. So, you know, 2019, we did our first funding, and it was because of the Dear Sisters letter. And I think in large part it was because people were ashamed that they hadn't paid attention to the issue of sexual violence against migrant women before the MeToo breakthrough. And so now, you know, I've been doing this work. What I feel like is my whole life and.

A frustration is that I feel like even though, you know, I have all the right degrees, I went to the right schools, you know, proven track record. When I meet with funders, I still have to prove myself in a way that I'm sure that. That other people and someone who's not Latina probably wouldn't have to like, their record speaks for themselves, and my record should speak for itself. But unfortunately, with funders, they don't always see it, and so it takes a while before they will actually believe. 2, 3, 5, 6 meetings before they will actually believe that we can do what we say we're going to do, that we can fulfill our mission and do our work and, you know, we stick with it.

We're.

We're people who stick with it. But there should be a point at which we don't have to have six meetings before someone believes that, that I am a credible leader or that our organization is actually going to do what we say we're going to do. And, you know, the last thing I would say is that speaking specifically about the antisexual violence work that we do, because at justice for Migrant Women, that is the heart of our work. And the antisexual violence movement on the whole has never had enough funding. And most people might not realize that a few years ago, one of the major funders who funds antisexual violence work in the country shift to priorities. And so over the last couple of years, organizations across the country have really been suffering. Some of them have even closed down because this funder provided millions and millions of dollars to fund the antisexual violence community and antisexual violence work and then shifted priorities. One, it shouldn't have been on one funder to fund an entire movement. So that's just the other funders needed to step up to fund the work to fund the movement. But my frustration is that still today, even though we know that sexual violence has always been a problem and it has always been an issue that affects a lot of different people, not just migrant women, it's not being funded in the way that it needs to. And so basically, what I've said, you know, to other funders and when I've been in spaces where I've been asked to speak or asked to do a pitch or what have you, is like, as a woman of color in this country who works on a huge societal issue, I feel as though we are being asked to hold an entire movement on our backs and to do the work for free. And that just can't be the way it is. And that can't be the way that things continue. And the work will not continue unless it starts to be funded at the rate that it needs to be funded at. And that just our organization, but the.

Movement as a whole.

It'S amazing. So just a couple more questions for you, and have there been any epiphanies along the way from when, you know, 20 years ago, from, I don't know, maybe at the age of 14 to now that you've learned? I'll give you some. Like, for example, I Left, I was working at a major firm with my clients were multimillionaires and a couple of billionaires. And I was doing planning, financial planning for them. And then I had some personal tragedy, and I went back to the barrio, and I mean, to go open up an office here and help them. Right. One of my biggest epiphanies were back then that I wasn't aware of, is that you can't help people sometimes who aren't ready to be helped or don't want to be helped as much as they're. They need the help. Right. I'll give you one more epiphany that when I. When I struck. When I, you know, went to ucla, I got my MBA at Claremont Graduate School. I'm like, one of the first Latinos the country. And I've written books, and when I go back sometimes that I still find that I'm still not being supported by. By Latinos. Like I said, we're a lot of Latinos. And. And sometimes the people that have gotten me here to this point to be able to be sustainable has been, you know, Anglo people, Jewish people that have not been Latinos. I remember trying to get my testimonials for my first book. I couldn't get one Latino to give me a testimonial for the Latino Journey to Financial Greatness until I got probably five or six really famous people who are non Latino. So. But with that being said, you know, we continue going forward on. On the work that we're doing. Any epiphanies you've had along the way that have kind of changed the way sometimes you look at the work you're doing?

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the first important lessons I had as an attorney was, you know, I had this case involving this woman who had been recruited to work from Florida. So she was working in Florida. A recruiter took her to work in South Carolina. It was a very, very sad case. And I was mad. You know, I was outraged and wanted to fight and get justice. And I had all these ideas about what we would do, and.

She didn't want that. She didn't want any of it. She wanted to go home. And we. So that's what we did. We helped repatriate her back to her country because that's what she wanted. And that lesson was important because at the end of the day, it was her life, and it was her case, and it was her decision. And I might have had all these plans that I thought, you know, I thought we could win the case. And I Thought we could sue this person or what have you. But as a young attorney, I had to learn that lesson early that, that, that my job was to present opportunities and options and explain the way the system works and do my best at whatever I was going to do on that person's behalf. But, but at the end of the day, it was that person's decision. And I needed to learn that lesson then because, and I don't think people always learn it, frankly. I think sometimes in advocacy we, we have a way that we think things should be done and we push for a certain decision or what have you. And, and I needed to learn that Lesson as a 25 year old attorney so that I could carry that with me. And so throughout my work and as I've been mentoring other attorneys and things, that's a lesson I always share. We present the options, we explain to people how it works, but at the end of the day, it's their decision, it's their life, and we have to just support whatever it is that they decide they want to do. And I think the other that I've been thinking about a lot lately.

Is around leadership. And you know, I've been in this work for a long, long time. And my friend Tarana Burke, who, who created the MeToo movement and is this phenomenal, inspiring human, she said to me once that we do the hard work of the heart work. And, and I believe that she's right. And as I've been thinking about leadership lately, I was just thinking when it comes to the work that I do and the people that I work with and work alongside, I think that for us and for me, leadership is really about love. You know, it's about love of people, love of a community, love of a country. And I think leadership is love in action. And that's like, I'm going to hold on to that because the work that, that, that I do, the work that we do as an organization, it's really hard. You know, every day it's really hard. We are, we are literally managing human crises and devastation and heartbreak. And for me, it's really important to remember that this work that we are doing, it is love in action. And like, that is where I have to be focused, is like never losing sight of that. Because I don't think that you can sustain yourself in this work without realizing that it's love. And that when things get hard and too difficult to move forward, that we have to come back to the heart and how our heart is doing and how other people's hearts are doing and. And how we can use that collective care and use that in a way that's going to help us progress. So I think those are probably my two biggest epiphanies.

That's phenomenal. And you are awesome and inspiring as well.

What about how do you feel about the Latino youth or coming in to help you? Because the thing is, you know, how do you recruit? You know, I found that for a while, I couldn't find young Latinos to come in and on the wealth management side, have a sense of purpose. It was more a sense of how much money can I make versus how who can I help. I'm suddenly seeing that with all the podcasts and work that I'm doing, I'm starting to attract a lot of Latino youth that are interested in the financial areas, but also they have a heart and they're. They've got a purpose.

All right, because what you're doing requires, you know, there has to be more than a Monica, right? There has to be a lot of people behind it that you're attracting, that, you know, we leave a legacy at some point also that come in and do the. The hard work of the heart work as. As you say, are. Are you seeing people that are interested in coming and volunteering and helping your organization?

Yes, and, you know, and starting their own. You know, I actually met a young organizer, and she was talking to me about sexual harassment against farm worker women. And she did, you know, she had no reason to know who I. Who I am. And so she starts talking to me about the work and this problem, et cetera, and she's trying to convince me this was, like, a really big problem. We all needed to pay attention to it. And I was like, yes, we've done it, you know, because there's a whole bunch of people who now are creating their own programs and their own projects, and in the places where they live, they're doing the work. But, you know, even my. My son is an example, right? So my son is just 10. He's literally been marching since he could walk. He's been, you know, he's a little activist. And a few weeks ago, he had me. He organized for me to come to a school to do a Hispanic Heritage Month event. You know, so even in my home, like, there's this little guy who's watching, he's paying attention, and he's. He's figuring out how. What is his place in the work. And so I just. I love meeting young people. People write me all the time, like on Instagram or different places. Or I'll be on the road and they'll come up to me and talk to me about the work that I'm doing. That's actually a thing that I'm some surprised by because I forget that people are watching, you know, I'm just doing the work, you know, and. And so when people come up to me, they're like, oh, I saw this on your Instagram, or what have you. It's. It's awesome. I love it when people stop to talk about the work. And. And there's so many young people who are just. They're ready and, And. And they're doing it already. Like it. I spoke to a young woman, a senior in high school on Saturday, and she told me she started a social justice club at her high school, and she wants to know if I'd come and speak at it. So I always tell them, we're right, we're waiting for you. Just, you know, come join our ranks. And Dolores, I did that for me when I was a senior in college. I had her speak at Loyola University Chicago, which is where I went to undergrad. And, you know, she took the time to talk. I mean, she's my hero, right? And she took the time to talk to me about my future and, and gave me ideas of things that I could do and what have you. So grooming, like helping to guide and support the next generation is really important. And I actually think that they're not just the next generation. I think they're leading now. And I think that our work is in part trying to figure out how to make space for them to be able to lead right now.

Angie, she. Monica reminds me Edge and I just saw a movie this weekend that we hadn't seen called A Million Miles Away at the First Latino Astronaut, Jose Hernandez. I love it. And as we're talking, Monica, I know that Angie's thinking. James hasn't said it because I read her. She could read my mind. I can read her mind. And I'm thinking they're going to make a movie about Monica Ramirez and the work that you have done, because from where you come from, from the work that you're doing, from the people that you're inspiring, is just amazing. And I'm hoping that, you know, as this podcast grows, because we're. I'm going to replay this like, you know, you know, a few more times over the next couple years because I want to help you also drive money to your. To your organization to be able to help more people. And I also think that the more people need to find out about the work that you're doing as well. I mean, I'm, I'm. You know, and the problem is that sometimes, like I said, for our own Latinos, like that girl who says, well, you know that I want to help migrant farm workers. She told you a story. But, you know, we need to do more research of other people that are doing this type of work so we can then connect them and put together. Because I always find out that, you know, if we can sometimes join forces, we have more power. More power. And. And we can work together. Right.

Well, thank you. I loved that movie. I. I watched that movie too. And I don't know about you, but I cried the entire time. I was so proud. So proud and just cried the entire time. So thank you so much for your kind words. But, man, that movie was so good. It was very good.

It was. And we're thinking about you. I mean, basically, I can see why you cry because you could probably see yourself as. As part of that movie. As we end our podcast.

I would love for you to share for any president, executive director, founder, any books, you know, movies, anything that's inspired you to keep on going or that made. That makes your work a little easier. What kind of knowledge can you share? Or any classes or, you know, websites that. Any resources that just would make their life a little easier.

Yeah. Well, I want to give a big shout out and a lot of love to Nellie Galan. I'm sure that you probably know Nellie. We know Nellie, and you know, she has her book self made and everyone should read it. But. But knowing Nelly personally, Nellie is one of those people, like, who's helped you along the way. That question you asked at the beginning, when I met Nellie, it was, of course, after everything happened with Time's up, and I was spending more time in LA doing stuff with folks in Hollywood. And Nellie pulled me aside and she said, monica, because she knows, she knew I was working for a nonprofit, and at that time, none of the work related to justice was being funded. And. And she said, monica, I want you. I want you to be able to have something someday. Like, she was trying to guide me through. Like, how do you develop wealth and how do you, you know, and so I think that people should follow Nellie and they should read her book. And because she really. She's really doing the work and she's spending the time mentoring people and she genuinely wants to help people. And every time I talk to her, I just always feels like. It feels like she lights a fire under me. So I would say Nelly and her book. And you know, I'm inspired by personal stories, like people, people in their lives. And so I think that by all the biographies, read all the biographies. But I also think that, you know, following along by some of the publications like Fierce, by Mikdu and Mikdu, they do a great job. The Loose Loose Collective, they do a great job of highlighting people who are doing good, good work and, and talking about their individual journeys. And I think that we need to know more about each other, which is why, you know, I'm so grateful that you're doing your podcast because we need to know more about each other. We need to know what we're doing out in the world and we need to know how to support each other and how to uplift each other. Because this idea that, you know, the crabs in the bucket that people talk about like that doesn't need to exist anymore. And we're showing a new way. And I think the new way is by us elevating each other and celebrating each other's accomplishments. And so I have a lot of appreciation for all of the, like, Hip Latina and all the different Latinx focused publications that are shining a spotlight on the achievements and the good work of people from the community.

That's fantastic. Last question I'll ask you is, what's.

Something that you still have yet to achieve or want to achieve that's still in your future? You know, I, I, I, I hang around, work with people just like you and they just, there's no end to them, right? They're constantly wanting to do something bigger, better, what's out in the future for you?

I mean, I'm like an idea factory. That's what, that's what my team says. So I mean, it's hard to say what's next. I mean, you know, a ten year commitment to Raisado Festival. I hope the two of you will come someday. You know, we bought out Aspen Meadows, where Aspen Ideas happens. And now the festival grew into the city. So we're moving into year three of the festival. And when I created the festival, I made a 10 year commitment to doing the festival in Aspen. So I'm really looking forward to continuing to grow that festival and to build onto the work. I have a special project that I'm working on with my son, which I can't say yet what it is, but I'm really looking forward to working with him on that project. It's his, it was his brainchild and I'm just supporting, but I, I'm Excited about what the future of that project is. And I think the biggest thing that's been on the horizon that people have been asking me about for a while is my book. So my book is on the horizon and I need to. I need to write it. And it's been a long time coming, and I think I'm ready. I think I'm ready for that challenge. So hopefully in the next couple of years, we'll finally see my book be published.

Well, great, because we want it to become a movie.

And we can all cry too, as well. Absolutely.

I need.

I need Luis to give me tips. You'd be the sixth of Flow, because I'm just trying to get one.

You are welcome. We can go offline. I can give you tons of tips on how to write. At first, it's a recipe that then I'll beat you.

This has been phenomenal. I don't know what to say about how lucky we are to have actually met you. And for people listening to the podcast, you go to YouTube, you can see this also. You're a very special person who's doing wonderful things. Let people know how they can either get a hold of you or donate to your organizations. Contact you, please tell us.

Thank you. Thank you so much. This has been really lovely and I really appreciate all of your support and look forward to all of our future collaborations. For folks who want to support the work, you can go to justice, the number four women.org justiceforwomen.org and you'll be able to donate there. You can also go to the LatinxHouse.org learn more about that work. You can donate there. And then the third entity, Poderistas, which I co founded with Eva Longoria and America Ferreira and Carmen Perez, and there were 10 of us total that came together to create Botheristas. You can go to polaristas.com but all of them, all the organizations have an online presence. And if you just follow me at activist Monica Ramirez. So activist Monica Ramirez on Instagram and Monica Ramirez. Oh, on my other platforms. Follow me there and you'll get to see information about all the organizations, because I post on my. On my social and. But the best way that you can support me is by getting active locally, wherever you are, because the work that we're doing is about making change across the country, but it takes each of us in our own place to do that. So get active where you are so that together will be able to make the kind of great change that's needed.

That's phenomenal. Angie, any last words you want to say.

Well, keep up the great work and we will definitely be. You know, you're right. We're going to help our own community. We're putting. We know Lewis is doing his share on that, too, and, and I'm right behind him. So thank you. Thank you for doing it, for everything that you're doing for our community as well.

Thank you. Thanks for being the co host today, Angie.

I'll tell you what, Angie. Angie and I have written a book together, Small Business, Big Life for Women. I never get asked to speak because mostly women's organizations, they want to have a woman up front and she will die. She's deadly afraid of being in front of the camera or speaking. She won't do it. And today I'm going to tell you that your story, I mean, inspired her so much. She goes, I want to be on the show. I want to be with Monica. She wanted to meet you. Because again, I will share with you that everything that I've done, all the things that I've had would. Nothing would be there without Angie. Angie's the backbone to everything. She's a secret recipe. She's a secret sauce. And I admire strong women and I admire leaders like you. And we're going to do everything to help support you as well. I'm going to get the word out. I'll be posting on my social media, everybody, everything that you're doing as well. I want people to start following you and, and start donating to your organization. So, Monica, thank you so much. And we'll, we'll keep in touch.

That sounds great. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the Wealth Gap warriors podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. I love the show, guys. You're awesome.

Join Lewis next time as we continue our Wealth Gap Warrior journey, creating a brighter future for all.