To Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
“Undocumented, migrant, domestic worker, and activist,” is how Laura Rubio describes herself, a woman who on her path to self-improvement found her greatest passion: helping all those who, like her, have suffered injustice, fear, and uncertainty in East Palo Alto, the city that has opened its arms to her and given her a purpose.
Laura, 47, was born in Maravatio, Michoacán, Mexico. She has been in the U.S. for 19 years and has become an active member of her community for the past seven years, “because before I didn’t know I could do something and so I fell in love with the activism I can do in my community.”
She came to this country when her youngest daughter was barely two years old, with only one dream: to be able to give her two little ones a better quality of life. Without knowing the language, Laura did not put up barriers in her mind, she worked wherever she could, taking care of children and cleaning houses, work that she still does today and that she combines with her activism, which, she says, drives her to want more and train herself to reach new goals.
With two grown children, this domestic worker told P360P that a few years ago she was on the verge of being evicted, and she, like many others, did not know that, despite her immigration status, she had rights.
“When I first came to a tenant meeting, I was like, ‘Wow! If I had known this, I would have saved myself so much heartache and worry because I thought I was going to be evicted. Now I know how to protect myself and my neighbors, how to help and assert my rights. ’”
In the morning, Laura gets up, makes coffee and breakfast, and gets ready to go to work. By 6:00 p.m., when she gave this interview, she had already cleaned houses and helped two families facing eviction. The pain in her feet does not defeat her, and after talking to us she runs off to a meeting where she continues her activism.
"One thing leads to another," says Laura, who says that after belonging to a neighborhood group, she found connections with organizations that have now put her on the right path to improve the quality of life of others.
Laura Rubio will serve on several organizations: the Latino Caucus Board for five years; the Rent Stabilization Control Board; the Tenant Board formed by three organizations from East Palo Alto, a member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; the Pop Cultural Board of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; and the Board of Directors of Senator Josh Becker's Latino Advisory Committee.
It is also part of the ETB-EPA coalition, in which residents, religious congregations, immigrant groups, community organizations and youth engage in planning, development, and land use issues, committed to the principles of affordable housing, neighborhood stabilization, tenant protection, human dignity, and democratic land use planning.
If the day is short, Laura also volunteers cleaning the streets, vaccination centers, informing the community of their rights door to door, and sometimes collaborating with the non-profit organization, Casa Circulo Cultural.
«During the pandemic, I decided not to stay at home. I went out to knock on doors and ask my neighbors if they were okay, if they had paid their rent, and if not, to look for resources and talk to organizations.»
Despite the language barrier, the activist does not stop. “I think and believe in linguistic justice. This city is ready to provide us with a translator to help people of African and Asian and Pacific Islander origin who live here in East Palo Alto, so that these residents have the confidence to come to our meetings and express their concerns in their own language and know that they will be heard.”
"My vision is that a person with knowledge is a person with power."
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