Change Agency, Equity, Impact

Adela Mendoza

Adela Mendoza immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. She tells the story of her transition from radio producer in Mexico to advocate for the Hispanic community of South Carolina.

Adela Mendoza’s life was about to shift trajectories. Previously a radio producer in her home country of Mexico, Adela came to the United States to further her education. In one of her earlier years in the U.S., she attended the Aspen for Ideas Festival. At the festival, there was a reading of the philosophical text, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin. She listened intently to a discussion about the utopian society. It was, by definition, perfect… except for one thing. The only reason Omelas could keep its perfection was because of a child they kept in the basement. The child was tortured, caged, and completely malnourished. The child held the weight of Omelas wholly on its suffering. When the other youth of Omelas were of age to learn of the fate of the child, many stayed, but others left in horror. No one, however, helped the child.

Upon returning to her hotel room, the novel was stuck in Adela’s head. She arrived at her room to find a cleaning lady there. Adela was struck. “I realized… that’s a child in the basement,” she recalled, welling up. It was an epiphany, a reel of all the things she had seen in her life: the severe poverty she felt she had turned away from in Mexico, and the way many less fortunate immigrants were treated in the United States. Even though she thought she was happy in her corporate job, it was time not to look away. She chose to dive head first into the issues she once ran from.

“When I was able to find my child in the basement, I realized I just had a life of privilege and I had done nothing, so that’s why I started to do my work.” 

Adela now devotes her life to advocating for the Hispanic community as the Executive Director to the Hispanic Alliance of South Carolina and as the Founder of the Student Dreamers Alliance. The hispanic alliance is focused on systematic change, shifting the cultural boundaries of South Carolina so that the Hispanic community can, in the long run, be defined by their values rather than external influences.

“What is unique to our model is our brush is not top down. We are listening to the needs of the community and we are creating models to address those needs and bridging the gap for the resources and opportunities, so the individuals truly have the chance to achieve their self defined success.”

The work can be tedious as such substantial change is not easily reached, but Adela has learned through years of fighting to trust herself and her ‘why.’

“If you commit to the work and if you are doing it for the right reasons,” Adela said, “eventually you will make a difference, and I tell my staff that all the time.”

This truth is what Adela reminds herself regularly while fighting the valiant battle for the rights of the Hispanic community. 

However, like everyone else, the battle with COVID-19 created a shift in the focus of her work. Suddenly, her organization had to go from the big picture to the here and now. The organization created an initiative called ‘The Basic Basket’ to help Hispanic Communities get the supplies they needed. The difficulty, Adela noted, is “because of the culture in the south, a lot of families are worried about confirming the stereotypes that immigrants are here to take resources. Sadly, that is still sometimes the notion that people have.” Families that have never had to worry about food before have been unwilling to admit they needed help in the face of stereotypes. Furthermore, the Hispanic population is especially vulnerable because of the language barrier that prevents many of them from understanding rules and updates about the virus. The Hispanic Alliance of South Carolina has come to their aid by helping create websites and other resources with information. Adela understands that the needs of her community are not often at the forefront of people’s minds.

“The hardest thing to do is to speak up even when it’s uncomfortable,” said Adela, “even when you are the only person in the room who is bringing up those issues. Everyone in the room had to become that courageous voice for the people who weren’t at the table.” 

The Hispanic Alliance is made up of a team of strong women leaders, but that wasn’t by design. Adela asserts that it was merely about who was most qualified for the job. In relation to women leadership and her all women team, she stated, “It’s not because you are a woman. It [just] happens [that] you are a woman, but what is important about me is my ideas, my creativity, the fact that I am adaptive.” Adela is not a believer in the mold that women are often placed in, or that she had once placed herself in. She, and the women on her team, are not just women, but entirely capable human beings who empower each other to each trailblaze in their own regard.

You may ask, who are the other individuals who have taught her a great deal? The students she works with for the Student Dreamers Alliance, of course. Through every great struggle, there is also great hope. Through this trying time, Adela finds hope in the younger generation. 

Support for the DREAMERS from a rally on March 4, 2018 Photo by Victoria Pickering CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Student Dreamers Alliance was inspired because of the legislation passed in South Carolina in 2008. Any undocumented child is prohibited from going to a public college even if they can afford it because it is considered a public benefit. Even if the child is admitted, the student would have to pay out of state tuition. That truth was difficult for Adela to bear.

“The hardest thing I have ever had to do is to communicate to a child… that there is no path forward for you in terms of education once you pass high school.” 

It is Adela’s hope that the narratives around her students do not define them.

“Many of them were believing that idea of themselves…that their parents were criminals and that they did not deserve to be there. Our job is to create a space where they feel safe with each other to share the burden that they feel.”

Adela is inspired by the Dreamers, as she sees the future of a greater world in them and their wisdom.

“The only way to change the rules is to empower the people who are impacted by those rules.” No longer is Adela turning away from the child in the basement. No longer is she staying quiet on the issues that plague her soul and the world. Instead, she speaks when others dare not, and listens to those who have been ignored. She leads and is led by her community and her dream of a better world. 

Leadership Inspirations: “The leaders that have left a lasting impact on me have been people who have never been celebrated or won awards. I realized that those are the ones that helped shape my dreams…I have always been inspired by people who are authentically helping others and not caring who gets the credit.”

Captured February 2021.

Images by Victoria Pickering CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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