A Message from Our Co-Founder, Jesus Sanchez

Hello friends,

In 2013, I had the privilege of partnering with my neighbors to launch a mutual aid community organizing project to empower youth and parents. Thirteen years later, I can proudly look back in amazement at what we've accomplished for our people and say that those whom I am accountable to can be found at Gente Organizada, my organizing home.

For the past decade, I have been visioning an intergenerational movement there in partnership with beautiful young people and mothers in Pomona. Today, I am heartbroken by the ongoing attacks by federal and local governments to rip families apart and strip our communities of resources. But through our everyday struggle, we've managed to maintain an intergenerational force of hope and resistance named Gente–an organization founded by undocumented and immigrant mothers that is now led by fierce, brilliant young people fighting to end institutional violence. Even in the midst of all the chaos, I can humbly say that Gente has been a dream come true and that the time has now come for others to vision and shape the future of our organization.

As of this week, I am no longer a staff member at Gente and have transitioned to a Founder-In-Residence consulting role with the organization. This move will create space for some amazing young leaders to fully step into their power, leadership, and potential. Over the next months, we will be sharing more and creating space for our members and partners to meet with our leadership. There are far too many people to acknowledge and thank for inspiring me and giving me their trust over the years, so I will try to keep it brief:

• I am the proud son of Mariana and Jose Sanchez. My parents immigrated to California from Zacatecas, MX in the 1970’s. My father became a dishwasher and busboy, and my mother worked in sweatshops and waste transfer stations as a means to provide for my two brothers and I. Both my parents were children of braceros, grew up on farms, loved the land, and were warriors who instilled an unbreakable spirit and love in their children. My best memories of them are filled with recollections of our home being the first stop for countless family members who were immigrating into the country, and my parents sharing everything we had to make sure they were safe. My work always has been and will continue to be in honor of them. 

• To Chela, my better half: It is no coincidence that Gente bloomed only after I met you. Thank you for believing in me, your love, and support. Te adoro. 

• To Angel Garcia, Gente Co-founder: I can proudly say that I am one of countless organizers that was politicized by a poet. Thank you for your friendship and wisdom.

• To Pomona: Thank you for giving me community and adopting a foo from Baldwin Park with a chip on his shoulder as your own.

My relationships were seeds that have fueled me, politicized me, and taught me how to care for others. They also gave me a deep sense of purpose to honor my ancestors and my community by fighting to sustain the movement in the most effective ways possible:

• Shared Power: We are a leaderful movement. In 2018, our parents on our Board of Directors gifted their power of majority to young people, inspiring a shift to eliminate a singular leader model and create a Directors Council. Now, these power-building transitions bring us to a new chapter of intentional succession, where founding leaders are passing down the organization into the hands of youth and community who have and will continue to give their all to their city. Gente has been a canvas for many fighters and artists to wield their power and vision, which has been transformative for many of us to experience and witness. In the next months, Gente will reintroduce the leaders that have got us here and will continue to lead us into the next chapter.

• Reclaiming Land: Space for future generations to resist and dream. Our leaders are not your typical landowners in the quickly gentrifying Pomona; we are working class chicanxs, immigrant mothers, queer and trans youth, and undocumented people who have built a formidable resistance to inequality by socializing land. An organization of organizers that collectively purchased a 6,000 square foot building that is now an active youth center and home to resistance of a police state in our beloved city. The Gente Youth Center is community owned and operated by a youth-led intergenerational Board of Directors that is working towards placing the deed into a land trust to ensure the building and land is going to seed liberatory campaigns for years to come. We are stewards to a half-acre community garden that provides over 14,000 lbs. of fresh locally grown and pesticide-free produce to our community at no cost. And we are in the process of unveiling a new location that will focus on creating economic opportunities for the mujeres in our organization. We are proud of these accomplishments, as our movement was houseless and unfunded for six years, boxed out of property by the establishment in Pomona and ignored by philanthropy.

• Disciplined Struggle: Making demands of power through strategic campaigns. There are no shortcuts to community transformation campaigns and confronting power with community-led demands. Like most social justice nonprofits, it has been an intentional effort to avoid both mission drift and solely focusing on providing services. Instead, we envision service work that has the power to systemically transform communities by addressing root causes. Gente has been and continues to be at the forefront in the struggles for students rights to a quality education; police accountability; participatory budgeting at city and school district levels; housing as a human right; protections for our undocumented community and street vendors, etc. These struggles will continue to build movement, power, hope, and community. 

Collectively, we have learned how to govern by sharing power and responsibility like our mothers taught us. We have created sanctuaries and learned how to feed ourselves. We learned how to channel our anger and traumas into constructive campaigns that center our collective dreams. And we still have so much to learn from one another. But one thing is crystal clear: a foundation has been set that will hold us for many years to come. No one will be cheering harder than me.

For me personally, I have accepted an offer to become the next Director of Funding the Next Generation and am excited to push an economic justice agenda in partnership with organizers and coalitions throughout the state and country. My role has shifted, but I will still be contributing to our collective work. As news has traveled, I have received many messages from the community, but I must express that every ounce of work I gave has already been reciprocated. I am equally thankful to all of you for everything you have given me and my family. Los quiero un chingo, and I promise to continue to loyally organize for immigrant families, those impacted by street life, and for angry and brilliant youth.

¡Hasta pronto!

Jesus Sanchez

“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants