It's only through those buildings of relationships that we're going to get to a place where we can make hard decisions together because holy shit. This is a this is a huge long term project that we're going into together. And we should be comrades, right It shouldn't just be a word that we slap on like our website it really if we're going to be comrades and we have to build relationships and coming together and community build those relationships
Welcome to left on red where a Gen X mom and gay millennial do socialism. We've got left wing views on News You Can Use. I'm Scott. I'm Susan. And I'm Deanna. Today we have a guest who we're very excited about why don't you introduce yourself for the audience? Sure. Hey, I'm Deanna Mora. And no, she her. I am a member of Queens DSA and serve as co chair of the branch.
Oh, I didn't know you were either. Yeah. Well, there you go. We're bad members.
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being on the show with us today. Deanna? So why don't we start with we always like to ask our guests a little bit about how they came to socialism, how they came to DSA the various things in their lives that brought them along this path today. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of what prompted you into socialist politics and to join the democratic socialists of America? Yeah, um, so I come from a politicized
I don't know if I just say politicize family. But there's political people in my family growing up. I was born in Ecuador. And my class, my family was working class to middle class.
I was politicized by my grandpa. Well, he was a indigenous, very poor person growing up who married into a higher class, which meant that my great grandmother, my grandmother's mom hated him, like because he was like, the indigenous guy that like married and impregnated like it weren't all his his daughter. Were her daughter. Sorry, go ahead, finish. She wanted to say we're an all peasant podcast. You know, it's cool. You're with with the people and he was getting his bag
is controversial because he saw my grandma, my grandpa was my great grandmother's driver. So he was the oh, just like Downton Abbey. It's like Downton Abbey. Yeah, exactly.
Now, you know, a major plot point, a driver, Mary's daughter, the daughter of the rich, the Irish driver, who's the best? Who's like a socialist to you. All right. So my grandpa, you are just like one of the crown.
Grandpa, this is a dream of mine that I am never going to accomplish which is marrying a rich person. Hey, not going out. Even 30 So just it's not gonna say never. I'm gonna permanently fumbled.
But sorry, go on. Yeah. And so my grandpa was like, I remember him protesting like, I remember him coming back from a protest and like telling us about oh, yeah, like they're trying to fuck with the pensions of the retired people in Ecuador. Like this was when he was already retired. It was an old person. And he would like go out, like to the to the plaza to talk to his like political comrades. And he would like, like, one time he like slept on the on the steps of like the the, I don't know, the Congress of Ecuador like to protest the pension, quote, unquote, reforms, right. Where they were like taking away their their pensions. And he was just always really political. And it was not until like after his death that I learned more about like that he was a union activist that he was a president of like the bus drivers local union, because he was a driver that was like, how he got out of poverty as he learned to drive and like the early days of like, where cars happened and keto. And that's how he like got into you know, working for a rich lady and like, into the working class. And so that was definitely a political figure in my life and so was my dad actually, I always think it's funny that it's actually the men in my life that were more political and like the women were most are mostly just like embarrassed Catholic moms that like think I'm like doing the most all the time. Even though I'm pretty I'm pretty I'm pretty mild person. And that's political to in its own way.
A to be an embarrassed Catholic mom. Yeah, it is. You're right. You're right. But you know, my dad is an atheist and he was like a communist in college. And so your grandfather's child or is your mom, your grandfather's child? So my, my mom is my grandfather's child. So it's like, from different sides of the family. Yeah, I had like a political person in my life growing up, like, I really was actually thinking about this.
Yesterday, like, when I was just reflecting on how like, the fact that my dad was like, an atheist and like, he always encouraged my sister and I to just like, not feel shame about our bodies and like to not put up with like shitty men, because he thought most men were Shetty. Like, I was like, wow, that was like a huge gift that he gave us. Like, he really gave us like, a leg up in the world, just by being like, you can do whatever you want. You shouldn't feel shame about you. Like, it's like, basic, right? And it's only he's a perfect person. He also like perpetuated patriarchy in my household and whatever, whatever. Right. But I think growing up around him and someone who like, taught me to
question authority early on, like, I remember him literally telling me when I was like, eight, like, I'm like, why don't you go to church with us in Ecuador? And he's like, Well, the church is built by like, the bloody hands of the indigenous people of Ecuador. And I was like,
not wrong. Okay. It's actually potentially an excuse by a man not to go to church
wants us all to go in. But really, I think he had a very, like, he had an analysis of like, the Catholic Church is a patriarchal like imperialist, colonialist force. And I grew up with that. And I grew up with like, very Catholic, mom and grandma, that would take me to church. And I feel like that actually gave me a very nuanced view of like, religion, like, I wasn't like an angry atheist, like, Oh, I was lied to my whole life. And whatever. I was, like, oh, there's like a beautiful cultural, like, aspect to it, where like, you know, people really do have, like, a belief system that makes them want to be or like that.
That does, like I felt the community and the goodness that came from from being in a, in a, in a Catholic community. Actually, what was weird was moving here and figuring out what Protestantism was. That was fucking weird. Apologies for the Protestant. These born again, Christians in the south, let me tell you why that hooked me up. We don't have to apologize to evangelical. So sorry, I apologize. As someone from that community.
Oh, yeah, we should talk different about Susan's parents who I got to meet a couple of weeks ago. And their takes on religion and Christianity, which are entertaining. Yeah, sorry, go on. No worries. And so you know, definitely had those foundations of like polarization early on in my life. And then I finally moved here. And I was 11 years old, like, my dad lost his job. And my mom's colleague was moving to the United States. And they thought, oh, we should go along, like, have the kids learn some English, we'll stay there for two years and save some money and go back to Ecuador. 24 years later, here I am, right? That's like the what a lot of immigrant parents told themselves that they were just going temporarily.
But when I moved here, and I saw, like, the the huge division and difference between what America was portrayed to me, like, during my childhood, and what it was, it was really shocking. Like, I feel like I spent a lot of years kind of, like, reconciling that myth, like that lie of like, oh, like, I grew up watching Full House, I grew up watching friends. And like, What the fuck is this? Like, now I'm like, in central Florida going to school with like, some racist little kid that asked me if I swam here, you know, and so it was it was a really, hugely politicized moment that I feel like I spent, probably still spending like, piecing together and figuring out like, we, you know, why is there that why was I like to, like, why was this portrayal of this country so different from my experience? My parents, like, seeing my parents like, or not seeing my parents is or working all the time, at this point, seeing them become exploited, like my mom was a teacher in Ecuador. She became like a house cleaner, later housekeeper for
for a hotel. And just seeing like, how, you know, doing like manual labor was like really difficult for her physically, emotionally. My dad worked at an office and some sort of like telephone company, a privatized telephone company in Ecuador, after doing a bunch of other stuff.
And he,
like worked landscaping, he was a dishwasher Right? Like the whole story like people start from from scratch as immigrants and I think that that was a hugely politicizing experience for me as a young immigrant kid, who also you know, I didn't I didn't we didn't move to New York City. We moved to a fucking Lakeland, Lakeland, Florida and Polk County, Florida.
And that was a huge shock, like a hugely segregated town, southern town
where I very, very intentionally, like lost my accent. Or like, I tried to lose my accent because I was like, oh, like, if people think that I'm an immigrant, they will think that I'm less smart, they will think I won't be like allowed in the social circles. So part of that experience was like, mixed because it was it was not initially radicalizing, it was initially just like, Oh, I feel a lot of shame. First, for social survival. I have to whitewash myself. I don't talk about my family life, because I'm poor, right? And so like, growing up, and like starting in college, that's when I was like, Oh, wow, that was really shitty. And I had to do that. Like, why do I have mostly white friends? Like, why? Like, do I not like have, I had this disconnect from like, my cultural background like, and obviously, that came from having a couple of really good professors. One of my favorite professors, I'm still in touch with him polar tease. He's he's the author of a Latinx and African American History of the United States. He's like a badass radical.
And he definitely helped. And started to starting to get organized. Like in college, I started becoming part of like, the student Farm Worker Alliance, because I saw people protesting the treatment of farmworkers and I was like, What are they doing? Like, like, I went up to this college kids that were like, you know, hosting a rally. And I was like, What is this about? And they're like, oh, like, you know, farm workers are only paid like 30 cents for a bucket of tomatoes. And it's really shitty, because it takes them like this many hours to, to reach like, a, you know, what would be minimum wage? And I was like, Oh, wow, is that happening? Like in Guatemala? Is that happening? Like in Ecuador? They're like, Oh, no, it's happening here in Florida. And I was like, What the fuck? So again, it was just this huge disconnect between like, Okay, I thought there were labor laws here. Like I thought that the poverty and the expectation that I thought my that my parents escaped, I wasn't going to see here. And so like seeing that, again, in the United States, again, like hugely, like politicizing moment for me, that led me into, like, organizing to Danny, say, similar thing to that what he got in Yeah, I remember that farm worker, student organizing was radicalizing, for a lot of people who came from Florida, the Florida to DSA pipeline, which we're very grateful for. Yeah. Which is awesome. And big ups to the folks doing that work in Florida. And across the south, I actually see content on Twitter and Instagram fairly often about like United Farmworkers and all the work they're trying to do. And it's kind of a shame that it's now like, several years after you've first got involved in that in college when it was an issue, and it remains. And it's extraordinary problem. I think recently, I remember this is just an anecdote of something in California where the farmworkers were working really hard to get wage increases and certain job protections. And the Governor Gavin Newsom, just like declined to support it, period. I think he ended up getting pushed to support. But it was bizarre to me that you could be an adult in this country, and look at the conditions of farmworkers in the United States or anywhere for that matter, and have the power to say these people should get paid more, and then simply say, actually, no, they should it bizarre to me that there's people like Gavin Newsom, who are Democrats who are making those choices every day, because they're making those choices. They're saying, no, they shouldn't get paid more. And I think that that go like that particular issue, I feel like is so radicalizing, because it really hits at the intersection of like, labor and immigration. And it really also has at the core basis of our disgusting capitalist system, which is how it started, which was slavery, right. And the reason why
the reason why farmworkers specifically, and domestic workers are still excluded from labor laws in this country. And so to to learn about that.
And that's really what led for me to also get interested in immigrant rights, obviously, through my own personal experience, but also through this like of this involvement and understanding of like, how shitty and how
it was manufactured.
How labor laws and immigrant laws in this country are manufactured for the market, right for the needs of capitalism, and not for not for any sort of human need, not for any sort of just humanity's just not considered and what those laws look like today. So I was wondering if we
Get here. So we had a great,
like a great story about how you got radicalized. While you're in college, I was wondering, how did you then come to DSA?
Yeah, so, um, I really only moved to New York like four years ago. So I haven't been here that long. I was I was 30 when I moved here. And so like I actually had a pretty.
I had a significant amount of time in the place where I was radicalized, where I went to college, and I eventually stayed there as a local community organizer, right. And so, I organized with a feminist group, their national women's liberation, for like to put the morning after pill. Over the counter, I organized to pass
a county wide wage theft ordinance for inside our human Human Rights Commission for electro County. And so I already was very politicized and active and my local politics in Florida.
I also I just saw Harry Belafonte passed yesterday. And I looked back at like, the time that I met him, it was when I was occupying the Capitol, Florida in Tallahassee with the Dream Defenders, which is a great racial justice organization that's still active in Florida, right, that mobilized after Trayvon Martin was murdered. And so I was definitely like, you know, already a political person. So when I moved to New York, I knew that I wanted to political home. And I had already seen like, what in your New York City DSA had been doing right? I had witnessed from afar like the election of AOC, I had witnessed from afar what was happening with the Amazon headquarters and the protests against that. And I, it felt really powerful. And I was like, I want that, like, that's, that's where I want my political home to be. I had gone through a divorce. And I was ready to like, move, move to New York, which is something that I really had wanted to do for a long time, but a relationship got me in Florida.
But I when I, you know, got out of a long term relationship, I really wanted to start fresh in a place that really felt like home because I had done an internship in Jackson Heights during my graduate studies. And I was so floored by being in a place that felt like home for the first time when I was outside of Ecuador. So like, spending six weeks in Jackson Heights, interning for Make the Road New York actually was a huge eye opener, because I had been to New York City before but of course, it was like Manhattan, and you know, like, touristy parts of Brooklyn. And then when I came to Queens, I was like, Oh, my God, I feel like I'm like down the street from my DSLs. Like, this is amazing. The street vendors, the people, I can speak Spanish every day. And so when I eventually decided to move here permanently, this is where I wanted to come. I wanted to come specifically to Queens, and I wanted to get engaged in DSA. And that's how, literally within the first like few weeks of me being here, I think I was like, out canvassing first. So Ron, you're not the first person to tell us that Queens in New York City was like a specific draw. And I have to say, I feel like we always talk about like, Brooklyn, people want to move to Brooklyn, Williamsburg. It's hip, it's happening. Everyone knows what Manhattan is. I think Queens is starting to like, become a little bit more popular. To the point where I'm now nervous because I'm now nervous. Everyone is going to come move in Queens, and we're going to become the next Brooklyn. It's gonna happen though, because it's not like pretty Yeah, same way. But
every time I
go online search Susan Cain, Queens, she wrote an article in Jacob's document about queens and how it was meant to be positive about queens. But every other line was like shady. It was like, Queens is for poor people. It is a form of war. Yeah, it's for people with no culture at Queen's doesn't try to be anything. It's drab. Nothing here. I was, like pretentious. It's a place where all three of us can feel exactly at home. And no one ever questions if we belong here. And I have to say, as somebody who grew up in like the most Republican suburbs, my parents could find because Korean church elders told them go find a school district with highest at score. So it's how I grew up with like, conservative Republicans. In New Jersey. It's the only place where I ever felt like nobody questions and I belong here. In fact, everybody assumes I'm from here, and that is that queens, right? So anybody in this room could be understood to be a native of Queens. And really, and if you read her article, it'll be because of like a very subtly mean line about how Queens is not glamorous or fun. I get it. It was that is me. I'm not glamorous for fun. It was very funny. It was two paragraphs like shitting on
it though, it is unpretentious. And that's exactly how it felt to be here when I was like in
in grad school and you know, sort of on my own for the first time, it felt like home. And I actually grappled with that a little bit as someone who like, was choosing to move here was like a fucking identifier like what like, like, I have to, like, assess like, what what that means, right? And actually, like, have come to terms with the fact that I did not move to the US out of my own accord. It wasn't my parents decision, I am what I call an economic refugee from a new neoliberal policies that the US champion in my homeland. So I feel like I get to move wherever I want in the United States. And I will use that agency in a responsible way. Right. And so that's why I came here specifically to build community. And so that and so that people working people like me could actually live here. Also, to be fair, my parents moved here, right. And I don't think anyone would have called them gentrifiers 2030 4050 years ago, partially because of the time they moved here. New York City was like rock bottom cheap. You didn't want to buy a house in New York and like the 70s, or the 80s, right.
And like Susan moved here, you moved here. We do want people to move to New York, we want people to be able to move to New York. I think the thing is, we want everyone to be able to move to New York. And it'll be in the next episode. So listen to that when it comes out. But one of the things that's happening in New York City is this horrific affordability crisis. And it's causing people to say, Should I move there is that responsible, it's causing people to have to leave because it's unaffordable. And the goal shouldn't be New York for some people, it should be. If you want to live here, it should be affordable for you. It should be manageable. If you are a working class family, you should be able to have a home here and not feel stressed every day that you're not going to be able to afford it.
But that's a different topic for a different day. Yeah. We'd love to hear more about the work you've done in DSA and also sort of where you think DSA should go, because we'd like to build it to be more than what is right now because it is really great right now. But, you know, we all have visions of, of like, more socialism in more places with more people. Yeah. So so far, I mean, the work that I've done in DSA, I think the first couple couple years, I was kind of getting my feet wet and figuring out like, what is their organization? Like, where do I belong? I was sort of like a team player, right? And I and so I
canvass for So Ron and I
went out for different campaigns, but I was only like a, I don't know, audience member right, like a soldier. That was a soldier. Actually, I met you during a 2019. Bernie canvass. I think we went to the NYCHA houses.
Way before So Ron was even a twinkle as a candidate, but yeah, that's right. My first DSA thing was really about Bernie, you're right. Yeah. And then it was around, I permanently moved to Queens because I was in a relationship with someone who lived in Albany. So I kept traveling back and forth. Albany new high. That's exactly how I, how I will forever say from Albany.
And, and so when I, when I when I that didn't happen, I feel like Oh, my Oh, my trajectory is driven by breakups with people.
I find, I finally permanently moved to Queens. I was just, I was just spending a lot of time here, which meant that oh, now I felt ready to take on leadership roles, right. And that coincided around the time that Jaco was running for office. So I started being like, okay, like, I no longer just want to like canvass for you. I want to like help you make this a great campaign and so I was on his kitchen cabinet helping shape like early comms for that campaign and you're helping him just, I remember like, coaching him for his like DSA endorsement speech, right and, and I also decided to run for OC for the Queen's branch
to make sure that our branch stayed strong. So this is my second year actually being in the in the in the EOC. And that's, that's been my main main contribution is like making sure that the Queen's branch is strong and going.
And it's the best branch by the way. And I'm not just saying that because of all of our queen supremacy. But if you check out things that are going on in New York City, DSA, I feel like everyone universally recognizes like, every other week, you see all of his great stuff coming out of Queens, these socials, these events, these like meetings, these forums, these town halls and everyone's like, wow, Queens is like doing a lot. It is definitely the best branch at the moment. Sorry to all the other branches and none of the negative stereotypes about New York CTSA are apply. They don't apply in Queens like we're very
diverse
we okay we are deleted delete that.
We are definitely the most diverse, diverse, we're the most diverse our leadership, we're most diverse our membership and we're also like diverse, like in our life trajectory. Like we have a lot of families, that kind of thing. That's true. Queens is a future baby. So in thinking about like, where DSA should go in the future, I really, I love that idea of it really being more like queens in terms of like being a diverse, expanding, and welcoming organization that welcomes parents that welcomes immigrants that welcomes people from different walks of life and gives them a place in the movement, right. And, to me, I find it really important for organization, both at the New York City level, but also like, nationally, to
make sure that the foundation of our structures and the processes that we have as an organization are solid, for us to be able to grow. And this is me speaking from my like, nerdy organizational development like hat, because I just spent the last four years helping an organization become a good organization, the nonprofit that I work for nice new immigrant community empowerment, I work really, really hard, creating something out of not much in terms of like processes and like, structure for an organization to be sustained to be able to have a hiring and firing process that was that was fair to be able to have
evaluations that included evaluations for managers to be like, all these things, right. That are that seems so boring in terms of like, the work right? Like, oh, you just want to be in rallies and like talking to immigrant workers and stuff. But like No, actually, this should is so important. Because the processes and the structures that you have are what sustain the work, right? There will always be work to be done, there will always be work to be done. But it's those processes and structures that maintain a certain level of consistency for people who are involved. Or if somebody needs to take a step back that allows for someone to jump in and jump right back in because there was a good process of training them, etc. Right? That's a great way to like facilitate leadership, you're talking about you want to make the culture more like Queens welcoming, inclusive. And one of the things I think about often is we talk a lot in DSA about, we want to make sure we have more working class leaders, we have more leaders of color, we have more women leaders. And I often think Well, one of the things that we have to do isn't just get all of these new folks into leadership positions, and then hope that they change the culture, but be accountable to them and change the culture so that if we are asking people of color and women to step up to leadership positions, that we're not sending them into a culture that's potentially damaging, or that's potentially not ready to support them, that we don't just ask people to be leaders, and then do a ton of work. But we have processes and systems and structures in place that support people that set them up for success and not failure. And it can be difficult to do. It sounds very professionalized. And obviously, it's a volunteer organization. But I do think it's part of what we owe each other and terms of decency. And I think we're doing quite a bit of it, especially in Queen's, not to keep tooting that horn, not to talk about how amazing we are. But I've been a member of the Queen's branch since its inception, right. So I'd say like January 2017. And we've had lots of turnover of leadership, which shows that we have a culture in which people step up, and we have a culture in which people step back. And then we have a culture in which people who want to step up have the opportunity. And I'm not saying we're perfect, and that there aren't people who don't do more than other people. Obviously, some people carry like a heavier load. But I do think that we've done a great job cultivating leaders, also, like I stepped back a lot. And I think that that's created space for other people to do good work. And I might step back in at some point, but you know, it might, I might also just continue being like a soldier. I don't know why my brain is on the military. It's good. But everyone needs every every organization needs like rank and file volunteers too. And so being able to move back and forth between those roles is something that like building the systems that you're talking about allows, definitely. And I also think that frankly, we also have to be so mindful of again as a volunteer, run organization, and with the limitations of capitalism breathing down our backs, right like with literally half the people that live in New York City can afford to live here like that study that just came out yesterday in the New York Times like we also have to be mindful of like some of the limitations that we have. We want for the people who are most depressed us above but they are also the most depressed