Marcela Mitaynes

Gabriela: I am here with Marcela Mitaynes. Today is August 11th, 2023. We’re here in Sunset Park. Thank you Marcela for having this conversation with me. I would like to start asking you a little bit about yourself. So, tell me about where you were born and where is your family  from?

Marcela: So, I was born in Lima, Peru, and my family is  all originally from Peru,

Gabriela: And tell me a little bit about your childhood. When did you come to the US?

Marcela: So, I came to the United States, um, as a baby. My dad migrated first, and then he called for his father, and then he called for his mom. And when my grandmother came, she didn't come by herself, she came with me. And, so I was, I was raised with my grandparents and my dad. We were living in Manhattan, New York City.

This was the late seventies, and we were living on 44th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue. And at that time, Times Square wasn't, um, wasn't very nice. And so I was getting older. And my dad decided to move us out of that neighborhood. And I've been living in Sunset Park since I was five.

Gabriela: Okay. And why did your parents decide to move to Sunset Park?

Marcela: My dad had known someone and had come to the neighborhood. It was affordable. It was an easy commute to his job that was on 42nd Street. And I think that, that, you know, that was really the reason for coming to this neighborhood.

Gabriela: Okay. So this was…

Marcela: Majority Polish, Irish, and Italians in this neighborhood. Yeah.

Gabriela: So tell us a little bit about, uh, that time of your childhood here. So what do you remember? Do you have any memories?

Marcela: So I was thinking about this and I don't have a lot of memories. I remember not being able to go outside and play like other kids did. And then like now as an adult, I realize we were undocumented and we were probably, as folks described, living in the shadows, right? We went out, we did what we had to do, and we came home. You know, I wasn't able to go, you know, let’s say: “I want a bag of chips and go across the street.” They're like “no, if you need something, pick it up on the way home.” And then we were home, and then that was it. But the few times that we… The park was always a place that we went to. Um, as I started getting older,  the rest of my dad's family started coming little by little. And so, um, like most immigrant families, they come and stay. They came and stayed with us.

And so I often refer to my rent stabilized apartment as a mini Ellis Island where my family would come and, you know, they'd start to learn English, start to get jobs, become independent, find their own place. And then we had, you know, another family member come. And so my dad was able to have like, all his siblings, pretty much his siblings, their families, their spouses, and their children. And my grandparents were all in Sunset Park, and we were living within a five block ratio. I often joked around that, you know, not being able to go out and not having friends was okay ‘cause suddenly I had this huge family and we were always spending time together. We'd go to the park and they'd barbecue and we'd get to play all day. You know, those were the things that I remember growing up. And it was always just always family. Right. If it was Mother's Day, we went to the park and spend time together.

If it was someone's birthday, we went to the park and spent time together. If it was a holiday and folks had some time, we would go to the park and, and, you know, spend that time together. Yeah.

Gabriela: So the park was a really important space for the whole family.

Marcela: It was, um, it's, and it, it continues to be, and it's beautiful to see how vibrant and full it is and to be able to see all our multicultural community in that park and, and occupy it together. Yeah.

Gabriela: And how was the neighborhood back then? What was the year when you moved to the neighborhood?

Marcela: So the neighborhood slowly started to change what we saw a lot more Puerto Rican families in the community. And that for me was very enriching because it was infectious to see how they celebrated their culture.

And I remember, growing up, folks would go to the Puerto Rican Day parade. And then after the parade, everybody would come back to the neighborhood and it'd be like a huge party. I guess as I got older, I started taking more notice about the way the neighborhoods had changed, how there were more quality of life issues. I grew up in a 35 unit rent stabilized building on the corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue. And it was a building. I didn't know what the difference between a co-op or, you know, a NYCHA housing was, it was just where I lived. There's a lot of housing here. One of my favorite blocks is 47th Street, between Fifth [Avenue] and Sixth [Avenue], because I always had to walk that block. And I remember looking at the beautiful brownstones and the way they were decorated, especially around Christmas, was really special.

But then I remember just, I guess as I got older, just like a lot of communities of working class, there was a lot of influence of drugs. And we could clearly see the way that was impacting the community even when I didn't completely understand. So by the time I got to high school, I remember, I don't know, you leave like eight o'clock in the morning and there were like four or five kids already just hanging out in the building. Uh, one of them happened to go to school with me. One of them happened to be in my class. So here I am leaving my apartment, you know, having to go past these guys that I didn't know, but they were always hanging out there, [I’d] go to school, know that the kid that I saw was supposed to be in class with me and wasn't, and then come home and they were just like hanging out there. And so I didn't know what was happening.

You know, some people… there were rumors that people were selling drugs in the building, that's why they were coming in. You know, things like the door had a lock and now suddenly it doesn't have a lock anymore 'cause they're kicking the door open. And so really kind of like becoming more aware of my surroundings and the way things were changing, but also understanding some of the prejudice in the comments that were said and, you know, just how people just didn't know and understand.  And part of that not knowing also instilled some type of fear where they were reacting in different ways. There were talks about someone in the building that sold drugs, and so that gives you a, a sense of maybe being fearful but the same person…

I remember one day I was coming home with my groceries and I was just trying to make it home because that wheel was about to break and fall off. And just as I get to the corner it does, and here's my neighbor who sees it and very nicely just comes over and literally picks up the shopping cart of groceries and brings it inside and brings it to my door. We'd never interacted. And this was our first interaction, and I was very thankful. It just made me see them in a different light. And then [I was] just trying to understand what was happening, how was this impacting our lives, and like the people that we co-live with, right. And then understanding that there wasn't really a culture of community. We live in these buildings for really long times and we see our neighbors coming in and out and we say, hi, but then that's it. We don't really know much about them.

And you know, fast forward to the work that I've been doing now, organizing and buildings, it's really nice to see how people are starting to come together. And there is more of a sense of community.

Gabriela: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about when you're talking about the organizing, how did you start that? You know, what was your experience? Do you remember back then like the housing conditions, how was it that you were interested or engaged in that type of organizing?

Marcela: So there were landlords before that weren't very attentive. Like if you needed repairs, it was hard to get them, but they also didn't bother you. They just came around and collected the rent. They did some minor repairs if you needed them. And we were kind of on our own to figure it out the rest. And so like a lot of people, when you live there a long time,

you wanna invest in having a better quality of life. And so, you make changes to the apartments and this and that. And so some of that is what I remember. I remember there being a leak in the bathroom for a really long time and not getting fixed. And you know, as a kid, sometimes you're not paying attention. But my grandmother was going to some organization that was helping her. And sometimes, as a kid you're dragged to all these appointments and stuff, and as an immigrant child, you also have to translate. And so there's this huge burden, put on us where we're sometimes exposed to things at a young age that we don't understand and, you know, it could be troublesome. So I just remember at some point the ceiling fell and it actually fell on my grandmother's head. And the next thing I know is she was going to housing court.

And that sounded really scary. But she had the help and support of this organization, and it seemed like she got that work done.

And so, fast forward, I’m an adult with my own family. My grandmother had passed away. I was living with my grandfather in the building and my husband and my child at the time. And then we suddenly got a new landlord, and within six months, this landlord was able to displace half of the predominantly Latino immigrant, monolingual Spanish speaking families in this 35 unit building. And it was scary for all of us. We didn't know, you know, what was happening. Everyone was afraid of getting evicted, and,

all of a sudden some people were coming, knocking on your door saying that they were there to kind of like, help and, and, and talk to tenants about issues that they had. It turns out that was an organizer for Neighbors Helping Neighbors who I didn't know existed, [and it] was in the community and [it] was there to actually help tenants who were having housing issues, which included repairs and facing eviction. They were trying to organize the building, but it was very difficult because the landlord was very aggressive with his harassment. It's something I had never seen or experienced. And, you know, I, I ended up, you know, getting evicted from an apartment that I had shared with my family for over 30 years. And when I met and started working with Neighbors Helping Neighbors

I had already done all the run around on my own that they would've been able to help with. So I wasn't working, I'm bilingual. I am running around to community organizations, to city and state agencies trying to find help, trying to understand what's happening, and then also seeing my neighbors at some of these places... mm-hmm. And I just kept thinking like: “why is no one connecting the dots? Why is this happening?”

And it was through Neighbors Helping Neighbors that predominantly did direct services, but we're [also] trying to organize the buildings. For example, my building was hard to organize, again because the landlord was so aggressive in the harassment that he was doing that most people were afraid and didn't want to participate. They didn't want to be retaliated upon. Right.

And so when they weren't able to organize these buildings, they started getting those people that they worked with and they started having like a community group, and they were having monthly meetings. And so I started participating in them. And I always said that that really acted as a support system for me. I wasn't by myself. This wasn't happening to me. This wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything to bring this on. And that there were other people that were going through the same thing.

Gabriela: Yeah. But this building, your whole family or a big part of your family lived there, right?

Marcela: This is the building where my dad… like my family that migrated from Peru came and stayed there. But it was originally my grandparents and my dad’s. And my dad had bought his house. He lives in Queens. My grandmother had passed away. And it was just me trying to

take care of my grandfather and also have him spend time with his great-granddaughter. When all of this happened and during the eviction process, I actually lost my grandfather. So it was a really difficult time. It was very stressful.

Gabriela: Because you knew that [the apartment] was very meaningful also for your family.

Marcela: Yeah. But it no longer feels like a home when you're being harassed and accosted in that manner. And I think for us mistakenly now, I can say we thought it would be just easier to leave and find somewhere else to go. Like, we were being evicted anyway. Like, “why continue to fight?” is how we felt. So I ended up moving two blocks away, paying almost three times the rent amount that we were paying because we were living there for 30 years.

But I think for me, it's just learning. The coalition work that Neighbors Helping Neighbors was trying to do by organizing really educated [me]. And [also] learning why this is happening, what laws exist that allow this to happen? Who has the power to enact these laws, and then learning who is influencing them. It was a learning process and a journey. I was with Neighbors Helping Neighbors for about a year when I had the opportunity to transition from a participant to a staffer. And I started working in my community, helping tenants who were facing evictions, who had questions about their housing issues that needed repairs. And I really learned, and I, I wanna say that

I pushed the organization to do more organizing because I understood [that] if we were ever gonna get any relief, we needed to be part of the larger fight. And it was 10 years, working toward getting Neighbors Helping Neighbors, to be recognized as a community organization with tenant leaders. Part of this housing movement coalition that's been built over the years that I'm really proud of.

Gabriela: And during these 10 years. What, what do you remember as the most difficult fights? I know that all the fights are challenging, but what are those fights that you… [That you] can say that you feel proud of, or that created a big impact at the community level.

Marcela: So I think, um, just educating folks on their rights, on housing, seeing how they grow

within the process of trying to find a solution to their problem. Like, I always looked at that job at Neighbors Helping Neighbors as educating folks so they have all the information that they need so that they can make the best decision about their housing situation and whatever it is that they decide to do. I looked at my role as walking them through what that process is gonna be. And so to me, it's been great to see folks grow, not just becoming more empowered in their tenant's rights, but seeing how that then is used for other parts of their life. I have a colleague that pointed out how there was this woman that I helped out one time and how she's like, you know, very quiet and timid and, the way she would come, like when she started to.

When she finished, who now was just like helping to organize her building, you know, became what I see as a tenant leader in her building. Like we did a bunch of work. And then seeing her use that activism and organizing when she saw there was an issue in her son's school and she wanted to find like-minded parents to work together toward finding a solution. Those are things that I'm really proud of, seeing how they are becoming confident, the fact that they start becoming public speakers. I have another tenant that I worked with who was also instrumental in helping organize around the cooperative for the nannies that are in the neighborhood. I had no idea. I had heard about the work that was being done, but I didn't know that she was part of the folks actually moving and getting it to come together. So those are things that I look on, uh, fondly. But the job also comes with a lot of emotional toll.

I think about the hundreds of tenants that live in unregulated units who don't have the same basic tenant protections that other tenants have and are more susceptible to being evicted, but also being priced out and how difficult it is for them to find something and knowing that, you know, there's nothing I can do because the law allows landlords to do this, right? Those are really hard. And those stories I also remember a lot. Yeah.

Gabriela: So, and well, during these 10 years, I know that the neighborhood [has] changed dramatically. So if you can tell us a little bit about those changes and how those changes also impacted your work, you know, kind of shifting I don't know, like practices or ways of doing things. Becoming more aggressive, I guess.

Marcela: Yeah. Definitely we started seeing also the demographics change as a large part of the Puerto Rican community started to get displaced, and we started seeing a growing Mexican community. We started seeing a growing Asian community. We started seeing a larger community from Central and South America. It has been really beautiful to see the way the community has responded, right? Seeing the businesses that are catering to these communities and the services and the products that they're interested in. And how we have, despite the limitations, because we are a growing immigrant community, [had] the economic development that has occurred here.

And with that means that there's more people coming in, right? I always said that Sunset Park was one of the last affordable neighborhoods, [and] a first stop for a lot of immigrants because they feel like they're at home here, right? The Spanish speaking folks don't necessarily have to learn English, right? They can get away with going to the store, they will find folks that speak their language, right? And how that's important as well and how that's needed.

And so the neighborhood in the seventies had a lot of empty abandoned buildings. And so there's been investment on the federal level to rehabilitate those buildings to provide affordable housing at the federal level through the Section 8 subsidy. And I think that really also helped a lot growing the community as, as they're providing affordable housing.

There's a lot of rent stabilized housing here too, and I think that a lot of folks don't know what that is or what that means, but it is really, truly one of the largest affordable housing units that we have. And we've only seen the way the neighborhood has grown, and we're starting to see a lot of basement apartments being used as well. Basement apartments in buildings that may or may not be legal. So that's also been interesting as part of my work and trying to help people is the fact that they're so open, right? They're inviting you, they wanna show you the issues and the problems, and it's giving me an opportunity to really learn about the types of buildings and, how they're used for housing, both legal and illegal, and learning a lot just about, um, what those rights entail.

It was a very humbling experience, being able to talk to new immigrants, coming into their homes, to really be able to reflect on what my household went through, what I saw growing up. How we were also an immigrant family that lived in the shadows, so I feel like that was also very helpful in letting me connect with folks and building that trust so that we can work together. And then just the leadership over the years that I've built, the way they've come together, the way they've become more civically engaged, where part of my job was lobbying and going up to Albany and meeting with our state and assembly legislators and talking about legislation and how do we support this, and why is this important to our community? So it's been really beautiful to see that also that growth from the community as well.

Gabriela: Yeah. I'm talking about this growth and all the work that you created, there are different organizations and different groups in the community. And how are those relationships? How have you built some of those relationships? Because I know that you are very loved in the community now and, and you have been part of larger fights. So if you can talk a little bit about that.

Marcela: Yeah. I mean, part of being staffer at “Neighbors helping Neighbors” was the fact that I had the opportunity to make connections with these other community organizations, being able to provide workshops to educate their members, the folks that they work with on housing issues, how they would, [with] the referral system, [they’d] send me folks and meeting them that way. It's been really beautiful to see.

And sometimes you go to organizations and you're doing a workshop, and I see some folks that I might've helped with in the past that are there, which is really nice. And, and again, it's just been a beautiful growing sense of community that we're building here.

Gabriela: Yeah. Talking about these big or more recent prices in the community, can you tell us a little bit about rezonings in the community? Would “Neighbors helping neighbors” engage in that, or was it more focused on the tenant organizing at that level.

Marcela: I think working in coalition has really been helpful for me in preparing for the fight that we were going to have. So I was in coalition spaces where I was talking to, but more so I was listening

to what the tenants in that part of the community [was], whether it's Manhattan or Brooklyn or the Bronx, but they were going through rezonings, how were they being impacted? What were they seeing? And then how did that process finish with them? So I always say we had the advantage of seeing this all unfold in other places and trying to learn from that so that we can prepare ourselves. And I think that we knew the rezoning was coming. We were, I wanna say maybe as early as 2013, trying to prepare for, for what I was assuming and expecting to be a large community fight. And so what was the role of Neighbors Helping Neighbors in that fight? And trying to understand, all of a sudden we all had to suddenly become experts on what a rezoning is, and like, what does that mean?

And so, again, I would travel to different neighborhoods. I would participate in their workshops. I was listening and learning and also building relationships. Like, I'm just one person. How can I support? Because I'm thinking we're gonna be fighting soon and I'm going to need help too. How do we do this together? How do we start trying to figure out how we're gonna bring the community together? And it was a struggle at the beginning. Um, one is always just like funding. Like, this was gonna be a project where they needed to dedicate one organizer to, and I think in my mind, I was getting myself ready to make that shift and for that to be all. And so you learn a lot about foundation money. How do you, you know, how do you all this stuff and, you know, we weren't able to get

the funding that we needed, and so it sucks, but that doesn't mean that the work doesn't get done. And I think that that's something also that we need to look at and figure out how do we continue to fight and how do we make it sustainable? You know, trying to start talking to people about what was coming down the pipeline, being strategic about who was gonna be impacted first, and how do we start talking and reaching them. It meant talking to small businesses and how they're being impacted too. But this was just such a big thing that people weren't yet able to connect with because they weren't being impacted by it as yet. And so, unfortunately, some of the organizing can't happen until it's actually happening and people are now paying attention and saying, we need to do something.

You can try and prepare as much as you want, but it's not always that easy. So it's good that there was some of this that started happening, and then when people were realizing what was happening, there were concerns, right? Because we were already starting to see the changes in the neighborhood. It's not just we're watching what's happening on the news in Bushwick. We're starting to see some of that now, right? We're starting to see landlords getting more aggressive, people of color being displaced, the property owners specifically going after new people that were arriving from the Midwest. People that were looking for apartments that were moving to New York, that had the financial stability to be able to come into our neighborhoods.

Where they also felt that it was affordable compared to somewhere else. Right?

Sunset Park is a rich, beautiful community. We're on one of the highest points in Brooklyn. We have a great view. We have this amazing park with an Olympic-sized pool, and we are within a 20 minute train ride into the city. This is a great place to live. And this is why the people that have been living here, you know, we have set roots. We work to make this community what it is. And the understanding that people liked that and wanted to come in at the expense of displacing the people that helped create, this was something that people were starting to wake up to. Because they were starting to see their neighbors being displaced. They started seeing the businesses change, right. The products that they're selling. Right. The blogs

that started with these new members of the community that would ask questions like, “Where can I get some good coffee? I don't see any coffee shops here.” “Well, you're obviously not a New Yorker, 'cause we get our coffee from the bodega”. So you started feeling it. You started sensing it, and we were feeling the crunch. And so during these community fights and struggles, the other thing that we see is people rising into positions of leadership as well. As we start coming together as a community organization, Neighbors Helping Neighbors always has to struggle with funding. Sometimes organizations get territorial, it’s difficult. You're fighting with each other for funding.

And so, what we need to do is, we need to, we need to figure out how we're gonna work together. Because I think at the end of the day, we all had an invested interest to try and preserve the neighborhood. So that's one of the beautiful things about coalition work too. You have to do what you do on the right. You have to do what you do on the left. We may not always agree, but we understand that there's times that we need to come together and show that we're a unified force. And I think that was a beautiful thing that we started seeing people taking leadership and trying to do things right. And so we can't be the only ones we have as Neighbors Helping Neighbors, we had a tenant group that we were trying to form, but there was a response from the community where there's some community members that formed their own little union. That's great. Yeah. We are limited in resources. We can't, we can't

do all of that. We need help. They're starting to see an issue, they're starting to come together. They're starting to work. Right.

Carroll Gardens has a tenant group too. Some of their members happen to be in Sunset Park, when these things start bubbling, they also see a need to extend and come in and help and support. And so I think that, that was one of the things that was really beautiful about people coming together. And understanding that they had a voice and they had a right in determining the outcome of their community. The community has worked so hard to preserve the view that we have. This is also one of the last working waterfronts. [Others have] pretty much been slowly converted into luxury housing.

This was about a community wanting to come together and understand that there was something else that we could think outside the box. It didn't have to be the same thing that everyone else was doing. Right. And again, that was one of the beautiful things that we saw in people coming together.

Gabriela: That's beautiful. I mean, we are talking about the rezoning of Industry City, right? So when the owners made an application, there is a process that has a specific time, no? So what changed during that process or how all this group mobilized? I mean they were coming together, but did they think: “okay, we have this time, so what is the strategy?” How did everything work and what was your role in that?

Marcela: I think when the papers were actually filed, we knew that this was it. Right? We were trying to build up to that point. And I think

the different community groups started taking leadership and doing workshops and trying to just educate the community on what's happening with Industry City, and just like also understanding the history, right? Trying to push back on some of the language that there was nothing there that nothing existed. That it was dead. “Thank you, thank you, Industry City for coming in and investing in our community”. [ironically] Right? Those were difficult decisions that we had to make because people had different experiences. People have seen the neighborhood, some people have been here a shorter time, some people have been longer.And it was also like, how are we gonna start having these conversations? Because part of the thing, [was that] they were already there. They've already started changing [it]. We saw they didn't need a rezoning to purchase the property and

make the conversions that they did. So we were able to see that. We were able to see the way the space was being developed. Right. And now it was about us being educated and coming together and suddenly all of us having to be experts on what the rezoning does.

My role… I feel like I wore a couple of hats with this. Obviously the first role that I played was as a tenant organizer, community organizer. Now really educating the tenants on what it means that this type of development comes in. What's the primary and secondary displacement that happens? So part of it is educating people on new terms and then having them understand what's happening, and then having a collective conversation about how we are gonna move forward. So for me, it was like workshops, talking to folks

trying to build a special group, to focus on specifically. I had a role as a resident in the community to be active in wanting to have a say in what happens and helping to preserve my community. And then there was the other hat that I sometimes forget about, but it was also the role that the community board was gonna play. And now I am a board member. Like it's talking and education at that level with your colleagues, because you board

Gabriela: You were part of the board of...

Marcela: Yeah, CB7 [Brooklyn Community Board 7] and part of the process for rezoning was that the community board was gonna take a position on the rezoning.

Gabriela: Yeah. Like all the ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] processes.

Marcela: So it's working and organizing in these different spaces.

There's the work, organizing, that I was doing, which was sometimes limited because it was what I could do, [it was] my own personal activism that I did outside of any job. And then, it's like organizing and trying to educate my board members on this impact on our community overall. So it was a very busy time. But along the process, you meet a lot of really great folks that you begin to organize with, and we were trying to very much support each other. So any tenant workshops I did, I tried to share with the community organizations. UPROSE [United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park], for example, who took a really big lead in creating Protect Our Working Waterfront [campaign]. I wanted to support them as well and the work that they're doing. And then just like regular folks that were doing things on their own or trying to come together to plan it.

And there were a lot of opportunities to do work, and I'm really proud of the way we came together.

Gabriela: And if you can tell us a little bit about what was the final outcome of all these efforts and all this organizing?

Marcela: Yeah. So, you know, you get into these fights with the best intentions and you give it your all. But the truth is, we have to be realistic. I was told very early on that this was something that the city wanted, and so it was gonna happen. And so that's hard to hear. But we worked really hard and we put up enough of a fight and we had a lot of support. We started seeing support from other parts of Brooklyn throughout the city, people coming really wanting to be a part of this. And we created enough opposition that the developer withdrew their application. Yeah. And I think we were all in shock.

Yeah. There were so many ups and downs. Um, but it really was a collaborative effort. Community members, elected officials, um, community organizations. Yeah.

Gabriela: Yeah. No, this is one of the fights that got a victory. So yeah, it was pretty amazing. There are a lot of things to learn. And if you can talk a little bit about those groups from other parts of Brooklyn and the city that [joined] efforts and what did you learn from them?

Marcela: I think the great thing about seeing folks from other parts, from other boroughs and from other organizations, [is that] there was a real sense of community and connection. That you're not alone and that this fight is a fight that we're all doing together. So that was really great. Um, it was amazing to see folks come down with their banners with their members.

I think there's a lot of questions about, how did you do it? I don't think we knew. I don't, I don't think there's this, there's one specific thing I think that organizing is a lot of pause, evaluate, and then pivot, right. Because things are constantly changing and they're fast and, you know, communities are also different.

Gabriela: Yeah. And that is very difficult during those times where you have a specific, I don't know, weeks and months.

Marcela: Sometimes it days, sometimes it's literally days while you're organizing and working on one thing because you're busy. You're not realizing that people are also organizing against you over here. So there's a lot of that as well. And that, I think that was a little bit hard also with the community board because it was very clear that there were some members that supported this and wanted to make sure that

It happened. And so how do you, how do you have those conversations in that space. Where we have questions about the proposal there's concerns, but yet the community's being told that it's good for us. And I think that's where it becomes challenging because I could say that a member of the community board has more power than a regular member. Because at least they're in a body that's gonna be making a decision as part of the process that has to go through as someone who's just a member of the neighborhood [who] is coming and trying to understand what's happening. So there's different levels of that too. Our elected officials as well, their positions, what they did. Carlos Menchaca started like a working group to try and

have a discussion and educate folks and he wanted this to be kind of like an informational thing because he was gonna play an important role as well. And [deciding] if he was gonna support it or not.

Gabriela: And what was one of the most memorable moments of all this effort and why?

Marcela: One of the most memorable moments I think was just learning along with everyone else that we had succeeded and they had backtracked. That we do have power when we come together. That it's not a decision for the city to make, but it's a decision for the community to make. And I think what was really powerful at was as we started finding out

as we started notifying each other, as we started seeing it unfold on social media and people were making comments, one of the beautiful things was we came together as a community and celebrated in the park.

Gabriela: Oh, nice.

Marcela: Yeah. That was really beautiful.

Gabriela: Wonderful. And so, this was a win, no? What was next for you?

Marcela: I think for me… I think I was at a crossroads in my life where I very much wanna continue doing what I'm doing. I like the work that I do. I like the organizing that I do. I guess part of it was trying to find the challenge, like what could I do where I can use these skills to continue to help

[to] find feeling like I needed to start transitioning from the community organization. It's been great to me as far as being flexible with my schedule and my daughter. And my daughter was now getting ready to go to college and starting her own life. And I needed to figure out what I was gonna do or what I wanted to do. I had an opportunity to kind of reflect and say, okay, what can I do?

And one of the things that I had been hearing from a long time, but also initially when I started getting involved in the coalition work and the housing stuff, were people telling me that I should run for office. And I remember the first time I went to my first coalition meeting in Manhattan [I realized] that what was happening in my neighborhood was happening in many other places.

And there were a lot of people like me that were coming together. They were part of a tenant union, they were part of a community organization. And then really talking about how they were gonna influence legislation. And I remember at that meeting just learning a lot, but also meeting someone for the first time, and being introduced by the organizer from Neighbors Helping Neighbors as someone who got evicted from her apartment but is now advocating and organizing, and him telling me: “oh, you should run for office”, just like that. And I was just like: “I don't know this guy. I don't know what he's talking about”. I never thought about politics. It was just… I think that the work that I've done at Neighbors helping Neighbors and definitely the work on the community board has prepared me to be able to run for office. And I think that I had…

2019 was also the year where we passed the historic rent laws. That's right. And so I had been playing a very important role. I was so involved with Neighbors Helping Neighbors” and doing that leadership development and doing the organizing, not just in my community. Nobody knew who we were. Sunset Park wasn't part of the coalition fight. Neighbors Helping Neighbors wasn't an organization that was known. We, with the tenant leaders and the leadership that we built here, we were, I always say [that] we were part of that victory. And so all those bus rides up to Albany gave me time to think and I remember that in the cycle before Zellnor Myrie had run for Senate, but he ran on a housing platform. He ran as the president of the Senate Association.

And I remember people telling me, you can't run on a platform like that. And I always thought: “why wouldn't you?” Like it's the number one issue. Like, I didn't understand why it wasn't a priority for our representatives. Like, everyone's getting evicted left and right. What are we doing about it?

And so I think seeing him run and seeing that response, seeing him also be instrumental in helping to pass the strongest tenant protections in history, I was just like, “maybe I should think about this a little bit more”. Like, what is it gonna mean? Like, what can I do at this level? And the potential of being able to pass legislation. To help all those tenants that I couldn't help with before. No one should have to go through being evicted and what that means, there's a trauma

that's there. It's hurting our seniors. It's hurting our kids. I still live with that.

Gabriela: Yeah. I know. I guess you just suddenly saw the power that you could have in that position. Going to like all those campaigns and being so instrumental for your community, but I guess you saw that it was not enough sometimes.

Marcela: But also what it meant to be an immigrant in that position. To have someone from this community be in that position. There's Latinas in the State  Assembly, and I think that that's great and it's growing by numbers. They don't look like I do.

Gabriela: When was the moment that you said: “Im gonna do it”? How was that process? Because I guess

that is really emotional. [That is] difficult to give that a step.

Marcela: I took a course with some women leaders in our community about that specifically. Like, if you're gonna think about doing [it], these are the things we should think about. I think it was like a two, two and a half day workshop. So I was like: “Okay, I need to find out some basic information. Okay.” And then talking to some folks and understanding the support that I was starting to get, like if I wanted to do this. And I think when I was ready to say yes is like when I told my dad and my daughter. And I think for me it was like I needed their permission

because this is gonna change the way that I live. This is gonna change everything in my life, which will ripple down to them. And my dad was like: “that's, that's good, 'cause you have room to move up if you want to”. So he was supportive. And I think my daughter just looked at me and was like: “yeah, I think that, I think you'd be really good at that”. And I was like: “okay, I'm going to try and we're gonna give this our all”, not thinking that I would win, but I was like: “let me at least try this”. And I think I was also just kind of ready to leave my job and wanting to try something different.

And it's been a very crazy experience. Yeah. Um, the pandemic hit us and we had to like, stop everything

and I regret not being able to make those connections with my tenants. I think I won, I became a state legislator, and some of them, because they're not civically engaged, don't really understand the new job that I have. But some of them understand very well and they're very happy and they're very proud. And that makes me very happy and very proud.

Gabriela: That is amazing Marcela. If you can tell us a little bit about now that you are in that position, what continues to be your relationship with your neighborhood and the people? I mean, you are impacting like a larger area, but how is that now?

Marcela: It's definitely a different relationship because now I represent people that agree with me and some that don't. And I think that

that's a responsibility that I always have to be aware of. It's hard because I'm away for so long. I'm gone almost six months out of the year. It's hard because I don't get to do all the things that I want to do within my community. But it's also been… I see a lot of hope and pride in our folks and I want them to know, like, if I was able to do this, they can do it too.

Gabriela: You opened that door, for many. I think you are the inspiration of many persons from the community. How is that feeling?

Marcela: It's overwhelming. And it's a big responsibility that I take very seriously. It's beautiful to see them

when I see them and bump into them, which is great. I remember when we were doing the Fifth Avenue Puerto Rican Day parade with council member Alexa Avilés, and to see people that I haven't seen in a while and just be able to run up to them and give them a hug and, and say hi to them has been, has been very touching. The sense of strength in what we can now accomplish, but not as individuals, but collectively as well, and just also just trying to understand this new power that I have and how do I begin to wield it in a way that I am, I'm helping my community.

Gabriela: What would you tell young organizers who are starting to follow your path?

Marcela: I would say everything is impossible until it's possible.

Defeats are part of life, but they're also a very good learning experience. And if you have a vision, you can make a plan and you can achieve it. Nothing is off the table.

Gabriela: Thank you. Marcella, do you want to add anything?

Marcela: Just, this community work is hard and we need to remember to be kind to each other. We need to remember to, uh, be supportive of each other and we need to remember to take care of ourselves. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon. And we have a lot more to accomplish and a lot more wins to do.

Gabriela: Thank you. Thank you so much for this conversation. Thank you.

Marcela: Thanks.