Meet Julio—Activist, Justice Advocate (Story 33/40)
City Heights is a hub for so much good work, activism, and great people looking to support their neighbors.
In fact, one of the best things about working here is getting to meet so many passionate who haven’t given up on the idea that we can facilitate change, and this young man is a perfect example.
Once a colleague of ours at City Heights CDC, Julio Garcia is now working as District 9’s Government Affairs Manager on Council President Sean El-Rivera’s team. He offered us a quick interview to catch up on the kind of work he does now and how to get involved in and sustain justice movements in the region:
CHCDC: You're a young guy but you've already worked in so many types of justice work, but what are some common themes you've seen as you've participated in these seemingly different justice movements happening in our region? What do these different kinds of work have in common?
Julio: I think a simple response is that a common theme is that we still have a lot of work to do.
We specifically need a lot more work done across different cultural and religious groups, and we need a lot more work of connecting our justice campaigns to the bigger picture of creating equity for everyone. We need to connect the housing work with our transportation work, and connect that with our transformative justice work, and connect that with our food insecurity work and connect that with economic justice work, and connect that with immigrant rights work etc etc.
But like most justice movements, we need to rely on building community power and harnessing community power to pressure and demand change.
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CHCDC: You seem to be so active, and as mentioned before you're involved in a lot of great work in the area—how do you sustain that? The most impactful movements find a way to sustain themselves.
Julio: The key to sustainability and resilience throughout movement work, your day job and just life in general is to ask for help. To ask for support. Nobody can take on a fight, especially a fight against institutional -isms by themselves. It’s important to work in collaboration with community, family, and friends.
I would also say that it’s important to allow leisure time and do activities that one loves to immerse in. Through these activities, I believe folks carve out time to not only do something they enjoy but they also carve out time for self and community reflection. It allows for people to check-in with themselves or check-in with others to see how they really are doing?
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CHCDC: Any other tips for avoiding burnout?
Julio: I think folks sometimes need to simply take a step back to rest or leave a space to not feel drained and burnt out. This includes temporarily pausing or permanently leaving volunteer positions, an organization, group of friends or a job. Our world is fluid and we need to be fluid and not be afraid of change in our personal lives. A change of scenery can sometimes do wonders.
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