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Dulce Vasquez was born in Mexico, grew up undocumented in the United States, and went on to study at Northwestern, UCLA, and Sciences Po in Paris. She served as a Los Angeles City Commissioner, ran for City Council in District 9 and State Assembly in District 57 — two of the highest-poverty districts in all of Los Angeles — and built a digital platform that turns complex policy into content that actually connects with the people it's meant to serve. She didn't wait for permission. She decided her community deserved better and showed up.This week, Dulce joins us on Behind The Work.Dulce is a Los Angeles-based content creator, education leader, and former political candidate who uses digital storytelling to break down the issues that shape everyday life — housing, public transportation, education, mental health, and the rights of women and LGBTQ+ communities. She currently serves as Assistant Vice President at Arizona State University, leading strategic partnerships and public engagement. She is a formerly undocumented LGBTQ+ Latina, a five-time marathoner, and one of the most grounded, clear-eyed voices on what civic power actually looks like when it's built from the ground up.In this conversation, we start at the beginning — what she remembers most about those early years, when she realized education could change her life, and where her sense of civic responsibility came from. We talk about what it felt like to navigate elite institutions like Northwestern, UCLA, and Sciences Po as someone who grew up undocumented, and what those spaces taught her about systems, inequality, and who gets to be in the room.We get into the campaigns — what made her decide to run, what economic justice actually looks like at the neighborhood level in South Central, and what it feels like to put yourself forward in those spaces as a formerly undocumented immigrant. We talk about how her identities shape the way she leads, where she found the permission to take up space in a world that often tells immigrant families to stay quiet and be grateful — and what gives her hope right now about Los Angeles, civic engagement, and the communities she serves.This episode is for you if:- You grew up being told to be grateful, stay quiet, and not ask for too much — and something in you has always pushed back against that.- You're a first-generation immigrant, a child of immigrants, or someone navigating systems that were never designed with you in mind.- You care about civic engagement but feel disconnected from politics and want to understand what real community leadership actually looks like.- You've thought about running for office, stepping into public service, or using your platform for something bigger — and you want to hear from someone who did it.- You're building in education, policy, or social impact and want a sharper lens on where the systems are failing and where the opportunity lives.- You need a reminder that your story — all of it, even the parts the world told you to hide — is exactly what makes you the right person to lead.Connect with Jessica:- Subscribe to the Behind The Work newsletter — link in bio- Follow Jessica on Instagram: http://instagram.com/@jessicasantana- Follow Behind The Work on Instagram: http://instagram.com/@behindtheworkshow- Follow Jessica on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@jessworldwide- Follow Behind The Work on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@behindtheworkAbout Behind The Work:Behind The Work is the show for the ambitious person looking to level up their lives, their career, and their businesses. Hosted by Jessica Santana, Behind The Work goes deep with the executives, founders, and leaders who are building from a place of power. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the real work — the strategy, the setbacks, the pivots, and the purpose — behind the people, companies, and organizations shaping what's next.
Jessica Santana is a business and leadership coach for entrepreneurs and executives. She specializes in teaching founders, entrepreneurs and executives how to build strong businesses, careers and lives they love.
Behind The Work is the podcast show for ambitious executives and entrepreneurs looking to build businesses that scale and careers that leave an impact. Hosted by Jessica Santana, each episode features in-depth conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and executives who are building companies from the ground up and are succeeding in their career fields. Discover the real successes, honest failures, pivots, and the vision behind the most successful people reshaping industries.
Some episodes, we’ll sit down with some dope guests and hear about their journeys. Other times, it’ll just be us—breaking down the lessons, strategies, and real talk that I have learned as an entrepreneur and executive – It will be everything you need to keep pushing forward and you’ll always walk away with something tangible and practical.
This show will provide answers to questions like:
- What does the real journey from zero to success actually look like—beyond the highlight reel?
- How do I turn my business idea into a profitable, scalable company?
- How do successful founders navigate failure, pivots, and setbacks without giving up?
- What's the difference between entrepreneurs who scale to millions and those who stall?
- How do you secure funding, and what should you know before approaching investors?
- What does it actually take to build product-market fit?
- How do you build a high-performing team and company culture from the ground up?
- What blind spots do first-time entrepreneurs have, and how do you avoid them?
- How do you balance growth with profitability and sustainability?
- What's the real behind-the-scenes strategy that successful founders use?
- How do you stay motivated and resilient through the tough seasons of building?
- What's the path to building a company that can scale beyond you?
- How do you know when to double down on your vision versus pivot?
- What does leadership actually look like when you're building something from scratch?
- How do the most successful entrepreneurs think differently about risk, money, and opportunity?
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Behind the Work, the show for the very ambitious person looking to level up their lives, their careers, and their businesses. I'm your host, Jessica Santana. And if this is your first time tuning in, I wanna say welcome to the show. So today, we have a bomb guest, Dulce Vasquez.
Jessica Santana:And if you don't know, today, you're about to know. And, Dulce, I'm so happy that you're here because, obviously, we were introduced by Susie, and she was telling me about all of the phenomenal work that you've done in your career that spans, like, advocacy, but also spans community, running for different political offices, and just, like, general, like, bad bitch behavior is what I would call it. And so I would actually like to start with little Dulce. You know, you were born in Mexico and you obviously came here to The States. I would love for you to share a little bit about your formative years and what it was like growing up.
Jessica Santana:How would you describe her as a young girl?
Dulce Vasquez:Oh my goodness. I laugh because I'm just like, oh, as a young girl, you know, I've In my elder age now, I've been diagnosed as neurodivergent, and I go back and look at little Dulce, and I was like, Oh yeah, all the signs were there. So, just very precocious, right? I didn't like to get dirty. Only liked a certain brand of shoes and would throw a fit if I didn't have those particular kinds of shoes, and that just made me sound super privileged, but I wasn't.
Dulce Vasquez:I was born in Mexico. My mom moved to The U. S. When I was three and left me with my grandparents for about four years while she sort of established the home and then brought me over when I was seven years old. And it was a big cultural shock, obviously, going from this, like, privileged life in Mexico because my mom was sending money back for me to go to private school.
Dulce Vasquez:I had the uniform, I had the whole thing. And then coming to The US, and I remember landing at Miami International. So yes, I flew, and I flew by myself, like an accompanied minor, by myself, on a student visa, one of probably it's the largest percentage of how people become undocumented, not actually crossing the border, it's expired visas. And I remember landing at Miami International, being questioned by immigration as a seven year old by myself, and they called my mom in, and they're like, Oh, she says that she's gonna come live here? Mom's like, No, not at all.
Dulce Vasquez:And I remember getting dropped off at the first day of school that my mom left, and I just started bawling because I actually just I was supposed to walk home. I, like, barely even knew how to get there. And I remember certain other things. Right? My my dad worked seven days a week.
Dulce Vasquez:He was a dairy farmer.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:So the cows got to eat seven days a week. Mhmm. And on the weekends, my mom and I would go help him get off earlier. We would go corral all the cows to come eat so that he could just have more time to hang out with us. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And I remember one of those weekends, my mom jumped over a fence into piles of cow manure and got a two by four, had a nail sticking out of it, went right through her toe. And obviously, no cell phones back then. Talk about bad bitches. This bad bitch drove herself to the hospital. And it was one of those moments, too, where it's like, a, bad bitch behavior, but, b, like, no one's coming to save us.
Dulce Vasquez:Like, you have to do it yourself.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. And I think that's one of many examples where my mom just showed me that you have to do it yourself.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. You know, I think about my own mother, and I think about a lot of the values she's instilled in me. And think about my dad as well, but there's something about, like, the matriarch, especially in Latina families that is just so important.
Jessica Santana:And I think a lot about some of the things my mom even told me about, like, the importance of education and making my own money and getting a career. And I think about how so many so much of the society, like, puts bad bitch behavior in affiliation with, like, a certain level of pedigree. But my mom was always a bad bitch. Right? And she was always amazing, and she only had a high school education, barely a high school education.
Jessica Santana:And so I'm curious, you know, if you can share a little bit about maybe some of the things that your parents and your mom taught you about values and how to stand in them, but more importantly, how that might have shaped the ways in which you see education in your life and whether or not you saw it as an opportunity for advancement because you've dedicated so much of your life to it.
Dulce Vasquez:Yeah. There there are certain there are different parts of values. Right? So let me just start with values Mhmm. Broadly.
Dulce Vasquez:My mom would take the shirt off her back if someone needed it. She's sort of selfless, altruistic in a way that 99.9% of people would not. When I was a kid, I remember there was this Peruvian woman that would come stay with us for long periods of time, and the origin story of that was that my mom had been a nanny for a long time, and she was at a park, and she saw this elder woman crying and got into it of just like, What's wrong? This is a woman that would come spend six months on, six months off, and come be a live in nanny for people, sort of like an kind of like an au pair, right? But with six month visas, right?
Dulce Vasquez:She would come for six months, leave for six months, come for six months. So something had happened with her host family, and she had to leave and was just sitting in a park without not knowing anyone, not knowing what to do. My mom brought her home, and to this day, they are connected. Every year that she would come for six months, like, she'd spend the weekends in our house helping raise my little brother. That's just the type of person that my mom is, and being shown that type of generosity was a big part of my always being engaged with nonprofits and now my philanthropic work as well.
Dulce Vasquez:When it comes to education, my parents were educated. My parents finished college in Mexico, both of them. My dad was in sort of botany agriculture, and my mom has a BA in English, like like English literature, like British literature, and was a teacher. And there's something so powerful about their journey of believing in education and instilling in me, including my grandfather, right, the old adage of education's the one thing that they can't take away from you. Right?
Dulce Vasquez:I think a lot of us Latinos hear that and probably hear it across other different cultures as well. But my parents had a had graduate educations and still decided that there was better opportunity cleaning houses, cleaning cow shit, and building homes
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:In The US. And I think that that's something very humbling and very powerful that I always knew. Mhmm. And I knew that my only job as a kid was to focus on school.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And even as a kid, you sort of understand this deep responsibility that you carry, right? Because you're an immigrant, you're undocumented. So there's this, You have to be quiet. You can't make any trouble. You have to be good.
Dulce Vasquez:You have to earn good grades. But you also have to go shine because the expectations of this entire family rest on your shoulders.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. For sure. No.
Jessica Santana:I definitely I agree with this wholeheartedly. You know, I was the first generation well, the first person in my family to go to a four year school and graduate. And remember when I graduated, my dad and my mom were like, perfect. You're gonna get us the house. You're gonna retire us.
Jessica Santana:We're gonna move in. We're gonna do all these things with your money. And I was just like, Like, what do you mean? But I also recognize that so much of the culture, especially for Latinas, is about the family, you know, like we move in community. And I think I was very much at that time trying to balance what it meant to be a Latina in America because I'm getting conflicting messages from my home girls that are not having this level of expectation from their parents, and then I'm going back home.
Jessica Santana:And there is that level of expectation to the point where I felt like I was driving myself, like, a little bit insane. You know? And I think the pressure is especially when you're in your early twenties and you're still trying to get to know yourself, to have to deal with those kinds of things are a lot. And so I'm curious if you can share a little bit about, you know, why you might have seen that as not something that was abnormal to you, or did you ever feel like that sense of responsibility just came natural to you?
Dulce Vasquez:I think that's that's tough. Mhmm. I think that's tough to answer just considering what you said about your experience with your girlfriends because Latinos are not all The same. The same. Yeah.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? There are people that have been here for multiple generations whose families have thrived over generations. Mhmm. And, you know, going from Florida, right, where where I grew up, to Northwestern, top 10 school in the country, in this, like, castle like Hogwarts Mhmm. Campus, and seeing you know, I didn't know that there were Mexicans who had money, girl.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. Like, I went I went to Northwestern, and I met some Chilangas, right, that were straight from Mexico City who looked like all the telenovela artists Mhmm. Who were just throwing money around.
Dulce Vasquez:And I was like, the fuck? Where'd you come from? Mhmm. Right? Like, I just I didn't I didn't know.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. Mhmm. I didn't know. So not not all Latinos are are struggling. And, yeah, I I think, you know, my mom definitely my pair both my parents, definitely displayed it in the fact that, like, they're one of millions of Latino Americans, hyphenate Americans, I should say, that send remittances back.
Dulce Vasquez:Yeah. And the Mexican economy, part of it is stood up on remittances from people living here. So that's just what you do. You send money back when it's necessary. So I think when I was particularly first getting into the job market and wanting to take care of my parents, wanting to be like, Hey, let me buy you a plane to come visit me.
Dulce Vasquez:Let me buy you that coach purse that you've always wanted. Oh, your laptop's acting out? Let me buy you a laptop right, to the detriment of my own financial stability, to the detriment of my own shit. I just spent $1,000 on this laptop, but I could have invested that $1,000 and in thirty, forty years, I'd have x amount of money. So I I think it it just it depends.
Dulce Vasquez:I've sort of gotten better about it while still carrying that overall responsibility that if anything happens to my parents, right? And they're pretty young and kind of healthy, right? So I'm I'm like, Okay, let's keep at it, because I'm still squirreling away money because I'm waiting to step in for when the big medical expense comes or, you know, when they need help with the gas or bills or whatever it is. Right? You know, I've always dreamed of going back to Mexico,
Jessica Santana:and I like, Okay.
Dulce Vasquez:Well, I could definitely afford to live a nurse if they go to Mexico, but if they don't, shit. Like, that's still on me, and that's still something that I have to plan for. And it's definitely not something that has impacted like, you know, I've never wanted to have kids, but I'm so grateful that I've never wanted to have kids because I know that I have this extra money that I'm not spending on a kid to spend on my parents when they need it.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, that vision of a castle is just it's living rent free in my head right now because I remember when I went to Syracuse and you go up this hill and there's definitely something called the Hall Of Languages, and it is a castle. Like, it literally looks like something straight out of Harry Potter. And I remember I felt like a fish out of water when I was just dropped off on this campus because it was the first time where someone was, like, tugging at my own learnings.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. And when you're 18 and, you know, I am from the hood and I'm gonna shy away from telling people that. And when you're there and you're realizing, like, oh, wow. Like, you know, home girl over here, you know, she's the daughter of the CEO of Kraft Foods or something, you know. And then you're also still meeting other people that also are from where you're from, and have just also made it here, like the duality of balancing these different kind of personalities when you were just used to one kind of personality was a lot.
Jessica Santana:But it also taught me a lot about inequities and opportunities and how that works in our society. And so thinking about, you know, your time at Northwestern, what do you think it taught you about opportunity and inequities and how it moves through our world or doesn't move through our world?
Dulce Vasquez:I always go back to talent is universal and opportunity is not. And having spent majority of my career now in higher education and having my experiences shape my views on how we're serving and who we're serving, being at Northwestern did not expand in my opportunities if I were trained or educated in how to take advantage of those opportunities. I didn't know how to interview. I didn't know what companies were good, I didn't know how to get into consulting or investment banking, and that's what all of my friends were doing. All I knew was retail.
Dulce Vasquez:I'd worked in retail and I worked in restaurants as my jobs in high school. I went to a place like Northwestern, and I'd go to a career fair, and I'd be like, is Sears hiring? So I went and did my internship at Sears Corporate because all I knew was retail.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? So it it doesn't teach you it doesn't teach you that just because you're there, you belong.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:I remember never having once gone to a professor's office hours in all four years that I was at Northwestern. Why? Mhmm. Because I'm like, why would these educated people, mostly men, let's let's be honest, why would these old educated men want me wasting their time? It didn't click to me that I'm paying their salary, you know, air quotes, I was on a full ride, but air quotes, like, I am paying their salaries, so they work for me.
Dulce Vasquez:It didn't click. Didn't click. It wasn't until I went to grad school in my thirties then that I was like, oh, these are my professors, and they're here to help advance me. Mhmm. But at, you know, twenty, twenty one, '22, I did not have that's part of belonging.
Dulce Vasquez:Yeah. Right? That's part of belonging that you feel like these resources are there for you to take advantage of. Yeah. And I just I did not have that.
Dulce Vasquez:It was partly impostor syndrome, partly, like, I went to public high school, and I was the smartest kid in a lot of classrooms. I had very smart friends, but, you know, I was a very smart kid in high school. Then you go to Northwestern where they're all fucking smart kids. Right? And they're all from elite preparatory schools.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? They know how this shit works already. And for the first time ever, I'm struggling to keep up. I'm struggling to read the material before the next class, also because I'm working a part time job, because I have to make money to fly myself home if I need to, or buy Chipotle that's not on the meal plan. Go out and socialize with friends.
Dulce Vasquez:I would go out with $3 in my pocket because the keg sold a 32 ounce beer for $3, so I would only go with $3. That's all I had to spend.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? So there's just a lot of belonging in that.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. Yeah. It's so interesting because so much of what you're saying takes me back to my first year at Syracuse too where I remember I was in this writing class that everyone had to take. It was, like, one of those required writing classes, and we had to read some books. And, you know, some of these students had been reading, like, Shakespeare and Oedipus, but my school, my high school, the public high school in New York City, specifically in East New York, Brownsville, Brooklyn, and we were not reading that.
Jessica Santana:We were reading a lot of other types of things. And when I started and I was in this classroom with all these students that have been exposed to these different types of literature, and and books, I kinda asked myself, like, am I in the matrix right now? Because I had just graduated valedictorian from high school. And now I'm here and I have no idea what you're talking about, you know? And it felt really, really wrong.
Jessica Santana:Like, felt like there was something that I got cheated out of at some point in time. And so, you know, I always say, especially even in my work outside the podcast with America on Tech, is I believe that education oftentimes falls short. And I'm curious with technology and AI and all of these different shifts in our economy, what are you seeing right now in your role at ASU that makes you excited, but what are also things that you're like, we're falling short here? AI is definitely exciting.
Dulce Vasquez:As someone who personally utilizes AI, I see the break, right, of the people that are super nervous, who think AI is evil or that it shouldn't develop or that it's gonna take over our jobs versus someone like me who's utilizing AI to make my life easier. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right? I know how to discern between what's right information or how to research if it's wrong information, but it's sending me in a direction.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? It's drafting letters or emails for me, and I can edit those into my own voice, or if it's missing something or whatever it is, it's right a lot of the time. So it's something that is making me an effective employee, and I think that it could make a lot of effective employees. If you think about even, whatever, thirty years ago, trying to research something and going to a library and pulling out books and having to sift between 400, 600 pages on what it is that's actually relevant to what you're looking for, like, oh my goodness. The Internet has revolutionized it, and now the AI personalization of it, because my AI now knows my background, knows my voice, and being able to access that is terribly exciting.
Dulce Vasquez:And the way that schools can and should be utilizing it, you are seeing For instance, I am a lifelong learner. I am currently in a graduate program, because why not? And there are some instances where, like, okay, please utilize AI for this and show us your changes. And now we're seeing several different schools who are like, We want you to use AI to write your admissions letter, but show us the edits that you're making to it, to show your critical thinking and analytical skills, which honestly are the most valuable tools that we can be teaching. So I think if you can adapt into an AI world, you're gonna be more productive.
Dulce Vasquez:I think if you can't adapt and you're sort of being scared by it, it's where it's going to leave a lot of people behind. Now, higher ed is going to be where a lot of this training comes in through. So you're going to need schools, you're going to need universities, not only to continue doing the research into AI, but to be able to train our future workforce in how to not be scared and how to utilize it. So I think that's terribly exciting. I think where we are failing is still going back into where are the students that did not have anyone show them how to be in the workforce, how to apply for jobs, how to even manage internships, right?
Dulce Vasquez:Because Carlos Marc Veda, a friend, I always talk about him, and he started Pay Our Interns. Mhmm. And I remember in 2008, the one thing I wanted to do, I wanted to, I wanted to join the Obama campaign.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:You know, some I graduated June of o eight. I wanted to go work that summer into the Obama campaign, and everyone's like, oh, you just have to volunteer. And I was like, yeah, but, like, I need to pay rent, and I need to pay for gas. I I could just I can't just go volunteer. Right?
Dulce Vasquez:So if I'd gotten, you know, paid internship to go work for the Obama campaign, I could have been working at the White House. Anyways. But being able to show students that don't have professional career parents or aunts or uncles that are looking out for them, how to teach them how to navigate that, I think, is still really, really difficult. Universities are getting better at it, but some of the systems are still outdated in terms of pairing employers. Employers just are like, here's who we're looking for.
Dulce Vasquez:And we need just a lot more workforce integrated learning, where you're taking students and exposing them to an office setting, exposing them to expectations of how to respond to emails, when to respond to emails, sort of the work culture.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. Absolutely. I agree with this wholeheartedly. I see it even in my work with America on Tech where, you know, you have colleges and universities that, you know, can really identify the problem and the need. And then you have employers, right, that are thinking that it is only the responsibility of the college and university to fix it.
Jessica Santana:Then the college and university is like, no. It's the high school. The high school has to fix it. So it's like, well, who actually owns this problem? You know?
Dulce Vasquez:I I I mean, across the board, like, the expectations. You know, I think employers sometimes want a ready made person ready to work on day one. And it's like, no, dude. Like, you actually have to train them because Amazon's system is different than Google's system. It's different than, you know, like, Starbucks corporate.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? You're all working on different systems, you want them to be ready on day one. Like, no. You have to train them, or you have to employ them when they're students so that you can give them a job offer and they're ready on day one.
Jessica Santana:Oh, absolutely. I think that when you get to a point in your managerial life or your career in general where you've done the work to realize that the best work you do on this earth is the work you do with humans. Mhmm. I believe that your actions towards Yeah. You know, developing talent actually change.
Jessica Santana:I don't know that we're there yet, though. You know, there are a lot of folks that are just like, I wanna survive. I just wanna do my job, and I want you to do your job so I could go take care of these kids. And I do understand the philosophy. Like, when you have a lot on your plate, you do want an already made individual, but the reality is that we're we're selling ourselves short.
Jessica Santana:Right? And this is part of the legacy that we leave behind. I don't know that everyone thinks about it in this way.
Dulce Vasquez:No. And I and I think I think particularly when it comes to AI, so many people are concerned about the downsides and not centering the humanity, not centering people, not centering, like, hey, not just how do we make more profits, but it's like how do we create an educated society that is thriving. Mhmm. Right? That is that is that feels purpose, feels dignified, that feels like like a company is going to help them raise their families.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. And I and I think that there's that that trust. Right? There's we're at an all time low of not just trust in government, but trust in institutions. Companies are part of that.
Dulce Vasquez:Education's part of that. Right? And the pendulum will swing eventually, but we're in this we're in this rut right now. My my boss calls it sort of like a high seas. It's like a maritime thing.
Dulce Vasquez:I don't understand it. But, you know, the tides are really high, so it's a lot of turbulence right now. But they will come.
Jessica Santana:They will come. Hopeful. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what?
Jessica Santana:I think one of the things that this, you know, part of the conversation is stirring for me is your background in running for office. Right? Because I I imagine that your experiences in education and really understanding systems and how opportunity works were some of the reasons why you decided to run for office. And so I'm curious if you can shed some light into that process and why you made the courageous decision to put yourself out there in that way?
Dulce Vasquez:I don't know if it was courageous. I think it was young, dumb, and naive. Oh, no. No. Naive, definitely.
Dulce Vasquez:I didn't Mhmm. Did not I did not see that coming. I decided to run, honestly, in a fit of productive rage. You ever had one of those?
Jessica Santana:Oh, yeah. Absolutely. 2020 through 2026 till now.
Dulce Vasquez:It was it was 2020. It was 2020 for me. I was in my last semester of grad school. I have a master's in public policy. The last semester, you know, I came back.
Dulce Vasquez:It was March 2020, you know, the whole world was falling apart. Mhmm. And one of my professors, shout out to Saviar Oswaldski, a longtime elected official here in the city. He was teaching the class, and it's normally just LA politics. Right?
Dulce Vasquez:And he switched the curriculum to LA's response to the pandemic. Mhmm. Mhmm. And we were studying, you know, every week. It was the city level, the county level, the state level, the federal level, the county office of health.
Dulce Vasquez:He brought in speakers because he's so well connected, brought in supervisors, brought in Doctor. Ferrer, the head of LA County Health, brought in the mayor of the city of Los Angeles. And every week, I'd sit there and I'd listen to them, and I know what's happening, essential workers. Essential workers means brown people, brown and black people. It means people who are stocking your grocery shelves.
Dulce Vasquez:It means the Southeast Asian nurses that are at hospitals. It means, you know, construction workers. And all of these black and brown bodies are being exposed to a disease, and they're bringing it back to their multigenerational households Mhmm. And getting abuelita and abuelito sick. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Meanwhile, the kids are at home with low Internet connectivity, if any Internet connectivity, so they're not able to go to school. And then on top of that, we have a government that's giving out checks for $600. But if you're a mixed status family, doesn't matter if one of you is American, you're not getting that check. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And I'm just so frustrated. And they're talking to us, and I'm just like, you don't understand. Mhmm. You don't understand. Like, this is not your reality.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And I just I got so frustrated at the inaction.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And then the George Floyd protests happened, and that just sort of tipped me over the edge, where a lot of my peers in grad school Mhmm. Were like, cancel finals. We have to stand up with our brothers and sisters. I'm like, look around fools. There's not a single black person in this whole cohort.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Why don't you ask the administration how they're gonna recruit more black bodies into this program? Right. Right. Period. So frustrating.
Dulce Vasquez:So so I a I a friend of a friend. A friend texted me. She's like, hey. This guy wants your number. Can I give it to him?
Dulce Vasquez:I was like, sure. He calls me, and he's like, I'm seeing online all the stuff you're doing. Have you ever thought about running for office? I was like, no. That's crazy.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. And he explained to me Los Angeles City Matching Funds
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Which is like, if someone donates a dollar to your campaign, the city will give you $7. The dollar plus 6 more, up to shit, I think it was I think I had a check for $160,000 to run a campaign. And I was like, well, that's good because I'm poor, my family's poor, I don't know rich people, and, like, I he's like, I think we can do this. And I was like, okay. The incumbent is literally sleeping through city council meetings.
Dulce Vasquez:He's been in office for thirty plus years. I can't tell you a single thing that he's done for my community. And I was like, alright. Let's do this. So I in a productive fit of rage, I was like, yeah.
Dulce Vasquez:But once I decide to do something, I'm a I'm a do it a 130%.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. Period. Yeah. Of course. And so, you know, the the campaign that you run, it was in areas in Cali and LA specifically that, you know, have been known to be on the margins.
Jessica Santana:Right? And this was also like a time where a lot of people were starting to question question their own proximity to privilege and their own proximity to power. I'm curious to know, for you personally, what did that campaign teach you about the community that you were going to serve and also what economic justice looked like for
Dulce Vasquez:them? Oh, man. Proximity to power and economic justice. Okay. So let's start with, like, proximity to power.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. And I think this is a relevant conversation right now Mhmm. As we're seeing a lot of congress members resign over all sorts of misdoings. And I think what's really important is the systems that enable them to stay in power. Mhmm.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? So I ran for office. I'd never run for office before. I was not I'd never been a staffer before. I'd never worked for an elected official before.
Dulce Vasquez:I was just like, fuck it, let's go.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Running against someone that has been in office for thirty years Mhmm. Was a council member in a different city, was an assembly member, state senator, LA City Council member, and that system protects the people that are already in it. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right?
Dulce Vasquez:Whether it's, like, labor unions, whether it's nonprofit organizations, whether it's, you know, other democratic clubs. Right? Mhmm. Because they assume that the incumbent is gonna keep winning. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And if they don't support the incumbent that is usually gonna keep winning Mhmm. They're gonna fall out of their favor. Yep. Whether that's for anything from a grant to a fricking photo op.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? So disrupting that system
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Is really hard. Mhmm. And particularly in South LA, South Central, whatever we want to call it, that area, it's the district that is the poorest in Los Angeles City. I then turned around and ran for state assembly. It is the highest rate of poverty district of all 80 districts in California.
Dulce Vasquez:Highest poverty rate. And you look at the people who have represented that area,
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Many of them were not raised there.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Many of them moved in Mhmm. To get the residential requirement to be able to run.
Jessica Santana:Yep.
Dulce Vasquez:I actually yeah. But I won't go into that. But a lot of the representation is not coming directly out of that area. So that's something about both education power and access to power. Yep.
Dulce Vasquez:There's a second part of the question. Around economic justice. Economic justice.
Jessica Santana:What does it look like or what can it look like? Yeah. Because let me tell you let me let me let me tell you why I asked you. Right? Because when I think about what you just shared, right, where you have folks that have been in these positions for such a long period of time, right, and you don't see change or the change is fractional, like a decimal point, you have to start asking yourself, what are you fighting for then?
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm.
Jessica Santana:Right? And if the system, like you said, is really, really structured to protect the people that are already in it, at what cost are we willing to pay to protect this person if the cost is the cost to our community and what they have access to? I've seen this in my own neighborhood. Right? People always ask Jess, why don't you go back to East New York and go run for office?
Jessica Santana:And I was like, first of all, the system does not deserve me. That's why I won't do it. Because I'm not willing to try and make change in a system that's willing to protect ego and charisma and status quo. It's not that I don't wanna make the change. It's that I know that this probably is not the most effective way for me to do so because the cost is fractional change, and I want massive economic disruption and opportunity for my community.
Jessica Santana:I don't think it's there. So that's why I'm asking you this.
Dulce Vasquez:Yeah. Mhmm. I don't have a rating. It's not that I don't have it's not that I don't have an answer.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:I, you know, I'm I feel like I'm sort of holding back or biting my tongue here because
Jessica Santana:Oh, please. Don't say anything you don't want No. I hear.
Dulce Vasquez:No. I'm mostly an open book, and I'm very, very disruptive, but it is really hard. It is really hard because of that lack of change or maybe increment I mean, it's not even incremental. Mhmm. It's not even incremental.
Dulce Vasquez:I mean, this is a this is a district. This is an area where you have, you know, 12 people splitting a two bedroom apartment that is dilapidated.
Jessica Santana:Yeah.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? It's people working two, three jobs. It's, you know, being charged more rent because you don't have a credit history. Yeah. Right?
Dulce Vasquez:It's people being taken advantage of on a system wide level. Yeah. It's sidewalks that aren't cleaned. It's unhoused people living next to residences. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And I don't I don't see that outrage Yeah. Because people expect it to look like that. I think that's also what's frustrating about it Mhmm. That people expect it to be trash. People expect it to be broken sidewalks.
Dulce Vasquez:And at some points, people even contribute to that. Right? I can't tell you the number of times that, like, I drive around and I see people throwing, you know, their McDonald's bag out the window. Like, that's someone's house. That's someone's home.
Dulce Vasquez:That's where someone when our kid walks to school. Yeah. Right? The illegal dumping that happens in South Central. It's the, you know, sort of lack of street lights.
Dulce Vasquez:It's the lack of investment in our community. And then when something nice happens, they're like, oh, it's gentrification.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. And it's
Dulce Vasquez:like, well, we fucking deserve a nice coffee shop that's black and brown owned. What are you fighting against? Mhmm. Right? Like, we deserve nice things.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. We deserve to have nice things, and it immediately gets halted as gentrification.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. And so then knowing what you know now, right, because a lot of people often ask me, you know, Jessica, what keeps you in the work?
Jessica Santana:Because it is very easy to be jaded, but I still have, like, a level of naivete about what is possible. And I have to operate with that level of naivete to not give up. Right? I have to ask you, you know, having all of these years, you know, of experience in education and then also having the experience with running for office and everything that you learned there, like what is giving you hope right now? What keeps you in the fight?
Jessica Santana:Especially during a time where I'm actually seeing a lot of people leave the fight because they're tired and they're losing a little bit of hope.
Dulce Vasquez:Well, I wish more of those people were 70 and over that are leaving the fight. I think young people are giving me hope. I think young people I follow Amanda Littman, also went to Northwestern. She's younger than me, but she started an organization after Hillary lost called Run for Something.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And it trained Oh, I know her. I know her.
Jessica Santana:Oh wait, I know well, don't know her personally, but I know her work, let me just say. Yeah.
Dulce Vasquez:Yeah. So so Amanda's fantastic, and she's been very vocal Mhmm. About getting septuagenarians and up to leave and to let us take charge, to let the next generation come through. You know, we have a lot of people that 70, 80, you know, I think one of our congress members is, like, 84 years old, and obviously, like, Dianne Feinstein, like, died in office. Why aren't you on vacation somewhere?
Dulce Vasquez:Why aren't you, like, you know, watching your grandkids grow? Like, what what are you doing? Mhmm. I mean, it frustrates me for many different reasons. Like, a, I will not be 70 years old, like, in elected office.
Dulce Vasquez:Like Mhmm.
Jessica Santana:Bet. Yeah. Because you because you also believe in the distribution of, like, power and like giving a new vision for sure.
Dulce Vasquez:And both my parents and I worked really hard for rest. Mhmm. Mhmm. We worked for rest. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Mhmm. So so that's that's one part of it. But recently, something happened, something big happened, and Amanda announced that I think 250,000 people 40 had signed up for their news or sort of information organization, right, on to teach them how to run for office. Yeah. Right?
Dulce Vasquez:And they're focused not on congress. They're focused more on school boards. They're focused on judges. Right? We have a lot of, like, elected judge positions, school boards, even here in California where everyone sees it's totally liberal, our school boards are being infiltrated by MAGA Republicans
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And pushing all of these you know, sort of, like, anti trans policies Mhmm. At the school board level. Right? And these are things where kind of is lower cost to get into them, but they're so important.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:They're so important. So just having that type of excitement for young people to run for office gives me hope, and I will help literally anyone. I've you know, someone called me as running in Florida, so I was mentoring her, coaching her how to get started. And now that she's into it, she's getting the endorsements and she's getting the money in, so I'm so excited for her. Her name's Amanda Green out in Florida.
Dulce Vasquez:I just hosted a fundraiser for my girl, Myra Macias. She's out in Chicago trying to represent her community. I've got Manny Rootinell in Colorado coming through here stopping by, and I wanna be that space, right, that that connector, that home where people all over the young people over the country can come in and call in on my network. I wanna be there to support. I'll pick up the phone if you're just trying to work through something.
Dulce Vasquez:So I think really the younger people taking charge, the Zoran Mundammis of the world, right, he's so charismatic in a way that is so appealing to a broad swath of people. Things that he's doing, the videos alerting people of the snowstorm coming, you know, the like, that's what we should be doing to connect with people where they are. Mhmm. Because in South LA, 10% of registered voters are voting, which means that when I lost my race to the city to the incumbent city council member, he won that race out of 112,000 registered voters, a district of 260,000 people. He won that seat with 8,300 votes.
Dulce Vasquez:We need to get people to feel that civic duty
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:To vote. We need to give people hope again. I think the next generation is what gonna give them hope, to get them out to the ballot box, to make them know that it is important, that it does make a difference, that they are gonna fix your sidewalks, that they are gonna take the trash out. Like, we just we need that type of investment to encourage people to participate in the system.
Jessica Santana:Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I appreciate you sharing that. I feel like, there are a lot of young people I know that are trying to figure out what to do, how to get involved, how to make change.
Jessica Santana:And so as we close today's episode, I'm curious if you can share with the audience what are your parting words for those that are trying to figure out how to meet the moment right now.
Dulce Vasquez:Man, I feel like it's a lot of pressure to have the perfect closing remarks. I think just stay in the fight. Take up space. Taking up space is something that I had to unlearn. Growing up undocumented, be smaller, be quiet, be good, and now I show up to spaces.
Dulce Vasquez:There are parts of me that, in the assimilation process, over years, got lost.
Jessica Santana:Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:Right? Like, if you meet anyone that I knew in middle or high school, I used to say my name was Dulce, Because it was easier for them to say. So I was succumbing to an anglicized version, whether it was what I wore or how I spoke, how I interviewed, whatever it was, I would not be wearing this at 22 years old at an interview. There were so many behaviors that I had to unlearn, I think one of them was being like, Hi, my name is Dulce. Going back to, No, you're now going to succumb to me, and I'm very vocal about correcting people now.
Dulce Vasquez:I will phonetically spell it on my Zoom. When someone says it wrong, I'll just edit my name and put it phonetically just so that people understand. So just take up space. Take up space because the world is ready for you. Mhmm.
Dulce Vasquez:And if not, you have to mold it be ready for you. You have to be able to understand what you want, make it happen. Knock on doors, ask questions. You have to be able to not be that meek person that's like, oh, they're too busy for me. I've had so many people who are as as I'm happy for anyone that comes knocking on my door, like, have opened doors for me.
Dulce Vasquez:Susie's one of them. Right? Just getting me to sit on this podcast. Mhmm. Like, pull up the next generation.
Dulce Vasquez:We're we're done with the, like, like, we're all growing together now. How can I help you? How can I be of service? What do you need from me? Like, that's that's the mantra now.
Jessica Santana:For sure. Alright. And for those that are listening that wanna find you and contact you and keep in touch, where can they do that?
Dulce Vasquez:Social media is the best. Please go engage, like, follow, re re I won't say retweet because I'm not on Twitter anymore, but Instagram, TikTok, threads, at Vasquez Dulce. As I continue on my social media journey, it is partly about educating people, empowering people, getting them to participate. So please follow along.
Jessica Santana:Alright. So take up space, y'all. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Behind the Work. If you like today's show, make sure that you give it a thumbs up, give it a rating on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify as well as subscribe on YouTube and follow us on social media. See you next week.