Our five areas of focus for most of this year have been immigration reform, the fight for $15 and workers’ rights, shutting down the Berks Family Detention Center (where Central American women and children are jailed while seeking asylum—22 mothers started a hunger strike there on August 8), organizing for a municipal identification card in Reading, and fighting for fair funding of education and social services in Pennsylvania. We are also often involved in actions in a broad spectrum of movements for justice and equity including #blacklivesmatter, LGBTQ equality, and climate change to name a few.

This year, as the Latinx community (Latinx is a gender-neutral alternative to Latino) has been in the cross hairs of politicians like Donald Trump and Sen. Pat Toomey, we decided that it was important for us to enter the electoral struggles that shape our reality, and our c4 sister organization Make the Road Action in Pennsylvania (MRAPA) was born. For us, it was important that we enter electoral and political work with the same transformative conviction and style that MRPA has become known for.

So MRAPA isn't primarily about making candidates win in November; rather, MRAPA is clear we need to organize voters in our communities to build the movement for justice that will be an effective militant voice for a politics for the people, and hold accountable promise-breakers. So when we are talking to voters, we are not only asking them to vote for candidates; we're having deep conversations about what it will take to win a $15 minimum wage or work on climate change. Every voter we talk to is invited to a weekly Action Committee dinner meeting, and within 48 hours those who sign pledge cards receive a call or house visit from one of our community organizers. MRAPA is using this election to build the movement and it's working—our Action Committee meetings are packed.

KE: What is your personal journey that led to your activism with this group.

Marín: Early on, I learned not only the power of collective action, but the power of building unity in struggle. It sounds cliché, but from the moment I led that walkout with students black, brown, and white in seventh grade, there was no turning back for me. In my early teens, I went on to lead student peace and justice organizations and civil rights groups like LULAC Youth in San Antonio, Texas.

After moving to New York City, I got involved with the Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM!) as we fought against budget cuts and tuition increases at City University of New York (CUNY). Participating in SLAM! had a profound impact on my life and worldview. It was led by people of color (especially Women) and evolved into much broader justice work and years of fighting police brutality in the wake of the Amadou Diallo killing. Every single day, we worked against Mayor Giuliani's hateful and brutal reign. I lost count of how many times I was arrested with my fellow SLAMistas, but I'll never forget the day the NYPD decided to physically attack one of our marches to keep Open Admissions in CUNY. After being body slammed on concrete by police officers several times, I was left with permanent injuries. I don't have to guess what a Trump presidency would be like; I've already lived under his best buddy’s rule.

During that time, I was proud to be a founder of Asociacion Tepeyac de Nueva York, which became the largest Mexican organization in New York, with over 45 local committees (comités) in the City. As the Struggle Coordinator at Tepeyac, I was inspired as over and again thousands of my paisanos would bravely come out of the shadows to stand up for our rights as immigrant workers. Afterwards, I spent years working in the labor movement, most recently at SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

But from my very first interaction with Make the Road PA, it was clear that the organization was special. Often out-mobilizing other groups with larger staffs, MRPA at the time was led entirely by volunteers with support from our national partner, the Center for Popular Democracy. I attended several of the meetings and was impressed with the level of dedication and commitment from the members and their understanding that it takes building communities of struggle to sustain the long road ahead.

I loved my union local, its members, and its commitment to building power for working people, not just in the work place but also in the community. At the same time, it became clearer and clearer to me that, if we just focused on traditional NRLB organizing, we wouldn't get to where we needed to be to transform our society into a just society. Looking at the growing Latinx population in Berks and the Lehigh Valley and the vacuum of robust community organization on behalf of Latinxs, the strategic importance of Make the Road was clear. With the support of the local I decided to move my work to MRPA and MRAPA.

I now have the privilege to wake up every morning knowing that I'm helping to lead an organization of incredibly strong, smart, and dedicated members who dedicate their free time to transforming Pennsylvania and our country. Our members dig deep and confront the forces of hate and exploitation. They come out of the shadows to declare that we are here, we are somebody, and we won't back down. Our members show an incredible amount of love and dedication, often organizing three to four actions and meetings per week.

We see ourselves, in part, as the union for those who can't join one the traditional way—as the community developers and planners in neighborhoods and cities abandoned by others long ago. As a strong clear voice, even when those in power don't want to hear us. As a community of support for those in struggle to make ends meet and assert or dignity on a daily basis.

KE: Given all the politics swirling around in Pennsylvania, what do you see as Make the Road's role there?

Marín: The path to progressive victory in Pennsylvania has long been seen by many to be a narrow one that includes only Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and all but ignores the nearly one million Latinxs living in the state. The result of this has been that, while we have been narrowly successful in the federal, and statewide electoral races the last few cycles that has not translated to electing a majority of progressives at the local level or down ballot. If we are going to win a progressive majority at the state and federal level, and win on our issues, we can't ignore the vast geography outside of the bookend cities, or long-ignored constituencies like the rapidly expanding Latinx community.

MRAPA is strategically organizing in the most populous concentrated geography outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and with voters who are not frequent but who, when they vote, they vote for progress. We are playing a key role in changing Pennsylvania (and federal) politics by getting thousands of eligible Pennsylvanians registered, and tens of thousands of infrequent voters to become regular voters. Just as important, our members are a consistent and growing organized community that will educate, mobilize, and take action year round on the issues that matter to Latinxs and working-class communities of color.

We also are playing an important role in building a permanent progressive coalition in the state, and ensuring that the entire state’s geography is included in the progressive conversation. We are one of the most consistent voices for intersectionality in the state, lifting up our experiences of multilevel oppression as a recipe for unity. Reverse engineering oppression and exploitation shows us the way—the forces of hate and greed are united and are the same players in multiple forms of oppression. The only logical answer is to also unite across communities and identities to defeat them.

KE: What will victory look like to your group and how will you measure it?

Marín: In the short term, for Make the Road Action in Pennsylvania, defeating Donald Trump and electing Katie McGinty to the Senate and Josh Shapiro as attorney general are critical measures for success.

In the next year and medium term, it will mean winning immigration reform with a path to citizenship for eleven million undocumented immigrants, a federal raise in the minimum wage to $15/hr, an immediate ending of family detention and ICE's focus on prosecution and raids, winning non-discrimination protection for the LGBTQ community, and an end to austerity measures cutting vital social services to people in need.

Long-term victory for us has to be a shift to a government that looks like Pennsylvanians (workers, women, people of color, immigrants), and advances our rights and interests and a dedication to prioritizing serving the people rather than corporations.

We will know we have won when the most important voices in setting government priorities don't come from Wall Street, because they come from community organizations, organized labor, and faith communities.

KE: What can Daily Kos readers do to help?

Marín: We are scrappy sister organizations that do a lot with very little. We consistently mobilize and engage our communities. We organize cultural and educational programs. We bring people out of the shadows and collectively lift up our voices for justice. Make the Road Action in Pennsylvania will play a key role in defeating Donald Trump and Pat Toomey and electing progressives this year. We do all this on less than a shoestring budget. We can do even more, but we need support to do it. Right now the best way to support is to visit our website and make a donation.