When Barbara Lopez walked her first picket line in Los Angeles, she had no idea what she was doing.
“I was 12 or 13… I can't remember the age, but I remember I didn't know what a picket line was,” Lopez said. “I didn't know what they were fighting for. Of course, my dad explained it to me, but I was like, ‘contract? What are you talking about?’”
Her dad is the reason she was on the picket line, after he landed a part time bus driver job with a union.
Lopez is a first generation eldest daughter to Guatemalan parents, who found pathways to citizenship after being undocumented. She said she saw a different household with her dad and stepmom due to his new salary, benefits, and pension.
“It was such a different reality than my mom,” Lopez said. “She was a housekeeper, had odd jobs, [and a] single mom… When I would visit both homes, my mom was struggling and my dad, it was more structured and more inviting.”
Living those two lifestyles made Lopez realize that lack of access to resources was part of a bigger problem, she said.
“That’s the piece that changed for me,” Lopez said, “We're part of systems that make it difficult for brown and Black people to navigate.”
Learning about systemic issues got her into advocacy, she said.
“Our community is so hard working, so humble, and they're the first to give,” Lopez said. “How do I support the community, to have access to the things that my dad and stepmom had?”
‘Hay que echarle ganas’
As an adult, Lopez came to Connecticut to build a life with her family, but she said the Latino and immigrant neighborhoods in Bridgeport and Hartford are what prompted her to start building Make the Road Connecticut as a co-founder.
“I saw myself in a lot of little kids running around…a lot of the parents reminded me of my dad, my mom, my aunts, my uncles,” Lopez said. “That really made me feel like home.”
According to Lopez, there was a lack of community organizing in Bridgeport when she first started connecting with locals, so establishing trust was difficult.
Lopez said she often encountered community members who thought she was selling a scam and who had a lot of doubt around her goals.
“I did all the things that I had to do for this particular committee meeting. I was confident that 10 or 12 people were going to show up,” she said. “ Only two people showed up.”
It felt like a blow.
“I was devastated and also concerned,” she said. “It was, like, year one, and I'm like, ‘Oh, my God, is this not going to work? Did I make a mistake?’”
One of those two attendees simply reminded her: you have to give it your all.
“I remember this vividly: hay que echarle ganas,” Lopez said. “I felt like a total failure. She's like, ‘no, hay que echarle ganas.’”
A big part of putting in that effort involved learning about the many Latino cultures in Connecticut. Lopez said Mexican culture was very prevalent on the west coast.
“Coming to the east coast, it’s different. It's like Puerto Rican, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Dominicans, all these different cultures,” Lopez said. “I remember that being bilingual was helpful, but then you had to meet the culture.”
That meant navigating varying perspectives, Lopez said, such as experiences of migration into the United States and types of government in countries of origin.
“Even saying, like ‘vamos a ir a luchar, or we're gonna go strike, or we're gonna go march,’ it’d be like, no, we can get in trouble. Back home, we can get incarcerated or even murdered, depending on the country you were in,” Lopez said.
Those nuances speak to the Latino identity, Lopez said.
“Being Latino, Latine is complex, but also very beautiful, because once you have a common vision, I think people come together for that vision,” Lopez said.
These lessons have made her years with Make the Road Connecticut rewarding as a leader, Lopez said.
“I see our members testifying at the Capitol or at city council, or just celebrating the end of year celebration,” Lopez said “I'm glad I stuck it out, y le eche ganas, because then I wouldn't be able to witness all this.”
Making space for growth
Lopez believes one of her key traits as a leader is one that she hopes young women will embrace as they grow: asking for help.
“As a person of color, and then as a leader of color, sometimes saying I don't know the answer to this in spaces where sometimes you're the only person of color, or you're the only woman, can be very challenging,” Lopez said.
Lopez said she found support from the first leaders in her life, her mom and her stepmom, and the leaders she met over the years, like Black women in leadership across Connecticut.
“Being able to say, ‘I don't understand. Can you back up and explain that?’ was something that I learned along the way. I think learning that skill set is part of who I am,” Lopez said. “It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to slow down.”
Given her identity and lived experience, Lopez said she especially wants young Latinas to understand how important it is to accept help.
“I learned that the hard way, because I had all these expectations of like, I should know this,” Lopez said. “Why do my peers have an easier time than I do? It's because I am Latina. It's because I am first generation, and it's because I come from a poor, working class family.”
“Making space for that, and sitting with that uncomfortableness, it's okay to be in that space and to give yourself that time and to ask for help, or to say, ‘It's really hard. I don't get it. I need more support,’” Lopez said.
It’s also okay, Lopez said, to take time for yourself. Lopez is parting ways with Make the Road Connecticut on April 30, handing off her torch of executive director to Wendy Cardenas. Lopez plans to take a break before moving on to her next endeavor.
“I really want to make sure that whatever comes next that I'm hungry for it, and that I can be impactful,” Lopez said. “How can I continue to grow as a person, as a professional, but also, can I be uncomfortable in learning something new? I want to make that space, to lean into that, and then try something new.”
This story is part of the series Poderosas: Portraits of Purpose, highlighting Latina leaders in our Connecticut communities.
