KC and Jamil are joined by guest Andreina as they talk about the highs and lows of working in Congress, and the best ways to navigate current issues talked about on the Hill.
Transcript
Hello KC. Hey Jamil. So something that's been on my mind lately,
Speaker:is about the importance of internships, right, the importance of getting
Speaker:on the job experience with an area of study, an area of focus,
Speaker:that can happen outside the classroom. The importance of learning outside
Speaker:the classroom. What do you think about that?
Speaker:Well, the more I'm a teacher actually, and the more I spend time
Speaker:with folks like you and other students is like, "Wow, I really would
Speaker:have done college differently if I could." It's like, "Did I ever have
Speaker:an internship? Did I ever raise my hand in class?
Speaker:Did I use the resources available to me?"
Speaker:And no. And so I think the more we can
Speaker:encourage students to really take advantage of those resources,
Speaker:the more that they can get value out of their education and build
Speaker:collective power, right? Yeah, and we talk a lot about student activism
Speaker:on this podcast. Yes, we do. And a huge way of getting into
Speaker:activism is getting into politics. Mm hmm. I recall, I believe it was
Speaker:after my first year, I had an internship in the Mayor's office,
Speaker:in my local Mayor's Office. I did not know that. I did,
Speaker:for the summer. Of course you did. I did an unpaid internship.
Speaker:I did not want to be idle, I wanted to do something,
Speaker:get my hands wet. Always been interested in politics, always been interested
Speaker:in local government because that is where decisions happen for your community.
Speaker:So I took an unpaid internship at my local Mayor's office,
Speaker:I learnt a lot about how my Mayor office operates.
Speaker:I was writing proclamations... Proclamations, they had me doing, yeah.
Speaker:Interesting. Yeah, and I think about, too, I mean there's local government,
Speaker:like Mayor's office, and then all different levels of government, right?
Speaker:And I grew up 20 minutes from Congress, right outside of DC,
Speaker:and to me that felt kind of local.
Speaker:Congress felt close, living in the Washington DC area. And then when I
Speaker:moved to New Mexico and lived in Wisconsin, and I heard how people
Speaker:talked about Washington as this distant place where people did horrible
Speaker:things or they got nothing done, and they just had these complaints,
Speaker:like they didn't have any sort of sense of connection
Speaker:to their federal government, that was really an eye opener for me.
Speaker:And I'm curious for you as someone born in Connecticut,
Speaker:born and raised in Connecticut, does Washington DC... Does
Speaker:the Federal government seem close to you? Does it seem far?
Speaker:Is it approachable? Well, I've been to DC once, I went when I
Speaker:was looking at colleges for the first time. Interesting. Yes, I was looking
Speaker:at universities in DC. And one, I thought the Monument was gorgeous, it
Speaker:just felt like a very important place. True. I would say the federal
Speaker:government does feel approachable, but to me specifically, because I've
Speaker:never been scared to talk to a representative. For sure. I find that
Speaker:over the years, I've been in many spaces,
Speaker:like the legislation breakfast we have on campus, where people come
Speaker:and they talk to us, we talk to them. So I feel like
Speaker:that's approachable for me, but I can see how for ordinary citizens,
Speaker:that don't find theirself in political spaces, how that can be unapproachable,
Speaker:and also not necessarily knowing the differences between levels of government
Speaker:and where things happened. Right. So when I interned at the Mayor's office,
Speaker:I'd seen a lot of calls, and a lot of complaints,
Speaker:and it was always complaints that didn't deal with us directly.
Speaker:Like that wasn't our job to fix, we had no power to fix
Speaker:that. Interesting. We had no over certain areas, it was just not our
Speaker:level of government. And so I think for a lot of people,
Speaker:ordinary citizens, sometimes the problem may be not knowing which level
Speaker:to bring a concern to. For this conversation today, we're so excited to
Speaker:bring back a member of our podcast team who has been in this
Speaker:distant land of Washington, DC, Andreina Barajas Novoa, who was just an
Speaker:intern with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and as a... I guess
Speaker:this was the first semester of your second year, Andreina, right,
Speaker:that you spent living in Washington DC and working in Congressman Seth Moulton's
Speaker:office. So welcome to the show. We cannot wait
Speaker:to hear about your experiences. Thank you so much for the warm welcome.
Speaker:And I'm really excited to be back at Southern, working towards southern
Speaker:social justice initiatives, and then also bringing with me the experience
Speaker:from being on The Hill. And I really... Both of you...
Speaker:In talking to you, I'm like, with the confidence it takes
Speaker:to do the kinds of things that both of you do,
Speaker:the more we can share your stories and get that kind of,
Speaker:for lack of a better word, vibe out there to more people,
Speaker:empower folks, the better. So Andreina, what had you apply for that internship
Speaker:in the first place? Because seriously, as a... You would have had applied
Speaker:while you were in your first year of college,
Speaker:to be like, "Oh yeah, I'll go live in Washington DC.
Speaker:I'll be an intern in Congress." I mean that really takes
Speaker:a certain kind of presence and confidence that
Speaker:I, for one, admire. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker:I guess what really propelled me to wanna apply to this internship specifically
Speaker:with or through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
Speaker:was really, back in high school, my interest in wanting to be in
Speaker:government and interest in government work. I realised that I wanted to
Speaker:continue going to college. Because I went to a vocational high school,
Speaker:it wasn't really expected of me to do that but personally,
Speaker:I saw myself working more with people rather than machines. And I went
Speaker:to a technical school for HVAC and I quickly realised that was not
Speaker:for me. But yeah, so it was really the summer of my...
Speaker:The summer of going into college, so before... Oh wow. The start of my first
Speaker:semester that I was just googling opportunities to intern in Congress,
Speaker:specifically opportunities that were fully funded and paid where I didn't
Speaker:really have to rent an apartment for three or four months.
Speaker:So this was a full ride pretty much to intern in Congress.
Speaker:They also provided me with a stipend and transportation to and from DC
Speaker:so this is really, it's a great program for low income students and
Speaker:students of colour but because it's the CHCI, they primarily help out Hispanic
Speaker:and Latino students so that's how I was able to apply.
Speaker:And yeah, I would say it was because of my interest in government
Speaker:and I found out about this opportunity by a Google search before the
Speaker:start of my first year at Southern. So from HVAC technical school,
Speaker:before even going to college, how can I get to Congress and how
Speaker:can I have somebody else pay for that?
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah, and to even... And to go into that too,
Speaker:I remember distinctively my first year with being a freshman in high school,
Speaker:because it was a vocational high school, our expectation isn't to go to
Speaker:college really unless you're in one of the other trades, which mine didn't
Speaker:really require me to go to college because I'm an HVAC, I can
Speaker:go work in HVAC right now if I wanted to, but other career paths did. But
Speaker:I remember one of the teachers telling us that if we wanted to
Speaker:go to law school, that the school wouldn't be able to give you
Speaker:that opportunity, you wouldn't be able to do this
Speaker:while going to this school. And I just remember thinking that,
Speaker:"You're wrong because I'm gonna choose what I wanna do with my life
Speaker:and if I wanna go to law school or do something else with
Speaker:this career path then I'm gonna do it."
Speaker:And I think the relation that I have with
Speaker:my high school and the work that I'm aiming to do now is
Speaker:that I wanna do something labour focused, and being able to do this
Speaker:past internship and Congress proved to me that I can do that despite
Speaker:not having a background from... Coming from a private high school or
Speaker:a really good high school or something like that, I was still able
Speaker:to do it. So would you walk us through a typical day?
Speaker:So did... I mean were you living with roommates? How close are you
Speaker:to Congress? What time are you getting in? I assume that you have
Speaker:to... DC and obviously Congress are super dressy places, I don't have the
Speaker:wardrobe to intern at Congress right now myself.
Speaker:So yeah, can you give us a picture of what your daily life
Speaker:was like? Yes so, the CHCI, they gave us housing in Silver Springs,
Speaker:Maryland, which is like a 40 minute commute, I would say,
Speaker:to the capital. And a typical day for me was... Or more
Speaker:even a typical week, I would say, on Mondays I would do CHCI programming
Speaker:and then Tuesday to Friday, I would go into the office.
Speaker:And for Mondays, I could dress business casual because it was CHCI programming
Speaker:and then when it came to working in the office, it was mainly
Speaker:business professional which is... I'm not used to wearing suits every day
Speaker:but I had to get used to it really quickly
Speaker:and I would say a lot of the people tend to dress very
Speaker:well with their name brand suits and everything, their name brand shoes,
Speaker:the leather backpack but I wasn't like that.
Speaker:I like where I come from, I thrift my clothes, my suits were
Speaker:all thrifted, they were either thrifted or my mom's clothes. So I kind
Speaker:of embraced that when I was in Congress. I didn't really wanna conform
Speaker:to that over dressy type, and I know a lot of people do
Speaker:to just try to fit in but yeah, that was
Speaker:the dress code. And then a typical day,
Speaker:I started my day off with news clips, which is basically just
Speaker:looking at different headlines from different newspapers and then
Speaker:putting that all in a document, sending it off to the congressman and
Speaker:then after that, it was mainly answering constituent emails,
Speaker:phone calls from constituents, and then also attending briefings that a
Speaker:staffer wanted us to attend to. And some of the briefings that I
Speaker:attended were on immigration, Afghanistan, education, and healthcare. So
Speaker:those are areas of my interest and I also got to learn a
Speaker:lot about veteran affairs as well as infrastructure, which are
Speaker:two things that I'm not 100% focused on here in Connecticut so it was
Speaker:a learning experience there. And then another big thing that was also a
Speaker:part of my daily schedule and even sometimes weekly schedule was meeting
Speaker:with different staffers and networking on The Hill. They call them coffees,
Speaker:over on The Hill. It's an official term? Yeah. Yeah, it's an official
Speaker:term. My supervisor and then our supervisors for the CHCI told us all
Speaker:about the different terms that they use on The Hill and
Speaker:I would usually just refer to it as Congress but it kind of
Speaker:just stuck to me to just refer to it as The Hill because
Speaker:that's what everyone uses. Right, right. I like how you talked about
Speaker:making your professional dress your own. That's always something I believed,
Speaker:is professionalism is something you define it to be, and it's pretty radical
Speaker:to decide to do that in a space
Speaker:that may not be so approachable so I definitely commend you for that.
Speaker:Now, working with you over these last couple of semesters, I know you're
Speaker:big on activism, you always got something to say.
Speaker:How did that translate into this new role, into this new space?
Speaker:I feel like the work that I do on campus related...
Speaker:Well, the activism work that I do both on campus and in the
Speaker:state of Connecticut they didn't transfer enough to this role,
Speaker:and I think leading up to this internship, I've had a lot of
Speaker:hope that somehow myself, my one person, my one being was gonna be
Speaker:able to change the perspective of the congressman or even just
Speaker:impact policy in some small, small way but unfortunately, I wasn't able
Speaker:to do that, and I think it kind of
Speaker:let me down. And that was moreso towards the start, and then
Speaker:afterwards I kind of just realised that on... Well, in Congress,
Speaker:activism doesn't really have a space and when it comes to representation,
Speaker:I think there should be more activists that become Congresspeople, more
Speaker:organizers that hold these roles and then just a whole transfer of
Speaker:power and giving that power to the people, because what I realised when
Speaker:I was there, is that a lot of these laws that are being
Speaker:made are from people who are just learning about them through...
Speaker:I don't know, whether it was attending college or whatever and then not
Speaker:enough people who actually lived these things. So the policies that they
Speaker:make don't have a sense of urgency behind them because the people making
Speaker:the policies never had to go through the things that they're writing about.
Speaker:So it reminded me a lot about representation and the need to have
Speaker:more of that in Congress, both the staffers and the elected members.
Speaker:So there seems to be a gap in representation of elective officials
Speaker:but also the way we interact with our general public,
Speaker:With the folks who lives are being challenged or somehow harmed possibly
Speaker:and not feeling that urgency to react and to help and to
Speaker:be one with our larger community, is what I'm hearing.
Speaker:Yeah. Ain't that. I'm curious what... You know you said that one thing
Speaker:that you were doing was responding to constituent letters or emails and
Speaker:phone calls, what are the things that were coming up in folks' concerns?
Speaker:Racism. There wasn't one positive call. I would say the calls that I
Speaker:would get from constituents were typically racist calls. I never really
Speaker:had too many positive calls, but when I did, it just made my
Speaker:day completely. And then when it was emails, emails were typically just
Speaker:constituents asking us for questions on different bills and then some constituents
Speaker:asking us to do more in terms of infrastructure related work,
Speaker:on racial justice, and those were the typical emails, but when it comes
Speaker:to phone calls, I feel like I'm traumatised because
Speaker:they were too many racist phone calls that I just was not prepared
Speaker:for in this role. Interesting. Yeah, well, when you said racism,
Speaker:at first I was like, "Oh, people are calling in to demand
Speaker:change and that we do something about racism," you're saying people are
Speaker:calling in and being racist on the phone. Yeah. And you have to
Speaker:respond to that. I do. It was really hard because most of the
Speaker:people that would call would mainly call about immigration which... Oh sure.
Speaker:Yeah, they would mainly call about immigration, and at first it didn't affect
Speaker:me too much, but then as it just continued,
Speaker:it started affecting me a lot more because my parents are immigrants,
Speaker:the work that I do in Connecticut relates to immigration,
Speaker:and to just constantly hear that there's people that just don't wanna welcome
Speaker:individuals and just all these different racist policies that are in our
Speaker:immigration system and people just not realising it and being okay with
Speaker:those policies really bothered me. Yeah, they would mainly call about immigration,
Speaker:and I remember there was this one caller
Speaker:that tried to say that slavery wasn't as bad
Speaker:as history makes it out to be and...
Speaker:Yeah, so a lot of weird phone calls that I
Speaker:don't typically... Or not phone calls, but just a lot of weird topics
Speaker:and talking points that I'd never really interacted with before and didn't
Speaker:have to deal with when I was on campus. Mm. I could see
Speaker:that especially, it happening over a long period of time, the toll that
Speaker:would take on a person of colour. Absolutely.
Speaker:So if you're thinking about other people of colour entering that space,
Speaker:entering these similar roles and will be having to deal with phone calls
Speaker:and constituents that are coming from a space of racism, coming from a
Speaker:space of White supremacy, coming from a space of hatred,
Speaker:how do you recommend they handle that or navigate that space?
Speaker:That's a great... That's a great question, Jamil. It really is.
Speaker:I was very... I made sure that I communicated my feelings towards my
Speaker:supervisor but where I found the most help was with the other members
Speaker:of my cohort who also had to deal with these calls so if
Speaker:there's any student listening to this podcast and
Speaker:is interested in interning on The Hill sometime, I would say if you're
Speaker:not... Well, if you're not doing it through a separate program where you
Speaker:get to meet people from your own cohort, so if it doesn't follow
Speaker:a cohort model, try to find another person of colour that you can
Speaker:confide in on The Hill who will be able to relate to your
Speaker:experiences because I think what really helped me was being able to talk
Speaker:to my friends about this and then also understanding because they also have
Speaker:these challenges in their space. Yeah, and that is also true for anyone
Speaker:who works at any level of government engaging with the public.
Speaker:So, City Council all the way to the top and I really...
Speaker:I almost can't even imagine what folks, elected officials, not to mention
Speaker:all of their staffs but the staff, you're the ones who are
Speaker:the front line of receiving the public. But man,
Speaker:the pushback, the racism, the anger, in addition to the positive things,
Speaker:I'm sure there's some stuff, but elected officials deal with a lot.
Speaker:Yeah, I would say too, I wouldn't really say that they deal with
Speaker:a lot of stuff, because if there's one thing I realised from interning on
Speaker:The Hill was that the members and just like... Well, I guess this is true
Speaker:for Congress, they just don't really do a lot of the work that
Speaker:you think that they're doing. I don't know how to explain that,
Speaker:but I'll try to. Their floor speeches aren't written by themselves they're
Speaker:written by their staff members. For sure. And pretty much they have people
Speaker:to tell them what to do, where to go, what to say,
Speaker:so it's really a group effort, and when it comes to speaking to
Speaker:constituents, interns are constantly the ones that are like...
Speaker:And if it's not the intern then, it's the staff assistant.
Speaker:It's usually... 'cause the hierarchy on The Hill is pretty weird.
Speaker:It's usually the staff assistants and people on
Speaker:a lower role, I guess I would say are the ones who are
Speaker:having to answer those tough calls, but the member... I wish that there
Speaker:was a member that actually would answer the phone call, so they know
Speaker:the racist calls that we have to answer to. Right. That reminds me
Speaker:of my internship because it was very similar where it's like the team.
Speaker:I was so surprised by that. How much of the actual work is
Speaker:accomplished by the team versus by your elected official, the speeches they
Speaker:write, where to stand, what calls, what meetings they were gonna go to,
Speaker:what they were gonna say at the meeting, how to frame it,
Speaker:how to photograph them, like all of it is really coming from interns
Speaker:and many of us unpaid. Yeah, it's... Also I remember learning
Speaker:all of the famous speeches that you might read
Speaker:from presidents or whomever, almost none of them... Obama famously, he also
Speaker:had the speech writers, but those speeches that the president is known for
Speaker:it, the speech writer is not known for those speeches,
Speaker:and it really is, of course, one person can't do all the things
Speaker:that are happening from a collective of people and they're just managing
Speaker:the office. But it's not unlike owning a business and you have a
Speaker:whole bunch of employees who do a lot of the work,
Speaker:and then you're the one who's sort of the face of that
Speaker:collective effort. Well, one thing I wonder, that's interesting about the
Speaker:phone call too, because just so many people have not had jobs where
Speaker:they have to filter any phone calls, but
Speaker:what do you think is the best way, based on your experience,
Speaker:if you really wanna get a message across to a congress person,
Speaker:and this doesn't apply to anyone who has a racist message,
Speaker:disregard, but if you wanna get through, I've heard
Speaker:that calling is better than emailing but what is... From your inside perspective,
Speaker:what would you say is the best way to really
Speaker:connect? That's a good question. I guess it depends on how much you're trying
Speaker:to get across, because if it's a lengthy or not a lengthy... If
Speaker:it's a big issue that requires something more in depth, and
Speaker:then I would say a written message, so therefore emailing your Representative
Speaker:or Senator. But when it comes to just getting a direct message across,
Speaker:so just saying, maybe saying, "I want you to abolishing ICE." So something
Speaker:like a simple direct message, I would say
Speaker:that would be good for a phone call and something that I learned,
Speaker:big pointer to people who do phone things was just to make sure
Speaker:that you're calling in, leaving your name, email and phone number,
Speaker:because that's how we were able to log the calls, and there were a
Speaker:few people... The calls that weren't racist and the calls that actually
Speaker:called for positive change, I would say they didn't do that,
Speaker:they would sometimes just hang up... Oh, no. Before I was able to
Speaker:ask them, and I was like, dang, I'm not able to let the
Speaker:Congressman know and notify the staffers about an issue.
Speaker:And I thought that was pretty upsetting, but
Speaker:I think that's something that people don't really
Speaker:take into consideration when they're calling in, and then especially if
Speaker:you call in after hours and you wanna leave a voice mail, leave
Speaker:your name, email and phone number, and then if you feel comfortable your
Speaker:address or maybe a zip code so that it could be logged because
Speaker:that's what a lot of people didn't do, and I guess it's also
Speaker:the benefit of an email because you're able to just send the message
Speaker:more directly, something more specific and written out
Speaker:is a good way to communicate too, but yeah, I guess I would
Speaker:say phone calls if you want a more direct message.
Speaker:Now, has your view point changed of how you view Congress,
Speaker:how you view elect officials, how you view
Speaker:our democracy in this country? How has that shifted for you?
Speaker:How has that stayed the same? It changed a lot
Speaker:Where do I start? So, a lot of the work that I do
Speaker:here at Connecticut is activism related work, so social justice work on
Speaker:campus, DEI work on campus, and then immigration work in Connecticut through
Speaker:Connecticut Students for a Dream. And so when I was in this position,
Speaker:I've realised that lot of that work sometimes isn't appreciated
Speaker:in that high level of Congress. So in terms of it changing my
Speaker:perspective, because Representative Seth Moulton, he was big on the issue
Speaker:of getting people out of Afghanistan, so when it came to the
Speaker:Afghan refugee inquiries and SIV applications, he was one of the few offices
Speaker:that was doing that, so it changed my perspective.
Speaker:Well, being exposed to that first hand changed my perspective on our immigration
Speaker:system and how it needs to be improved to better serve refugees and
Speaker:then also other immigrant populations. But when it came to
Speaker:the Afghanistan withdrawal and us no longer having people in Afghanistan,
Speaker:no military personnel to really get people out,
Speaker:that's when I started realising that if I wasn't in this position as
Speaker:an intern attending these Afghanistan briefings, then I wouldn't understand
Speaker:where the government isn't doing enough to help these people get out.
Speaker:And I guess if I wasn't in this position, I'd probably be
Speaker:making these phone calls and then asking our representatives to do more
Speaker:because there's more people that need help and more people that need to
Speaker:get out. But I just had to learn
Speaker:that they're just... That hope wasn't there, I don't know how to explain
Speaker:it, but it just wasn't there, and that was something tough to have
Speaker:to handle because I definitely would have been on the end of wanting the
Speaker:government to do more, and then realising that they're just... We don't
Speaker:have the right military personal to actually get people out, and then the
Speaker:whole system of getting people out is just so complicated. It just can't
Speaker:be done. So that was really stressful, having to be on that end, and
Speaker:receiving these phone calls and telling people that "I'm sorry, but we can't
Speaker:do anything to get your relatives out or your friend out."
Speaker:There's just... We just can't do anything. Yeah, I don't know if that
Speaker:was too much of a lengthy answer, but it definitely changed my perspective
Speaker:on our immigration system, and it honestly made me feel hopeless in my
Speaker:position because there wasn't anything that I can do to provide them
Speaker:a sense of safety and be able to tell them that
Speaker:"We're gonna be able to help you," except that wasn't true.
Speaker:That's a lot to unpack there, a sense of powerless.
Speaker:Not having the power to do what you believe is right.
Speaker:And you don't have the resources. I could really see how that could
Speaker:happen. Looking on the other side as a citizen, you think it's so
Speaker:simple, we think it's always the issue of
Speaker:people not wanting to help, people not wanting to get involved,
Speaker:our looked officials not wanting to do x, y, and z.
Speaker:But, we're never really thinking about what it would take to actually accomplish
Speaker:that. How complicated things that we talk about being simple may actually
Speaker:be... That's very true. If you're working to solve these issues.
Speaker:You tend to see how complex and how hard these systems are to
Speaker:navigate or how unrealistic it is to do. Right, I have felt the
Speaker:same thing, any institution I've been a part of, particularly universities,
Speaker:like the more that I have experienced... The higher up I see
Speaker:and engage with an institution, I feel that hopelessness because you see
Speaker:how stuck in certain structures we are and how much truly how much
Speaker:political and social will needs to happen to shift
Speaker:public opinion enough or to make things happen enough to change those structures.
Speaker:And it takes a lot, it takes a lot. And it can feel...
Speaker:It's weird, the higher up you get, the more... Sometimes you have a
Speaker:bird's eye view and sometimes that's helpful. But a lot of times it's
Speaker:like, "Oh, wow, there's a lot that I didn't know back when I
Speaker:didn't have that perspective." Yeah, like Jamil put it, it made me feel
Speaker:very powerless, and when I was doing, well, I'm still gonna continue doing
Speaker:this work, social justice work in the... I work on campus of course, but
Speaker:I didn't really feel that sense of powerlessness here on campus,
Speaker:and it came when I was doing my immigration work, I started feeling that
Speaker:more so in Congress because there's not enough elected officials who want
Speaker:to fix these systems, challenged them. And I felt powerless because as an
Speaker:intern, my voice isn't really heard, my opinion isn't really
Speaker:asked for, so how much of an impact can I really have?
Speaker:I guess, how it would impact my work...
Speaker:I don't know, because that's still something I'm trying to answer myself.
Speaker:But I would say something that I learned from a mentor
Speaker:that I got through the CHCI, he told me to not over intellectualise things.
Speaker:That's something I'm gonna take into consideration when
Speaker:I resume the work I do here, and the work I do as
Speaker:an activist, both on campus and in Connecticut.
Speaker:Not over intellectualising issues, and yeah, that's mainly one of my key
Speaker:takeaways. Something I think about often, and not even just in politics,
Speaker:with just activism in general. I see when folks step into activism for
Speaker:the first time, or even when they've been there for a little while,
Speaker:they tend to hit a wall of frustration
Speaker:of like, "Oh my God. Why won't this work? Why won't this...
Speaker:Why can't I fix this thing?" But it's not just this small thing
Speaker:they're talking about, it's like, "Why can't I solve systematic racism by
Speaker:myself, overnight? Why can't I fix a 400 year long issue over night,
Speaker:by myself?", when it's just unrealistic and impossible to expect of yourself.
Speaker:What I try to always tell people is, even if you're something as
Speaker:small as an intern, or even large, with a large platform,
Speaker:you do what is realistic and you try to lean more into collective
Speaker:action. And I think that's more soothing is trying to think doing things
Speaker:as a collective versus I have this weight on my shoulder that I
Speaker:have to solve all the issues of inequities overnight, by myself.
Speaker:And not being able to accomplish that makes me somehow a failure,
Speaker:or makes me lose hope in our society, in our systems.
Speaker:It makes you wanna stop the work all together.
Speaker:But I do think... Let's kind of switch it up. It's a lot
Speaker:of sad stuff, maybe not nice stuff. How about positive stuff?
Speaker:Any good stuff happen? Any nice, happy moments? Any juicy stories? Wait,
Speaker:is there happiness Congress? Are we smiling in Congress? Is anybody happy
Speaker:down there? No. Oh, no. Oh, wow. We're doomed everybody. We're doomed. Yeah.
Speaker:A lot of the staffers just seemed so depressed all the time.
Speaker:They're stressed, a stressed bunch of people. Yeah. A lot of stress.
Speaker:And then, not paid enough for the work that they do.
Speaker:That's some tea. Also, just learning the insider scoop on a few members
Speaker:who may look good on the outside in terms of their policies,
Speaker:but are they a good boss? Probably not. I learned about a lot
Speaker:of different office tea. But in terms of positive things that happened to
Speaker:me in DC, I would say a lot of the positives happened outside
Speaker:of the office. Because a lot of the work that I was exposed
Speaker:to was very stressful and sad because I feel like I couldn't do
Speaker:enough to help refugees and impact immigration. A lot of the fun stuff
Speaker:happened outside of work. And something that I got out of this internship
Speaker:experience was feeling more seen, and feeling more
Speaker:confident, and also comfortable in these spaces, and learning that I belong
Speaker:here just as much as anyone else does, and wanting to reclaim the
Speaker:space that is here for me. And wanting to have a seat at
Speaker:the table and not only wanting it, but demanding it is something that
Speaker:I learned in DC. I'm ready to fuck shit up. And something very
Speaker:beautiful, I would say, that I was exposed while in DC is my
Speaker:Mexican culture, which I, honestly, didn't expect that. But
Speaker:in DC, there's so many different museums, so many different
Speaker:cultural institutes. And because I interned through the Congressional Hispanic
Speaker:Caucus Institute, I got to be informed about a lot of these different
Speaker:cultural places. I got to meet a lot of different Hispanic and LatinX leaders,
Speaker:which was very beautiful. I also got to attend my first Dia De Los Muertos
Speaker:event, which I had never attended before in my life, despite being Mexican.
Speaker:I felt a lot more connected to my culture being in DC then
Speaker:when I'm here in Connecticut. There are huge Latino populations from all
Speaker:over Central South America. And yes, I know exactly what you're talking
Speaker:about. The cultural institutes, the art, and so that is fantastic.
Speaker:And taking ownership of spaces. You may be surrounded by miserable staffers,
Speaker:but I'll tell you what, that takeaway for you of demanding
Speaker:a seat at the table, or a space in the hall,
Speaker:whatever it is, and feeling entitled to that, and comfortable having walked
Speaker:there is also just a great testament to that internship program too,
Speaker:as a way to build collective power and foster young leaders.
Speaker:That's what I'm talking about. I'm curious. What was the experience like
Speaker:being in community with other Latinos? Because I know often, especially
Speaker:going to a PWI, different parts of our state, not having large populations
Speaker:of minorities, being in a space that is full of folks from your
Speaker:own community that are leaders and doing things very similar to you must
Speaker:have been amazing. How was that like? It was a beautiful experience just
Speaker:because I feel like when I was younger, and especially when I was
Speaker:in high school, I didn't appreciate my Mexican heritage enough, and I kind
Speaker:of didn't wanna be associated with the Latinx community.
Speaker:I can't really explain why that was, why that came to be,
Speaker:but I didn't wanna embrace my Latinx side, my Mexican side and I
Speaker:kinda just wanted to hide it. Yes, I'm a person of colour, but
Speaker:leave it at that, you know? But being in a space where
Speaker:everyone is Latinx, Hispanic, whoever they choose to identify,
Speaker:that was very nice because we all have different experiences.
Speaker:Some of my friends that I made from California had different experiences
Speaker:and a lot more exposure to the Hispanic and Latinx culture,
Speaker:whereas I feel like I didn't have that growing up.
Speaker:So being able to share that with them
Speaker:and just share this community space where we all want some sort of...
Speaker:Reach some sort of liberation for our community was really nice,
Speaker:and I just really want that space again.
Speaker:I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling.
Speaker:And then the regaining and the rejoining of your culture,
Speaker:I think a lot of people are going through it right now.
Speaker:I like we're reflecting on that. What's a message you can give to
Speaker:a Latino, a Hispanic student listening to this?
Speaker:Someone that may be like you, that may be thinking about getting involved
Speaker:like this and maybe just hasn't jumped into it?
Speaker:So, something that my mom always told me was "Échale ganas", that is,
Speaker:I guess, one of my messages to a Hispanic or Latin student listening
Speaker:to this, but then also not being afraid of your heritage and where
Speaker:you come from, and just looking more into yourself, look deep into who
Speaker:you are and learn how you can embrace your culture, embrace
Speaker:your heritage and use that in the work that you're doing and
Speaker:learn how to apply this to different areas that you're interested in.
Speaker:Ain't that that just nice. Well Andriena, thank you so much for talking
Speaker:with us today, we have missed you on the podcast team...
Speaker:Deeply. And also have just been so proud of you
Speaker:out there in Congress, and I know... I feel like your experience,
Speaker:even your learning and your take away from that, I feel like you'll
Speaker:still be reflecting on that honestly 20 or 30 years from now,
Speaker:that that will be one of many foundational moments for you.
Speaker:So thank you for sharing a little bit behind the curtain
Speaker:of that experience and appreciate that you learned some more gossip that's
Speaker:not necessarily worthy for the air, because that's the wise thing to do.
Speaker:But thank you for being here with us and for sharing that experience
Speaker:and inspiring others. Yes. One day, I have the dream of volunteering
Speaker:in your campaign when you're running for Congress... Oh, I'll be out there.
Speaker:That's my dream. I'm gonna go to speeches, I'm gonna have a microphone,
Speaker:I'm gonna be out there campaigning, so hopefully that's the dream.
Speaker:Oh, I would like to end on a positive note though,
Speaker:this is something that I didn't say in my message to Hispanic or
Speaker:Latinx students. So one of the big things, the major things that I
Speaker:learned while interning in Congress was how to define success,
Speaker:and that's something that I'm still reflecting on. Because my definition
Speaker:of success is different than someone else's definition of success, and when
Speaker:it came to me extending my internship and staying there for an extra
Speaker:month, I realised that success for me was just waking up and going
Speaker:to work and that was success. Just being alive was success,
Speaker:breathing was success, and not putting too much pressure on myself.
Speaker:And so I just wanna end on a James Baldwin quote that one
Speaker:of the CHCI supervisors shared with us at the end of our internship
and... So the quote is:"I was not born to be what someone
and... So the quote is:said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else,
and... So the quote is:but by myself and myself only." Beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna
and... So the quote is:leave a little tear. Yeah, thank you Andriena. Yes, thank you.
and... So the quote is:Thank you all for listening to that episode. If you liked that and
and... So the quote is:wanna hear more, please like, subscribe and even leave a review.
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