Welcome Jhoana Monroy (@jhoanajojo) from Portland, Oregon to the @immigrationmicpodcast! In this interview we talk about: Johana’s work resisting, challenging, and dismantling “oppressive systems” through creative avenues. Her relationship with her parents and coming to the U.S to live the “American Dream”, and not recognizing her father as a young girl at times. Attending a school that specialized in dual language programs, the social worker whose generosity inspired Johana’s current work in mentoring. How moving to a “white” community with different educational systems led to bad influences, and how going to an alternative school, becoming a young mom, and her brother’s deportation led her to her current path. Joining Momentum Alliance (@getyourmomentum) and later on being recruited/ inspired by someone who was “undocumented, unafraid, and unapologetic”, (Johana was denied through the citizenship process through her spouse). Leading efforts in creating a gala fundraiser for undocumented students at the institution she was attending, which led to the creation for a center, and now has an endowment that awards full ride scholarships. The 2016 elections “my heart still drops still thinking about it, I still get nervous” - “I don’t even know how I survived that day’. Her ambitions to run for a position, finish her master’s degree, serving her community, --- and words of inspiration: “be resistant, activate others, step outside your comfort zone”. And much more! Bonus: Sample of an NYC panel discussion for HBO's "Make Love Great Again" with Director Aaron Agrasanchez and Hommy Diaz that I attended!