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"Women, especially immigrant women, should get involved in politics," Gabriela Santiago-Romero says in the video below.
You're looking at a future government office-holder, if determination, confidence and training work as envisioned for Gabriela Santiago-Romero.
The Southwest Detroit entrepreneur joined 28 other young women with political ambitions at a Manhattan "candidates' school" last weekend. The New American Leaders Project session, its first solely for women, helped polish presentations, taught about fund-raising, let newcomers meet elected officials and reinforced their sense of mission, Liz Robbins writes in The New York Times. Participants from across the country were immigrants or first-generation Americans with roots in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Santiago-Romero, born in Mexico, last year earned a bachelor of science in international business at the University of Detroit Mercy. She won a Challenge Detroit fellowship last summer and was assigned first as a community relations representative for the Detroit Lions. Four months ago she moved to Wayne County Executive Warren Evans' staff as an executive assistant.
"Gaby" Santiago-Romero leads a Challenge Detroit tour of her neighborhood last September. (Challenge Detroit photo)
Community service also includes three years as a committee coordinator for Detroit SOUP and a Michigan Economic Development Corporation internship. On Wednesday night, she was involved with a Detroit Free Press "One Nation" town hall forum on jobs and the economy.
The 24-year-old, who uses Gaby informally and is a published photographer, now feels ready for entry-level public office.
She's on Aug. 2 primary ballots in her congressional district to become a Democratic precinct delegate. That grassroots post involves working on behalf of the party and its candidates by speaking with neighbors, registering voters and mobilizing turnout.
At the two-day workshops on Manhattan's Upper East Side, practical coaching mixed with emotional story-sharing, The Times article suggests:
At times, the training took on the air of a sorority meeting — a room full of young women clapping in unison to show attention and snapping their fingers to show affirmation.
Other times it felt like a support group, with women telling their family’s painful story of immigration, of abuse, of resilience. Tears fell and napkins were passed.
"This weekend was full of inspiration," Santiago-Romero posts on Instagram.
"The American dream comes with its own challenges and barriers."
The Times' coverage includes a nearly two-and-a-half-minute video (below) in which the Detroiter is among those featured prominently. Here's what Santiago-Romero, brought to this country by her mother at age 1, says:
Women, especially immigrant women, should get involved in politics because we understand the struggles, and we've been told that we can only do a certain thing. And we need to have more women showing that we can do so much more. That we actually can lead a nation. That we actually are smart enough.
The American dream comes with its own challenges and barriers, and I want to remove those barriers.
The first-time candidate has an ideal role model and mentor -- Raquel Castañeda-López, who grew up in Southwest Detroit and become the first Latina elected to Detroit's City Council in November 2013 in her first try for public office. She's an advisory committee member at the New American Leaders Project, where she spoke last October on "Power and Policy."
"It is our role as leaders to invest in our successors and build opportunities for others," the councilwoman tells Deadline in a tweet.
The group, founded in New York five years ago this month, describes itself as "the only national nonpartisan organization focused on grooming first- and second-generation Americans to run for office.
