Advocating for Undocumented Immigrants with United We Dream (ICYMI)

Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Comedy, Education

4.9 • 21.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Choose Courage, Build Community, and Take Action to Create Change… ICYMI: JVN sits down with Cristina Jiménez Moreta to talk about her new book Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear Into Pride, Power, and Real Change and the work being done at United We Dream, the country’s largest youth-led immigrant organization – which Cristina co-founded. Plus our breakdown of the Tony awards and our HBOTW! Cristina Jiménez Moreta is an award-winning community organizer, political strategist, prominent advocate for social justice, and author. She is the Co-Founder and former Executive Director of United We Dream (UWD), the nation’s largest immigrant youth-led organization. Cristina immigrated to the U.S. from Ecuador with her family in 1998, seeking a better life. She grew up undocumented in Queens, New York, and has since become a powerful voice in the fight for immigrant rights and equity. Cristina is currently a Distinguished Lecturer at the City College of New York’s Colin Powell School, where she also co-teaches Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ). Under her leadership, UWD grew into a formidable network of over one million members, shifting the national conversation around immigration and helping secure policy changes at both the local and national levels. Cristina played a pivotal role in United We Dream’s successful campaign that led to the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) under President Obama. The Monday Edit, now on YouTube! Check out the JVN Patreon for exclusive content, bonus episodes, and more! www.patreon.com/jvn Follow us on Instagram @gettingbetterwithjvn Jonathan on Instagram @jvn and senior producer Chris @amomentlikechris Senior Producer, Chris McClure Producer, Editor & Engineer is Nathanael McClure Production support from Chad Hall Our theme music is also composed by Nathanael McClure. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey BetterBaves, it's Jonathan Ben Ness.
0:03.5	And welcome to the Monday Edit.
0:04.9	This week, like every week, I'm joined by our senior producer.
0:07.2	Chris, say hi, Chris. Hi, hi, hi. You guys, we're, like, in real life at the same place today, which is kind of fun and different. And is this the first time we've done this? We've did this a couple times. In real life? We did a little one last time we here, like a month ago.
0:21.9	Oh, okay.
0:22.4	But that was like whirlwind because it was book tour time.
0:24.4	It was so whirlwind. We did really good. We were Michelle Yow in the Wickedoo trailer conjuring that tornado. I think the thing that I really... Okay, well, whatever, let me say the rest of our intro. We're here breaking down the news, pop culture, TikTok drama, beauty, rex. You know what we're doing here, you guys.
0:38.6	And we also go deeper on the topics that we're covering on getting better. This week, we're speaking to Christina Jimenez-Moretta from United We Dream, the nation's largest immigrant youth-led organization, who has a new book out, dreaming of home, how we We Turn Fear Into Pride, Power, and Real Change.
0:55.7	Christina joined us to talk all about the state of undocumented people in the United States today
1:00.3	about Trump's attack on the undocumented community.
1:03.1	I do want to add that this was recorded a couple days before Donald Trump sent the National Guard
1:09.3	into Los Angeles and before protests became
1:12.7	what we're kind of seeing play out. So I just want to flag that. I definitely would have
1:18.7	asked her about it. We would have talked more about it, but it hadn't happened yet. So just want to
1:22.1	flag that. But the bigger point is, I love Christina's work. She's incredible. Her book is incredible.
1:27.4	And I cannot wait for you to listen to our conversation because it's just, I learned so much from her. So stay tuned for that. But we have to talk about something else first. Are you ready? I'm so ready. This is out of order than what we normally do it, but we just have to debrief because it's an emergency. Take us there. Obviously the Tony's happened. Of course. We haven't talked about it.
1:44.3	That's going to have to just go ahead and hopscotch leapfrog to the top.
1:49.3	Because, look, Matt talked about it.
1:51.1	It was a very big deal.
1:52.2	I really moved the interwebs on our socials.
1:54.8	I felt like people were really grateful for a frank conversation.
2:00.2	For me,
	...

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