Hello there, welcome back to Latina to Latina.

On this podcast, I talk with Latinas about how they got to be so amazing.

Today, I'm talking to Paola Mendoza, a filmmaker, the former creative director of the Women's March,

and the co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus.

Most recently, she co-organized the I Am a Child campaign to protest the separation of immigrant families.

As an artist and an activist, Bala has created new ways for herself and for others to exist and resist.

What was your first act of activism or resistance?

In my life?

That's a really good question.

So, we can go really deep, but I was, the first thing that popped into my head is when I was 14, my mom sent me back to live in Columbia.

And she sent me back to live with my aunt and my cousin at the time.

And she sent me back because when I was 12, I started gangbanging in L.A.

And my mom as an immigrant, as a working single mom, had no idea what was going on until two years later.

When I was 14, she realized, oh, wow,

she's going to end up in jail on drugs or dead. I got to do something. So she told me on Friday

that she was sending me back to Columbia on Monday. And she took away all of my shoes because

at that time I was running away a lot. So that was her way to make sure that I didn't run away, which was a brilliant move.

And then she stayed in my room for two days.

She posted up with me.

And then she literally took me to the airport and off I went.

When I got to Columbia, I went to my aunt's house.

And my aunt lived a very, very wealthy lifestyle in Columbia.

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