so happy to share another specially curated batch of episodes featuring some of the inspiring

women we've had on the show.

Hello there, welcome back to Latina to Latina.

On this podcast, I talk with Latinos 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 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

...