Christina Sinzun Ramirez is a powerhouse.

Fresh out of college, she founded the Workers' Defense Project and started organizing

Texas construction workers.

Then she launched Jolt, Texas-wide organization,

focused on Latino voters. You might remember learning about Jolt registering voters at Kinsenietas.

In 2020, at one of the most challenging times in her personal life, as a newly single mom, she ran for

the U.S. Senate. And now as the executive director at NextGen America, she leads the nation's largest youth voting organization.

Christina and I talk about the political realities of organizing in Texas,

the biggest mistake she made as a candidate for public office,

and her urgent call for Latinas to demand what we deserve.

Christina, thank you for being here.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Christina, growing up in Ohio with a mom who had grown up in Mexico, one of several kids,

with a dad who's sort of like hippie, dippy person who clearly cared about social causes,

what was anchoring your sense of Latinidad at home? I think that one we always think one there's not that many latino images or stories that could hold in the public discourse or in media which i think

is part of the huge problem and then when it gets told it's like one dimensional right or it's one

story and then if you don't fit into that story you you feel like your story isn't Latino enough, right?

I was also blessed with that I grew up in a mostly white middle class neighborhood.

And then my Mexican family, my mom was the only one in the United States besides like some more

distant cousins. So I would go back to Mexico several times a year to see my family.

I would spend my entire summers there.

I would spend every Christmas break there.

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