Maria Ignacia Miranda
FEATURE STORY
Interviewed by Samantha Joo
Maria from the West Side Story
Part of the lyrics (https://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/westsidestory/maria.htm):
The most beautiful sound I ever heard:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . .
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word . .
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . .
Maria!
Whenever I hear the name, Maria, I think of the song, “Maria,” which Tony sings when he first meets the love of his life from the West Side Story. This may be quite odd since I absolutely hate musicals and was actually forced to watch the movie by my romantic sister at a very young age. But memories, whether good or bad, lingers and the more traumatic the experience, the more it is ever-present in some abyss of our minds. It wasn’t that bad but I was not your typical girl who was tantalized by love stories - I preferred dark novels like Lord Jim (Joseph Conrad) over stories of lovesick nightingales.
Now, I am not comparing Maria Ignacia to Maria of the West Side Story or some bad memory… not even close. Maria Ignacia is a blunt, very transparent woman who confidently and thoughtfully speaks her mind. She is a no-nonsense woman who digs in and is ready to bust some heads for the causes that intrigue her. Of course, she may be different when she is around Xavier, her partner, dancing and singing for the love of her life but she hasn’t swooned for me, well, not yet :). I love working with such people because I am not always trying to figure out if they have an angle like with the passive/aggressive, repressed people. It is refreshing when Maria shares her ideas, constructively giving me feedback about the workshops, website, or even the way I run our organization. I love it because it helps us grow and develop to meet real, concrete needs of our Platform community, daring women who want to transform the lives of the marginalized. She is able to break it down and just lay it out - direct, open, honest, and by golly, brilliant. I could definitely see her as an executive director - yes, Maria Ignacia, the very thing you resist in life.
And you wouldn’t even know that she is only in her mid-twenties, the youngest woman I have interviewed here on Platform. It’s only in our non-business conversations, I get glimpses of her doubts, of her youth and everything that comes with being young, the uncertainty and at the same time exuberance. I guess, not always because my teenage facilitators are mostly gloomy and resigned to doomsday - wasted youth but that will change. It’s not that we’re more certain as we age; we just come to expect less from life and therefore more likely to accept what is rather than try to make the world what can be. Yes, the optimism and naïveté of youth - the beauty and lets face it, sometimes, annoying part of that population. Maria Ignacia is young, in every wonderful sense of that word, and she is figuring out her place in this world. She does and does not know what she needs to do but unlike most young people, she is grounded in how she goes about searching for the answers. What do I mean? She does not follow every whim or flight of fancy nor is she closed off to new opportunities; she assesses and steps forward in a calculated fashion. She may not know now but she is going where she needs to be because it ‘feels’ right to her.
And what makes her interesting? For me, it is her bluntness. Most women, especially in the US and Korea, spend most of their lives pleasing other people which is actually a form of narcissism - will they like ME, am I good enough for them, will I fit into their mold? It comes from a place of serious insecurity, which is the basis of narcissism; it is the antithesis of being secure in who they are and what they can be. I am not saying that Maria Ignacia does not have doubts or uncertainty about who she is and what she will do in this world as she says, she “truly don’t know.” No. What I am saying is that she is confident in what she knows about herself and is not afraid, maybe hesitant but not panicked, to step into herself. That is why I appreciate her bluntness even though at times, she disagrees with me. And she does disagree with me many times. For me, it’s a sign that she is capable of transforming her community, even if it means that she would need to ‘transgress’ the stupid norms/rules/structure/systems that oppresses. She is not afraid of what people might think about her so she will put herself out there for us. What more would you want in a leader?
Interview
Sam: What do you think are the most effective ways in which we can educate our communities?
Maria Ignacia: The concept of “educating our communities” has always made me re-think the way I organize with folx*. I refuse to think of our communities as ‘uneducated’ and that someone has to come in and teach them what they didn’t know. My organizing approach comes from a transformational relationship building point of view where community members work and communicate with one to achieve a goal they have in mind. I believe our communities need to have more access to resources and information they need to not only survive, but thrive in our society.
By readjusting our mindset to working together toward accessible resources, I believe the most effective way to engage with our communities is to come from a genuine, honest, and open place. We need to understand that things may shift from what we thought people would want, and we have to be okay with that. If the original plan was for a Latinx community that I am interacting with to work in environmental issues but when I talk to them I realize that immigration or wage theft is actually their primary concern, then I have to be open to support them in their efforts. We have to understand that by building genuine solidarity our front will be stronger, even if our first goals are readjusted.
Sam: Who are some of your role models/mentors?
Maria Ignacia: When Sam first asked me this question, I had to really think about it because I don’t have ‘famous’ people I look up to. When people get asked this question, I feel like they mostly point to a big personality, which is great, but I have never felt that connection to strangers.
The biggest role model/mentor I have is Women’s Voices for the Earth’s Executive Director, Amber Garcia. We met when we both worked at COLOR (Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights) and they were my supervisor there. We are both very strong headed leaders with strong personalities and we clashed a ton at first. However, as our professional relationship evolved and we both grew professionally we found a healthy working relationship rooted in feedback and transparency. I look up to Amber because they are a leader who lives and leads with their values, something that is difficult to find and to do in social justice and non-profit work.
Sam: What do you look most forward to?
Maria Ignacia: I look forward to learning to enjoy my time in the present. I am a Virgo and a planner, which means I am always looking to the future. However, the more I realize that we live in a very uncertain world and that our plans change, the more I am learning to enjoy what I have and where I am now.
But more concretely, I look forward to my international trip that my partner and I take every year.
Sam: Where do you see yourself in 20 years?
Maria Ignacia: I don’t know, and I am kind of okay with that.
When Sam and I met to talk about this, she tried to get me to think about where I saw myself in my life and/or professionally in 10 and 20 years, but after giving it a lot of thought I truly don’t know. I gave up trying to visualize my life, and have started chasing feelings. ‘How do I want to feel’ is the question I ask myself, instead.
Sam said that life tends to send her to things and positions she doesn’t want or tries to avoid, so maybe I will be an Executive Director. Maybe I’ll be an ambassador. Maybe I’ll be a full-time photographer. I just know that I want to be living my values and I want to feel fulfilled.
Sam: What makes you interesting?
Maria Ignacia: I asked for a fun question and now I don’t know how to answer this. My partner said my pencil collection is pretty interesting and that I steal plant clippings from big hardware stores to propagate at home.
What makes me interesting, Sam?
I use folx as A variation on the word folks, folx is meant to be a gender-neutral way to refer to members of or signal identity in the LGBTQ community.
"Maybe sing like Maria from West Side Story ..."
ABOUT
Maria Ignacia Miranda Santis was born and raised in Chile, and moved to the U.S. in 2006 when she was 12 years old. She graduated from the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) with a B.A. in International Studies, Political Science, and a minor in Spanish. She is interested in a variety of social justice issues, especially concerning reproductive justice in different communities; however, she believes that the conversations around collaboration and intersectionality among social justice organizations are the key to creating effective change in the community. She worked at COLOR for 2 years as a Community Organizer and Field Manager developing and implementing community outreach strategies to engage the Latinx community. She now works as the Program and Outreach Manager at Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national organization amplifying women’s voices to eliminate toxic chemicals that harm our health and communities. You can follow Maria Ignacia's creative endeavors on Instagram @mimsphotoarts.