Manifesto, by Noemi Pacheco-Ramirez

As I ponder what to answer to these questions, I am reminded of the many
experiences and moments that have allowed me to be confident in my abilities as a
Chicana obtaining my Bachelor’s, and as someone who will be the first in her immediate
family to get here. I see this stepping stone as a way of continuing to honor the struggle,
endurance, and resilience of my Mexican family. My dad recently asked me a
condensed version of these same questions. Currently, he’s reading Malcolm X’s
autobiography and he too has been reflecting on what it means to be a change agent in
this age, in this country that clearly needs more people willing to be vessels of change.
I’ve come to believe that anyone can become an agent for social change. Aside
from experiencing struggle, I believe that the process also begins with an openness to
become an instrument for change to be dispersed into the world, whether that means
right there in your community, your state, or even your whole country. And yet, this
seems to be the reason for why people are so afraid of change- openness forces us,
first, to be vulnerable with ourselves, and then with others. Becoming these ‘mediums’
often takes us through a gnarly, painful, joyful path of elevating the consciousness of
our inner workings, and being conscious of the diverse experiences of those around us.
It is not a glamorous task at all; it takes a lot out of us and pushes us to understand our
strengths and limitations, our privilege and our inaccessibility. It is a continuous process,
but one that we must do so that we may continue the work of those before us and the
“reconstruction of broken selves and worlds” (hooks).

I’d like to believe that I am on the continuous path to developing my leadership
abilities and that I have taken as many opportunities as I can to be a servant to the
cause. As a young girl, I had been called “a leader” and was told that I would “achieve
big things”. Although this was very nice to hear, I began to feel a pressure to do
anything and everything I could for the betterment of the world. I became the community
service director of my high school. I would bring out and empty out the recycling bins of
my high school that didn’t have a recycling system. I would tell everyone about how
climate change is connected to what we eat. I became a vegetarian. I created a human
rights campaign at my high school. And I often found myself tired and frustrated.
Although these actions made me feel like I had control over some of these huge issues,
I now realize that I often lacked the empathy and the intersectionality when
communicating these catastrophes to others; this, in part, can be traced to the popular
narrative that the environmental movement has continued to communicate. It was not
until college when my identity as an environmentally conscious Chicana who also cares
for people was finally validated. An in-depth understanding of my agency and the
context that I exist in as a brown person living in the US has encouraged my hunger for
being a leader in issues that most affects my loved ones.

The power that I hold as an academically educated, legal citizen of the US that
will soon hold a Bachelor’s degree is still something that I have yet to fully understand. I
am able to speak out on the injustices I see and be a voice for the voiceless and the
marginalized communities within already marginalized groups. More than anything, I
pray that these powers that I hold give me access to those in even greater positions of
power, and that I am able to elevate the voices of the communities I represent and give
credit to those who’ve rarely been given even that. I hope that from this access comes
physical and spiritual change that is tangible for communities that have mostly become
accustomed to the effects of this capitalist world. Many of us choose to cry, others
choose to laugh bitterly, while others thank the Lord that we’re still alive and kickin’ in
spite of all the demonizing. I look forward to continue leading in my spheres of influence
and wherever life takes me after graduating and be intentional in scattering my “seeds”,
knowing that some will die and other will germinate, but that the process is not futile