We were lucky to catch up with Gabriela Quintanilla recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gabriela , appreciate you joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

My journey to community organizing started when I was 14 years old. I was undocumented at the time and I had a lot of uncertainty about my future. My last year of high school was the first time in my life when I experienced depression, because I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. All I wanted was to go to college, have a career and make a positive impact in the world. 18 years later after arriving to the United States from El Salvador, with a Bachelors and Masters Degree, working in philantrophy I find myself understanding what it means to live a ‘soft life’. During my organizing years everything was important, everything was urgent, and there was very little time for me. To look inward and understand myself as a human being. I now protect my time off. I disconnect completely from email, slack and all work related things. I trust that the team I work with can handle anything that comes up. I make time to travel, see the world, talk to the locals, get lost in a new culture, because the more I get to do that, to play, the more effective I can be in my strategies to strengthen the organizing ecosystem in the Hudson Valley, I see taking vacations as a radical act. It’s important to rest, to let our minds wonder, because if I can let my mind wonder in the midst of calm, I can be inspired without pressure. Rest is very important to me, whether is travel, hiking, or simply having quality time with family and friends. My best thinking has happened when I am on vacation.

Gabriela , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in El Salvador and migrated to the United States at the age of thirteen. When I arrived to this country I faced the harsh reality of being undocumented. Despite many challenges I preserved and graduated from Stony Brook University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a minor in Political Science. Two years ago I received my Masters of Arts in Labor Studies from the School of Labor and Urban Studies. While in college, I became involved as a social justice activist and community organizer with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. During my final year at Stony Brook, I realized I needed to do more to help the rural undocumented student population in NY State and I founded Adelante Student Voices (Adelante) in 2015. Adelante is a safe space for undocumented students in NYS to explore their legal status and routes to college with their peers and professional staff. A small volunteer team was able to raise funds thanks to tremendous grassroots support. In June 2016 Adelante held our first program in Poughkeepsie for students from high schools in the Hudson Valley, and since then it has expanded to offer a 10-day residential program. In summer 2020 Adelante pivoted to a virtual program and stood with families experiencing hardship due to COVID-19. The summer programs include workshops on self-advocacy, art for justice, college choice, and legal options. Now, a total of 100 program graduates are part of the Adelante network and continue to meet at least three times per year at quarterly reunions. Members have contributed to social justice campaigns in NYS, and are working on organizing efforts to address systemic issues in the educational system.

I have mobilized rallies for undocumented and farmworker rights, designed workshops to amplify the voices of marginalized students, and coordinated fundraising efforts across NY State. I have the honor to be featured in two award-winning documentaries, Dreamers Among Us and Paper State: Undocumented Unafraid Undeterred, which won Best Student Documentary at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Right after college in addition to Adelante I served as the Coordinator for Western NY for Rural & Migrant Ministry for four years, overseeing the regional office in the Finger Lakes, NY, and working with children of farmworkers and farm worker women.

Currently, I work at North Star Fund (NSF) as the Hudson Valley Program Officer. NSF is social justice fund that supports grassroots organizing led by communities of color building power in New York City and the Hudson Valley. NSF organizes people across race and class to give in support of these movements. In my role I get to build power with grassroots organizers in the Hudson Valley by moving financial resources to the region and create programing that strengthens movement building in the area.

It’s been a privilege and an honor to be part of New York States community organizing ecosystem.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I came to the United States at the age of thirteen on foot from El Salvador without speaking a word of English. Two things here: 1) That I walked to the states from El Salvador with my two younger sisters at such a young age, and 2) that I spoke not a word of English at the time. In the middle of crossing the dessert with my four year old sister, and 8 year old sister at the time, I lost my 4 year old sister in the middle of the dessert, this has been by far one the most unsettling moments of my life. A moment that required quick thinking, trust in the universe, and calmness because I still had my 8 year old sister to look out for. Like a miracle, I ended up finding my 4 year old sister in a different part of the dessert that night, after about 2 hours of walking.
Crossing the border taught me to be resilient, taught me to be strong, to believe in myself, to have trust in my instincts. One could say that this is a very hard thing to do at the age of thirteen and I agree, I look at a thirteen year old now and I can’t fathom the idea. But the thirteen year old version of me is what made the rest of my life possible.
Now, after that journey, I had to acclimate to the educational system in the states, and that included learning English. Research shows that it’s very difficult to learn a new language after maybe the age of 10..so I get bragging rights for learning a whole new language at the age of thirteen. I am glad I did, because I love to talk to people.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My advice would be to honor the lives of the people you work with, be understanding and kind. Listen to what they need, be flexible, and have high expectations of yourself first before you have them of your team. Give credit where credit is due and make room for people to grow by allowing them to make risk and not punish your staff for it. Everyday is a new experiment.

Contact Info:

• Website: Adelantestudentvoices.org and https://northstarfund.org
• Instagram: gabygquintanilla
• Facebook: Gabriela Quintanilla
• Linkedin: Gabriela Quintanilla

Image Credits
Walter Hergt. Gabriela Quintanilla CIW photographer Community photographer
Gerard Gaskin