August 26, 2025 • 9 mins
Today we're highlighting the work of Catalina Velasquez, a trans and immigration activist.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha, and welcome to Stefan
never told your protection of by her radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another edition of Activists around the World.
And we know there's a lot of bad things happening
in the world, but one thing we know is that
in those bad times, we have amazing people who rise up,
do the work and push us to do better. So
we have featured so many of these people already, and
(00:39):
today we have another person to add to the list
of people we want to admire and want to go
ahead and get flowers to as they are in the
crux of all that is happening and really really pushing
to become an advocate and activist for many people. And
that is Catalina Vealesquez. So Valeskaz is a Colombian transactivist
(01:01):
who has worked in the field of intersectional advocacy. She
is the current executive director of Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
WAISN and she is currently residing in Seattle, Washington. So
here's a bit from Pride Foundation dot org on a
profile of her. They write, Catalina Veleska's is a trailblazing
(01:23):
transgender refugee Colombian Latina feminist scholar, social impact executive, and
movement builder. She is the executive director of the Washington
Immigrant Solidarity Network WAISN, the largest immigrant led coalition in
Washington State. Her work embodies intersectional feminism, decolonial methodologies, and
transformative justice, making her a luminary in immigrant rights advocacy
(01:47):
and beyond. So that's a pretty big introduction and is
right on. Obviously, her works have followed closely with her
life experiences. At the age of fifteen in alaska's family
was detained and then deported from Florida. So they were
detained in a detention center in Florida, which we know
there's a few And here's a quote from an interview
(02:08):
she did with Washington State Standard dot com. She says,
my family was deported in February of two thousand and nine.
I went over fifteen years without hugging my parents. That
set me off in a situation where I was houseless,
I was hungry, I didn't have any resources. I had
to figure things out by myself while being a full
time student at a very rigorous academy that politicized me.
(02:29):
I was outraged that my family was deported. It also
reflected a much larger systemic issue expelling immigrants out of
the country without accounting for how the US has exacerbated poverty, inequality,
and violence, especially in Latin America. That savement alone feels
like a moment that we need to pause because I
think again, like there's so many people who comes out
(02:50):
here like do it legally, do it legally, And we
know that's just a bull rhetoric that has no compassion,
no humanity, and no understanding of the immigration process. Again,
I know, speaking to the choir. So I'm a leave
it be. So in an article she wrote for Seattle's
child dot com, she talks about the struggles her family
went through and why they fled their country and why
it was important that they had to flee the country,
(03:11):
and she's talked about the results of understanding this type
of situation in such a personal way. As continued mass
deportations have occurred throughout the country, Velasquez has been very
vocal about the damage that this has caused, as well
as the brutality and cruelty of how the government has
continued to abuse. Again, this current rhetoric that has no
(03:33):
sensical reasoning, It just doesn't make sense to me. Again,
I guess we can say that about all kinds of
hate things, including for the queer community and for any
marginalised communities. These excuses that they have to finding scapegoat
or villains. They need a villain for the story, the
bad guy, and it has to be this type of rhetoric.
And since her career began, she's been a part of
(03:55):
several different organizations and groups advocating for the rights of
refugees in the US, from being the director of People
for America Way Foundations, Young People for being vice chair
of Our Revolution, to helping with the National Latina Institute
for Reproductive Justice, Bileasca's has been working on an interseational
level in her community, in our community. And with all
(04:16):
of that, she's also the first transgender immigrant Latina appointed
as the Commissioner of the District of Columbia Office of
Latino Affairs, which she served for four years. Apparently she
was handpicked by Bernie as well for some of the
boards as well, So she knows what she's doing and
she has been recognized as being a leader. So her
organization WAISN, which started in twenty sixteen, was a response
(04:41):
to the anti immigration policies and escalations. From their site
waisn dot org, they write, in twenty sixteen, in response
to escalating white supremacy and anti immigrant threats, a coalition
of immigrant and refugee led organizations that had been supporting
their communities across Washington State for decades came together to
form the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network. Today we are the
(05:05):
largest immigrant coalition in the state. So this is obviously
based in one state, but her work is federal obviously
and from their side, this is their mission. We are
the largest immigrant justice network in Washington that convenes and
cultivates a statewide, transnational solidarity coalition to protect and advance
the power and rights of all immigrant and refugee communities.
(05:28):
As a queer and transgender founded and led nonprofit, we
organize from a place of abundance and commit to intersectional,
multi faith, intergenerational, multi lingual, multiracial, multi ethnic, immigrant led
efforts by investing in base building and growing the leadership
of forced migrants. And interestingly, as we were looking into
the staff information, because I always like to be up
(05:50):
to date about who is leading, because you know, boards
change and all that they have this headline it says
a strategic silence, why our staff remains unlisted, So they
actually don't have anything listed. Instead, they have this and
they say, as the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, we write
this message not from a place of fear, but from
(06:11):
the place of strategic resistance. In this moment where xenophoic violence,
surveillance of immigrant communities, and attacks on human rights defenders
have reached alarming levels, we have made a deliberate choice
to protect our team by not publicly listing our staff members.
This decision emerges from both lived experience and scholarly understanding
of how power operates to silence those who challenge oppressive systems.
(06:35):
So really interesting if you go and look at that
specific site, you'll see that says our staff. On that
same page, they go on to talk about different subjects
such as protection, as resistance, collective safety, collective power, and
present even in absence. So I think it's a really
important page and it does communicate a lot of that fear.
Like I've talked about my own fears of being unnaturalized
(06:57):
citizens and us doing this type of content, that could
mean if we actually do, for some reason blow up,
and you know, in the viral sense of the way
of like who is going after what and what kind
of surveillance states that we are under because it's not wrong.
We've already talked about it, facial recognition. Hello, So Valaskis
has talked about the importance of local and state government
(07:19):
and working for immigrant rights on that level. Her PhD
has been a focus on quote feminist world making through
mutual aid and solidarity networks, which she has obviously already
established herself in. So very cool. And of course she
has several accolades under her belt, and this is from
Pride Foundation dot org because she doesn't have a Wikipedia
(07:39):
page yet, not that that's the basis, but you know
they do list off a lot of good stuff on
that also, there's a significance to that right anyway, going on.
Catalina's accolades include the twenty seventeen Women of Excellence Award
from DC's Mayor Bowser's Office of Women Affairs, the twenty
seventeen Advocacy Award by the Latino glbt History Project, and
the twenty two for Creating Change Immigrant Justice Award by
(08:02):
the National LGBTQ Task Force. And then she was named
several other days, gotten grants and all these other things.
So you should definitely check that out, but just wanted
to do a shout out to Catalina. Thank you for
your hard work, for your example and for doing this
incredible work as an refugee and an immigrant who is
in the system and has seen the system and how
(08:24):
it can be so ugly.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and
I'm sure we'll be checking back in in the meantime. Listeners,
please let us know if there's somebody you would like
for us to cover on this segment, you can contact
us at Hello Steffannever Told You dot com. You can
find us on Blue Scott Momster podcast or on Instagram
and TikTok at Stuff I Never Told You. We're also
(08:47):
on YouTube, but we have a new place to get
merch called Cotton Bureau, so go check that out, and
we have a book you can get wherever we get
your books. Thanks as always for our super producer Chris
Tina or Executi producer my Ander coodtributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thanks to you for listening Stuff Never Told You Inspection
by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts
or where you listen to your favorite shows,
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha, and welcome to Stefan
never told your protection of by her radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another edition of Activists around the World.
And we know there's a lot of bad things happening
in the world, but one thing we know is that
in those bad times, we have amazing people who rise up,
do the work and push us to do better. So
we have featured so many of these people already, and
(00:39):
today we have another person to add to the list
of people we want to admire and want to go
ahead and get flowers to as they are in the
crux of all that is happening and really really pushing
to become an advocate and activist for many people. And
that is Catalina Vealesquez. So Valeskaz is a Colombian transactivist
(01:01):
who has worked in the field of intersectional advocacy. She
is the current executive director of Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
WAISN and she is currently residing in Seattle, Washington. So
here's a bit from Pride Foundation dot org on a
profile of her. They write, Catalina Veleska's is a trailblazing
(01:23):
transgender refugee Colombian Latina feminist scholar, social impact executive, and
movement builder. She is the executive director of the Washington
Immigrant Solidarity Network WAISN, the largest immigrant led coalition in
Washington State. Her work embodies intersectional feminism, decolonial methodologies, and
transformative justice, making her a luminary in immigrant rights advocacy
(01:47):
and beyond. So that's a pretty big introduction and is
right on. Obviously, her works have followed closely with her
life experiences. At the age of fifteen in alaska's family
was detained and then deported from Florida. So they were
detained in a detention center in Florida, which we know
there's a few And here's a quote from an interview
(02:08):
she did with Washington State Standard dot com. She says,
my family was deported in February of two thousand and nine.
I went over fifteen years without hugging my parents. That
set me off in a situation where I was houseless,
I was hungry, I didn't have any resources. I had
to figure things out by myself while being a full
time student at a very rigorous academy that politicized me.
(02:29):
I was outraged that my family was deported. It also
reflected a much larger systemic issue expelling immigrants out of
the country without accounting for how the US has exacerbated poverty, inequality,
and violence, especially in Latin America. That savement alone feels
like a moment that we need to pause because I
think again, like there's so many people who comes out
(02:50):
here like do it legally, do it legally, And we
know that's just a bull rhetoric that has no compassion,
no humanity, and no understanding of the immigration process. Again,
I know, speaking to the choir. So I'm a leave
it be. So in an article she wrote for Seattle's
child dot com, she talks about the struggles her family
went through and why they fled their country and why
it was important that they had to flee the country,
(03:11):
and she's talked about the results of understanding this type
of situation in such a personal way. As continued mass
deportations have occurred throughout the country, Velasquez has been very
vocal about the damage that this has caused, as well
as the brutality and cruelty of how the government has
continued to abuse. Again, this current rhetoric that has no
(03:33):
sensical reasoning, It just doesn't make sense to me. Again,
I guess we can say that about all kinds of
hate things, including for the queer community and for any
marginalised communities. These excuses that they have to finding scapegoat
or villains. They need a villain for the story, the
bad guy, and it has to be this type of rhetoric.
And since her career began, she's been a part of
(03:55):
several different organizations and groups advocating for the rights of
refugees in the US, from being the director of People
for America Way Foundations, Young People for being vice chair
of Our Revolution, to helping with the National Latina Institute
for Reproductive Justice, Bileasca's has been working on an interseational
level in her community, in our community. And with all
(04:16):
of that, she's also the first transgender immigrant Latina appointed
as the Commissioner of the District of Columbia Office of
Latino Affairs, which she served for four years. Apparently she
was handpicked by Bernie as well for some of the
boards as well, So she knows what she's doing and
she has been recognized as being a leader. So her
organization WAISN, which started in twenty sixteen, was a response
(04:41):
to the anti immigration policies and escalations. From their site
waisn dot org, they write, in twenty sixteen, in response
to escalating white supremacy and anti immigrant threats, a coalition
of immigrant and refugee led organizations that had been supporting
their communities across Washington State for decades came together to
form the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network. Today we are the
(05:05):
largest immigrant coalition in the state. So this is obviously
based in one state, but her work is federal obviously
and from their side, this is their mission. We are
the largest immigrant justice network in Washington that convenes and
cultivates a statewide, transnational solidarity coalition to protect and advance
the power and rights of all immigrant and refugee communities.
(05:28):
As a queer and transgender founded and led nonprofit, we
organize from a place of abundance and commit to intersectional,
multi faith, intergenerational, multi lingual, multiracial, multi ethnic, immigrant led
efforts by investing in base building and growing the leadership
of forced migrants. And interestingly, as we were looking into
the staff information, because I always like to be up
(05:50):
to date about who is leading, because you know, boards
change and all that they have this headline it says
a strategic silence, why our staff remains unlisted, So they
actually don't have anything listed. Instead, they have this and
they say, as the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, we write
this message not from a place of fear, but from
(06:11):
the place of strategic resistance. In this moment where xenophoic violence,
surveillance of immigrant communities, and attacks on human rights defenders
have reached alarming levels, we have made a deliberate choice
to protect our team by not publicly listing our staff members.
This decision emerges from both lived experience and scholarly understanding
of how power operates to silence those who challenge oppressive systems.
(06:35):
So really interesting if you go and look at that
specific site, you'll see that says our staff. On that
same page, they go on to talk about different subjects
such as protection, as resistance, collective safety, collective power, and
present even in absence. So I think it's a really
important page and it does communicate a lot of that fear.
Like I've talked about my own fears of being unnaturalized
(06:57):
citizens and us doing this type of content, that could
mean if we actually do, for some reason blow up,
and you know, in the viral sense of the way
of like who is going after what and what kind
of surveillance states that we are under because it's not wrong.
We've already talked about it, facial recognition. Hello, So Valaskis
has talked about the importance of local and state government
(07:19):
and working for immigrant rights on that level. Her PhD
has been a focus on quote feminist world making through
mutual aid and solidarity networks, which she has obviously already
established herself in. So very cool. And of course she
has several accolades under her belt, and this is from
Pride Foundation dot org because she doesn't have a Wikipedia
(07:39):
page yet, not that that's the basis, but you know
they do list off a lot of good stuff on
that also, there's a significance to that right anyway, going on.
Catalina's accolades include the twenty seventeen Women of Excellence Award
from DC's Mayor Bowser's Office of Women Affairs, the twenty
seventeen Advocacy Award by the Latino glbt History Project, and
the twenty two for Creating Change Immigrant Justice Award by
(08:02):
the National LGBTQ Task Force. And then she was named
several other days, gotten grants and all these other things.
So you should definitely check that out, but just wanted
to do a shout out to Catalina. Thank you for
your hard work, for your example and for doing this
incredible work as an refugee and an immigrant who is
in the system and has seen the system and how
(08:24):
it can be so ugly.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and
I'm sure we'll be checking back in in the meantime. Listeners,
please let us know if there's somebody you would like
for us to cover on this segment, you can contact
us at Hello Steffannever Told You dot com. You can
find us on Blue Scott Momster podcast or on Instagram
and TikTok at Stuff I Never Told You. We're also
(08:47):
on YouTube, but we have a new place to get
merch called Cotton Bureau, so go check that out, and
we have a book you can get wherever we get
your books. Thanks as always for our super producer Chris
Tina or Executi producer my Ander coodtributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thanks to you for listening Stuff Never Told You Inspection
by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts
or where you listen to your favorite shows,
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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