April 4, 2025 • 26 mins
Dawn Martinez Oropeza is the Executive Director of Al Éxito. She is a finalist for the Inspiring Advocate for Women Award.
Al Éxito Website: www.alexitoiowa.org
Iowa Latinx Project Website: www.iowalatinxproject.org
Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice Website: www.iowammj.org
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Welcome to the Inspiring Women of Iowa podcast,
a special series
amplifying the stories of the Inspiring Women of Iowa Finalists.
Inspiring Women of Iowa is an annual event hosted by Girl
Scouts of Greater
Iowa with the goal of celebrating women of courage,
confidence and character who are making the world
(00:27):
a better place.
Why does that sound familiar?
Well, because it also happens
to be the mission of the Girl Scouts,
where they believe society is better because strong
women show girls that anything is possible.
This event was created by Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa in 2017
to celebrate women in our community
(00:48):
and share their stories, while raising support
for the Girl Scout programs
that build the next generation of inspiring women.
16 individuals are celebrated annually with the Courage,
Confidence, Character and Inspiring Advocate for Women Awards.
I'm your host, Sarah Noll Wilson.
I am a business owner, a champion of women, and I'm
(01:10):
also a proud Girl Scout alum.
So massive love to troop 238.
And I am honored to have the chance to speak with these amazing,
inspiring women and to share their stories with you.
Today I am
talking to Dawn Martinez Oropeza.
(01:32):
She is the executive director of the organization Al Éxito.
Dawn.
Welcome to being our first inspiring women of Iowa,
who has been nominated for
the Inspiring Advocate for Women Award.
Welcome to our conversation.
Thank you for having me.
I am glad to be the first one.
So I yeah.
So no pressure for either of us.
(01:53):
Yeah. Okay. Okay.
I know that people who will be attending
will learn about your organization.
But first,
I just want to hear a little bit
about before we get into the work you do.
What do you want us to know about you as a person?
I'm a mother and now a grandmother.
Very proud of that.
How, like how recently?
(02:13):
She just turned a year in January.
So So like new Grandma.
Yeah. I'm a year old grandmother.
So that's my newest claim to fame.
I am originally from Des Moines, Iowa.
My parents were, I have a Mexican father,
(02:34):
and a Jewish mother who grew up here as well.
Hard working family.
And yeah, that's and,
my degrees are in art.
I went to the Art Institute of Chicago, also went to the
And then I got my masters
at the University of California, San Diego.
Okay.
(02:55):
And so that's great.
Yeah.
So, I also, well, a few other fun things.
I'll give you some fun things.
See, this is why I love keeping it so open ended,
because people are like, here, this is what.
This is what you should know about me.
I also do a lot of, teaching artist stuff.
I'm an artist.
I do, curatorial work.
(03:17):
I do, Aztec history, like Michoacán history
and teach on that and have done Aztec dancing.
And I also do hula dancing.
So I, I do traditional Hawaiian
hula with Aloha Wind here in town
and I am a Kriya, a yoga.
I'm a Kriyaban.
(03:38):
I study Kriya yoga. Okay.
With the center for Spiritual Enlightenment out in California,
San Diego and San Jose.
You're a Renaissance woman.
I love this about, you know, and I'm sitting here going, oh,
if we were on our other show,
there's so many things I want to, like,
talk to you about, but I want to be thoughtful.
So, you know, I want to hear more about your organization.
(03:59):
And one of the things
that we want to hear from each of the nominees is,
you know, every single moment
we get to make an impact in this world.
And sometimes we're conscious of that impact
and sometimes we aren't.
And so what I'm curious to hear from you is what is the impact
you hope you're making on the world that you have available
(04:20):
to you.
It's such a good question and
I probably should have prepared something,
but No, like I, Just have it come from the heart.
Yeah. You know, Al Éxito.
It will be my third or my 13th
year anniversary in March.
(04:41):
And
the same reason why I started this work,
is the same today as it was then.
And, you know, my parents were high school dropouts.
Got pregnant at 15, 16 years old.
So.
And, and I struggled to get my education and I.
(05:03):
And it was hard.
And, it didn't have the guidance.
Didn't have a lot of the resources that other students have.
Yeah, but it made it through.
I really, you know,
getting my master's was all because of my best friend. But,
you know, just the little things that you don't know.
Yeah, I know
(05:24):
that I can make it easier for other students, and I,
you know, it started with my children.
But Latino students
especially don't have the same resources.
And it's not because our parents
don’t care, which I hear a lot from schools.
It’s because
(05:46):
our parents work a lot of hours,
and there's,
it's like a secret society in some ways to get through college,
you know, even high school, I think.
And, and, just wanted to make it easier for students
because that's the only way we're going to build
leadership, Latino leadership, especially in Iowa.
(06:08):
And I just want to make it easier.
I, I think that when.
Well, let me rephrase that,
when you've always been a part of the dominant group.
So I'm a white woman in Iowa.
You take for granted
that you know the implicit culture and the rules
and the navigating the systems and,
(06:29):
and and so I'm I want to hear from you.
What are some of the,
what are some of the challenges or what are some of the like,
the barriers that you are working to either push aside or,
just from the standpoint of helping people understand
who might be listening to this going like, well,
what do you mean It's
not easy to just sign up for school
(06:51):
and you just do this
and that, that, that those there are those like implicit rules
that aren't always explicit or procedures
or who you know and processes.
And when you don't have access to those resources,
that can create a barrier to your success.
You know,
with Al Éxito, I really hate talking about the barriers.
(07:12):
And hey, they're great, but no.
No, no, no, no push against me.
Like what? Where would you rather focus?
I, you know, it's it's it,
it is what it is.
But there are significant barriers and, and,
I also run the,
I'm the coordinator for the Iowa Latinx Project,
which has a lot of data.
And you can just go on there and, and Google, like,
(07:34):
you can pull down the dashboard and see
just minimal amount of Latinas
in the state who have a college degree or graduate high school.
So, a lot of them are just zero, a lot of our communities.
So there are significant challenges.
And, you know, whether it is,
(07:58):
you know, one one thing with Latinos in Iowa
is that there's a huge economic gap.
Yeah.
And especially here in Polk County, it's one of the largest.
And when your family doesn't have money to feed themselves
or to heat themselves in the winter or,
(08:21):
Your first thing is on, your family's going to push you to work.
You need to work.
Yeah, to be able to stay here.
And a lot of times there's home.
You have to send money home,
you know, to to wherever you come from or,
you know, we we live in multi generational families.
So we have more people sometimes to feed.
So that's that's a huge barrier.
(08:43):
And so working is really crucial.
And so there's that pressure to be able to bring in money.
And I think that's just a poverty thing for everyone.
Anybody in poverty.
But there's
you know, we get overlooked a lot in the schools.
Latinos are very,
(09:04):
you know,
we've been targeted for a very long time in this country.
And, maybe a little bit
more emotional because we're in a huge Yeah,
we're in a huge crisis right now. Crisis right now.
Yeah. And,
I think it's the first time I’ve talked about it publicly, but,
So, so, so just like,
(09:24):
I can't tell you that I'm safe because you don't know me,
but I just want you to know that, like, I see that pain.
I have loved ones experiencing that pain.
So I just want you to know that your tears are safe here.
Well. Thank you.
I try not to cry, but, But it may happen.
That’s okay.
(09:45):
But, you know, so
as a as a community,
we have kept ourselves hidden.
You know, we started coming back out.
2016 was, it was a big time where a lot of people just
mentally, physically hid.
And I see it in my kids.
I see it at events. I see it,
(10:09):
see it with Latino youth interacting
with other youth and on campus or at events
and,
and so there's that barrier
to step up and say,
we're here, we deserve an education.
Yeah.
And so a lot of schools and places don't mind
(10:30):
that there is a 20 to 25% gap
of high school graduation rates, you know,
and because no, our parents
I'm going to take this back.
I'm going to start with me.
I didn't know because my parents didn't know that
(10:51):
I learned that I had to be the best advocate
for my own children. I didn't know what that meant.
I didn't.
You know, a lot of Latinos believe
the school system has the best.
You send your kid to school, especially in Latin America.
And you, you know the utmost
respect for every person that works there, from the P.E.
(11:13):
elementary
gym teacher to music teacher to art teacher, to the principal.
So much respect and that you have your the kids,
you're going to make
the most of your child's education and capabilities.
And I have learned really I learned that that isn't how it is
here in the United States.
(11:33):
And it took me a long time to learn that as a parent.
But you need to be always knocking on the door and saying, and
Latino
parents, there's no one who speaks their language.
Yeah.
At the school,
there's, if there's one person for like a thousand kids,
like they're not going to have time for you.
So who's who's voice in that for our kids?
(11:56):
And so hopefully,
you know, we're giving the youth enough tools.
We do do a lot of programing for our parents as well.
But,
I mean, it starts at the elementary school, like,
you know, so talking just about
having the parents understand the need
for higher education or words like GPA, FAFSA,
(12:19):
all these things that are hidden language.
You know, when you're when English isn't your first language.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's difficult. It's really hard.
There's I mean, there's a number of things you said, and
I, I want to just
(12:40):
take a
moment for people who are listening to this, to hear the words
and hopefully sit with the words of.
People needing to hide and to stay hidden
and to stay invisible and to be in the background
and simultaneously be on alert.
(13:03):
Right.
I know from my, family members experience,
there's an alertness now
that didn't exist,
you know, a couple months before and just
and to just to consider that that's the lived experience
that so many are having right now.
And, and the cost of that.
(13:26):
Right, the cost of that for, mental, physical,
emotional well-being as well as the ability to be, you know,
everybody wants to be contributing
to society and part of the community and just the cost of that.
So I just,
I don't have anything to say other than
I just want to amplify that from the standpoint of, like,
(13:47):
people who are listening to this, to just to sit with that.
And, and I would love to share a couple examples
of how that plays out because I think, yeah, please.
Is it it's not just right now.
Right. Like and you understand that.
Right. But yeah, you know,
2016, we were experiencing heavy,
(14:07):
multiple students who,
suicide attempts, self-harming was up considerably.
So we did a self-help.
We did a self, mental health research
and started training our leaders on that.
But our kids were suffering all the great deal mentally.
During Covid,
(14:28):
a lot of our families,
hid.
And what they didn't, we, you know, one of our kids,
because we empowered our college students
and our leaders to go out and do some surveying.
And,
one of the kids said, you know, we can't
we're not allowed to leave our home
(14:48):
because they're going to blame us for Covid.
So and this is here in Des Moines.
So they weren't even going to their Spanish
speaking churches for food or for health,
needs or leaving the home.
And, you know, so we gave out, we're giving out food.
We were doing, you know, we've had students fail
(15:10):
their whole semester
and nobody called them from the school district.
Nobody checked on them.
So we were doing,
you know, doing home checks and things like that.
Created a new program
to give out money to undocumented families.
With IMMJ, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.
And,
(15:31):
and can try to continue that program.
But, so.
It's,
you know, and now we're, we have a rapid response.
And so we're giving information to our families.
But it is a daily occurrence
that somebody will call and say, hey,
do you know somebody in this community?
(15:51):
Because we have programs across the state.
Can you go verify a raid,
or that ICE is at this place or that place and,
it's every day.
Yeah. Oh,
yeah.
It's it's for people who are.
Yeah.
No, I, I really appreciate you
(16:13):
coming on and talking and sharing
for people who are listening to this and going, how do I help?
What role can I play?
Because I think right now, in this state of overwhelm,
the state of what feels like
just constant
chaos and uncertainty,
there's a lot of people who are looking for
where can I make a difference or where can I make an impact?
(16:36):
What are the, what are the best ways that people can support
the the work your organization is doing?
What does that look like?
What are the most pressing needs right now?
We can, you know.
Well, it's a constant fear that, I think for any nonprofit,
we know that DEI,
(16:56):
just even saying diversity, equity or inclusion.
Yeah.
And that's, you know, who we are.
That
you can't say those words
and, you know, but we have we have scholarship funds that,
you know, a lot of our kids are scholarship,
and we're keeping a close eye on a lot of what's happening
at the legislature, could lose their full scholarships.
(17:20):
They don't have a safe place on campus,
so having people
provide operational supports
to us, we're able to keep those students on campus.
We provide scholarships.
You know, the Mary E.
Campos scholarship, and,
who's a civil rights leader here in Des Moines, we have
(17:42):
and then just operationally so that we have middle school,
we have high school and we have college and
just making sure that we can be here.
Yeah.
You know, is I'm worried about the grants.
I know a lot of our funders are very supportive.
Sponsors and foundations.
They could be under attack.
I know a lot of them are losing some of their funding because
(18:04):
they do support
organizations like Al Éxito.
And so
we never know what's going to happen, right?
Yeah.
But,
but that being said,
I'm the worst advocate for my own organization.
I will say people do.
(18:24):
Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.
Erica Johnson, the director,
one of my dearest friends,
they could use every ounce of help that they can get.
Financially, there's a raid response
that's statewide, and there's also, one in Polk County
that, me and my coworker are on
(18:46):
because there's only two of us at work.
And then we've also trained a bunch of students
across the state to do know your rights training
and things like that, some of our own students.
But, yeah, supporting people
can volunteer with Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice as well.
Okay.
And what we will do, you know, with your help, is
(19:06):
we will post those links in the show notes so people have them.
And then when we post about this and share about it on,
social media, we can.
Yeah, we'll just included on our, our show notes.
So people have access to that.
It's, you know.
(19:29):
It's a
really heavy, hard time right now.
There is a lot of pain.
There is a lot of suffering.
We don't even know the extent of it.
And I want to just thank you for the work you're doing,
(19:50):
for representing and advocating
for the people who are most, like,
so targeted always, but especially right now.
I I'm, I'm, I'm at a loss for words.
Not because I'm trying to be careful of what I'm saying,
(20:13):
but because of the overwhelming emotion that I'm feeling.
And I'm not just not centering on me.
I just like for people who are listening and like,
Sarah is struggling with her words.
I am so glad
that your work is being amplified.
I am honored to be in this conversation with you.
(20:37):
And,
and I guess, you know, I want
to be thoughtful of our time,
and I obviously, like, I want to keep talking to you.
And then.
And I just need to have another conversation.
But, Dawn,
for people who are listening to this
and want to connect with you
and want to learn more about the work you're doing,
what what is the best way for people to connect with you?
(21:01):
Definitely come to Al Éxito Iowa dot org.
That's the best way to find out what we're doing
or to reach out to us.
We also have the Iowa Latinx Project.
That's
all spelled out, dot org as well.
And there they can find, up to date.
(21:21):
This is the first time I've told anybody it's, it's,
now updated to 2024.
Statistics around
different communities across Iowa.
We have housing, health, jobs.
I'm trying to think of then just, you know,
(21:42):
specific demographics.
And so any community that has 1000 or 5000 or more Latinos.
Sure. Yeah.
And then you can compare
and you can see high school dropout rates.
You can see, graduation rates, things like that.
Health.
For people who are listening.
What's the
what's the one thing you would want them to leave with
from our conversation?
(22:06):
Or what's
what is one thing,
not the one thing that's way too big of an ask.
That’s the hardest thing, you know, I end a lot of
meetings, a lot of meetings.
It's just that and I say, you know,
for especially for Polk County,
one out of every four students is Latino.
(22:27):
This is our future.
And that, you know, if people's boards
or staff or
administrators don't look like that.
If a fourth of them aren’t Latino,
They need to think about that, right?
Like they need like
(22:48):
you're not opening doors, you're not making pathways.
And I've seen
I've seen how DEI has worked for a lot of other communities.
And
I just feel like I hit a wall
a lot with,
inclusion in Polk County and in Iowa.
(23:08):
Yeah, that. Yeah.
Like, it's just we're not just hidden,
hiding ourselves, especially those of us who have undocumented
people in our family.
You're being silenced as well, right?
We're just.
Invisible
and this
and and it's because it's.
(23:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that that, that
isn't where I was going to head because I.
But the other questions I was going to talk about, you know,
there's that. Yeah.
But that's where I'm going. That's where I'm at.
That's I, that's where we are.
And like, and and I, I don't even think.
It's exactly where we are and to pretend otherwise
(23:59):
is not only at best is a
disservice, as at worst it's destructive.
And so I really appreciate you coming on
speaking so honestly and,
and letting this conversation go where it needed to go today.
So thank you so much, Dawn. I really appreciate you.
Thank you.
And I'll tell you, it's because our students
(24:23):
phenomenal.
They are phenomenal.
And and now I'm going to get teary eyed.
We have some amazing
youth scholars.
And if
if they can't fulfill their their dreams whether it's
(24:43):
you know, we have Will
who just graduated from Indian Hills as a chef and
and you know Ariana who just came back from Puerto Rico
who's like
just incredible leader at Iowa State.
If those kids lose scholarships or can't fulfill their dreams,
we're all going to miss out.
(25:03):
Yeah,
and it's already hard enough
that they're going to even get a job.
Even those that are in engineering
and in business and accounting.
And it'll be hard for them to get a job.
And will they feel comfortable in places of business.
And we're trying to equip them that they're really prepared
for that.
But yeah, we’re all, it's it's you know,
(25:25):
the companies that have Latinos
are bringing them in from South America, from other places.
We have amazing talent in the state.
We just do.
It's like
and leaders who are listening to this, you know, the question
we often ask them is, you know, who gets to be safe,
(25:45):
like who gets to belong, who doesn't, and what are we doing
that's getting in the way of everyone
feeling like they can be included.
So I think this is a this is a really important call to action.
Dawn, I look forward to learning more about your story
at the event in May.
And thank you again for all the work
you're doing for our community.
Thank you so much.
(26:06):
There's so much more that can be done for sure.
You know, hopefully this is a start to get the word out to more.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that today.
The 2025 Inspiring Women of Iowa event will be held
on May 9th at the Meadows Events and Conference Center.
To purchase tickets
(26:27):
and get more information about supporting this event, please
visit Inspiring Women of Iowa dot com and all proceeds
from this fundraising event stay 100% local
to benefit Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa and their mission
to build up girls of courage, confidence
and character who will make this world a better place.
(26:47):
Thank you for listening and thank you for your support.
Welcome to the Inspiring Women of Iowa podcast,
a special series
amplifying the stories of the Inspiring Women of Iowa Finalists.
Inspiring Women of Iowa is an annual event hosted by Girl
Scouts of Greater
Iowa with the goal of celebrating women of courage,
confidence and character who are making the world
(00:27):
a better place.
Why does that sound familiar?
Well, because it also happens
to be the mission of the Girl Scouts,
where they believe society is better because strong
women show girls that anything is possible.
This event was created by Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa in 2017
to celebrate women in our community
(00:48):
and share their stories, while raising support
for the Girl Scout programs
that build the next generation of inspiring women.
16 individuals are celebrated annually with the Courage,
Confidence, Character and Inspiring Advocate for Women Awards.
I'm your host, Sarah Noll Wilson.
I am a business owner, a champion of women, and I'm
(01:10):
also a proud Girl Scout alum.
So massive love to troop 238.
And I am honored to have the chance to speak with these amazing,
inspiring women and to share their stories with you.
Today I am
talking to Dawn Martinez Oropeza.
(01:32):
She is the executive director of the organization Al Éxito.
Dawn.
Welcome to being our first inspiring women of Iowa,
who has been nominated for
the Inspiring Advocate for Women Award.
Welcome to our conversation.
Thank you for having me.
I am glad to be the first one.
So I yeah.
So no pressure for either of us.
(01:53):
Yeah. Okay. Okay.
I know that people who will be attending
will learn about your organization.
But first,
I just want to hear a little bit
about before we get into the work you do.
What do you want us to know about you as a person?
I'm a mother and now a grandmother.
Very proud of that.
How, like how recently?
(02:13):
She just turned a year in January.
So So like new Grandma.
Yeah. I'm a year old grandmother.
So that's my newest claim to fame.
I am originally from Des Moines, Iowa.
My parents were, I have a Mexican father,
(02:34):
and a Jewish mother who grew up here as well.
Hard working family.
And yeah, that's and,
my degrees are in art.
I went to the Art Institute of Chicago, also went to the
And then I got my masters
at the University of California, San Diego.
Okay.
(02:55):
And so that's great.
Yeah.
So, I also, well, a few other fun things.
I'll give you some fun things.
See, this is why I love keeping it so open ended,
because people are like, here, this is what.
This is what you should know about me.
I also do a lot of, teaching artist stuff.
I'm an artist.
I do, curatorial work.
(03:17):
I do, Aztec history, like Michoacán history
and teach on that and have done Aztec dancing.
And I also do hula dancing.
So I, I do traditional Hawaiian
hula with Aloha Wind here in town
and I am a Kriya, a yoga.
I'm a Kriyaban.
(03:38):
I study Kriya yoga. Okay.
With the center for Spiritual Enlightenment out in California,
San Diego and San Jose.
You're a Renaissance woman.
I love this about, you know, and I'm sitting here going, oh,
if we were on our other show,
there's so many things I want to, like,
talk to you about, but I want to be thoughtful.
So, you know, I want to hear more about your organization.
(03:59):
And one of the things
that we want to hear from each of the nominees is,
you know, every single moment
we get to make an impact in this world.
And sometimes we're conscious of that impact
and sometimes we aren't.
And so what I'm curious to hear from you is what is the impact
you hope you're making on the world that you have available
(04:20):
to you.
It's such a good question and
I probably should have prepared something,
but No, like I, Just have it come from the heart.
Yeah. You know, Al Éxito.
It will be my third or my 13th
year anniversary in March.
(04:41):
And
the same reason why I started this work,
is the same today as it was then.
And, you know, my parents were high school dropouts.
Got pregnant at 15, 16 years old.
So.
And, and I struggled to get my education and I.
(05:03):
And it was hard.
And, it didn't have the guidance.
Didn't have a lot of the resources that other students have.
Yeah, but it made it through.
I really, you know,
getting my master's was all because of my best friend. But,
you know, just the little things that you don't know.
Yeah, I know
(05:24):
that I can make it easier for other students, and I,
you know, it started with my children.
But Latino students
especially don't have the same resources.
And it's not because our parents
don’t care, which I hear a lot from schools.
It’s because
(05:46):
our parents work a lot of hours,
and there's,
it's like a secret society in some ways to get through college,
you know, even high school, I think.
And, and, just wanted to make it easier for students
because that's the only way we're going to build
leadership, Latino leadership, especially in Iowa.
(06:08):
And I just want to make it easier.
I, I think that when.
Well, let me rephrase that,
when you've always been a part of the dominant group.
So I'm a white woman in Iowa.
You take for granted
that you know the implicit culture and the rules
and the navigating the systems and,
(06:29):
and and so I'm I want to hear from you.
What are some of the,
what are some of the challenges or what are some of the like,
the barriers that you are working to either push aside or,
just from the standpoint of helping people understand
who might be listening to this going like, well,
what do you mean It's
not easy to just sign up for school
(06:51):
and you just do this
and that, that, that those there are those like implicit rules
that aren't always explicit or procedures
or who you know and processes.
And when you don't have access to those resources,
that can create a barrier to your success.
You know,
with Al Éxito, I really hate talking about the barriers.
(07:12):
And hey, they're great, but no.
No, no, no, no push against me.
Like what? Where would you rather focus?
I, you know, it's it's it,
it is what it is.
But there are significant barriers and, and,
I also run the,
I'm the coordinator for the Iowa Latinx Project,
which has a lot of data.
And you can just go on there and, and Google, like,
(07:34):
you can pull down the dashboard and see
just minimal amount of Latinas
in the state who have a college degree or graduate high school.
So, a lot of them are just zero, a lot of our communities.
So there are significant challenges.
And, you know, whether it is,
(07:58):
you know, one one thing with Latinos in Iowa
is that there's a huge economic gap.
Yeah.
And especially here in Polk County, it's one of the largest.
And when your family doesn't have money to feed themselves
or to heat themselves in the winter or,
(08:21):
Your first thing is on, your family's going to push you to work.
You need to work.
Yeah, to be able to stay here.
And a lot of times there's home.
You have to send money home,
you know, to to wherever you come from or,
you know, we we live in multi generational families.
So we have more people sometimes to feed.
So that's that's a huge barrier.
(08:43):
And so working is really crucial.
And so there's that pressure to be able to bring in money.
And I think that's just a poverty thing for everyone.
Anybody in poverty.
But there's
you know, we get overlooked a lot in the schools.
Latinos are very,
(09:04):
you know,
we've been targeted for a very long time in this country.
And, maybe a little bit
more emotional because we're in a huge Yeah,
we're in a huge crisis right now. Crisis right now.
Yeah. And,
I think it's the first time I’ve talked about it publicly, but,
So, so, so just like,
(09:24):
I can't tell you that I'm safe because you don't know me,
but I just want you to know that, like, I see that pain.
I have loved ones experiencing that pain.
So I just want you to know that your tears are safe here.
Well. Thank you.
I try not to cry, but, But it may happen.
That’s okay.
(09:45):
But, you know, so
as a as a community,
we have kept ourselves hidden.
You know, we started coming back out.
2016 was, it was a big time where a lot of people just
mentally, physically hid.
And I see it in my kids.
I see it at events. I see it,
(10:09):
see it with Latino youth interacting
with other youth and on campus or at events
and,
and so there's that barrier
to step up and say,
we're here, we deserve an education.
Yeah.
And so a lot of schools and places don't mind
(10:30):
that there is a 20 to 25% gap
of high school graduation rates, you know,
and because no, our parents
I'm going to take this back.
I'm going to start with me.
I didn't know because my parents didn't know that
(10:51):
I learned that I had to be the best advocate
for my own children. I didn't know what that meant.
I didn't.
You know, a lot of Latinos believe
the school system has the best.
You send your kid to school, especially in Latin America.
And you, you know the utmost
respect for every person that works there, from the P.E.
(11:13):
elementary
gym teacher to music teacher to art teacher, to the principal.
So much respect and that you have your the kids,
you're going to make
the most of your child's education and capabilities.
And I have learned really I learned that that isn't how it is
here in the United States.
(11:33):
And it took me a long time to learn that as a parent.
But you need to be always knocking on the door and saying, and
Latino
parents, there's no one who speaks their language.
Yeah.
At the school,
there's, if there's one person for like a thousand kids,
like they're not going to have time for you.
So who's who's voice in that for our kids?
(11:56):
And so hopefully,
you know, we're giving the youth enough tools.
We do do a lot of programing for our parents as well.
But,
I mean, it starts at the elementary school, like,
you know, so talking just about
having the parents understand the need
for higher education or words like GPA, FAFSA,
(12:19):
all these things that are hidden language.
You know, when you're when English isn't your first language.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's difficult. It's really hard.
There's I mean, there's a number of things you said, and
I, I want to just
(12:40):
take a
moment for people who are listening to this, to hear the words
and hopefully sit with the words of.
People needing to hide and to stay hidden
and to stay invisible and to be in the background
and simultaneously be on alert.
(13:03):
Right.
I know from my, family members experience,
there's an alertness now
that didn't exist,
you know, a couple months before and just
and to just to consider that that's the lived experience
that so many are having right now.
And, and the cost of that.
(13:26):
Right, the cost of that for, mental, physical,
emotional well-being as well as the ability to be, you know,
everybody wants to be contributing
to society and part of the community and just the cost of that.
So I just,
I don't have anything to say other than
I just want to amplify that from the standpoint of, like,
(13:47):
people who are listening to this, to just to sit with that.
And, and I would love to share a couple examples
of how that plays out because I think, yeah, please.
Is it it's not just right now.
Right. Like and you understand that.
Right. But yeah, you know,
2016, we were experiencing heavy,
(14:07):
multiple students who,
suicide attempts, self-harming was up considerably.
So we did a self-help.
We did a self, mental health research
and started training our leaders on that.
But our kids were suffering all the great deal mentally.
During Covid,
(14:28):
a lot of our families,
hid.
And what they didn't, we, you know, one of our kids,
because we empowered our college students
and our leaders to go out and do some surveying.
And,
one of the kids said, you know, we can't
we're not allowed to leave our home
(14:48):
because they're going to blame us for Covid.
So and this is here in Des Moines.
So they weren't even going to their Spanish
speaking churches for food or for health,
needs or leaving the home.
And, you know, so we gave out, we're giving out food.
We were doing, you know, we've had students fail
(15:10):
their whole semester
and nobody called them from the school district.
Nobody checked on them.
So we were doing,
you know, doing home checks and things like that.
Created a new program
to give out money to undocumented families.
With IMMJ, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.
And,
(15:31):
and can try to continue that program.
But, so.
It's,
you know, and now we're, we have a rapid response.
And so we're giving information to our families.
But it is a daily occurrence
that somebody will call and say, hey,
do you know somebody in this community?
(15:51):
Because we have programs across the state.
Can you go verify a raid,
or that ICE is at this place or that place and,
it's every day.
Yeah. Oh,
yeah.
It's it's for people who are.
Yeah.
No, I, I really appreciate you
(16:13):
coming on and talking and sharing
for people who are listening to this and going, how do I help?
What role can I play?
Because I think right now, in this state of overwhelm,
the state of what feels like
just constant
chaos and uncertainty,
there's a lot of people who are looking for
where can I make a difference or where can I make an impact?
(16:36):
What are the, what are the best ways that people can support
the the work your organization is doing?
What does that look like?
What are the most pressing needs right now?
We can, you know.
Well, it's a constant fear that, I think for any nonprofit,
we know that DEI,
(16:56):
just even saying diversity, equity or inclusion.
Yeah.
And that's, you know, who we are.
That
you can't say those words
and, you know, but we have we have scholarship funds that,
you know, a lot of our kids are scholarship,
and we're keeping a close eye on a lot of what's happening
at the legislature, could lose their full scholarships.
(17:20):
They don't have a safe place on campus,
so having people
provide operational supports
to us, we're able to keep those students on campus.
We provide scholarships.
You know, the Mary E.
Campos scholarship, and,
who's a civil rights leader here in Des Moines, we have
(17:42):
and then just operationally so that we have middle school,
we have high school and we have college and
just making sure that we can be here.
Yeah.
You know, is I'm worried about the grants.
I know a lot of our funders are very supportive.
Sponsors and foundations.
They could be under attack.
I know a lot of them are losing some of their funding because
(18:04):
they do support
organizations like Al Éxito.
And so
we never know what's going to happen, right?
Yeah.
But,
but that being said,
I'm the worst advocate for my own organization.
I will say people do.
(18:24):
Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.
Erica Johnson, the director,
one of my dearest friends,
they could use every ounce of help that they can get.
Financially, there's a raid response
that's statewide, and there's also, one in Polk County
that, me and my coworker are on
(18:46):
because there's only two of us at work.
And then we've also trained a bunch of students
across the state to do know your rights training
and things like that, some of our own students.
But, yeah, supporting people
can volunteer with Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice as well.
Okay.
And what we will do, you know, with your help, is
(19:06):
we will post those links in the show notes so people have them.
And then when we post about this and share about it on,
social media, we can.
Yeah, we'll just included on our, our show notes.
So people have access to that.
It's, you know.
(19:29):
It's a
really heavy, hard time right now.
There is a lot of pain.
There is a lot of suffering.
We don't even know the extent of it.
And I want to just thank you for the work you're doing,
(19:50):
for representing and advocating
for the people who are most, like,
so targeted always, but especially right now.
I I'm, I'm, I'm at a loss for words.
Not because I'm trying to be careful of what I'm saying,
(20:13):
but because of the overwhelming emotion that I'm feeling.
And I'm not just not centering on me.
I just like for people who are listening and like,
Sarah is struggling with her words.
I am so glad
that your work is being amplified.
I am honored to be in this conversation with you.
(20:37):
And,
and I guess, you know, I want
to be thoughtful of our time,
and I obviously, like, I want to keep talking to you.
And then.
And I just need to have another conversation.
But, Dawn,
for people who are listening to this
and want to connect with you
and want to learn more about the work you're doing,
what what is the best way for people to connect with you?
(21:01):
Definitely come to Al Éxito Iowa dot org.
That's the best way to find out what we're doing
or to reach out to us.
We also have the Iowa Latinx Project.
That's
all spelled out, dot org as well.
And there they can find, up to date.
(21:21):
This is the first time I've told anybody it's, it's,
now updated to 2024.
Statistics around
different communities across Iowa.
We have housing, health, jobs.
I'm trying to think of then just, you know,
(21:42):
specific demographics.
And so any community that has 1000 or 5000 or more Latinos.
Sure. Yeah.
And then you can compare
and you can see high school dropout rates.
You can see, graduation rates, things like that.
Health.
For people who are listening.
What's the
what's the one thing you would want them to leave with
from our conversation?
(22:06):
Or what's
what is one thing,
not the one thing that's way too big of an ask.
That’s the hardest thing, you know, I end a lot of
meetings, a lot of meetings.
It's just that and I say, you know,
for especially for Polk County,
one out of every four students is Latino.
(22:27):
This is our future.
And that, you know, if people's boards
or staff or
administrators don't look like that.
If a fourth of them aren’t Latino,
They need to think about that, right?
Like they need like
(22:48):
you're not opening doors, you're not making pathways.
And I've seen
I've seen how DEI has worked for a lot of other communities.
And
I just feel like I hit a wall
a lot with,
inclusion in Polk County and in Iowa.
(23:08):
Yeah, that. Yeah.
Like, it's just we're not just hidden,
hiding ourselves, especially those of us who have undocumented
people in our family.
You're being silenced as well, right?
We're just.
Invisible
and this
and and it's because it's.
(23:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that that, that
isn't where I was going to head because I.
But the other questions I was going to talk about, you know,
there's that. Yeah.
But that's where I'm going. That's where I'm at.
That's I, that's where we are.
And like, and and I, I don't even think.
It's exactly where we are and to pretend otherwise
(23:59):
is not only at best is a
disservice, as at worst it's destructive.
And so I really appreciate you coming on
speaking so honestly and,
and letting this conversation go where it needed to go today.
So thank you so much, Dawn. I really appreciate you.
Thank you.
And I'll tell you, it's because our students
(24:23):
phenomenal.
They are phenomenal.
And and now I'm going to get teary eyed.
We have some amazing
youth scholars.
And if
if they can't fulfill their their dreams whether it's
(24:43):
you know, we have Will
who just graduated from Indian Hills as a chef and
and you know Ariana who just came back from Puerto Rico
who's like
just incredible leader at Iowa State.
If those kids lose scholarships or can't fulfill their dreams,
we're all going to miss out.
(25:03):
Yeah,
and it's already hard enough
that they're going to even get a job.
Even those that are in engineering
and in business and accounting.
And it'll be hard for them to get a job.
And will they feel comfortable in places of business.
And we're trying to equip them that they're really prepared
for that.
But yeah, we’re all, it's it's you know,
(25:25):
the companies that have Latinos
are bringing them in from South America, from other places.
We have amazing talent in the state.
We just do.
It's like
and leaders who are listening to this, you know, the question
we often ask them is, you know, who gets to be safe,
(25:45):
like who gets to belong, who doesn't, and what are we doing
that's getting in the way of everyone
feeling like they can be included.
So I think this is a this is a really important call to action.
Dawn, I look forward to learning more about your story
at the event in May.
And thank you again for all the work
you're doing for our community.
Thank you so much.
(26:06):
There's so much more that can be done for sure.
You know, hopefully this is a start to get the word out to more.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that today.
The 2025 Inspiring Women of Iowa event will be held
on May 9th at the Meadows Events and Conference Center.
To purchase tickets
(26:27):
and get more information about supporting this event, please
visit Inspiring Women of Iowa dot com and all proceeds
from this fundraising event stay 100% local
to benefit Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa and their mission
to build up girls of courage, confidence
and character who will make this world a better place.
(26:47):
Thank you for listening and thank you for your support.
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