MEET ANGELITA!
I moved from Paraguay to the United States as a young child and ended up in Portland. I studied at Lincoln High School, where I was part of their national title-winning Constitution Team in 2014.
After graduating, I went on to study Political Science and Legal Studies at Portland State University. That year, due to circumstances outside of my control, I became homeless. Nobody knew that every night I fell asleep in a park or in stairwells. That was my life for many months: I yo-yoed between sleeping outside and couchsurfing with friends. It wasn’t until much later that teachers from my old high school reached out to me and offered me a place to stay so I could finish my studies. My community showed up for me when neither the government nor the school knew how to reach out to and support students whose hunger and homelessness was largely invisible. As a South American immigrant, I was wary of the resources offered by a government I didn’t trust.
After I graduated I worked at Salt & Straw and organized in my community. I was a bit of a rabble rouser, and I don’t think they knew that when they hired me to work at City Hall in constituent services.
In this position, I talked to Portlanders every day. I heard story after story of how government failed to connect people to resources they desperately needed or failed to get feedback from people most impacted by its policies. I learned that people do not understand how local government works and who is making decisions for them. I also learned that people will go to the resources they trust—but that this trust is easily lost.
After I left City Hall, I missed the relationships I made through constituent services. I had what felt like secret knowledge about how our city worked, so I made a TikTok to break down the divide between our local government and the public. I met my community where they’re at, and now I have a community of 30,000 Portlanders (and growing) who I connect with on a daily basis to talk about our city’s issues.
I now work as a Policy Advocate for Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon and serve on Portland’s Rental Services Commission to try to fight for the people in our community who need it the most. All Portlanders deserve to have affordable rent and to know where their next meal is coming from, and if they don’t, it is our job as a city to help give it to them.
I’m running for office because Portland needs leaders who can meet people where they are. We need leaders who don’t just hold community town halls to check off a box, but who really listen and connect. We need leaders who will successfully implement policies based on data rather than creating more untested proposals that only serve the few.
Portland deserves leadership that champions transparency, compassion, and effective change. Throughout my life, I have experienced both the best and worst that our local government has to offer. Because of this, I know how much Portlanders need a government that works for them, and I will never stop fighting to make City Hall work for us all.