The Feministing Five: Cristina Aguilar

Cristina Aguilar is the Executive Director of Colorado Organization for Latina Organizing and Rights. COLOR is an incredible reproductive justice organization that connects many communities to empower Latina youth through politics, advocacy, and education. We were thrilled to speak with Cristina to learn more about COLOR’s amazing work!

Suzanna Bobadilla: Thank you so much for speaking with us. Can you share some background on COLOR’s mission and driving principles? 

Cristina Aguilar: COLOR is a sisterhood of Latinas. We are 17 years old which is really exciting and says a lot about us as a reproductive justice organization since reproductive justice just turned 20 years old. We were right there with our founding mothers, as a very early organization that was woman of color led and founded. We are dedicated to bringing a movement of Latinas, their families, and allies to leadership development, organizing, and advocacy that involves creating opportunities to achieve reproductive justice. We are in community with other RJ organizations like Sister Song and National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (we were originally one of their chapters before we became COLOR).

SB: What are some things that you are most proud about COLOR? Brag away! 

CA: I’m really proud about the work that we do with our youth. Our primary target constituency is Latinas ages 12-24 and their families. We have programs for our youth, like Latinas Increasing Political Strength (that we call “Lift”), our Latinas Of Vision “LOV” program, and our 1 in 3 COLORado Youth Council, which is a seed project of Advocates for Youth’s 1 in 3 campaign. We have an amazing youth leadership pipeline. For us, it’s about ensuring that we are developing our youth so that they have all of the information, resources, and access that they need to be the powerful, amazing women that we know that they can be.

I also love that we focus on Latinas ages 12 -24 and their families. The “and the families” piece is just as important, and we take a very holistic approach because we’re working with the Latino community and we know that family is really a cornerstone of our culture. If we are going to be working with youth, it is just as important to involve families. We used to say “parents,” but I think it’s important to say families because it recognizes how our family structure can be different. Sometimes a tía is functioning as a mother, or a grandmother is functioning as a caregiver. We are really trying to take a systemic way of working with our community. We want to build a meaningful leadership pipeline that goes from our youth to our elders, one that honors and respects the dignity of our families.

I’m also really proud of our advocacy work, especially the work that we did to defeat the personhood bill last year. We brought together all aspects of our work: our education, advocacy, and organizing. We had the largest Latino turn-out ever to defeat this bill, which was really exciting. We feel that the work that we did really impacted that. We had Dolores Huerta down here, along with Catholics for Choice and the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

SB: We just recently commemorated the 42 anniversary of Roe v. Wade. What are your thoughts on this year’s anniversary and where do you think the movement can go in the future?  

CA: I think that for the reproductive justice movement the Roe v. Wade anniversary can feel complicated and bittersweet because we know that even though the decision was on the books for over 40 years, the reality is that it doesn’t mean that there is abortion access for all, and in particular for low-income communities and communities of color. But while putting a forward-looking spin on it, it’s really important that we have this movement of reproductive justice that gets stronger every day. There are so many of us as women of color organizations that are working on the front-lines in a grassroots way in our communities and with our RJ partners.

There is an opportunity for us to unite and to harness the power that we have in our different areas. This involves asking our partners who are outside of the reproductive justice community to better understand our framework and to see that the communities that we represent are also a part of their community. We want them to come on this journey with us.

SB: You’re speaking a lot to the power of intersecting movements. What are some intersections that COLOR has been particularly successful with? 

CA: One area that I think COLOR has been really successful has been working at the intersection of economic justice and reproductive justice. I think that has been an important one for us because of how things have played out in Colorado. We have a really great relationship with some of our partners who also understand the intersection of our work. When we are able to talk about economics, we can naturally unite around that concept.

Economic justice can really help us with the other side. The more conservative folks might really be against what we stand for as a reproductive organization but they really understand the cost-benefit side of things and they might unite around our issues. I also think economic justice has been a natural intersection because we immensely want to make sure that we are taking care of our families. The wages that they need and the time off that they need are crucial. These issues are increasingly important to us because of the nature of what Latina families look like and how they take care of each other.

We also do a really good job working with our immigrant rights partners and our LGBTQ rights and liberation partners as well.

SB: Let’s say you are stranded on a desert island. You get to take with you one food, one drink, and one feminist. What do you pick? 

CA: I think the one food I would bring would be salsa. As my partner can attest to, I’m from the border and I like to put hot sauce on top of everything! My drink would be coffee for sure. And a feminist would be Gloria Anzaldúa.