| Name: | Maya Guevara |
| Year: | Senior (5th Year) |
| Major: | Latin American Studies |
| Trip: | Houston |
| Email: | maya.guevara@utexas.edu |
Why I Serve Statement:
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” -Lilla Watson
As a young person from East Austin, I have seen and felt the effects of gentrification firsthand. I have internalized feelings of helplessness in the face of gentrification and displacement: the results of much deeper systems of oppression. However, in recent years I have also discovered the power of community to heal, transform, and address these systems.
I serve because I am invested in community work and believe in the transformative powers of collective building. My service looks like making room for and encouraging spaces where people of varied mindsets and life experiences can come together to understand how our liberation is tied together.