Activist, mother and migrantAna Bautista left Cuatzáhuatl, a small town in the municipality of Tepehuacán, in Hidalgo, when she was only 18 years old.
Ana became a mother at an early age and due to the lack of support from her partner, as well as the miserable salary she received, she decided travel to the United Statesspecifically to California, to be able to get their son forward.
Being alone in a foreign country and far from her family was not easy at all. According to Ana, she only knew her son through photographs, adding to this situation was the death of her mother, whom she could not go to bury due to her immigration status.
However, a couple of years later she decided to do for others what she couldn’t live with at the time, reunite her parents and children separated by migration through family reunification programs.
It was thus that in 2017 he gathered courage and without realizing it began his work for the benefit of the community. Although the work to reunite families was complicated, she first had to found her own migrant club, request the support of the government of his state and organize everything, there were organizations they reached out their hand.
In such a way that about a year after starting this project, at the end of 2018, he was able to bring together his first group of parents from Hidalgo with their children in the United States.
“With that my soul was a bit at peace,” said Ana, because although she could not have that experience with her mother, she gladly gave it to her countrymen.
It should be noted that Ana’s work with her community did not end there, she always looked for ways to help her community. This became visible throughout the pandemicDuring this time, the activist worked as a volunteer and helped many people by delivering groceries.
Thanks to all the work done by the community, she received a Woman of the Year award from Congressman Lou Correa.
“I feel satisfied because I know that with what I do I can help my community on this side of the pond a little, without a doubt in 2020 and part of 2021 I gave what I had in my heart, which is the service to God through my community work without expecting anything in return”, he assured.
However, Ana regrets that in this type of ceremonies and recognitions, many women who work for their community are always left out; therefore, she said she is ready to nominate the other activists who do a great work and are not yet recognized.
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