This newly Chicago-based organizer joins our team to engage, support, and equip the growing Documenters Network
By Nora Bryne
Portrait taken by Caroline Olsen
We are excited to welcome Rafael to the team as City Bureau’s Network Coordinator for our Documenters Network!
Rafael is a Chicago-based collaborative organizer who brings years of experience in coalition building, facilitation, and community engagement to our expanding Documenters Network. He is one of two Network Coordinators joining the Network Success team to connect and work with sites across the country. Rafael was born in Mexico City and grew up in the Midwest. After working with a restaurant worker-led organization, he found his way to the National Public Radio station WUWM in Milwaukee as a community engagement coordinator. Rafael’s people-first approach to organizing and passion for mutual aid deepen relationship-building throughout the Documenters Network, and help create lasting connections throughout communities across the country.
We asked Rafael to share a little bit about his experiences and what he’s bringing to the role. Here are some of the highlights, edited for length and clarity.
Your background spans the service industry and community engagement. Tell us about your experience in these fields. How do you see them building upon each other?
I started doing mutual aid work in 2015 with the local United Way in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is where I grew up. This led me to dive into civic engagement and political campaigns. I learned a lot about organizing and civic engagement when I lived in Minneapolis. It’s where I found the values like love, intentionality, care and respect that I stay true to in organizing and journalism. At the root of my passion is community organizing and people. Now it’s full circle to be in this role because it combines all of these things I’m passionate about.
You recently moved to Chicago from Milwaukee. Tell us about the places you call home and your connection to the midwest.
Home is a feeling and is wherever my family is. It’s also a complicated thing for someone who immigrated here. My roots are in Mexico City and it feels like home whenever I go back. I grew up in Kenosha and discovered myself. My public school education and experience as a Brown man in majority white spaces in Kenosha taught me about resiliency and how to stay true to myself. Milwaukee is where I discovered what it means to be in community. Another place that feels like home is Minneapolis because of all the mutual aid groups I have organized with. There are so many groups with energy, passion and love for that city. Chicago is starting to feel like home.
What is your approach to building relationships?
One of my biggest mentors is Sheli Stein (they/them), who is an organizing director in Minnesota for Restaurant Opportunities Center Minnesota (ROC-MN). Sheli practices being intentional, respectful, and taking the time to get to know someone. As an organizer with them, I learned to be a good listener and respect people’s time. I learned there’s a time to agitate and push back constructively. People come from varying ethnic backgrounds, social groups, and life experiences. When we are all in a shared space together, we find ways to work together, as well as recognize conflict is going to happen. Not being conflict averse is an important value, especially in organizing spaces and building relationships.
What’s something that keeps you grounded in your own work?
First, my mom and her impact with her community. Through her work, she’s providing a really important service for undocumented folks in Kenosha. The second thing that keeps me grounded is reading, especially organizers' experiences and stories. Currently I’m reading the book on the assassintion of Fred Hamption and connecting lessons into my struggle of continuing the work. As Mariame Kaba and bell hooks speak and write about, you have to practice hope every day.
How did you find City Bureau and what is something you are looking forward to in your role here?
I found City Bureau through my friend Mallory Cheng, who is a former Documenter. We were talking and brainstorming about organizing and she recommended this organization. In my role, I’m excited to help build this journalism movement. City Bureau and the Documenters Network have major roles in it. I’m drawn to the prospect of local communities reclaiming their narrative. With Documenters, you have local community members reporting on their own communities, providing critical context. As a Network Coordinator, I’m also excited to help all of these local newsrooms across the country thrive and be successful in the ways that feel good for them.
Is there anything else you’d like to share that we haven’t touched upon?
It’s important to talk about why we’re doing this. Media has caused so much harm to our communities. You can go back to local newspapers facilitating the slave trade and vilifying certain racial and ethnic groups, primarily Black and Brown people. Acknowledging and naming the harm is an important place to start. We have to acknowledge that, historically, we are part of a harmful ecosystem that hasn’t valued community in any real way. This work will take a long time, and I’m hopeful that City Bureau is part of a larger collective ecosystem building for and with communities. We have to be intentional in the ways we move forward.
To connect with Rafa, feel free to reach out at rafa@citybureau.org.
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