Guatemalan immigrant and Las Vegas resident Raquel Cruz-Juárez has dedicated her life to uplifting the Latinx community. As Planned Parenthood’s director of Latinx Campaigns and Raíz, the non-profit’s Latinx-run program aimed at breaking down barriers in accessing health care in Latinx communities, Cruz-Juárez uses her passion for advocacy and organizing to provide outreach for sexual health and wellness in Latinx communities across the country. Here, in her own words, her story and what a post-Roe world could mean for the Latinx community.

I was in Washington D.C. for a team retreat and when the [Supreme Court opinion] leak happened. I felt frozen. I felt dead inside if I’m being honest, because I felt like once again, this country has told me that I don’t matter. I don’t matter as an immigrant woman or a person that has a uterus, and I don’t matter as a person that is pro-abortion. When Roe v. Wade was [ultimately] overturned, I was in shock. We were prepared — we had everything like documents, toolkits, activation, emails, etcetera — but we were not prepared. I had not prepared my body for the way that it was going to feel. The first thing that I wanted to do was be in community. I did my best at that moment to send my emails and do everything that I needed to do, and then I headed into my community and I saw the work that was being done. People didn’t want to be alone. 

I [received] a lot of text messages and calls from family members that live in Guatemala, because they knew what this meant. They’ve been living that reality for years. As an immigrant coming from Guatemala, a country where abortion is still very much restricted, I’ve seen women — specifically low-income women, indigenous women, and young children — be criminalized in my country. My mom is really one of the reasons why I began my journey organizing. I think back on the moment that she shared her abortion story with me for the very first time. She was in a very violent relationship that she didn’t want to be in anymore. She didn’t want to have a family with this person, and she made a decision for herself. I tell you this story because that’s exactly how I would talk about abortion to my community or my suegros [in-laws] who are still on the borderline of understanding my work: It’s not black and white. It’s about humanizing the issue. Unfortunately, it is political, because that’s how this country has made it. But it’s not for a lot of us — it’s a very personal decision.

As an immigrant and as a Latina, Planned Parenthood unfortunately wasn’t a household name for me [growing up.] I graduated college in 2014 [and] interned with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) which organizes for social and environmental justice in the state in 2012 [while in school]. They taught me everything about organizing. One of the very first things that I had to do was to get to know [other local organizing groups], and one of them was Planned Parenthood. I learned a lot about what sexual reproductive health care and autonomy over my body meant, and the rest is history. 

I started as a Raíz organizer in 2015, and now I serve as the director. Currently, we’re [operating] in 20 states. [My team] knows the communities because we actually belong to them. We create [educational] tool kits and give organizers resources so the Raíz program can be an authentic space to have those discussions about sexual reproductive health care, but more specifically about abortion. I’m very proud of the fact that we’re not scared to say the word aborto. We know that it can be very difficult sometimes as a community to discuss it.