“People who were hurting were hurting others. If you haven’t processed your own traumas, the cycle continues.”
We were featured in the national news outlet, The Guardian. The article highlights Aliento and our Founder + CEO, Reyna Montoya about her experiences with her involvement with the immigrant rights movement, coping with trauma from her father's deportation proceedings, and the creation of Aliento!
Montoya had joined Arizona’s immigrant activist community in 2010, after she came out publicly as an undocumented college student. She was already “heavily involved” when her father Mario, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was detained by immigration authorities at a Puerto Rico airport in 2012.
Mario had fled from Mexico to Arizona with his family in 2003 after he had received death threats and was kidnapped by corrupt members of Mexican law enforcement, Montoya knew. Now he sat in a Puerto Rican prison in an Ice unit facing deportation by the Obama administration. Should he be deported to Mexico, his family in Phoenix feared, he’d be murdered.
Arizona’s immigrant community rallied on her father’s behalf, Montoya says. But “no one asked me, ‘How are you doing? What does it mean for you to have your dad in deportation proceedings?’ That really hurt, although I understand. People who were hurting were hurting others. If you haven’t processed your own traumas, the cycle continues.”
In 2016, Montoya founded Aliento, a Phoenix non-profit that she started with a Soros Fellowship and her desire to create a gentle, culturally sensitive healing environment for undocumented immigrants and their families.
Aliento was key in getting on the 2022 ballot a measure that will let voters decide whether to grant in-state tuition and scholarships to all Arizona high school graduates regardless of immigration status, students often known as Dreamers.
We’d also like to thank journalist Terry Greene Sterling for shining a light on the work that orgs are doing to transform Arizona from an epicenter of hate to one of hope!
Aliento was founded in 2016. For five years, we’ve worked to serve undocumented, DACA, and mixed-status families in transforming trauma into hope and action. Invest in the well-being, emotional healing, and leadership development of those impacted by the inequities of lacking an immigration status. Donate $10, $25, $50 to Aliento today or become a monthly contributor.