January Birthdays at pei
Leticia Barrera - January 8
One of the oldest of nine children, Leticia was raised in a house with a bare dirt floor taking care of her eight siblings in Iguala, Mexico. She would grow up to become a teacher to economically marginalized children like herself, traveling the rural countryside of Mexico to reach students. Her first classroom was under a tree. After meeting Rey, the love of her life, she decided to follow him back to Chicago in the early 1990s. Armed only with a tourist visa, Leticia exchanged the classroom in Mexico with factory work in Chicago. Soon she became a mother and in 1997, when Ricky, her oldest of three children, enrolled in her neighborhood school in Logan Square, she noticed mamas inside the building. She was enthralled, “How can I be like those mothers and make my way back into a classroom?” She missed teaching so much.
As Leticia does, she began finding out who had the power to get her back into a school, and that person was another Mexican immigrant mother, Maria Alviso, who ran the LSNA Parent Mentor Program at Monroe Elementary. And like thousands of women across the state who serve as Parent Mentors, her life began to change. At Monroe, she learned English, taught folkloric Mexican indigenous dance to children in the community, became the Parent Mentor Coordinator, then an Education Organizer for LSNA, and now Director of LSNA’s Parent Mentor Program.
Today Lety's team of magical parent mentor coordinstors inspire and support over 100 Parent Mentors in 12 schools in Logan Square, Avondale, and Hermosa every year. She is a proud "glam-ma" of 3.
Yes, there is a long list of policies and ground-breakings that Lety and Parent Mentors have been the sustaining organizing force to make happen. And also the true gift of Leticia Barrera is bringing parents in to transform the arena, whether it is in our schools or our community organizations, or our homes.
Mayra Sarabia - January 11
Mayra was born in Morelia, Michoacan, the eldest of four siblings. She spent her first years of life mostly with her grandparents, and her grandfather taught her how to read at age three. As a teenager, adventurous and eager to experience independence, she went to an agricultural boarding school for three years. She dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but ended up leaving for Chicago in 1992 at the age of 17 and spent years working in restaurants and a country club.
“After I got divorced I wanted to be involved in my children’s school environment, and that’s how I became a parent mentor at my children’s school, Eberhart Elementary,” recalled Mayra. The first year she saw the parent mentor flyer but was disappointed she couldn’t join because of her work schedule. Undeterred, the next year she changed her work schedule so she could join the Parent Mentor Program.
Mayra was placed in a second grade classroom as a parent mentor for one year, and then was invited to become a parent mentor coordinator with the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP). After 3 years as a coordinator, an opportunity came up to help start the program in a neighboring community. Mayra then joined the PEI team. She coaches parent mentor partner organizations around the state while still staying rooted in the southwest side.
Mayra lived in Chicago as an undocumented immigrant for over 20 years, and so organizing with SWOP for immigrant rights and opportunities for mothers of all statuses is near to her heart.
Mayra has three adult children and one granddaughter. In her spare time she enjoys exploring new talents and passions from herbal medicine to candles to meditation to insurance to cacao ceremonies and more.