Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was murdered by ICE yesterday. Another father, just trying to get to work. We know he was 26. We know he was loved. We know he should still be here.
Our outrage does not absolve us. Our outrage is not enough – it must be tethered, grounded to our actions. It is only by mobilizing our communities and caring for one another that we can build a more just world, one we desperately need. We cannot wait for another system that is more just to simply emerge. We must build it ourselves: protecting each other, and reimagining and restructuring the systems that are dismantling and destroying our communities.
Action has to start small, local, in the neighborhoods where people are organizing right now.
That’s the work of the Dr. Beatriz María Solís Policy Institute (SPI) Local program. And today, we’re proud to introduce the 2026 SPI Local teams, consisting of advocates learning to craft bold, community-driven policy in neighborhoods across LA County.
These teams are made up of organizers who live and organize in the communities they serve. They are deeply rooted, community bound, and uncompromising in their vision for justice.
Community Health
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Christina Borg Director of Operations End Poverty in California (EPIC) She/Her Malinda Lewis Miyana Evans Traz Co |
Criminal Justice Reform
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Christina Alvarez Transitional Subsidized Employment Antelope Valley Partners for Health She/Her Cynthia Martinez Jasmine Desenclos Leigh Beaulieu |
Housing Security (California Latinas for Reproductive Justice)
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Aaron Diaz Organizer & Advocate California Latinas for Reproductive Justice He/They Andrea Zarazúa Camila Camaleón Mayra Fernandez |
Housing Security (Countywide)
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Felicia Burkley Self-employed The MotherBoard Grace Tang Jetzel Chavez Tiffany Malone |
For over two decades, SPI has trained nearly 700 fellows to create the change that they want to see for their own communities. Local work is necessary for national change. It’s the blueprint. What gets passed in a city council meeting today shapes what becomes possible in Sacramento, or even Washington D.C., tomorrow.
This new SPI Local class isn’t waiting for permission. Our neighbors are still being killed. Still being torn from their families. Still being told to wait for a system that was never built for them.
These fellows are responding to what our communities actually need, with policy grounded in care, resilience, and imagination. Again we cannot wait for a more just system to emerge. We have to build it. This is what building our future looks like.