Interview with Ramona Natera, March 16, 2013, Madison, Wisconsin

[title slide]

NATERA: Ramona Lisa Natera. 2/25/64. I was born in Plainview, Texas, but I say I'm from Madison, Wisconsin.

ALDAY: Do you identify yourself as Chicana, Latina, or Mexicana?

NATERA: Um, I say I'm Latina.

ALDAY: What is your family structure like?

NATERA: As far as my immediate family?

ALDAY: Whatever the question means to you.

NATERA: I'm one of seven kids. I was the 5th, the youngest girl, and I have 2 sisters, one who's passed away and four brothers. I have one son and one 00:01:00grandson, and I have a partner and we have two kids together.

ALDAY: While growing up, what was your own education experience like?

NATERA: I went to Hawthorne Elementary, here in Madison, Sherman Middle School, graduated from East High School, attended MATC, UW-Madison for Undergrad in Law school.

ALDAY: What was it like growing up in your family?

NATERA: Um, my sisters were 9 and 10 years older so I actually grew up with my four brothers and it was a lot of fun because I was the youngest, youngest girl and I got away with a lot. I was really spoiled. I was always the quarterback when we played football. I was always the pitcher when we played baseball. So it 00:02:00was you know, pretty, [unclear] is what I think was the word.

ALDAY: What made you want to become a lawyer?

NATERA: I didn't start out wanting to be an attorney. I wanted to be a bilingual educator, and I think I kind of stumbled on being a lawyer because I was working at Citrus Fund after I had done my undergrad. And I used to call Mary Castro, who's an immigration attorney in town. I used to call her all the time with questions, and one day she must've been having a bad day because she finally just said, "You know what, go to law school" and she hung up on me. And I said, "Fine, I will" and so it kind of, you know, and not to make light of it or anything because it was a major decision. As a single parent, it wasn't easy to go back to school 'cause I had my son by that time so it wasn't a decision I 00:03:00made lightly, but once I did it, I was like "Ok this makes sense."

ALDAY: What was your experience like being a Latina in law school?

NATERA: I think my experience as a Latina on campus here in UW-Madison, more than anything when I was an undergrad was more significant for me versus once I got to law school. Undergrad, having lived here in Madison, we never really considered the university as that's where you go. The university was always kind of a place that we thought oh that's where the other students go, but we go to MATC. So it wasn't like a natural step so it seemed like getting so it seemed like getting to the university as an undergrad was more significant for me 00:04:00versus law school because once you have your undergrad, I did have a lot of help in getting into law school. Miguel Salas was very instrumental, Jesus Salas is his dad, a long-time organizer, but Miguel, he really encouraged me. He said, "Of course you can go to law school." Jean Thomas, James Thomas, was also very instrumental. I remember going to an open house and I was the only UW-Madison grad who attended the open house. They had bused in kids from Chicago, from other cities. And he asked, "Who's here from UW-Madison?" I was the only one that raised my hand, and he said, "Do you wanna go to law school?" And I said, "Yes" and he helped, he helped a lot. As far as getting me study guides me a lot in terms of getting me study guides because I couldn't afford to do Kaplan. And again, just having a lot of that support really helped.

As an undergrad in Chicano Studies, it was a good program. Professor Ben Marquez, I remember asking 00:05:00him, "What should I do next? Should I go on and get my PhD or should I go to law school?" He was like, "Well what makes more sense for you?" And he knew I was a single parent, and he knew that it was a struggle financially. Edna [Samoje?] who was a financial aid contact knew me personally. He'd see me come in and be like, "What do you need now?" So they knew it was hard for me. do you want to do?" So then you know it was hard for me. My family did help with what they could, but then again, everyone had their own kids, everybody had their own problems. They would feed me; my son and I would go in and have dinner with one brother one night, my sister the next night. That's kind of how they helped and were supportive. So when Professor Marquez asked me, "Well, what makes sense for 00:06:00you?" and so I said "Well I can't afford to be in school forever." And so that's kind of another reason why I went to law school because when I took it all into perspective, I thought, you know, 3 years versus 5, 6, 7. So again, going to law school, I did have that support, and when I got there the clinical programs are what made the difference.

My first semester I had a horrible time at the law school. It was difficult. Remember, you are with the cream of the crop from all across the country, and it was just really, really hard. Dean Megans helped me a lot. I remember I used to be in her office quite a lot, and just saying this is really hard. I'm working, I have my son. I feel like I'm not spending enough time on anyone. After that first semester, I was in a clinical, the Legal 00:07:00Institution for Institutionalized Persons, Elliot P. Had it not been for Elliot P., I would've dropped out because what Elliot P. did was that it put a face on the reason I was in school. I was able to help prisoners because you can't really mess up their cases, right? They're already in prison, and that just made it real. It made sense. Ok, this is why I'm studying, this is why I'm not sleeping, this is why I'm pushing myself.

ALDAY: If you had not become a lawyer, what other career would you have chosen?

NATERA: As I mentioned before, I did work at Centro Hispano. I think it would've always, regardless of what I would've done, it would have been working in the community, helping in some capacity. So definitely would've focused on social 00:08:00services, an area like that.

ALDAY: Here, where you're currently working, what is the socioeconomic status of your clients? You can describe the people you work with or who you help.

NATERA: Well, I have two jobs right now. 60% of my time is spent at the Department of Health Services. I work with the Office of Legal Council, and I'm a staff attorney. I represent the state of Wisconsin in cases involving caregiver misconduct. So if a CNA works in a nursing home and abuses a resident, their name goes on a caregiver misconduct registry. If they appeal that, I represent the state in that case. I also handle cases against hospitals, hospices, and home health agencies, where they've either been cited and are 00:09:00appealing to the state, or where they're trying to open up a new facility and the state has to approve it. I'm involved in that process so that's 60% of my time. And this program here at Centro Guadalupe or Catholic Multicultural Center, is a very neat program. Andy Russell, the director, and I have been friends since like 2001. In the past 3 years, Andy has been talking to me about starting a program here, and I've had experience starting programs before so this summer we met in June and he said, "Hey, how would you like to work just a few hours a week at CMC and start an immigration program?" I said, "Sure, I'm gonna go 60% with the state, and I can spend maybe 12, 15 hours at CMC."

Well, famous last words, because different action happened, and that was signed in 00:10:00June and we started filing applications in August. I was working 30 hours a week, easy. So between CMC and the state I was exhausted. So I've cut back down to 16 hours a week, and we began this program with the purpose of providing legal representation and education, too, to the Dane County community. We really focus a lot on the city of Madison residents because we realize that while there are some immigration attorneys in town, and I am part of the Immigration Law Center Port, so we keep in touch with the other immigration attorneys in town, but, we realized there was still a gap in services. Not everybody can afford the $250 an hour attorney, and so again this is a very small program, but we are 00:11:00working with individuals who are at 150% to 100% of the poverty level so we are still serving the underserved in Madison.

ALDAY: You briefly went over, well, you briefly stated that you started other programs. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the other programs that you started on?

NATERA: Well I graduated from law school in 2000, and I was the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence's first immigration attorney. So I started working with them in 2000, and I kept getting calls from people saying, "Can you take my case? I hear you're an attorney. I need help with my immigration case. Well my position at WICADV was only one of training and providing technical assistance to domestic violence agencies throughout the state. So I just felt 00:12:00like I went to law school for a reason, and I was hoping that that position would develop into actually providing direct services, but that wasn't the way they were going to go with that position. In 2001, I was in a meeting, actually here, but back then it used to be called, Saint Martin House, and it was this rickety, old, green house. We were at a meeting, and the director at that time Ramona Schleuter, and after one of the meetings I said to Ramona, "You know what? I like my job, I like what I'm doing, but I really do need to be working with people and serving the community." She took me upstairs to this little room that had a table and an altar, and she cleared off the table, and said, "Here's your office."

That was August of 2001, and so I started that program. It was called El Proyecto de Servicios Legales, and I focused on family, immigration 00:13:00and criminal traffic cases, and I did that for 2001 'til 2003, I applied for through the Office of Violence Against Women. I applied for, they call it an LAV Grant, and was awarded the grant. So from 2004-2007, I started the Immigration Project of Wisconsin, which was first called, Rachel's Project, until I got a call from the diocese and said, "You can't use that name." It was actually named for Rachel Rodriguez who's a professor at Edgewood, and she had done a lot work with immigrant victims of domestic violence and was a role model. So that program is still currently running. It's called Rise now, Rise Immigrant 00:14:00Services or something. I don't know what they actually call it, but that's still open. From 2007 to 2009, I left Wisconsin. I'd always wanted go somewhere warmer so I ended up in Florida and then Texas, and then my grandson was born so I knew that I wanted to come back to Wisconsin.

I was talking to Luis [Carza?] from UMOS, United Migrant Opportunity Services, and UMOS brought me back to Wisconsin to start an immigration program for them. And I started their immigration program in Madison, and they're mostly housed out in Milwaukee and they still have an immigration program, but it's only in Milwaukee now. And from then, I went to the state in 2010 and I've been with the state since then, and like I said, now 60% and just started this program in July.

ALDAY: In a state where, like WI, where it's predominantly white, how crucial is 00:15:00it to have services for immigrations?

NATERA: For immigration and immigrants?

ALDAY: Yeah.

NATERA: I think it's very important especially because of that, because there aren't a lot of services directly accessible to immigrants. I think that that word is key because it's one thing to have programs; it's another to have access to those programs and to understand what resources are available. I think any time you provide a service it's important to collaborate with other agencies. I know that, recently, we collaborated with the City of Madison, Department of Civil Rights, Centro Hispano. We collaborated with Nuestro Mundo, Jewish Social Services, and we had three deferred action workshops here at CMC. So again you 00:16:00can have the best program ever, but if you're not collaborating with other agencies and people don't know about your program, I think you're not as able to serve as many people. For immigrants to have access to programs and to have help, especially in the legal realm, I think is very important. A lot of times people don't know they have rights. A lot of time they don't know that are services for them, and that kind of creates problems because if you don't know what's available to you, you can't really learn about what the resources are.

I've also been a part of Pláticas, which, it's actually a grant that the University first through Lynet Uttal, who's a professor. Their community, [unclear] here at CMC, and what that does is, the goal is to prevent domestic 00:17:00violence and it's to help families to learn how to communicate. It's something so crucial as being able to talk as a partner, as a wife, as a husband about the dynamics of why we are having problems here that we never had back home. Again, being an immigrant, there are so many barriers, so many other stressors that many that your average population doesn't have to deal with. And so any time you can provide help to the family, to individuals, I think it goes a long way to not only empowering our community, but it really helps our overall community because who wants domestic violence? Who wants the kids being neglected, etc.? I feel that the more you educate our community, who includes immigrants, the better off everybody is.

ALDAY: How did you start gaining a political conscious?

NATERA: That's a hard question. I think that, I remember being in the store with my mom when I was little. I must have been maybe four or five, and I wanted grapes. She said, "No we're not buying grapes." I said, "What do you mean we're not buying grapes?" "You know, we can't eat grapes." She started telling me these workers and their conditions, and I was just like, I remember thinking I want grapes. So it's always kind of been a part of my life. My parents were migrant farm workers. We settled in Wisconsin in 1971. I remember and again, I was six at that time, and I remember going from Texas to Florida to Alabama, Indiana, and doing this cycle. For me, I thought it was fun, I mean we got to go 00:19:00to different schools. We got to play out in the fields, and I never realized that it was a really hard way of life.

So when we settled in Wisconsin, being one of the very few first families in Wisconsin, Latino families, I think just being here, and being Latino, being asked, "Where you from?" I'd say, "Texas" and people kind of not understanding. Out of the seven kids, the first four have really strong accents, and maybe the last one, my brother who works at DWD, his accent isn't as strong as my other brother and two sisters. I grew with a Wisconsin accent so people were always looking at me like "Where are you from?" They never really got it so I was always the spokesperson for so it's almost always been a part of my life, having to speak out against--well, I wasn't in 00:20:00ESL classes, and I remember the kids that were in ESL classes were saying, "You think you're all that because you speak English." I was like, "No, not really." So even in high school, having to say, "Well, the difference is that I grew up in Madison so that's why I speak both English and Spanish." By the time I was 12, I had almost forgotten all my Spanish. And then having to back and say, "I want to learn Spanish" and being told, "But you already speak it" and trying to explain to the teachers and explain why I really shouldn't be in French class, I should be in Spanish class.

So even then it was like political, do you know what I mean? Even then it was a political statement of why can't I take Spanish? So again, even that was political, working at Centro Hispano even though when I worked there they were like, "We're not a political organization" and me trying to explain the fact that we exist is a political statement. So it's always been 00:21:00that consciousness of not necessarily representing Latinos, but being a part of the movement that has been going on in Wisconsin for ages, and that you know people like Yolanda, like Sylvia, were the ones that kind of were in the beginning of the movement and then continuing to just be part of it.

ALDAY: Was it easy for you to share this consciousness with your family?

NATERA: I just think it was always a part of our family. It's not like my parents were out on the streets marching because that wasn't like them, but I think the fact that they did encourage us to do what we wanted to do, to be who we were, I think that helped to make the environment acceptable for having that 00:22:00consciousness. And again, I think it's more of a mentality of we're in this together, not so much more of how can I get ahead because every time I did something, it was with that in mind. Even of going to law school, how can I help my community? You know, sure, being an attorney has its own perks, but it wasn't about like, well I get to make a lot of money. You know, I've been in public interest law since 2000, and I still have student loans. People look at me like oh well, why don't you have more things? I've had somebody actually tell me, "Why don't you want a big house?" For me, it wasn't ever about what I can get from this. It was just more about this is what I believe in, and this is the what I'm doing, and actually I think I'm very fortunate to be able to do the 00:23:00work I do because it's--not everybody can afford to not be working a well-paid job.

ALDAY: What is your trajectory in activism, like progression?

NATERA: I don't have think I've ever had a goal as far as in activism. I think it's just as things come, as events come up. For example, I spoke earlier about Deferred Action. Deferred Action is a program a lot of people confuse with the Dream Act. It's not the Dream Act. The Dream Act would require a change in immigration law, an act by Congress. Deferred Action was an executive order that President Obama signed in order to allow undocumented immigrants who came in 00:24:00before they were 16, you know, who were brought over from whichever home country when they were very young, and who have studied here or who want to study here.

Again, when that opportunity came up it wasn't like I said, "Wow, this is on my list of things to do." No, it was just a natural progression to meet with Janice Bearce from Jewish Social Services, to meet with Melissa Gompfer from the City of Madison, etc. to meet together and collaborate with Centro Hispano to say, "How are we going to now introduce this to the community?" and how are we going to help individuals who might not be able to pay $1,250 for an attorney. So again, it was a collaborative response to a change that occurred and an opportunity that became available to immigrant youth. So it wasn't anything I 00:25:00planned. Believe me, we were so unprepared for that here. That's why I was working my 30 hours a week instead of my 12 to 13. So it's never something I would think, "What's next on my agenda?" It's kind of more responding to what's happening in the community, in instances of domestic violence. We hear about individuals being killed, children being killed, and it's like, "What's your response?"

Well, again going back to the groups and collaborating with other service providers and saying, "We need to have Pláticas. We need to have resources for the community to address these issues. So again depending on what's going on in the community and what the needs are, kind of responding to those. And if they happen to be political issues, then they are. For example, I 00:26:00used to work as a volunteer with the Worker Rights Center, and that again was in response to immigrant workers not being paid, to immigrant workers being discriminated against because of their surnames. I took a case pro-bono where a group of immigrant workers were being fired because of their surname, and because the company checked their last names again, where initially you can do that, but really you're not supposed to do that again, and definitely not based on your surname. So again, it's never been something that's been a goal of mine, it's just been addressed to issues that come up.

ALDAY: What were some of the struggles that you faced? Do you think that being a 00:27:00woman or your gender or your race had anything to do with why or where--Did you ever have a conflict based on that?

NATERA: That's kind of a hard question for me because I've struggled, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I haven't struggled, but I think my mom instilled in me at a very young age, like if people used to, or if people are staring at me on the bus, well it's because they think you have a really nice outfit or something. She always turned it into a positive so I think that whenever I've struggled it hasn't been so much because of my gender or my race. I've always 00:28:00tried to bring it back to, "What can I do about this?" or "How can I overcome this barrier?" And yet I realize that because I've had people compliment on me on my English. "Oh wow, your English is really good" and I'm like "What, yours isn't?" and because they look at me and because of how I look, and I will tell you, "Tengo no para el frente" meaning that I look like I just, you know, and yet what does somebody from Mexico look like?

Because we are a very diverse group, so again when I talk about my struggles, I think they've been more personalized or I've been more focused on, "Wow, it's been really hard as a single parent," dragging my kid to school and being told, "Wow, your little brother behaves really good in class." And I'm like, "You mean my kid?" So it's 00:29:00been more of that struggle of feeling really guilty and saying, "Son, I'm really sorry that I had to be in class when you wanted me to be at soccer practice." Do you know what I mean? So it just seems those struggles were more self-induced at times, and yet I know that as a Latina, a lot of people didn't expect much from me. It was like, "Oh, don't even worry about her because she's going to get married at 17 and have 10 kids by the time she's 25."

So I think that almost helped me because people didn't expect much so I didn't feel that pressure like I have to succeed. "You're on the Dean's List? Wow, how did that happen?" versus "you'd better be on the Dean's List." So I think that left a lot to what do I want to do, and again, looking for people who are gonna be supportive. I think that's been huge in my life and I encourage in my clients who are now applying 00:30:00through Deferred Action, keep studying, look for people who are gonna help you, look for people who are gonna be supportive. Those people that are doubting you, you don't need them, you don't have time for them. What's hurt me more is when I do see that individuals are discriminated against because they don't speak English or because they speak English with an accent or because of how they look, and that to me has been harder.

One thing that has been interesting to me as a lawyer is that people expect the very aggressive like "get in there and fight," and believe me I've settled some divorce cases where I had to be that way. But to me, it's been so much easier to advocate on behalf of people than to say, "Wait a second, you're doing this because I look like this?" It's been easier for me to and more natural for me to be like, "Well because you think 00:31:00then I'm gonna show myself that I can do it." Maybe that's just part of how I'm put together, always having that collective mentality of if you hurt me, you hurt this group or my fellow Latina then you hurt everybody.

ALDAY: What does it mean to be a Chicana, well, a Latina, in the Midwest, in Wisconsin?

NATERA: I think that being Latinas in the Midwest and Wisconsin, I think we have 00:32:00a lot of benefits that I don't see Latinas in the East or in the West have because of numbers. Especially when I was growing up in Madison, there was so few of us that when you did start working towards something other people maybe didn't notice you as much or else you stood out. I remember PoliSci class, when one time I missed class, and I went up to the professor afterwards, and it was over 200 people in this PoliSci class. I went up to the professor and I said, "You know what, I missed the other day" and this was before laptops in class, this was when we still took notes in class and had folders and binders. I said, "I missed the other day in class" and she's like, "Yeah, I know" because I used to sit towards the front. She's like, "Yeah I know you missed, but that's okay because I know you hardly ever miss." It was just like, whoa. It was that realization.

So being a Latina in the Midwest has had a lot of advantages for me personally because again, when I showed up to the law school open house, I stood 00:33:00out. At times when I have stood out and people have noticed, it has helped. Other times like when I was in court and the judge would know, "Oh it's you, and you're fighting another DV case, do we have to talk about DV in every law case?" That might have been hard to deal with or something I had to overcome on behalf of my client. So again, being a relatively new group, and I'm talking about the '70s and '80s when there weren't a lot of Latinos or Latinas in Wisconsin, I think there were benefits. But also, I didn't know what a horchata was until I was 23 because growing up here we didn't have a lot of diversity, that richness, 00:34:00that now exists. Now you can go to restaurants and eat Peruvian food. We had to go to Milwaukee to get Mexican food years back.

ALDAY: Many Latinas experience being the first to accomplish something. Can you talk about one of your first?

NATERA: Well I was the first in my family to graduate from college, from the university so that was huge, and then law school. There was still not a lot of Latinas in my law school class, and most of them were from Texas or California. There was some in my class that were from Wisconsin so those are firsts in my family. And again I think that it really helped to be here in Wisconsin and to 00:35:00have that support and the opportunities. I was a legal fellow in Legal Education Opportunities, a fellow at the law school, and again that was a program that wasn't available to just everybody so again, it helped to be a Latina in Wisconsin at that time.

ALDAY: How did you decide to become involved in public interest law?

NATERA: I remember as a legal fellow we had an orientation week and I met Debra Casanova from Napasoda, Texas, which we had no idea where that was, it's close to Austin. I remember she stood up and said, "I am here because I am gonna go into public interest law, and everybody else should, too, because we need more 00:36:00lawyers doing good work." Well, we became really good friends, and she didn't go into public interest law which was kind of funny, but along the way, I think the clinicals really helped. UW-Madison law school has really strong clinical programs, and that again tied what I was learning, which was all theory, to actually practicing, and so that made it very exciting for me. It brought the law into everyday context so I was actually trained to be a public defender.

I went through the public defender program, I did an internship at the public defender office in Waukesha, and I was all set to go into public interest. What changed everything for me was when in my last year at law school, my last, in the fall, I took a domestic violence course, and let me tell you, I had to drop 00:37:00that class because it was so hard for me to sit in there and listen to stories. It became very personal for me, and I remember telling the professor, "I can't do this. Can I come back?" She said, "Of course, you can always come back." Tess Moyer, from WICADV, the Wisconsin's Coalition Against Domestic Violence, was the professor. And once I figured things out for myself, I went back to the class, and realized that I had to do something about domestic violence. I had to help and so when I became the WICADV's first immigration attorney, that was an opportunity for me to again, put what I had learned into action.

And specifically working with immigrants, which again was huge for me, being able to 00:38:00use my Spanish, being able to work with the community knowing that was an issue that impacted not only immigrants, but everybody in the community because again, you have one victim and it impacts all of us. So it just made it so real for me and it was a very natural path for me to take and I never looked back. The only time I haven't worked specifically with immigrant victims is at the state, and that's why when I'm talking to my supervisor, when I started talking about this program, she was like, "Okay this is your work. You enjoy your work, but that's your passion." So again, working with immigrants, working to end domestic violence is a passion, and I guess they call it public interest law. I don't necessarily do it because that's what it's called, but it's because it makes 00:39:00sense for me to be doing this work. My mother, who put up with it for 25 years, who suffered, who is a survivor, and I call my clients survivors because I have met some very strong, courageous people through my work, and that's why I do the work I do.

ALDAY: Do you remember any case that has been extremely impactful or life changing or--?

NATERA: I can't say that there's been one case. I know that I was on the right path when at the Immigrant Project of WI when I had a client who came in. The first day of our meeting, the client was sitting like this, and by the time we 00:40:00got done with her case, she was sitting like this. And to me that was huge. To me that's why I do the work I do because this individual didn't realize how strong she was, how strong she had been all along and it took her going through that process to realize she was a very strong person. I've seen her recently and she's doing wonderful. And so again even though I can't pinpoint that as being the case, it really did reinforce everything I've done. Some of the Deferred Action cases have been wonderful. One of my clients has given me permission, of course no names, but she's a National Merit Scholar, and to be able to help somebody like that has been great.

ALDAY: Tell me about any awards or recognitions you have received for your work.

NATERA: I've received Dane County Pro-bono Award. I don't even remember the year. Being on the board of the Community Immigration Law Center, we also received the Pro-bono Award, and I think that was last year. I don't, again, I don't think I remember too many awards. Having written for, and applied for and been given the Legal Assistance to Victims Grant, that was huge. I mean, even though it wasn't an award per se in the fact that the federal gov't recognized that there was a need in Wisconsin and awarded that money to be used to create the Immigrant Project in Wisconsin. So I think that's been about it.

ALDAY: What has been your favorite part about your career, and an example of your least favorite part?

NATERA: My favorite part is being in the community. It's very flexible work. I got to travel a lot for awhile because as an LAV grantee, having received that grant, they recognize that you do really hard work, but don't get paid a lot of money so they would have really wonderful trainings like Miami, San Diego. So that's been really beneficial. Getting to meet other professionals, and the work that I do has been great. When I talk about other professionals, they could be advocates, attorneys, law enforcement, private bar attorneys, so that's been 00:43:00really fun. The hard part I think is funding and having to struggle and having to compete with other programs in order to get money in order to start or maintain certain programs, that's been hard.

ALDAY: Do you think you've achieved your goals as a lawyer?

NATERA: I think not having had any real expectations has been really beneficial because I think had I had to do this by my 3rd year, this by my 4th year, this by my 5th year, I think it would've narrowed my experience and my choices in the long-run. I do know that establishing the Immigration Project of WI was huge, and I do feel that was one of the more successful moments of my career. But 00:44:00again, being here at Catholic Multicultural Center, having come full circle because I did start at El Proyecto in 2001, that to me feels like a huge success. I just feel that I will always be doing something with immigration, whether it's as an attorney, an advocate, it just feels like a very natural fit.

ALDAY: In your opinion, what more needs to be done, and do you see progress?

NATERA: What more needs to be done as far as advocating for immigrants, I feel there's definitely room for improvement. Again, making sure people have information is crucial. There are a lot of misconceptions in the community. Every other day I hear stories of "Well somebody says I don't qualify because--" 00:45:00and "Well, have you talked to an attorney?" "Well, no." That's kind of hard to work and address. So we definitely need more of that, just general education in the community about their rights, about when you come to a different country, what's expected of you so people avoid contact with law enforcement.

ALDAY: Do you have any advice for future self-identifying Latinas where current challenging stereotypical norms, whether it'd be educational or activism?

NATERA: Definitely, I think it's really important to ask yourself what you want. A lot of times we put pressures on ourselves that we think, "Well my parents want me to do this, or my partner wants me to do this." Kind of just ask 00:46:00yourself what you want and work towards it. It's very important to take advantage of opportunities that'll present it. At times you might not realize. I've met people through my work that it never dawned on me, for example, the director of Catholic Multicultural Center, Andy Russell, used to be a volunteer here. And he was volunteering when I had my office. Who knew he was going to become the director, and who knew he was going to one day help me start this program?

So it 's about putting yourself out there, letting people know what you're interested in because I've also had people kind of guide me towards different opportunities because they had heard that I was interested in a certain area. So making connections with others-- collaborating. I know that there something that's very trite that's said, "Everything that I need to know 00:47:00in life are what I learned in kindergarten." Some of the most successful people I know are people that know how to get along with others, and that's huge. So look and see what it is that you want to know and how you can achieve those goals that you set for yourself.

ALDAY: What important message, theoretical findings, or important realizations that you want people to know when they see this documentary?

NATERA: I think one thing that has helped me is to stop the negative tape. We all, whether we realize it, have this negative tape that plays in our mind at the times. It's been very helpful for me to be like, "Okay, I can let it go for a couple seconds, but I have to stop it and say what is the positive tape that 00:48:00you want to play in your mind for that day?" Take it in and take it one day at a time is huge, and not to feel overwhelmed by putting a lot of pressures on yourself. I think in the 49 years that I've been around I think that's huge, just give yourself a break. Don't be hard on yourself. Try to focus on the positive. Again, I spoke earlier about looking for those positive people in your life. The negative is always gonna be there, but always look for people that are going to support you, and try to be supportive of others because I've gotten to where I'm at because of the hard work of so many people. It's very important to recognize that, and make sure that you in turn support those who take in after you.

ALDAY: Where do you see yourself in the future?

NATERA: Well, I'm having such a good time right now. I have an incredible grandson who's 5, and teaches me every day about life. I see myself doing what I'm doing now. I really do. Just maybe in warmer weather, that would be nice. Again, I've been so fortunate enough to live my philosophy and have made it part of my everyday life. I don't think that I'd wanna change that right now.

ALDAY: Is there anything else you'd like to share, any closing comments?

NATERA: Just thank you for this opportunity, and I hope that it demonstrates to 00:50:00other Latinas that if I can do this, believe me, you can do even greater things.