Giovana Oaxaca

Giovana Oaxaca (she/her/ella) is the Program Director for Migration Policy with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) D.C. office for Witness in Society. In this role, she works for more just and humane federal immigration policies within a domestic and international context, engagement informed by the experience of Lutheran congregations and ministries, including the ELCA AMMPARO strategy. 

Giovana was previously a Government Relations Associate with a Catholic faith-based social justice organization in Washington D.C. Giovana has Bachelor of the Arts degrees in Politics and Government and Economics from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. In her spare time, she enjoys attempting new recipes and exploring town for the best scoop of ice cream.

To learn more about Holden Village, visit: http://www.holdenvillage.org or to listen to more audio recordings visit: http://audio.holdenvillage.org. The Holden Village Podcast is accessible through Apple iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeart Radio, and most podcast apps. For questions and inquiries, contact podcast@holdenvillage.org.

Background music by Lexin_Music: World Travel.

Transcript

Giovana Oaxaca

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Holden Village Podcast. Holden is a community of education, programming, and worship located in the remote wilderness of the Cascade Mountains. These snapshots provide a glimpse into the learnings taking place in our community. Let's tune in to this week's highlight. 

[00:00:22] Dev: Welcome to another episode of the Holden Village Podcast. We are in week nine of the 2023 summer program and I'm with one of our faculty members, Giovanna Oaxaca. 

[00:00:37] Giovana: Hello! 

[00:00:37] Dev: How would you like to introduce yourself and what are you offering the village this week? 

[00:00:42] Giovana: Well, my pronouns are she/her/ella. I come into the work that I do as an immigrant with lived experience. So what I offer throughout the week for Abriendo Caminos is a little bit of exploration of what migration means...what kind of stories we tell about ourselves and about each other when it comes to migration...and how those stories have policymaking impact.

Because I think we are quite siloed in our lives. We believe our own stories, but we may not believe that of our neighbors. But actually, we have a really great opportunity here through storytelling to elevate the issue of migration and make it something that more people care about...and more people feel compelled to get to know another person who's had that experience.

[00:01:37] Dev: Is there a moment in your life or a core memory when you realized this is the work that I want to do? 

[00:01:44] Giovana: Yes, both as a person who, as I mentioned, has lived experience being an immigrant to this country. So to do my parents and their experience with the immigration system made me profoundly aware of how it doesn't really work for a lot of people. Getting to know more of my family members and their experience with the immigration system. And beyond that, you know, neighbors and friends. Everyone had something to say about how immigration and the immigration system had failed them...that later translated to a passion for social justice.

Because my parents raised me kind of in the education of Catholic social teaching...I think that style and their values and just the profound disappointment that the immigration system was leading others to have made me want to make a change...be a change agent...not to mention that I had very close family friends of mine go through a deportation. I had a family member...excuse me...a friend of our family be deported and have to leave behind her two sons...essentially to fend for themselves. And if you don't believe that that's a profound injustice and harm done to children...then I don't know what to tell ya. But that disturbed me and leads me now to want to be an advocate for migration justice. 

[00:03:17] Dev: What goes into the politics of your work? What would you wish would happen in politics?

[00:03:24] Giovana: I think your framing is interesting because there's the political setting we're in...and then there are the policies we wish to see implemented. And I come into this work kind of fully acknowledging and recognizing that our political systems right now...there's not a lot of trust in them...there's not a lot of faith in them.

There's a lot of polarization and debate about some of the most fundamental things about what make us human...and we're going into this with a topic like immigration. Like that is such a hot button issue for people...people don't know where to start. Or it immediately triggers a thought that is negative in association.

 I'm going into this work with that political backdrop...the reality that migration is such a polarizing issue already...and wanting to advocate for more generosity and kindness and compassion to migrants....and for me, it all comes back to one thing...which is that migrants are human beings.

Human beings that are pursuing a better life for themselves and for their families. And who wouldn't do that? So, when you connect to people who may not agree with you at the essence of who we are human beings...we need somewhere to live...we need a community, we need dignified work, we need...you know...things to support ourselves and our families...that shatters through some of that impasse. 

[00:04:59] Dev: Agreed. One of my favorite art forms is improvised theater. And what I love about that art form is that you can't think about what you're saying. You just have to kind of intuit or like feel what your spirit is going through...and things that you normally wouldn't say. So it's a lot of like repressed things...or the things that you're too scared to talk about because you're are scared of being judged.

And so you really get to know the people on stage...regardless of what your social or political views are. You get to know that deeper part of the human being and so that's something for me that I've always enjoyed in trying to breaking away the barriers. What have you found to be the most effective way of helping break down the different categories that we have for ourselves?

[00:05:46] Giovana: Yeah, that is an excellent question. Vulnerability...being vulnerable with one another. I mean, that's really scary for a lot of people. Asking them to reveal something about themselves that they may be insecure or unsure about. I've also seen it go where people are afraid to be wrong. Yes. All the time.

[00:06:10] Dev: I know. What's up with that? 

[00:06:13] Giovana: Well, guess what? I'm wrong all the time. 

[00:06:15] Dev: Yeah, totally. We're both wrong right now, but we're still having fun. 

[00:06:19] Giovana: Yeah, it's okay to be wrong...and that is the beauty of being a human being...that we learn and we're always aspiring to be a little bit better every day. When you ask people to be a little bit vulnerable...not much...just a little bit...sometimes maybe to question something that makes them feel wrong or makes them feel unsure. You're doing a little bit of work there and then you take it step by step. I don't think I go into this feeling like...oh, I'm going to have a conversion from one day to the next...you're going to be a bigot...and the next day you're going to be an angel. That's not how it works. 

[00:06:52] Dev: From bigots to angels. That should be a poem title. Title of the podcast. Yeah, totally. 

[00:07:00] Giovana: Right. It's much more intentional than that. All we ask is a little bit of vulnerability and people willing to see eye to eye.

[00:07:10] Dev: I love that you brought that up because that's also another tenet of improv...is how to experience failure...and to celebrate failure as a means of learning. One of my favorite definitions of what enlightenment could be is the courage to fail at every moment, but to have the wherewithal to never make the same mistake twice. So with that...you have to embrace failure because then you're like...oh, I failed...all right...this is what I'll do next time...this is what I've learned. 

[00:07:45] Giovana: If you don't mind me riffing off that...that's what makes me really identify with being Christian. My faith fills me with the knowledge that there's a lot of grace...grace to be wrong and to accept that...and know that there's forgiveness and when we can extend grace to people that we don't agree with either...like ourselves as well as people we don't agree with...especially ourselves though, I would say that I went through middle school. So we have to have a little bit of grace. But I identify a lot with that message of like...it's okay. 

[00:08:23] Dev: Is your connection with Christianity Lutheran based or other denominations...or are there other cultural resonances that you have?

[00:08:31] Giovana: Outing me here to my Lutheran audiences? No, I openly say I'm not Lutheran. I work in a Lutheran context, but I was raised Catholic...but I don't think my story ends there. My partner is Jewish and there's so many really interesting ideas that dovetail between the different faiths...and I just really love that...and I don't have a problem talking with anybody of a different religion. I've never found it to be difficult because we have so many shared vales.

[00:09:02] Dev: Yeah, I have no idea what I am. I have Lutheran grandparents and family, but I grew up in Southeast Asia...so I have a lot of Buddhists and Hindu experiences and when it comes to Christian poetry...the mystics are like my favorite...and they're all Catholic...none are Lutheran. So yeah, it's all a great hodgepodge. 

[00:09:27] Giovana: It's beautiful, yeah. Have you ever read The Tao of Pooh? 

[00:09:31] Dev: Oh yeah, absolutely...and even like one of my favorite Christian writings is The Cloud of Unknowing. It's so Daoist...it's so Eastern in many ways. So yeah, there's just like a lot of these beautiful intersections. 

[00:09:47] Giovana: Yeah, so much wisdom. So much wisdom to learn.

[00:09:50] Dev: Have you been coming to Holden lots...or is this your first time? 

[00:09:54] Giovana: This is my second time here.

[00:09:55] Dev: Second time! So how is this time compared to your first? And what are your impressions? 

[00:10:03] Giovana: I came last year as part of Abriendo Caminos as well. It's been a real riot. I love it. I live in Washington DC where there is actually a significant amount of green space. I don't want people to believe that all urban cities are concrete jungles. D.C. has the Arboretum and Rock Creek Park...and a lot of natural space. But coming out here is a completely different story. And honestly, it feels like a big hug. Big hug from nature. So yeah, I look forward to it. I hope I get invited back.

[00:10:41] Dev: You'll be back.

[00:10:45] Giovana: Thank you Stacey! How it compares to last year...last year was great. I came more as a teaching assistant so I could learn the ropes because transportation here...it's a thing. And I needed to know how I was going to do that by my own. So I did that knowing...you know...I know a little bit more now this year. And I brought my sister as my companion and teaching assistant.

[00:11:17] Dev: That's wonderful. The summer theme that we have is Eden is Calling. I'm curious what that means to you and how you've been approaching that for this week. 

[00:11:29] Giovana: Yeah, I would say when I read the theme...I had such a visceral reaction to it because I was reading an article about wet bulb temperature. Do you know what that is?

[00:11:44] Dev: I don't.

[00:11:44] Giovana: Oh, I am not a science person by any means. It's basically...you know...what the temperature is outside? Wet bulb temperature is like how hot your body can get before it becomes unbearable. The article was talking a lot about how people in India are regularly getting to that point...climate acceleration...climate change acceleration is upon us...and at the same time...I work in migration...my field is migration...and people are responding to these wet bulb temperatures...to climate change around them in ways that you can only expect people to do. They move.
 
It becomes unbearably hot...or you can't live...or you can't subsist off of the crops that you would normally make...or cultivate. You move. Coming into this week, I just felt such a strong reaction to the idea that...yes, there's an environmentalism and the concern for the environment...all those things, but we also need to keep in mind people...and people that are responding right now to the moment of now. We're not simply theorizing about how to respond to the environment in the future. But thinking about our role in climate change now and the movements of people. How do we address that? Those two pieces can't be separated.

[00:13:21] Dev: Sorry, I have this little joke in my head...and then like all the crazy white people that take saunas to get to that boiling point.

[00:13:32] Giovana: Yeah, the privilege.

[00:13:34] Dev: I know, right? Yeah, that is the definition of privilege right there. The work that you do is serious work. There's a concept in Holden, which also may have some sense of privilege assigned to it...but it's called Holden Hilarity. I'm curious how you create levity in your life...or in your work...so that you don't get too dour.

[00:14:00] Giovana: Are you familiar with the term Swifty?

[00:14:03] Dev: Swifty, like Taylor Swift? 

[00:14:05] Giovana: That is correct. 

[00:14:06] Dev: I got it. Yes! 

[00:14:09] Giovana: Everybody in the world knows what a swifty is. I am a swifty...proudly...and I try to convert all of my fellow advocates and activists into Swifty's. Here's how I do it. I'm in the privileged position of leading a couple of different calls with different organizations...and we all get together...and we talk about policy and what's going on...and it's my privilege to open the space....and of course I usually introduce it with a song.

[00:14:46] Dev: It's a song that you sing?

[00:14:48] Giovana: Oh, please don't ask me to sing. A song...kind of icebreakers...but along the way I try to sneak in something about Taylor Swift. 

[00:15:03] Dev: That is fantastic. That's like subliminal advertising. 

[00:15:08] Giovana: It's a little manipulative. 

[00:15:10] Dev: Hey, we all do it. I mean, come on. We all want other people to love what we love. And so that's fantastic. 

[00:15:18] Giovana: Preaching the Taylor Swift gospel. 

[00:15:24] Dev: That's wonderful. Do you have any final thoughts? Or things that you would like to articulate? Or express?  

[00:15:29] Giovana: Just on your last point about keeping things light...keeping things moving. We have to do it folks. We have to take care of ourselves so that we can be in this for the long haul. It's a marathon, not a sprint. So, if anyone's feeling discouraged...I just urge them to take a breather...come back to it...come back more energized...and keep pushing forward.

[00:15:55] Dev: And listen to Taylor Swift.

[00:15:57] Giovana: I think 1998 is coming out soon. The recorded version. 

[00:16:01] Dev: Well, you've heard it here first.

[00:16:03] Giovana: For everyone not in Holden.

[00:16:05] Dev: We have a huge listener base. Well, thank you so much for blessing the village with your presence. For taking the time to have this conversation. 

[00:16:15] Giovana: Thank you very much. 

[00:16:16] Outro: Thanks for joining us. Be sure to view the links in the description for more information or visit our website to find out more about the village. We hope you will make a pilgrimage to Holden. Blessings and peace to you.