Kendy Rivera Cárdenas, M.A. '14, Cert. '16, Ph.D. '20

Kendy Rivera Cárdenas, M.A. '14, Cert. '16, Ph.D. '20, a Tijuana-based migration field specialist and former senior public administration analyst with the UCLA Labor Center’s Global Solidarity Project, worked with the UCLA Dream Resource Center’s summer fellows to help coordinate a gathering of 60 Asian American and Pacific Islander labor leaders and immigration activists from across the U.S. who convened for a weekend of educational workshops, community tours and solidarity-building conversations in San Diego and Tijuana.

Rivera Cárdenas, who earned her doctorate and a master’s in Chicana/o and Central American studies, conducted her research on the Tijuana-San Diego divide. She said she sees a deep connection between labor organizing in the U.S. and abroad.

“Migrants are workers. Migrants create jobs. Migrants are tied to the U.S.,” Rivera Cárdenas said. “There’s power to organizing and unionizing with migrant workers not just at the border, but throughout Mexico and the Americas. These spaces are connected transnationally, so we continue to build and strengthen a network of cross-border solidarity. Money flows globally. Why should our organizing stop nationally?”

Read the full UCLA Newsroom article here.