Serving as a Fellow at a national civil rights organization in Washington, D.C. means learning quickly that policy work does not pause, even when everything around it feels unstable. During my time at the LULAC National Office, my fellowship unfolded amid a government shutdown, shifting federal priorities, and heightened political uncertainty.
For the communities most impacted by policy decisions, waiting is not an option.
At LULAC, I supported research and federal policy advocacy, including engagement with the notice-and-comment process, where organizations submit formal responses to federal agencies that shape how laws and regulations are implemented. This work made clear that civic participation isn’t symbolic, it’s written, procedural, and lasting.
Being in D.C. during a shutdown underscored this reality. Even when a shutdown stalls, the work continues. Comment letters are still drafted. Data still needs to be analyzed. Community voices still need to be included in the language systems policymakers recognize.
Here, La Tortuga y la Liebre returned, this time as a lesson in governance.
Federal systems often move like the liebre: reactive, rushed, driven by urgency and headlines. Advocacy requires tortuga energy, slow, deliberate, grounded. Data must be accurate. Language must be intentional. Lived experience must be honored without being flattened. That kind of work takes time, and it resists spectacle.
As a linguistics student, I think often about structure, who gets centered and who gets treated as optional. Too often, communities are positioned as afterthoughts in policy conversations. At LULAC, the work is about reversing that syntax: making lived experience central, supported by data, and legible to institutions that don’t always want to listen.
This commitment echoed through the community spaces I engaged in while in D.C., especially alongside other UC students. Moderating and participating in spaces rooted in comunidad reminded me that advocacy isn’t only about speaking it’s about listening long enough for something honest to surface.
Washington taught me that resilience isn’t about reaction. It’s about staying. Tortuga pace. Tenacity over urgency. Still here.