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“I’m sitting here, in this town square, with my cousin and I’m thinking how it happened that people who look like me in the United States have been put in this little box and labeled as gangsters? That we’re up to no good, that we’re lazy and that we’re only valuable in the position of being service workers in the community. It was a mind-blowing realization because I realized how complex our culture was and how limiting these stereotypes and prejudices were. I think it was a point where even we began to believe that we had to dress and behave this way because it’s what’s expected of us.” — Estella Sanchez”

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“I thought goddamn, even if I got the highest acclaim in New York City, nobody in my hometown, would ever hear of me. That’s when I realized that creating work for a small, elite body of people while neglecting the vast majority of the country was sort of pointless and hollow.” — Gioia Fonda

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I saw the kind of things that you could do to make things happen. My mom worked and saved money, but there were all these different things like bartering and trading also happening. I would see that at our house, and also in the way that our families would help each other, for example, someone knows how to lay concrete and a foundation, another person did roofing, and people traded to get what they need. They were supporting each other and helping each other. — Estella Sanchez

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“I have no problem with working hard. I could work all night and go all day because it was fun. Knowing that people liked it and they paid money for it, I was like, oh my God, this is it. I wanted to do that all the time. And so I was able to combine my favorite things like making and shopping and art and be my own boss. I never wanted to do anything else. ” — Trisha Rhomberg