From Ecuador to Queens: Cristina Jiménez Moreta on Immigration, Fascism, and Liberation

Episode Description

This edition of The Fascism Barometer finds host Ejeris Dixon sitting down with Cristina Jiménez Moreta—bestselling author, MacArthur Genius Fellow, and co-founder of United We Dream—for a timely conversation on how fascism shows up in the everyday lives of immigrant communities. Cristina reflects on her own journey from Ecuador to the U.S. and speaks to the experiences of immigrants who flee authoritarian and fascist regimes, only to be targeted in the United States. Cristina highlights the acts of resistance that everyday people are taking and the opportunities to build bigger, more visionary possibilities that this moment creates. This is not a theoretical conversation—it’s about real people, real histories, and real stakes.

Episode transcript


About Cristina

Cristina Jiménez Moreta is an award-winning community organizer, bestselling author, and a leading voice in movements for social justice. She is the Co-Founder and former Executive Director of United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country. Cristina has led multiple national and local campaigns for immigrant justice, playing a leadership role in the campaign to win and implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA). A distinguished lecturer at the City University of New York, Jiménez was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and named one of Time's 100 most influential people. Her USA Today bestselling debut memoir, Dreaming of Home, was published in May 2025. She came to the U.S. from Ecuador in 1998 and grew up undocumented in Queens, New York.

About Ejeris

Ejeris is a political strategist passionate about strengthening liberation movements and building community safety. Ejeris serves as the Fascism Barometer's "movement meteorologist," exploring the impact of fascist movements on communities of color, queer and trans communities, and all marginalized people. Having worked for the past twenty-five years at the intersections of racial justice, LGBTQ liberation, anti-violence, transformative justice, and economic justice movements, Ejeris focuses on creating political and strategic experiments to strengthen social justice movements through the organization Ejerie Labs.


Resources

Reading

Watching

Action

Check out the resource hub!

Next
Next

Telling the Truth, Telling Our Victories: Lumumba Bandele on Lessons from Repressive Times