#therealorangecounty

(hour 3): Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO), *Boston Blue (CBS*), The Proof is Out There (HIST)

Community organizer and activist, Abraham Medina, was born in Mexico City, Mexico on June 27th 1988. He came to Orange County, California when he was just seven years old, with his mother and brother, escaping violence back home in Mexico. Growing up in Orange County was an uphill struggle as an undocumented immigrant living in poverty. Living in a racist and violent culture, along with the constantly present threat of deportation, constrained the possibilities Medina saw for his own life until activism lit a fire inside. When Medina was a sophomore in high school, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 60, a bill that would allow undocumented peoples to obtain driver’s licenses in California. Medina got together with some classmates, unsure of what to do but determined to do something in the face of state oppression. The momentum grew and Medina was part of the group that organized student walkouts all over Orange County in protest. A dedication to social justice grew from that initial experience. Although his educational journey has not been linear, Abraham Medina has transformed his life experience into power for his community. One of the first organizers around issues of the School-to-Prison-to-Deportation Pipeline in the Orange County area, the work of Medina and others like him, forced a conversation on Restorative Justice on a systematic level. A keen strategist, Medina and his colleagues have also focused on local school district, city and county elections as a means to leverage power, while building solidarity with the undocumented Trans community in Santa Ana. Though he spent years unable to see himself as a “professional,” Medina gathered a Bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine along the way and is currently working on his Masters while also serving as the Executive Director of Resilience Orange County, an innovative organizing and advocacy group seeking to nurture and sustain transformative youth leadership in the county. After experiencing personal and systemic cultures of violence and dysfunction, Abraham Medina is looking to address and explore what it means to transform destructive cycles within ourselves, within our communities and within systems. He is driven by a vision of healthy communities that promote restorative cultures of love. We salute his dedication to the critical work of promoting transformative communities that respond to trauma with healing and support. -- This year, Sons & Brothers​ is honoring the heroes and hundreds of individuals that have fought and continue to fight the injustices faced by our communities. Over the next month, we will recognize their journeys and the ways in which they have made TODAY possible and are working to create a more just FUTURE. ‪#LatinxHeritageMonth #HealthandJustice4All (🎨 by Ernesto Yerena: hechoconganas.com)‬