Educator, Facilitator, Community Bridge Builder
Maria was born in the Philippines with Cuenca, Batangas roots and grew up in Rockland County, New York. She is a lifelong learner, budding land steward, and co-creator within the communities that have raised her. Maria’s work focuses on collective leadership and power building, particularly in education, social justice, healing, mutual aid, and community organizing. She believes in creating support networks that intersect collective liberation through nurturing and deepening relationships with one another, nature, and our ancestry while un/learning and questioning the systems and dis/functions both internal and external to ourselves. Maria has been an educator and facilitator for over 20 years with age groups ranging from early childhood to college, and beyond. Her positions have included: environmental education Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador; afterschool arts and activism leadership program director with El Puente in Brooklyn; participant in the Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment group in New York City; decolonization orientation leader in the Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock, North Dakota; resource and support guide in post disaster communities in various parts of the Philippines. Maria focuses on engaging and building local leadership, centering energies around community-identified needs and collectively identifying best pathways towards solutions. She is currently back in Rockland County as co-director at Proyecto Faro/Project Lighthouse, an immigrant-led organization that strives to build solidarity across boundaries of legal status, country of origin, religious affiliation, race, class, and gender.