Halfway through my term in leadership, I got pregnant. I decided to step down from NYC-DSA and receded from a lot of the activity I had been involved in since moving to New York. I gave birth in August 2024 and spent time taking care of myself and my family.
Not long after I gave birth, Zohran was making the rounds about supporting his race for mayor of New York City. I got one of those calls. Zohran made his case and pushed me to be bold and vote yes in the organization’s endorsement of this huge undertaking. A few weeks after the endorsement, he called me to be in his launch video. He said, “We need a mom. Are you down to be the mom in our launch video?” My son was just three months old. Leaving home to be in something like a video takes a lot from a new parent. But I was like, “OK, for my comrade, I’m in.”
Zohran’s campaign pushed me to get back in the ring. Through that phone call and being in the video, I was ready to dip my toes back into the movement. It had to look different, because I’m a mom. But as I started to become more confident in being a new mom, I started coming out again and bringing my child with me. I started showing up to Zohran’s [campaign] events with my baby.
I also started to think about what I could do from home for the race. I saw these online affinity groups popping up on Instagram. So I started the Latinos for Zohran Instagram account. We grew to more than 14,000 followers and worked to make sure Latinos in New York saw Zohran as the next big thing and that [Andrew] Cuomo had to go.
And then Zohran won the primary. People started asking me that night, “We’re going to need someone to replace him — what do you think?” I thought they were crazy. I had a ten-month-old. I didn’t think I wanted to go to Albany six months out of the year. But I started having conversations with NYC-DSA leaders, and other NYC-DSA…
Auteur: Diana Moreno
