LIFT Annual Report 2013: Building Strong Foundations | Page 24

Jackie’s STORY
Paying It Forward with a Smile

In February 2013, when LIFT’s Los Angeles site opened its doors, 27-year-old
Jacqueline Gonzalez-Reyes was one of the advocates waiting for members.
Jackie was ready to hear stories of personal struggles because she has one of
her own.
Born in Los Angeles to Mexican immigrant parents, Jackie was a quiet girl.
In fact, she says, “My first ten years I was practically silent. Then, in religion
class, I finally piped up and asked why none of the altar servers were girls.”
The teacher led her to the principal’s office, and Jackie was certain she was
getting expelled. Instead, the principal listened to her concerns and changed
the rules, allowing girls to be altar servers, too. “I learned that it’s okay to
speak up,” she says.
Jackie attended Xavier University in Cincinnati and simultaneously worked
as a community organizer. She helped organize workers at a food processing
plant and was part of the management team that helped Cincinnati janitors
gain their first union contract. She was on a path to a career in sociology, but
first she wanted to see the world.
Her travels took her to Sunder Nagri, a slum on the outskirts of Delhi, India,
where she witnessed poverty on a scale far worse than what she’d seen
in the U.S. “Fear is universal,” she summarizes. “But so is a smile.” She
introduced management techniques to people operating small businesses.
Jackie continued on to Korea and China, where, being seven months
pregnant, she climbed the Great Wall of China. She planned to marry the
father of her baby—she even bought the dress—but life, as she says, took