Raymiro Gómez-Galiano wanted to vote so much that he did not wait for a birthday to allow it. He registered at 17 years of age, under a state program.
“I knew that mail-in ballots were going to start coming to people’s homes on October 5,” says Raymiro. “I was turning 18 precisely the day before, on October 4.”
Raymiro is now studying social change at the University of Southern California (USC), in part because of what he saw happening with his high school classmates.
“My classmates who couldn’t go to college are limited in what they can do to improve their future,” he reflects. “A lot of people forget about those who can’t go beyond high school. This is something that I want to change in society. “
Raymiro thinks he might be interested in continuing to help these students, as a career. It is something he is passionate about. He believes education should be for everyone, even older people who did not go to college because they had to work to help support their families. Age doesn’t matter. According to him, learning always arrives on time.
“Education is forever,” he says. “The elderly population can also be educated and benefit.”
That’s one reason Raymiro founded the Nuevos Colores project, which teaches English to adults in other countries through Zoom classes.
“We are currently teaching people in the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries,” he says. “We have volunteers in California, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona.”
Raymiro’s parents were born in Guatemala, but Raymiro and his older sister were born here. That’s why one of the political issues that interests him the most is immigration reform.
“The negative rhetoric created by this administration criminalizes the undocumented who only wish to have a better future for themselves and their families, even though they have limited job opportunities,” he says. “Many come to this country fleeing from other countries. But if the United States helped improve those countries, we would all grow more as one world. “
This criminalization has led him to investigate other possible kinds of reform, including in the justice system and the police, because racist attitudes influence the treatment Latinos receive there as well.
“The system assumes that we are bad people just because of the color of our skin,” Raymiro says. “Changing this rhetoric is important to achieve justice and to be able to go out on the streets without fear and without worry that they will stop us just because we look Latino.”
