Meet Gabriella Cázares-Kelly

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gabriella Cázares-Kelly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gabriella below.

Gabriella, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

When I first started to find myself in rooms where I was the only person of color, or the only person who clearly didn’t come from money or privilege, I often felt intimidated but grateful to be included. Later, I learned that I saw things through a different lens and although I could quickly understand other’s points of view, they in turn, sometimes lacked the cultural, practical or even common knowledge to understand my point of view. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes I would be underestimated, disregarded, talked over, or openly challenged. I was definitely made to feel unworthy and unwelcome by some. Sometimes others treated me and my ideas as inconveniences, even when they told me they were grateful for my input. Often I would be thanked for sharing my perspective and over and over others would acknowledge that a common knowledge idea from my community was a brand new concept to them. Over the years, my feelings of gratitude for being included changed to disappointment that more wasn’t being done to diversify the conversation. I began to realize that simply being in the room was a minimum and that rather than me being grateful for being included, others should be grateful that I chose to put myself in hostile spaces in order to contribute to the conversation.

I began openly talking about the need for others to make sure I wasn’t the only person of color in the room or calling out privilege when I heard it. I started openly talking about microaggressions and white supremacy and how to identify it and dismantle it. I had to make peace with making people uncomfortable. I now have the mindset that growth comes from that discomfort.

I had a lot of tough conversations with people one on one and eventually I became much more selective about sharing my time. I now realize that I am a resource and that my time, energy and perspective are valuable.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am the Pima County Recorder, an elected official that oversees Voter Registration, Early Voting and Document Recording for nearly 680,000 registered voters in Southern Arizona. I am the first Native American to hold a countywide seat in my county and I was just reelected to my second, 4-year term! Prior to running for office I was an educator for nearly 14 years and I co-founded Indivisible Tohono, a grassroots, community organization that provides opportunities for education and civic engagement for members of my tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation. You can read about me and articles I’ve written at http://gabriellaforrecorder.org/, one of my favorites is titled, “3 Things to Keep Me From Rolling My Eyes at Your White Privilege”. You can also follow me on the socials, where I write about my everyday life, which includes voting rights (and how they’re being assaulted in Arizona by the far right), time with my family, dismantling White Supremacy, being a 21st Century Native American and my obsession with the Star Trek and Lord of the Rings realms. @GabriellaCKelly

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey have been my honesty, empathy and humor. Honesty sounds like an easy quality to have, but there’s a lot of pressure in politics to tell people what they want to hear. My commitment to honesty means not only being honest to my voters, staff, family and friends, it also means being honest with myself. When I’m faced with a challenge, I think about how I’m going to answer to my community and how am I going to answer to myself. Being honest can sometimes be scary and nerve-wrecking, but I think about what I need to say, I sometimes practice spitting it out and remind myself that my community voted for me because they know I’ll remain true to them and to my values. My empathy has helped me be an advocate for my community. It’s what pulled me into this work. Being able to understand the challenges that voters face in order to get registered and cast a ballot has been a driving force behind my work. Also being able to empathize with my staff for the incredibly tough work we do has pushed me to improve working conditions and prioritize a humane workplace. Lastly, having the ability to laugh has played such an important role in my life and this role. Some days you just have to laugh at the absurdity of a situation before you tackle it. Being able to laugh to relieve stress and to connect with others has been a natural way that I maintain my resilience for the work. My job is incredibly serious and I have to make tough decisions everyday, but I’m still a human being and my humor helps me maintain my humanity. Sometimes these qualities can feel like a burden; being too honest, to empathetic, laughing at inappropriate times, but I think it’s worth it to maintain my sense of self. I’m a non-traditional elected and I intend to stay that way.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

My friends and I c0-founded Indivisible Tohono shortly after Trump’s first term in office. He had been campaigning on building a physical border wall and increasing the militarization at the southern border. My reservation shares 69 miles with the US-Mexico border in Arizona. There are Tohono O’odham tribal members who live in Mexico and many who cross the border into Mexico for ceremonies, to visit sacred sites and attend social or community gatherings. Our community didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us, but our community was dealing with harassment at border checkpoints just outside of our reservation, that were no where near a port of entry. My friends and I were discussing the increase in militarization and harassment from border agents and the fear it was invoking in our community. We hosted an educational forum to better understand what may be coming to our community and 200 people showed up. We continued to organize and advocate for our community for not only the increase in militarization we were seeing in our community, but also for issues like education, violence against women, healthcare, toxic-masculinity and homophobia, among others. It was through that advocacy that we found ourselves meeting candidates and elected officials from local, state and national seats. We found that many knew absolutely nothing about our Tribe, or Native Americans in general. The more time we spent in those spaces, the more we learned that an elected leader is just someone who believes they can impact the role and has the audacity to run for office. My friends helped me humanize the electeds we were spending time with. When the time came for me to throw my name in the hat, it seemed like a natural, although frightening endeavor. My friends were there to remind me that only I knew about the needs of our tribe and would bring my knowledge and lens to the office.

My friends and family were instrumental in helping me find the mindset I needed to even consider running. Running for office is a huge physical, mental, monetary, and emotional endeavor that has the ability to change who you are as a person. Maintaining my sense of self was only possible because of the love and support I received from my community.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://gabriellaforrecorder.org/
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/GabriellaCKelly
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/GabriellaCKelly
• Twitter: https://Twitter.com/GabriellaCKelly
• Other: .tiktok.com/@gabriellacazareskelly

Image Credits

Gabriella Cázares-Kelly
Pachynne Ignacio
Julius Schlosburg
Indivisible Tohono
Bobby Q. Narcho