Ayacaxtli Galvin-Torrez

Ayacaxtli Galvin-Torrez (she/her) is a college undergrad who works in youth/community outreach for Indigenous Justice in Sacramento, CA. To really know her, you have to understand why she is so determined to go to law school:

Though she is blessed to have two parents active in her life, she was primarily raised by a single mother. Due to her grandmother’s breast cancer diagnosis, and piling medical bills, her mother was forced to work her first job at 13. To overcome their family’s housing crisis when Ayacaxtli was a baby, she tired herself out to go to nursing school. Her mother’s hard work and dedication was Ayacaxtli’s inspiration to attempt to enter spaces that her family hadn’t before. 

Ayacaxtli worked to successfully attend a prestigious high school in the suburbs to get a head start in studying law. Learning about all the factors that have historically worked to keep folks with her background in poverty maddened her more and more as she lost friends and family to various systems in the American machine. Though the patriarchy tried to mentally break her down, the resilience she inherited from her grandmother – who endured the same trauma when she was stolen by a Spanish soldier – made her a survivor. Ayacaxtli’s dream is to use the laws implemented by colonial settlers against them, infiltrate a political seat and help other successful BIPOC folks rebuild the system from the inside out, creating a better world for everyone.