Truthout
Jonathan Bibriesca
Jonathan Bibriesca was born in Mexico City, México. In 1999, at the age of 14, he came to the United States with the rest of his family to reunite with his father. Jonathan joined the Orange County Immigrant Youth United (OCIYU), formerly known as the Orange County Dream Team, in 2009. While organizing with OCIYU, he learned to develop: inclusive programs through collective-consensus decision making; transformational learning; popular education; strategic funding research; and strategic planning to achieve sustainable goals. From the time he began his involvement in the immigrant youth movement, a deep sense of commitment towards social justice has grown and taken shape in him. Jonathan has been able to recognize that as an ally, his greater role is to provide the tools needed, and to support the efforts of those directly affected, so that they take the political stage needed to highlight their struggles and their efforts to fight for social justice. Jonathan grew up in Pomona, California, and earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from California State University, Long Beach in 2015.