She is originally from Mexico, and moved with her family to the U.S. when she was 9 years old. She had been fighting her mother's deportation since 2009 until they won a cancelation of removal in December 2019.  Our journey is documented in a short film that you can access at this link:  http://taniamonarca.com   She has a Bachelor's degree in sociology from Regis University, and started her activism on immigration issues. Since then, she has led many campaigns on an array of social justice issues and has been a part of the activist community in Denver, CO for over 10 years. I had lived as an unauthorized immigrant up until 3 years ago. This lived experience was always so closely tied with inequity, lack of opportunity, and exclusion