Juan Cartagena

I am very proud to be part of a struggle. We played a small role in this, but to see this level of activism was just so reaffirming to the work we do. We had a common goal: to preserve a high-performing school in an urban district for a population that’s often marginalized and doesn’t have enough political clout.  

In all of our work, representing individuals without documentation, it is a major stretch to get them to achieve a level of comfort and confidence in you. It takes a lot of work. And by definition it takes a lot of courage. 

With the Lincoln Annex plaintiffs, they wanted to put their name on a document in which they’re really going against all these political levers of power in a place as small as New Brunswick. I mean, I know it’s a midsize city, but you’re still walking down the street having to worry about law enforcement, knowing that you’re messing with millions and millions of dollars of a project. You have to go to the hospital? What does it mean? The pressure this community was able to assert is the real reason why the hospital had to spend a whole bunch of money to do things that they otherwise would not even think about doing, and concessions were only made because of the pressure.

Juan Cartagena