Cafecito

Mary Mora Started With One Question: "What If We Organize?"

Mary Mora, founder of Unidas Somos Más Fuertes, on organizing, hope, and mentorship. Episode 2 of Cafecito with Emmy-nominated Silicon Valley Latino.

Publishers Note

Cafecito with SVL is Silicon Valley Latino's conversation series, coffee-style interviews with the Latino voices shaping our community. In Episode 2, SVL CEO Alex Ontiveros sits down with Mary Mora, the leader behind the movement Unidas Somos Más Fuertes, owner of Immaculate Cleaning, and SVL #CreoEnTi Business Ambassador, to talk organizing, entrepreneurship, mentorship, and what it means to live in two worlds.

"What if we organize?"

That was the whole idea. One immigrant woman asking a question out loud. First, three women said yes. Then five. Then twenty. Ten years later, that question has become Unidas Somos Más Fuertes, a movement that empowers immigrant women who want to start a business and immigrant women who already run a small one but need the resources to grow.

When SVL sat down with Mary Mora for Cafecito, we asked her about the celebration of that tenth anniversary, the one where elected officials showed up with commendations and certificates. She gave us an answer we haven't stopped thinking about. "Not thinking about the recognitions," she said. She appreciates them. She values them. But the most important thing is the message to the comunidad: when we organize, we can make so much.

Not Asking. Already Building.

Mary has a philosophy about how our community should approach people in power, and it turns the usual script upside down. Don't walk in with your hand out. Walk in with proof.

"It's not asking," she told Alex. "We're already starting creating things. Now we need the support, but look, we're doing it." Her invitation to the officials in that room was simple: we are organized, we are doing this work, and we would love for you to join us so we can keep doing it.

That is what a model looks like. And it is why Mary's message, whether she is speaking to a room of women or to a camera, always comes back to the same words: sí se puede. Learn how to navigate the system. Keep our cultura. Keep our comunidad strong.

A Girl From Mexico Who Never Imagined This

Mary has lived in the United States for about 30 years. She says she never imagined she would end up here when she was a little girl in Mexico. She misses her country. She misses her food. She misses the family who stayed behind. And she is clear about where she stands today: "I feel like this is home."

What she feels, she says, is the same excitement she sees in her people. "We dream." Mary believes that belief is in our blood, the conviction that we can do more than anyone expected of us. She credits the organizations, the people, and the businesses that stop to ask, how can we help?

A Skill From Her Mother, a Business of Her Own

Then there is Immaculate Cleaning. Mary is honest about it. Nobody gets excited about the idea of going to clean, she admits with a laugh. But she learned good skills from her mother, and when she needed to build a life here, she made a decision: "I'm really good at this, and I'm gonna make a business out of this good skill."

She leads with passion, and she goes beyond. She loves walking into a home, seeing the need, and being able to help. She loves the smile at the end.

Alex asked her what she did to take the business to the next level. Her answer made us smile, and then it made us think. "Many mistakes." She is not afraid of making them. She is not afraid, period. "Sometimes I have nothing. What can I lose?" And she keeps moving, with the other half of the formula: education. Going to different organizations. Learning as much as she can about running a business. "With education, we can do everything."

Mary has also been growing spiritually in recent years, and she shared something worth passing on. In Silicon Valley, the pressure to compete and to reach for the next number never stops. What helps her stay grounded, with her pies en la tierra, is understanding that fear isn't the enemy. "Being scared is not bad. It's part of us." The mistake is letting fear keep us quiet and still. We are going to worry. Nothing is going to happen. Keep going.

The Hope in Being Seen

When Alex talked about why SVL exists, Mary jumped in with the reason it matters. She speaks for the families who only speak Spanish, who hear that there are organizations fighting for their rights but never see it. "When they are able to see what they're doing, you don't know the hope we bring to those families," she said. Even when the organization has never met them. Even when they feel they can't do much. Knowing someone is out there fighting is hope. "They need hope."

Alex knows the feeling from the other side. Silicon Valley Latino was born out of frustration, he told Mary, at a time when every depiction of Latinos on TV, in the news, and in movies was the criminal, the narco, the stereotype, while he knew so many friends doing amazing work in tech, venture capital, healthcare, and education. Nobody was telling those stories. "Then I guess I'm gonna have to do it." He had no journalism background, no publishing background, and no business degree. He started with a Facebook page and a question: who wants to see something like this happen? People said, we do. This year, SVL turns 15, our quinceañera. The mission hasn't changed.

Mary recognized the beginning of her own story in that one. She used to wonder whether she was crazy for believing things could be different. "Quiero ayudar," she said, is the magic phrase. Say it, and good people start appearing. Alex's word for the feeling is audacity. It takes courage too, he added, to quiet the imposter syndrome that tells so many of us that big things are for somebody else.

Mentors, and the Impact We Never See

Alex's own community work started in 1996, as a mentee in the Personnel Management Association of Aztlan. The president of the organization saw something in him, invited him onto the board while he was still in college, and asked him to run the mentorship program. He has been mentoring ever since. His message to anyone who thinks they don't have enough to offer: you don't need all the answers. You need to take the time to listen, and to connect the person with someone who does have the answer.

Mary heard that and thought of the young people in her community. Many of them have no one around them to point to and say, I could be that. "We can save kids, really save kids, give them hope." Anyone with heart and willingness can be a mentor, she said, and she wants high school students in the East Bay to have them. "We should create something to help the kids in the schools in East Bay, especially." Alex's response was the right one: Let's imagine that. Let's see what could come of it.

He also shared why he knows the work matters. Years ago, after a fireside chat SVL hosted, two brothers waited until everyone else had left. The older brother had brought the younger one because he felt he needed to see Latinos living out incredible careers and lives. The younger brother had been in a dark place earlier that week. Hearing the speaker's story gave him hope. "We just don't know how we are impacting somebody," Alex said. "It could be a simple conversation." And that was only the one person with the courage to come up and say so. Mary's reaction: "Imagine how many."

If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, any time.

Two Worlds, One Comunidad

Mary told Alex something honest. She lives in two worlds. In one, she is with her people, eating frijoles, being her real Mexican self, and happy. In the other, she is in the middle of Silicon Valley, a place that astonishes her every day. She sees innovation everywhere, and she also sees neighbors in the same valley who don't know how to send an email, who have no computer, no cellphone, who look at technology as something strange. "That's my community."

Her answer is to be the connection. And when she said "you have the possibility," Alex corrected her gently: "But it's a we. You're part of the community, so it's us. Whatever we do, we do together."

That is why she believes in what media and organizations can do. Show the work, with videos and pictures, so people can see it happening and feel the hope. She doesn't like pointing to herself as a role model. But she knows that a little girl, an immigrant, getting recognized tells another little girl: "If she can, I can." The imposter voice, Alex reminded her, is the one telling her otherwise. Quiet it.

Preserve Who We Are

Near the end, Mary stopped to say something before the conversation moved on. We have to preserve our language, she said. Spanish is what makes us special. Our traditions from Mexico, from Colombia, from every country represented in our comunidad, are rich in cultura and in color. "Let's honor that and let's preserve it." As an SVL ambassador, she said with a laugh, everyone is going to be speaking Spanish. If they don't, she's going to make them.

We are going to take her up on that.

The conversation also touched on something bigger than any one tool or trend. Mary and Alex both believe that in a moment when technology is changing everything, the human connection can't be replaced, not the compassion, not the shoulder to lean on, not a cafecito with someone you care about. "Let's be more human," Mary said.

Organized. Not asking. Already building. That's Mary Mora, and that's the comunidad she is calling us to be.

This conversation is Episode 2 of Cafecito with SVL. Watch the full episode above, and subscribe to Silicon Valley Latino on YouTube so you never miss the next one.

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