How Latina Community Leaders Rallied Together After Austin’s Disastrous Storm

By Angely Mercado

Photography by Hope Mora for Vogue

June 2, 2021

In the state’s capital of Austin, the Workers Defense Project, otherwise known as Defensa Laboral, played a key part in assisting the city’s immigrant construction workers who were struggling during and after the ice storm. Organizers received donations, distributed food and water, and checked in on families who had their utilities cut off.

In a year that stacked a pandemic on top of the climate crisis, local mutual aid programs have often reached people faster than government efforts might. In WDP’s case, their distribution of food, water, and essential supplies caught the attention of local officials, who supported them financially. What started as an emergency neighborhood support network radiated further and further out. “WDP’s headquarters turned into a home base not just for our members but for the whole community around us,” remembers Mayra Huerta, an Austin campaign manager for the organization. “Eventually the city began giving us a bunch of donations because they don’t have the connections that we do with these communities. By the end of the week our operation really exploded. We were distributing thousands of gallons of water and thousands of meals per day, and hitting up sometimes up to 30 apartment complexes in a day.”

Many volunteers contributed despite facing crises at home. Longtime community activist Maria Rios had been supporting her husband while he was sick with COVID while also caring for four children. The experience had left the family stressed and cash strapped. “We were just finding our footing from one problem and then the storm happened,” Rios remembers. “I didn’t have water for about 15 days.” Rios’s apartment complex had a pool, and her family was forced to boil the water in order to use the bathroom and wash dishes.