In loving memory of Mimi Madrid.
Mimi Madrid (he/they/she) is a mexica chicanx queer two-spirit writer, multimedia-maker, organizer and tio. Mimi’s family roots start in Northern Mexico in the states of Chihuahua y Durango—homelands of her grandmas Dolores Puga y Rosa Torres. Mimi was born in El Paso, Texas and raised in so-called Denver, Colorado—the ancestral lands of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho people.
Mimi currently serves as a co-founder and executive director for Fortaleza Familiar, a community organization dedicated to the wellness and safety of young Latinx LGBTQ+ people and their familias. He’s worked more than a decade in reproductive justice, youth leadership and LGBTQ+ liberation movements. Mimi’s focus is the development, implementation, and evaluation of cultural, wellness, and safety community programs, events, and curriculum. He’s worked with organizations around Denver that center LGBTQ folks, indigenous young people, survivors of violence, immigrant families, and communities of color.
Mimi believes in: the power of youth, elimination of borders, popular education, all forms of art expression, intergenerational learning, swaying on the continuums of gender expression, identity, and orientation, singing out-loud, leaving to come back, dancing in revolution, and sana-sana-colita-de-rana.
They grew up in the West Barnum, survived racism in Littleton, and kicked it in the Northside as a young person. They now live and sow sunflowers in Swansea in East Denver with their wife Eleanor, their three chihuahuas, the fluffiest cat on the block, and the newest addition—a feral cat they rescued on Feds.
“I’m honored to be part of a space like TLC which fosters a trusted network of relatives, allies, and accomplices to share analysis, tactics, and strategies to further a collective mission. I make this commitment to celebrate each other’s existence, resistance, and victories while leaning into the process of continual communal growth.“