Today we’d like to introduce you to Marianne Diaz.
Marianne, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Began life as a child of immigrant parents. Poor and living in a home with the results of racial and financial oppression. Felt disempowered at an early age. Unable to defend my mother from my dad who became rageful. We moved from the Palms/Sawtelle area to unincorporated Lennoxwhere my dad purchased a small house.
We then attended a mostly white, middle-class school where I was introduced brutally to racism and hate. The combination of feeling disempowered at home and the socially accepted racism I felt led me to embrace gang membership. It was then that I felt my power to recruit and intimidate those who would challenge me. I stood up to my father and he was told to back off my mother or he would face the consequences of the hood. That was such a relief for me and a confirmation that this power through violence works.
I did a few short times in jail including the County Jail for something I didn’t do which ignited even larger the flame of social justice. When I did go to prison for something I did do it felt right. I was on the path to higher learning and credibility in the hood. Inside I continued to face injustice against myself but also others who had no voice. I stood up for them much as I did for my mother through intimidation. During all of this the Deputy Sheriff, Ken Bell who arrested me kept tabs on me. He always treated me with respect and told me I would be doing such great things if only I was born in another context. He promised to help me find a job when I got out because he knew me as fair and having integrity.
When I got released, he had “Community Youth Gang Service” Workers pick me up and take me to interview with the Executive Director Tommy Chong who I still communicate with today. I got the job and climbed the ladder over the course of 5 years eventually ending up to be the Regional Director for an 8 million dollar non-profit. After I left CYGS in 1995 I started CleanSlate, my own non-profit with the help of White memorial Hospital and a colleague I met after I was hired at Southern California Counseling Center where I am the Directo of Outreach Services today. I have kept CleanSlate open without the assistance of Directo Government funding and believe this keeps the work true to the needs of the community. I have opened up a Watts Sattelite of Southern California Counseling Center in South LA and offer that community support for Mandated clients in a relational and empowering spirit through our paraprofessional counselors, licensed and licensure track therapist.
CleanSlate operates out of Hawaiian Gardens. Hawaiian Gardens is the WATTS of the San Gabriel Valley I feel with a strong “of Color” population that has had the impact of systemic racism and financial oppression. The City hosts us and welcomes clients from all over the state to participate because CleanSlate has no rigid demographics. The City will subsidize those who fall under the poverty line and can’t pay. We are a fee for service, sliding-scale, pre-treatment, 501 (c) 3 non-profit. I live violent free now. Have created and managed at SCCC The RAge Resolution and Stress Navigation Group, Teen Violence Prevention Group and Community Counselor Certificate Course for over 20 years. I have been at SCCC for 21 years this October.
CleanSlate is my baby. Born and bred from the things I learned at the non-profits I have worked at. People need to be treated with dignity and honored for their struggle. It is not a figment of the imagination that things are made more difficult for cultures of color and those who fall outside the norm that has been constructed by the dominant cultural system. This is a short piece of what I am about and how I got to where I am at. Hope it interests you.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being a felon has made it difficult. My dream of becoming a licensed therapist is unattainable because of my crimes as a gang member. I have still managed and wonder often if I had been able to get licensed what could I have done for the community? Being a lesbian for a time was good in the hood. The closer to masculinity you are the more accepted you are and I was a soldier. Moving into the real world of judgment and bias about lesbian, Gay men and Trans was difficult for me to maneuver so I stayed quiet about my home life for many years. Today I feel more able to deal with the nature of oppressive systems and micro and macro aggressions that impact race and identity.
I am often seen as suspicious by those who don’t know me well and are white because I do still hold strongly to my hood and my culture.
CleanSlate – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from others?
CleanSlate is a sliding-scale non-profit and I believe that everyone should contribute their own change. While we are significantly low in fee, we are realistic and find that many of our clients are more than happy to contribute as much as they can because it is not out of reach or unrealistic for our community. There is also an added incentive in that their fees support not only CleanSlate but our youth Empowerment programs “StreetDreams”. We have never closed our doors or take a break from the work we do.
I set it up to maximize the number of people we can serve while keeping overhead very minimal. We do this by opening the clinic once a month on the second weekend of every month and the third Tuesday of every month. We have two lasers. One we purchased at a discount and another donated by Sentient lasers. All of our staff are volunteers working on stipend if we make more than what we need to cover overhead. A true labor of love since 1995.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Managing to get a counseling Center in Watts on the Campus of WLCAC and being mindful of the community and the needs they have rather than going in to rescue as many non-profits try to do.
Contact Info:
- Address: CleanSlate: 22150 Wardham AVe. Hawaiian Gardens CA 90716
- Website: www.cleanslate-la.org or www.cleanslatela.org
- Phone: 562-945-9111 or Hawaiian Gardens, Sylvia Gooden: 562-4259585
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Clean Slate LA
- Facebook: CleanSlatelaINC or CleanSlateLA
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