The Puurlee Podcast with Nika Lawrie

From Undocumented to Unstoppable: Marina Piña’s Journey to Advocacy and Impact

• Nika Lawrie • Season 2025 • Episode 110

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From undocumented immigrant to communications leader, Marina Piña shares her extraordinary journey from Chihuahua, Mexico, to shaping public policy in New Mexico. At just 15, she immigrated to the U.S., where her father worked as a seasonal agricultural worker, and she experienced firsthand the challenges of being undocumented.

Now, as the Communications and Marketing Director for the New Mexico Health Care Authority, Marina leads statewide initiatives impacting over 50% of New Mexico’s population, including Medicaid, food assistance, and public health programs. Through strategic storytelling and grassroots advocacy, she is transforming health care communication and bridging the gap between communities and government.

In this episode, Marina shares:

  • Her personal story of migration, resilience, and finding her voice
  • The challenges of being undocumented and working in the fields
  • How she turned her lived experience into a career in advocacy
  • Why clear, effective communication is key to health care access
  • How anyone can take action—one step at a time—to create meaningful change

Whether you’re passionate about immigration, social justice, or health care advocacy, Marina’s story will leave you inspired to use your voice for impact.

CONNECT WITH MARINA PINA:

  • https://marinaipina.com/ 
  • Instagram: @Iammarinapina

CONNECT WITH PUURLEE: https://m.mtrbio.com/puurlee

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*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business, personal, or wellness success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.

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Nika Lawrie:

Welcome to the Puurlee Podcast. I'm your host, Nika Lawrie . Welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here today.

Marina Piña:

Thank you, Nika. Thank you for having me today. I am beyond excited to be here with you.

Nika Lawrie:

I'm so excited to have you here too. I know we've been friends for a while we work together at different capacities as well, but I was super excited to bring you on the show because I think you have such an incredible story. It's an inspiring story, it's a very timely in the moment story for everything that's going on, but I think it transcends the craziness of politics as well, because it's just such a unique and interesting and inspiring story that you have. So we're going to dive into that unique and interesting and inspiring story that you have. So we're going to dive into that. I want to ask you a little bit about what you do now, and then we'll go into your childhood.

Marina Piña:

Just tell me a little bit about yourself so the audience knows who you are. Yeah, thank you so much for that. Well, I currently serve in a statewide leadership role in this beautiful state of New Mexico as the communications and marketing director for the New Mexico Healthcare Authority. And for your audience, the healthcare authority here in New Mexico serves over 50% of the population and we do have a large agency, over 2,000 staff members, and I am very lucky to lead the communications and marketing initiatives for really reaching out to New Mexico's diverse communities, relationship with all staff who do amazing work in our different departments and divisions really to help New Mexicans Because of the programs that we administer.

Marina Piña:

We do serve a population with usually is limited income. We do oversee the programs of Medicaid, which is the federal and state health coverage program for people with limited income, people with disabilities, and then also programs like food assistance through SNAP, cash assistance, utility assistance. So we are really that lifeline for many New Mexicans and that safety net and also really our work. It's so much around providing more access to healthcare across the state right, especially in rural, frontier and tribal communities. In New Mexico. We have many different pueblos, tribes and nations, for you know our indigenous population and that is definitely front and center in the work that we do and that is definitely front and center in the work that we do. So I am very lucky every day to come to work and, you know, lead and drive that strategy of communications and how we connect with people. That's my current role, but it's been a journey to get here and I feel like I'm just getting started.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely. I mean, what an awesome position to have to have that kind of impact on the lives of literally I mean more than a million people across the state here, and you know different groups that are working on different things. You get to interact with them all the time and share ideas and resources and support for them, so it's a really incredible role. I really admire you and the work that you're doing in that position, so thank you for everything that you do. But you mentioned it's been a journey. I want to get back to the start of that journey and really tell your story. Can you share? So? You grew up in Chihuahua, mexico. Can you tell me a little bit? What was your childhood like? What was you know? How is it different than being here in the United States and what was your process or your journey of coming to the US?

Marina Piña:

Yes, so I am an immigrant to New Mexico and, just like many immigrants here in New Mexico, we do think of ourselves as adoptive children of adoptive New Mexicans. Right, like I am an adoptive daughter of New Mexico, I consider myself a New Mexican and then I also have that bicultural, binational, bi-national uh, you know, uh experience. I was born and raised in, um Chihuahua, mexico. Chihuahua is the biggest state uh in, uh in Mexico, and it's a beautiful state. And, um, I had, you know, just a normal, regular childhood. I really grew up with family all around me, with that sense of community, with really knowing who your neighbor is, you know, asking for help, really building the community and then also facing challenges, right, facing challenges especially, you know, with our social economic status. I also grew up with a father who always would come to the US, like back and forth. He would work here in the US as a migrant worker, in temporary jobs in agriculture, as a migrant worker in temporary jobs in agriculture, and then, when the season was over, he would go back to Mexico, right, so he would be here for seasons, for months at a time, and then go back with us. So that was really as a child. It was always very exciting to wait for dad and you know, like the dolls that he would come with and the toys and the candies and the clothes, um, and you know, like all of that uh excitement that I really had as a child, uh, waiting for my dad, and you know, uh, from coming from the US with all these gifts, um, as an adult you know it's going back into that experience. It's bittersweet because it's a different understanding of you, know what that entails, but back then as a child it was really exciting. And then, you know, before my dad, my grandfather, my dad's dad, he was part of the Bracero program, right, so, uh, he would also come as part of the.

Marina Piña:

My mother decided to join my father and migrate to the US. The United States experience, right, like that American experience, has always been ingrained in my life, just as many, many families in Mexico. And so we decided to, or my mother decided to join my dad. Things started to get more challenging economically, so she decided to join him, to really join the workforce and come here and work. So she brought us with her, you know, as myself, my younger brother and we were very lucky to land in the land of enchantment. I am biased, of course, yeah, but we migrated from eastern Chihuahua to eastern New Mexico. So you know, when I was 15, that's when we landed in Portales, new Mexico, which is the southeastern part of the state for those who may not be in the state and then from there, we integrated into, you know, the schools, the community.

Marina Piña:

It wasn't easy. It's definitely a cultural shock. And then what I want to make sure that your audience understands is that every immigrant experience is not the same as any of the. You know many million of immigrant stories that we have around the country, some more challenging, some less. You know that journey of mixed feelings, bittersweet, living, what you know, living your home country, living your extended family, behind the food. You know the neighborhoods, the schools, your friends and coming into something completely different. And then also the language barrier and trying to navigate systems that are very different to where you come from.

Nika Lawrie:

What was that like when you first came here in Portales, especially with the language barrier? How did you go through the process of navigating high school and making friends and learning English and finding your way here in the US? What did that look like for you the first few years?

Marina Piña:

I think for me as a teenager this is teenager Marina speaking. Now I know better, but as a teenager I really didn't want to make any friends. I was like I'm going to be here only for two years, I'm going to learn English and then I'm going to go back to college in Mexico, because that was my original plan. Little did I know that 20 years later I was still it's land of entrapment. Land of entrapment. Exactly that's what I tell people Once you're here, you don't leave.

Marina Piña:

You're here for six months, two years, and then you just stay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was hesitant to really integrating, you know, into building in that community and having new friends, but then of course it was really difficult, right, having new friends. But then of course it was really difficult, right. So I started meeting people, meeting, you know, high school kids, mainly also like from similar backgrounds, immigrants, if not themselves, their parents and really hanging out with kids who spoke my home language, spanish. Really hanging out with kids who spoke my home language Spanish. And my high school experience was really pretty much because I only had two years of high school here I really got to hang out with, you know, mexican-americans, mexican kids who some of them are still my friends, you know it.

Marina Piña:

And in Mexico, if you know the language, if you know English, um, that really helps, it could help your career, right. So that was my goal, um, so I was. You know, when, when you come from a different country without knowing English, they and you are in the school system, they make you take the ESL classes, right, the English as a second language. But that I needed to challenge myself more. I needed to challenge myself more, so I took that class and then I also requested to take the regular English classes at junior high level, which really accelerated my learning. So it was tough, but I was very goal-oriented and I was here with-oriented. Yeah.

Marina Piña:

And I was here with a mission. Like I need to learn English, I'm like I need to get this done. I don't care, but I only have two years. My experience as an immigrant and the experience of my family was not only as a you know, as an immigrant family, but who is coming to the US and trying to make our lives better, but then also, six months into being here in this country, we found the immigrants' rights movement. So my mom, you know, my younger brother and myself, we became part of the immigrants' rights movement in New Mexico. So I had that experience since the very beginning of not only have a regular life, if you will, you know, as an immigrant family, but we became activists, we became community organizers, we advocated for human rights that included the immigrant community and we're being able to build that movement and give space to new families, new individuals to take the lead and continue that work.

Nika Lawrie:

I want to ask you more about that. But before we get into your advocacy work, I want to know what was your experience going through. So you became a DACA child and you've been able to go through the process and become an American citizen. What did that look like? And maybe how did the advocacy play a role alongside that? Did that help you navigate that system more, or what was that experience over those years?

Marina Piña:

Thank you for asking that. I got lucky because I barely made it into qualifying for DACA, right, the different requirements that they have, the timing that I came, the age that I had, the process that I went through. I got really lucky and I don't want to take that for granted, right, that many people still did not qualify and you know we really need a system that values everybody in infrared movement pushed for it, right. It wasn't like hey, we'll give you this, and like the community entire community fought for it.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, and it was with you know, teeth being pulled that there was some leeway given. Yeah, yeah.

Marina Piña:

So you know, I really want to highlight that. So when we learned, when the announcement came out, I was already working in the immigrants' rights organization movement, really pushing for immigration reform, something bigger and the announcement came it was so much joy and excitement and still felt really surreal, but I think, mainly the feeling.

Marina Piña:

You know, if I go back to those moments it's, it's a joy of like, wow, we, we made it. And I'll tell you that when I received and I'll go back to how I got there. But when I received my DACA card in the mail and I showed it to my parents, they cried so much.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I was going to say did you cry? Because I would have cried. Yeah, I want to cry for you now. I was even there for them.

Marina Piña:

Going back to that moment. They cried. Got even more excited, my parents, at that moment, than when I became a US citizen. Oh my gosh, Like the US citizen part I think not that they were not happy about it, yeah, but they're like well more of a given. You know she's been on the park. I think they truly got more excited when I received my back.

Nika Lawrie:

I think also it gives them a little bit of sense of security for their child too. You know it's silly, that it's, you know, just a card, a piece of paper, basically right, but it gives you access to so many other things that you wouldn't have had access to outside of that. And I think, as a parent looking at your child, all you want is success and happiness and safety for your child, and so I can see them, you know, looking at that moment as almost like a sigh of relief, in a weird way.

Marina Piña:

So the irony of it right, because I was so embedded in the movement I was an activist or very active in those years of my life and I was in the front lines, basically you know, here in New Mexico, of that movement, along with many others, and the irony is that I did not apply for DACA until one year later that it was into effect, because I don't know like I felt like, okay, you know, like I can I give those rights presentation, I know my rights, I know what I can do. So I think it was more of the you know, like leaving taking care of others before you take care of yourself, and then a movement lawyer. You know they helped me, they helped me work through the process and you know they helped me. They helped me go through the process and I think that's also part of you know, like the being involved and people willing to help and also like being able to help right. Yeah, so I had all these angels that you know were in my life in the right time, in the right moment.

Marina Piña:

That came because of the work that I was doing, because of the connections and building the relationships. Like community organizing is very relational. Yeah, like building those personal relationships. Community organizing is very relational Building those personal relationships, building transformational relationships, not transactional, and that continues to be part of my job those communities that are really going to sustain you during hard times and during good times too.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, definitely, I was going to ask you what does you said you know I was on the front line of this advocacy work what does the front line? I'm doing air quotes for the people listening? What does that look like? You know, I fully understand the building those community relationships and they're you know it's like building lasting friendships, it's really that connection. But what else does it look like? What was the fight? What was the process?

Marina Piña:

Yes, so I became an activist when I was 16. And it was really on the front lines until four years or so ago. So 32, I'm totally disclosing almost 20 years I was doing along with community members or organizing people here in New Mexico. That meant for me traveling all over the state, building community, organizing local groups, and these groups were mainly immigrant women and their families, with allies as well. Right, we need those allies, those key leaders in the community that are able to work with us to get to a goal. But our groups were mainly immigrant women and their families and they're key to you know, grew up in the movement just the way that I did.

Marina Piña:

That I did just the way my younger brother did, and really that meant going to city council, maybe trying to pass resolutions in support of driver's licenses for immigrants, trying to pass resolutions in support of the DREAM Act right, which which is pretty much into for those who many of them got DACA, but we still need more than a work permit.

Marina Piña:

It meant meeting with law enforcement at the local level and making sure they are not collaborating with immigration, making sure the county jails are not collaborating with immigration, making sure the county jails are not collaborating with immigration, and this was not just meeting, but also keeping them accountable, trying to pass local laws that would not allow them to do so, gaining champions right and by champions I mean city councilors, who were champions or advocacy or issues.

Marina Piña:

It meant having protests in March, yeah, you know. And also like meeting in community with food and celebrating the wins that we have, coming to the state capitol and loving our legislators being really active. And that's something that I really want to give credit to my mother, because she taught me she doesn't speak English and she taught me that it doesn't speak English. And she taught me that it doesn't matter if you don't speak. You know the language, in this case, english. You still can advocate for yourself, you still can go out there and try to keep them accountable, you can still fight for human rights and you can make things happen right. And that I learned definitely from my mother like do not stay quiet just because you know you don't speak the language or because we have certain barriers or certain adversities, absolutely.

Nika Lawrie:

I think you know just the basics of treating humans with decency and fighting for basic human rights. That crosses all languages. You know it shouldn't be an English-only. You know process right, and so you know having that compassion and willingness to care for other humans, even if you didn't grow up in the same communities together, is just basic. You know it shouldn't be a cultural thing.

Marina Piña:

Exactly, you know, it shouldn't be a cultural thing exactly, and I also think that that actually helped our mental health, like being part knowing that you can do something yeah yeah, knowing that we have people out, we can do something together yeah absolutely, it's so healing what do you wish people knew about?

Nika Lawrie:

either your experience as an immigrant coming here, or the fight that people aren't often um aware of or don't discuss what. What is something?

Marina Piña:

um just that you wish people knew more about that is a good question, just that you wish people knew more about that is a good question, putting you on the spot.

Marina Piña:

Sorry, I think. Well, immigrant families, individuals, community members we do not live in a vacuum, right, like being an immigrant is not, doesn't completely define us, right. We are part of communities, we are part of the local church, we take our kids to the schools, we're part of our workplaces, we pay taxes, we create safer communities and that is data supports that we are, you know, bigger than our identity as immigrants. Uh, and then also, at the same time, for me at least, I cannot speak for the entire immigrant community, but like that has been pretty much the work, uh, my work, or my professional work, if you will, it's driven by my personal values and my personal values are pretty much aligned with my identity as an immigrant. Just what any other regular family in the country wants, you know better opportunities, safer communities, healthy, to be in good health and to work and contribute to have access to rest.

Marina Piña:

Yeah, and you know, just a moment of rest and really bettering our communities and being very active. We're not passive at all in our communities, we're very active.

Nika Lawrie:

And then the last thing I would say is that not all but many people may see us as liabilities and we are breaking assets to our communities. Can't imagine thinking of somebody who's gone through the process of leaving their home and their country and their family and their cultural connections behind for opportunity to be that brave and to go through that much turmoil to come here and be considered a liability like that's just mind-boggling to me. I think you know the people that I've met that have gone through similar experiences as you have come and, you know, heavily contributed to the community. They, you know they are hard workers. They are kind, compassionate community members. They, you know, pay their taxes. They, you know, get involved in the community, they support each other. They create their own communities to help each other thrive.

Nika Lawrie:

Like it's so rare that you hear about, you know. You know you hear about the scare stories all the time of the immigrant came and killed the girl and you know we've arrested him and left. I mean that happens anywhere. You know a white man is just as likely to do that, as you know, a Mexican man that came and immigrated here and so it's, I don't know. Just the word liability hits me really hard because it makes me angry and sad at the same time yeah, and that we are not victims.

Marina Piña:

Right, don't victimize our community yeah you know. But we have amazing, great, brilliant people um and we're just very lucky to be part of the immigrant community.

Nika Lawrie:

That's how I feel own personal experiences with navigating the healthcare system. I know you and I are really connected talking about how difficult it is for people to navigate the healthcare system, especially as we work together to support the mission that the New Mexico Healthcare Authority is working on the different marketing campaigns and programs that they're offering to the people of New Mexico. But I want to hear about your personal experience of trying to navigate that system and how you've learned from that system. Can you share a little bit about your story?

Marina Piña:

Yes. So first because my family, except my father he was a legal permanent resident were undocumented. We didn't have access to health insurance right. So we would go to the local clinic, but not so much as regular checkup, but just when we were truly sick. I remember at 16, I got smallpox. Horrible time to get smallpox, the most horrible experience. Yeah.

Marina Piña:

You know, that's what got me to the local clinic Uninsured and probably costing a lot of money to the clinic. If we had access to health insurance, just as any other things that we might be able to access, we would get them right, we would comply which is part of being in the community and have that insurance right. So that's just a little bit. There's also misinformation that, as an undocumented immigrant, you have access to safety net programs or social programs. Not really, that is not the case. Right, we live in many mixed status family. My own family was mixed status and you may have undocumented parents with US citizen children and because they are US citizen children and rightly so, they qualify they may qualify for it. Qualify for it. I also more recently experienced navigating the health system when my father, in 2022, was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Nika Lawrie:

I'm really sorry.

Marina Piña:

And we went through one year and a half of his process. You know he went through several chemos before surgery and then surgery and then chemo after surgery and he was going to his checkups and then in one of the you know last checkups that he had the cancer metastasized and came back and it was really out of stage four where nothing really could be done. You know, from the time where he was given that diagnosis to the time when he passed away in 2023, it was a three-week period, right and very hard. We also had never experienced what an end-of-life process was, what an end of life process was. Palliative care is something that I mentioned with his doctors, where this is vocabulary that we do not have and I can be the language barrier.

Nika Lawrie:

I was going to specifically ask you about what is the language barrier?

Marina Piña:

like when navigating that kind of just a devastating situation case. Spanish speakers, healthcare workforce, you know they had, like this, machines that would translate for you very transactional, very cold. We really need to continue finding ways to humanize the healthcare experience for communities that are disenfranchised, marginalized, underserved, under-resourced, and then for everybody. Right, when we make it better for the lowest hanging fruit, we make it better for everybody. Yeah. Right, yeah, so that was a really hard process. I am very surprised that I'm not crying, right now.

Nika Lawrie:

I'm sorry. I know it's hard.

Marina Piña:

Yeah, no, he was an amazing human being. He fought until the last minute. He kept saying which I feel like I need to tattoo this to myself, like this phrase in Spanish hasta que tope Right, like until the end. We fight until the end, and we did. We did, but we had to. I am the most fluent bilingual person in my family of origin. Now I have my own family, my own kiddo, my husband who.

Marina Piña:

I love and support me through all of this. But in my family of origin I am, you know, the only fluent bilingual who has more experience, perhaps, navigating different systems. But then, at the same time, I want to make sure to say that again, like the fact that my mother didn't speak, doesn't speak English, didn't stop her from navigating the system. I mean she's I don't know if I can say certain words here, but Go for it. I mean she's a pretty badass human being, right? So definitely she took the lead.

Marina Piña:

I was there, you know, as a supportive point. But navigating that was very difficult point. But navigating that was very difficult. But even before my dad got the diagnosis, I would say that getting to that point was continues to be a failure in the healthcare system where he, as a Mexican, 60, in his 60s, he died when he was 66. Very young, way too young, yeah, and having a full-time job, having health insurance, being a legal permanent resident in this country, for so many factors didn't have regular checkups, for so many factors didn't have regular checkups. The pandemic really exacerbated that with, you know, like delays in appointments. Yeah.

Marina Piña:

So that was a factor. And you know, skipping one day of work for him would mean having your paycheck, you know, come short. So you know why would I miss one day to go to check, have this checkup done. Right. If I'm feeling okay. Yeah.

Marina Piña:

Right, so I, I sometimes this is I debated whether to say this or not with you, nika, but I do strongly feel like my father, in the bigger sense, didn't die of cancer. He died due to poverty, right, due to systems that make it more difficult for people who are in poverty.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, you're going to make me cry too.

Marina Piña:

Yeah, I didn't know I was going to miss you, yeah.

Nika Lawrie:

I hear you and I agree, and it's not okay. I'm not sure what I can say, you know, in this situation, but it's not okay and I agree and we got to fight to change it for sure. Definitely yeah.

Marina Piña:

And then, at the same time, again going back to the, not expecting my own experience and my family's experience, we fought until the end. We filed complaints. When we had to file complaints with the healthcare facility, 95% of the time they were great, but we had to be there Advocating for our dad. He did his best, he was a warrior, he fought until the end and he did it with dignity. And, out of everything, what I really keep in my heart is that he had or he died with dignity. My mother finally accepted that. The care of the nurses, you know, besides the one experience that wasn't particularly pleasant, but we were able to handle it because we advocated for it, and like my family is so great.

Marina Piña:

And that is just one story, like one in a thousand, like we have many uh around the country.

Nika Lawrie:

I'm going to have to bring you back for other stories, and we'll we'll bring others in as well to share their stories, cause I think it's so, so important. But I want to be um courteous and conscious of your time. I, before I have one last question for you. Before I ask you that last question, um, I just want to commend you for the work that you're currently doing to make the system better for people like yourselves, all people across the state, and really the ripple effect that that has for people across the entire country as well. So thank you for the work you're doing, thank you for the work that you've done in the past advocating for immigrants and your community to have a better life here, and your story is just inspiring. So thank you for the work you're doing.

Marina Piña:

I just Thank you.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely so. My last question for you, Marina, is if the world was listening and you could share one simple but powerful message with them, what would it be?

Marina Piña:

one step at a time, for whatever you know it's in your heart. If that's a cost, if that's bettering your family, your community, take action.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely. I love that. Thank you, Marina. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I'm so grateful to have you here. I really appreciate it.

Marina Piña:

Thank you so much. I appreciate your time and your listeners Absolutely.

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