Jamaica Plain Community Activist Receives Unsung Heroine Award

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Maria Christina Blanco was nominated by State Rep. Liz Malia to receive a 2016 Unsung Heroine Award for her commitment to human rights and economic justice advocacy.

Maria Christina Blanco was presented with the 2016 Unsung Heroine Award for her commitment to human rights and economic justice advocacy.

Maria Christina Blanco was nominated by State Rep. Liz Malia to receive a 2016 Unsung Heroine Award for her commitment to human rights and economic justice advocacy.

Maria Christina Blanco was nominated by State Rep. Liz Malia to receive a 2016 Unsung Heroine Award for her commitment to human rights and economic justice advocacy.

Blanco is a mother, activist, organizer, and health worker who has lived in the Boston area since 1996. She is actively engaged in human rights and economic justice issues and has been for the past 20 years.

She has worked as a community organizer at City Life/Vida Urbana (CLVU) since 2011, where she has helped hundreds of her neighbors resist displacement due to predatory lending and evictions for the profit of corporate landlords.

A member of CLVU since 2001 when her family was a renter in unstable housing, she took the “Latinos Comprando Casa” class and was able to stabilize her family in a Co-Housing development in Jamaica Plans due to the city’s affordable housing lottery and first-time homeowner programs. She finds great satisfaction in “paying it forward” to help others fight for community control of their land and homes because she understands firsthand the impact of stable housing on people’s capacity to meet their families’ needs and care for their health.

About the Award:
Each year the Commission on the Status of Women gathers nominations from across the state for women who make outstanding contributions to their organizations and communities. The Honorees are nominated by state legislators as a means of recognizing women for their previously unnoted yet valuable community contributions.

The Unsung Heroines are women who don’t always make the news, but truly make the difference. They are the women who use their time, talent and enthusiasm to enrich the lives of others and make a difference in their neighborhoods, cities and towns. They are mentors, volunteers and innovators who do what needs to be done without expectations of recognition or gratitude. These women are the glue that keeps a community together and every community has them.

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