Samy Nemir Olivares (they/them) has the perfect life experience to be a natural activist. Born in rural Puerto Rico to a single mother, they grew up in a financially insecure household, relying on government programs to make ends meet. After college, they moved to New York City with only a suitcase and a dream, to create a more just, equitable world. Today, they are the founder and director of Cuir Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in communications and strategy for the Latinx, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC communities. Samy is also the the author of the recently released book, CuirDoRican. Read on to learn more about Samy Nemir Olivares and the roles they have played over the past several years!

Where are you based?
Between Brooklyn, New York, and Puerto Rico.

You started your career in photojournalism. Did that work inform your activism, or did activism inform your photojournalism?
It was both. Journalism gave me the tools to document injustice, amplify marginalized voices, and challenge power, but my activism is what gave that work purpose. I started documenting the students protests at the University of Puerto Rico and then Black Lives Matter in the United States and these experiences opened my eyes to the work needed. I realized early on that visibility alone wasn’t enough—we needed action. So I began getting more involved in the community and activism to go beyond documenting, but being part of the solution.

What inspired you to get involved in activism and politics?
Growing up queer and Latine, I saw firsthand how systemic inequalities affect our communities. My family, my people, and my own experiences with discrimination pushed me to step up. I didn’t want to just survive—I wanted to make it easier for others to thrive. I grew up being bullied for being perceived as gay or effeminate, seeing others bully my mother for being a little person, plus growing in Puerto Rico being a colony also on a rural town with a low-income family made me constantly think about inequity and injustice and the power that government and policy have to change life circumstances of families like mine. When I was growing up, you couldn’t even get married or being gay was still illegal in the U.S. until I was 12 years old, so you these discriminatory laws make you pay attention and feel an urge to change them.

Tell us about your early activism. You were involved in many groups, including Center for Popular Democracy.
Yes, I worked with CPD, working in advocacy campaigns around immigrant rights, healthcare for all, racial justice, and economic equity — all during Trump’s first year of the first administration. That’s where I learned that real change happens when communities organize and demand it. But I also got involved locally in my community joining the School Community Board, as well the Community Board, and co-founded a mutual aid in Bushwick to help distribute food and resources to families. Also, fed up with the political system, I ran for District Leader, a voluntary local elected office that helps elect judges and make the rules of the Democratic Party, which I feel was not raising the issues our communities were struggling with.

In the last 8 years, you have had your own political career. Where do you intend to take it?
My goal has always been the same: to create a more just, equitable world. I don’t see myself running for office again any time soon, but definitely staying active politically because our lives and communities depend on us staying vigilant, advocating and organizing against these forces that want us to disappear. I hope to continue to fight for LGBTQ+ rights and immigrant rights from whatever capacity I can.

What is your current role at Lambda Legal?
I have been almost seven years at Lambda and I currently work as Director of Strategic Communications. We advocate for LGBTQ+ and HIV+ communities through litigation, policy, and public education. We fight for trans rights, gender-affirming care, and protections against discrimination. Right now, especially, we’re focused on defending our community from relentless attacks in courts and legislatures.

You founded the project THRIVE. Can you tell us more about it and what it hopes to accomplish?
THRIVE is about educating and uplifting youth particularly, LGBTQ youth, and youth of color. It’s a project where I visit schools, shelters and colleges to talk about leadership, advocacy, and organizing with a strong focus on mindfulness and mental health.

With the current government, the LGBTQ+ community is more stressed out than ever. What advice do you have for people in the community trying to stay sane right now?
Stay grounded in what brings you joy, in love, and collective moments of resistance. But most importantly, we need to take breaks — burnout is real, but we need you here for the long haul, so drink your water, sleep your hours and work it out! Exercise is my go-to place to ensure I feel energized and fit for whatever battle comes our way. Also find your people or tribe. Community is everything and helps us feel less alone, isolated or defeated. I could spend hours speaking with family and friends over the phone or attending or joining local or national groups that inspire you and make you feel useful and contributing to the cause.

Tell us about the mutual aid organization you founded, Bushwick Ayuda Mutua. How has it helped the Latino community in Brooklyn?
Bushwick Ayuda Mutua was born out of necessity. When the pandemic hit, our communities were left behind—so we stepped up. We provided food, resources, legal aid, and solidarity to thousands of families, particularly undocumented immigrants who didn’t have much resources to eat or survive through the pandemic. It all started with a call of five neighbors, I started helping translate the fliers and then came up with a strategy to get food wholesale skipping the supermarkets and bringing groceries directly to the families thanks to local donations. Mutual aid is about taking care of each other when the government fails us, and this project was and is still a beautiful example of that, it is one of the only and the largest mutual aid group still operating in NYC from the pandemic, thanks to many volunteers and the solidarity of cooperative bookstore Mil Mundos.

You identify as Latinx, but there are many in the Latino community who do not care for that term. Why do you like and use it?
Language evolves to reflect our identities. I use "Latinx" and "Latine" because they include nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people like me. The pushback isn’t new—every generation fights for words that affirm them, but it is important to use it as a way to be inclusive and make more people feel respected, seen and included. I don’t expect or force people to use it, but I invite them to consider to be more respectful and sensitive.

NYC was one of the locations that a lot of immigrants were transported to over the past few years. We even have a place for many immigrants out at Floyd Bennett Field. What are your thoughts on bringing in these immigrants without much of a long-term plan? And how can we now help and protect them?
he crisis isn’t the people—it’s the government’s failure to plan. These are families, workers, and future citizens. NYC must provide housing, legal support, and work opportunities, not just temporary shelters. We need policies that treat immigrants with dignity.

The new government is also attacking immigrants. What advice do you have for immigrants worried about their future?
Organize and stay as informed as you can with accurate, truthful information, not believing everything that is on social media. Look for organizations like United We Dream, and Make the Road and others that focuses on providing accurate information and resources to immigrants. Also seek legal help wherever you can find it. You are not alone. There are groups fighting for you—connect with them, know your rights, and don’t let fear silence you.

You are well-known for having a gender-nonconforming fashion style, with bright colors and lots of accessories. How did you come to develop your style, and how do you feel it defines who you are?
My sense of style was inspired from the women I grew up with since my childhood, particularly my mother. My mom would dress up for work in the Court system as a social worker with fabulous bright and colorful linen sets with big shoulder pads, big pearl or gold earrings and bright red lipstick. My favorite part was her shoes, which she would buy in some trips that were made of leather and the most exotic fabrics and colors, and they looked adorable since they were miniature, since my mother is a little person, but still conveyed her strong personality through her style. Other influences were my Puerto Rican teachers who would come to school like it was a fashion show, plus our culture of Miss Universe, elegance and beauty. Throughout my life other icons have influenced me such as trans woman like Puerto Rican Cristina Hayworth with her golden crown and Marsha P Johnson with her flower crown, for which I would often wear crowns or head pieces honoring their memory and wear something that symbolizes my support for trans rights and social justice.

How I developed my sense of style and gender expression as nonbinary as an adult? One day I was at work and was feeling a strong energy of transformation, at least of self care while I was working fighting against Trump’s first administration. I got up and went walking and found a basement vintage store in Bushwick. I decided to try on pieces without labeling or caring they were for “men” or “women”, and immediately gravitated towards the “women” section and started trying on several dresses and bought my first dress, which was a beautiful parsley long sleeves blue dress vintage style. I wore it the next day with a pearl necklace and that day Cynthia Nixon from Sex And the City stopped by the office while she was campaigning for New York governor and we took a photo while she was waiting pants and loved how the photo showed how we have evolved in terms of defying the gender binary through style. From there, I just kept buying and wearing what brought me joy but most importantly I felt made me express my gender identity and how I feel without caring what people would think. Every day, would keep adding or wearing a bigger dress, another jewelry piece, then make up, some times even wigs, and just playing and exploring to the point I feel comfortable and aligned with my gender and soul.

A lot of activists are saying that the left needs to take as much time as it needs to rest and reset after the win of Trump in November. Do you agree? How should progressives be handling the next four years?
Rest is part of the fight, and is super important, if not essential, rest and joy are part of radical self-care and resistance. I do try to rest and take my time off as much as I can. At the same time, we don’t have four years to sit back. We need to build stronger, more radical movements. We’ve seen what happens when we wait—our rights get stripped away. This is also the time to strategize, organize, and push harder so we are not behind like what happened in this election, but it has to be done in a sustainable way that doesn’t get us burn out.

It has been a crazy past few years, and we suspect at least four more. How have you been staying positive?
By focusing on what I can do and a few topics I can relate to like LGBTQ+ rights and immigrants rights. Other issues are super important, but I let others step in and lead us in that way. I stay not as necessarily positive but optimistic and hopeful about our collective ability to fight back and be resilient because we have to, otherwise, we fall into hopelessness, and apathy and become complacent I find hope in our resilience, our wins—big and small—and in the fact that, despite everything, we’re still here fighting.

What is your motto in life?
“Live this world better than you found it”

Where can we find out more about you?
Follow me on Instagram: @SamyNemir and also buying my book CuirDoRican!

Samy Nemir Olivares - Bringing Fashion Sense to Activism