Darializa Avila Chevalier is a working-class Afro-Latina organizer, UAW member, and the daughter of Dominican immigrants who has spent years fighting for her community in upper Manhattan. Seeing her family navigate immigration issues, economic hardship, and structural racism shaped her commitment to justice.

She helped lead the removal of the Central Park statue of J. Marion Sims, fought for the release of Abdikadir Mohamed after 18 months of ICE detention under Trump’s “Muslim ban,” and organized against family separation at Families for Freedom. She now serves as an investigator at Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem, supporting New Yorkers targeted by the legal system.

A Columbia alumna, Darializa also organized for Palestinian rights and helped lead the 2023–24 Columbia encampment. Her career is rooted in the belief that working-class communities in upper Manhattan and the West Bronx deserve real investment, dignity, and power.