MEET JOSE NOÉ ELIAS! 

I am José Noé Elías. I am a teacher, an immigrant, a husband and a father. I was born in Querétaro, México and immigrated to Austin with my family when I was 8 years old. I was raised in Montopolis, and that's where I have built my homestead.

 

I am of the working class. My mother worked cleaning hotel rooms and later as a custodian at an elementary school. My father worked, and still works, in construction. My mother rode the Cap Metro bus every morning at 6am but left our breakfast and clothes ready for us.

 

My family lived undocumented for more than a decade. I lived undocumented for more than 20 years. In those years I dropped out of high school, returned to school and earned my high school diploma. I worked in construction, fast food, at a country club and at a popular Austin restaurant. I also went to college and earned a Bachelor's of Science and a Master's in Education. I was finally able to adjust my immigration status when I got married 12 years ago. 

 

In those 12 years I have worked as a tutor and dual language teacher in District 3. Since making my homestead in 2016, a few blocks from where I grew up, I have become more and more involved in my neighborhood. Teaching in my community has demonstrated the importance of a stable home and the networks that are built around it. Stable housing greatly improves learning, health and mental health.

 

My love of service comes from watching my mother. Even before her great sacrifices to provide for us in this country, she was a servant of the people in our community in México. She worked as a Promotora de Salud, a community health worker. She traveled to the state capital and received various kinds of training, mainly in education and health. She returned to our village and provided these services to our community. Memories of my mother teaching adults to read, vaccinating children and teaching families to start a backyard garden resonate with me.

 

As a teacher and community organizer, I have followed in my mother's footsteps. My students and their families are my neighbors and their experiences are my experiences. Unfortunately, their stories are different in that Austin has become so unaffordable. Where my family was able to find an affordable house to rent in a neighborhood that was made up of working class families, there are many families in District 3 living in one bedroom apartments or having to move outside of the city, away from their jobs and schools. The working class families deserve better. If our city were to be judged by how we treat the workers that keep our city running, we have failed completely.

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As your city council representative I will work for our working families in District 3 and the entire city. I will fight to make Austin a city where those workers that work in our restaurants, in our hotels, in school cafeterias have an affordable place to live and the resources they need to raise their families.