Growing up in a Mexican immigrant household, Eva Masadiego, the newly appointed executive director of the Arizona-Mexico Commission, said she was taught the importance of getting an education to better serve her community.

A daughter to parents from Colima and Jalisco, Mexico, Masadiego said she was inspired by her mixed-status immigrant family to dedicate her life’s work to helping immigrant communities.

Growing up as a native Californian, her true calling in social welfare and education came during her academic journey, as she navigated higher education in a different country and looked to Arizona as SB 1070 was being debated at the Senate, leading to one of the state’s strictest periods for undocumented immigrants.

The longtime Arizonan has measured up to the task, having previously worked as the Deputy Director of Operations for Gov. Katie Hobbs, at the City of Phoenix with the Youth and Education Office and with former councilmember Daniel Valenzuela.

Her work in education and advocacy in Phoenix has prepared her to get to the position she is in now, leading the non-profit cross-border organization that seeks to “improve the economic prosperity and quality of life for all Arizonans through strong, public/private collaborations in advocacy, trade, networking and information.”

An Arizona calling that stemmed from abroad

Masadiego’s parents made it through sixth grade while living in their respective Mexican towns. This always intrigued Masadiego, wanting to learn more about the system in Mexico. So much so that while a junior at UC Berkeley; she decided to study abroad in Mexico City at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Her time there, however, pushed her in a different direction: the Sonoran Desert.

While in Mexico City, she said she vividly remembers the unavoidable headlines and conversation surrounding Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070. It was talked about everywhere — on taxicab radios, in newspaper headlines, among university peers.

The legislation, passed in 2010, was known as the “show me your papers” law, which required police officers to inquire about the legal status of anyone they thought might be in the country illegally.

She wasn’t an Arizonan and her parents were Mexican nationals, but her peers still looked to her and asked her to “answer on behalf of your country” and “answer on behalf of the state of Arizona.”

“It was really difficult for me to sit there as an American student of Mexican immigrant parents and be labeled as ‘that’s your country, that’s you,’” Masadiego said. “I thought to myself, ‘If I care about immigration, if I care about policy, if I care about working with immigrant communities, I have to be in Phoenix, Arizona.’”

Upon graduation from Berkeley in 2012, she signed up for the Teach for America program and soon became a teacher within the Balsz Elementary School District in east Phoenix.

“My parents thought, ‘Why would I move to Phoenix, Arizona? Don’t you know what’s happening?’ And of course, everyone talked about it. You didn’t have to be in Arizona to know what was happening with SB 1070,” Masadiego said.

But to her, this was the perfect job. In the classroom, she could work directly with immigrant and refugee populations. Outside of the classroom, she dedicated herself to advocacy work in the Valley, organizing and helping people register to vote.

While teaching in east Phoenix, she surveyed her class and learned that 12 languages were spoken among her students. She developed a curriculum that centered around her students’ experiences, teaching them about immigration, civil rights issues and SB 1070 and other current events directly impacting them.

“I knew they would relate, being bilingual, coming from immigrant households, coming from not being born in this state and this country. I was able to have incredible conversations with my students and that really inspired me to remind myself that this is the work I wanted to do,” Masadiego said.

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Education and advocacy at a state level

When Masadiego was teaching, she said she noticed many of her students were leaving the district and moving to Tolleson, Avondale and west Phoenix due to the affordable housing costs in those areas. There were many issues impacting her students and their families and she wanted to work with people who could effect change.

Her work with public officials began in 2015 when she joined the office of former Phoenix City Councilmember Daniel Valenzuela, who represented central and west Phoenix.

“It was always about how do I expand my reach and increase my impact,” Masadiego said.

During Masadiego’s time with his office, Valenzuela told The Arizona Republic that she was a strong advocate for the codePHX initiative which sought to raise funds for coding and robotic lessons for kids. It aimed to close the opportunity gender gap in tech education, he said.

“Her fingerprints were on any and all those things that we worked on at city council. Whether they were issues around public safety, economic development and of course educational initiatives that we put forth, they all had Eva’s influence, fortunately,” Valenzuela said.

Her time spent working in government led to her being named the director of National Programs at New American Leaders, an organization that encourages people of immigrant backgrounds to run for office, where she said she was tasked with expanding the organization from four to 10 states.

During that expansion, Megan Cagle, the Senior Director of Communications and Research at New American Leaders, said Masadiego worked closely with various nonprofit organizations, local advocacy groups and other individuals who worked in democracy reform across the country.

“She really did an amazing job of bringing everyone together and seeing where the needs were,” Cagle said.

Even with the setbacks caused by the pandemic, Masadiego said she was able to expand the organization to eight states.

Masadiego eventually went back to working with public officials in February 2023 when she was named Deputy Director of Operations for the Office of the Governor. In June 2024, she was asked to serve as the Executive Director of the Arizona-Mexico Commission.

The organization works in tandem with the Arizona and Sonora governments and local organizations to improve relations across the border. This is done via advocacy, commerce, networking and information sharing.

“When I think about the history of the AMC (Arizona-Mexico Commission), the Arizona-Mexico Commission has done incredible work to build a strong partnership with the country of México and the state of Sonora,” Masadiego said.

From workforce to education programs, Masadiego said she wants to eventually be able to think about new partnerships and new ways to benefit both Phoenix and Sonora communities.

Reach La Voz reporter David Ulloa Jr. at david.ulloa@gannett.com.