06/16/2026
Patty vive en Saint Cloud, Minnesota, y siente una gran pasión por trabajar con comunidades marginadas. Lo que más disfruta es escuchar las historias de vida de las personas y aprender de sus experiencias.
Creció en una granja en Dakota del Norte junto a cinco hermanos. Aunque disfrutaba las actividades al aire libre y los deportes, sentía que la vida en la granja era solitaria. En la preparatoria destacó en el atletismo y el baloncesto, fue reina de la escuela y conoció a su esposo, con quien ha estado casada durante 50 años. En 2004 se mudaron a Saint Cloud por trabajo.
Ayudar a los demás es uno de sus valores principales. Ha patrocinado y apoyado a inmigrantes detenidos de México y Venezuela, ayudándolos a reunirse con sus familias en Minnesota. Estas experiencias se convirtieron en algunas de las más significativas de su vida.
La justicia social es una causa central para ella. Después de muchos años como católica, buscó una comunidad religiosa más comprometida con estos temas y se convirtió en episcopal. También ha trabajado durante años con las Hermanas Franciscanas de Little Falls, promoviendo una vida enfocada en la justicia social.
Su involucramiento con la comunidad latina comenzó cuando ayudó a resolver casos de discriminación en una comunidad de viviendas prefabricadas. Más tarde se integró al trabajo comunitario y actualmente colabora con la organización Fe y Justicia, defendiendo los derechos de inmigrantes y familias latinas.
Ha participado en viajes a Washington D.C. para promover la reforma migratoria y la protección de DACA, ha participado en protestas, ha sido arrestada en actos de desobediencia civil y ha trabajado en campañas como la aprobación de las licencias de conducir para todos. Cree que la perseverancia es esencial para lograr cambios sociales.
Su mensaje para los demás es sencillo: vivir con amor, escuchar las historias de las personas y tratar a todos con empatía y respeto, incluso cuando existan diferencias, porque eso puede generar cambios significativos en la vida de los demás.
Entrevistada y fotografiada por: Kelly Springer.
Saint Cloud, MN
Patty loves that she gets to work with the marginalized - “I love that I get to see so many other people and hear their life stories. I love any interaction that I can have with people. I am grateful to have the experiences I’ve had. If I still lived back in North Dakota, I would not have ever had this chance.
I grew up in North Dakota, which is a very red, red, red state. We lived on a farm. I have 5 brothers and I was the only girl, so I had to be in the house. I hated it. I liked to be out in the fields, climbing trees, building forts, and all the things the boys did. I was active in sports in school. My mom had me in 4-H, but you sewed and you baked and you did all those things. That wasn't really my main interest. I did love to have the animals. I had steers and turkeys. I had a special turkey, but it got eaten on Thanksgiving. Growing up on a farm was lonely for me because you couldn't run over to a neighbor's house or you couldn't have a lot of friends out there because it was just hard being on the farm that way.
In high school, I was homecoming queen. I went to the state track meet in the 220-yard dash. I loved basketball. I was on an all-state basketball team way back in the '70s. I also met my husband in high school. We’ve been married for 50 years, but we’ve been together more like 75 years. We lived in North Dakota for many years, relocating to Saint Cloud in 2004 for work. As to North Dakota, I don't even go back there. I don't feel welcome.
In my day-to-day life I value helping. If I can help solve a problem a problem or an issue, from simple to the more complex, I do it. I have been a sponsor for two 2 people, one from Mexico, and the other was from Venezuela. He was stuck in a detention center in Arizona. The other person from Mexico was stuck in the Dilley detention center, which we've heard tons about. To get them freed and get them brought home to Minnesota where there was family or friends waiting for them, was, I think, one of the most important things I've ever done. For the man in Venezuela, I was his his best matron of honor. And then for the woman she asked my husband to walk her down the aisle, I mean, we were in tears. Who would even think that that could even be possible and that you would be that honored to do that?
Social justice is important to me. I was catholic for 70 years, but I found that it did not touch on social justice the way it should have. When we got here, we went from church to church to church to find the right pastor that was speaking about social justice. It took a long time because there weren't many that were speaking social justice voices. We are now Episcopalian. Despite that change, I've been an associate with the Franciscan sisters of Little Falls for 15 years. Being an associate means you live in the secular community but you try to follow what they believe and try to lead a more social justice-oriented life. Working with the sisters, we had Sister Carol that started the Hispanic Center. I met her when we went to talk with the St. Cloud Police Department about an issue the community had involving racial profiling, before they did the St. Cloud policing agreement.
I work with a Latinx nonprofit called Fe y Justicia. I got connected with the Latinx community when my husband came home from a parish council meeting and said there was a young woman there in tears. She said she lived in a manufactured home community where the manager was calling the police and ICE on them, they couldn't have anything out in their yard, they had to park way in the back, there were a lot of discrimination issues. We went to the community meetings, and we resolved the issue by finally getting to talk with the owner of that community who was from Minneapolis. We were ready to do a big protest and have the media come out, but he agreed to talk with the manager first and have her do some racial training and understanding of the culture. After that, she was super nice about everything after that.
Even so, it was always one more thing for the Latinx community to bear. The next thing I knew, I was in a van with 15 people all speaking Spanish on our way to Washington, D.C. We talked with senators and representatives and things like that. We took other trips to Washington, D.C., for immigration reform. We did it for DACA, too, trying to get congress to take up the bill. We were with an Asian group, and they had the feeling that if they shaved their heads, that's a sign of being a warrior. I said I would shave my head too. When I came back from that trip, people were like, "Are you sick? How could you do that?" I said, "Well, you know why I did it." I'll do anything like that for the community. I've been arrested a number of times in protest to different bills that have run. We worked on the driver’s license bill, which took a long time to get through. I think persistence is the key to all of that. And a lot of people now don't have a full handle on how long it takes sometimes to get things done.
My advice for people is to live with love. And listen to people and their stories. I think if you listen, really listen, and approach them with love, even if they're on the other side of you, you can make a difference in their life. You probably can't change their thinking, but you could make them think about something that they've probably never thought about before."
Interview and photographed by: Kelly Springer
