About Victoria

Victoria Ballesteros Ramírez was born in Compton, California, the youngest of nine children. The daughter and sister of Mexican immigrants, her work reflects her bicultural upbringing and experiences.

​​

Victoria's writing has appeared in Salon, Common Dreams, trampset, Black Coffee Review, Your Impossible Voice, Cutleaf Journal, Latin@ Literatures, Latine Lit, ¡Pa'Lante!, The Acentos Review, and the ¡Basta! Anthology, 100 Latinas Against Gender Violence.

 

Her writing has been nominated for the 2023 Allegra Johnson Prize in Memoir and Novel Writing, and 2023 James Kirkwood Prize in Creative Writing. "Tijuana," a work of flash fiction inspired by her childhood, was selected for Best Small Fictions 2024. 

​

Victoria is also a narrative and culture change executive with more than 20 years of experience leading national campaigns and advocacy efforts. She has organized thousands of mothers to champion common sense gun reform, led a multiyear narrative and communication project to advance aging with dignity and independence in the U.S., worked to expand access to reproductive health care, was an organizer for the Children's Defense Fund, and served as advisor to a senior Member of the House of Representatives and to California's Senate Majority Leader. She currently works to defend and advance the rights of low-income immigrants.

 

In 2020 at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Victoria developed and led the #ImmigrantsAreEssential narrative and culture change project on behalf of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), winning a 2021 Shorty Award for Best Integrated Campaign and a 2022 Gold Anthem Award for Human and Civil Rights.

 

She also recently launched the NILC Freedom to Thrive narrative and culture change initiative. She is host of the NILC Freedom to Thrive Podcast, launched in July 2024.

​​

Victoria attended California State University, Fullerton, earning her bachelor's degree in political science with a minor in Chicano studies. She earned her master's degree in communication management from the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She lives in Los Angeles and is enrolled in the creative writing certificate program at UCLA extension.

 

Victoria is Executive Vice President of Narrative and Marketing at the National Immigration Law Center.