About Victoria
Victoria Ballesteros was born in 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 numerous anthologies, publications, and journals including 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 featuring 100 Latinas Against Gender Violence.
Her writing has been nominated for several awards, and her work "Tijuana," was selected for inclusion in 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. Most recently she worked to defend and advance the rights of low-income immigrants in the United States.
In 2020 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.
Victoria also launched the NILC Freedom to Thrive narrative and culture change initiative for NILC. She created and hosted of the NILC Freedom to Thrive Podcast, winning two Webby Awards in 2025.
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 is enrolled in the creative writing certificate program at UCLA extension.
Victoria currently resides in Spain.
