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Julia Cuba knew from an early age what she wanted to do with her life. “I was seven years old and the only girl on my tee ball team. I was our fastest runner,” remembers Cuba. “But at an award ceremony, my coach said ‘Here’s our girl, she was able to keep up.’ Then he handed me a trophy with a woman’s figure on it with huge breasts and everyone laughed at me. I knew I needed to understand why men and women were treated differently. I found that trophy recently and realized, ‘this was where it all started.’”
Cuba earned a Bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from Beloit College in Wisconsin. She then moved to Chicago and immersed herself in eight different grassroots women’s agencies. “It took a while for me to realize,” says Cuba, “that the issues I was seeing were not just women’s issues − they were human issues. And it all started with poverty.” She counseled rape victims in emergency rooms. She ran inner-city mentor programs. She helped women find work and pursue non-traditional careers including truck driving and construction. She did fundraising for international women’s issues. And even worked with a women’s art gallery.
Looking for new experiences, Cuba surprised herself when she ended up with the Girl Scouts-Lone Star Council in Austin. “I had read about a job there in the paper, but really thought ‘no way!’ They turned out to be an incredibly progressive, interesting and smart group of women, and I ended up spending nine years of my life with them.” In those years, Cuba ran outreach programs for high-risk girls facing life in shelters, probation, emotional disorders, and mothers who had gone to prison (Troop 1500).
After earning a Master’s degree in social work from The University of Texas at Austin, Cuba was looking for her next career move when she heard about GENaustin. “When I arrived and expressed my interest in the executive director position, it was like someone opening a door and inviting me in. After the interview, I got back in my car, and 10 minutes later I got the job.“
Founded in 1996, GENaustin trains and educates middle-school-aged girls on everything from teen pregnancy to eating disorders. With after-school programs, conferences, workshops, workforce development programs and an ongoing event series called Girl Talk, GENaustin reaches out to girls across central Texas from every socio-economic level. Since Cuba joined the organization, they have expanded their geographic reach, their funding, their program retention and the diversity of girls that they serve.
Cuba In Conversation
austinwoman: What is GENaustin?
Julia Cuba: “GEN” stands for Girls Empowerment Network, which means we mentor young women in areas like employment, relationships, body image, bullying, gossip, self protection, diversity, literacy and even mind and spirit.
aw: Happiest career moment?
JC: When film director Ellen Spiro made Troop 1500: Girl Scouts Behind Bars, a documentary about our work with girls whose mothers had been incarcerated. It was a really transformative experience. Ellen and her team got to know the girls for a year before the cameras even started rolling. We took the girls to visit their mothers for counseling sessions at Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, TX, and helped them rebuild their relationships. The girls even got to do some of the filming. The screening of Troop 1500 sold out at the SXSW Film Festival. We showed at the MOMA, and the Smithsonian. I traveled all over the country. I even narrated the film. When we were featured on This American Life, my dream had come true.
aw: Most inspirational gift you ever received?
JC: My grandmother gave me a tote bag in high school that said “Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman.”
aw: Little known fact about you?
JC: I lived with 18 Brazilian men for a year during study abroad in college. It was very Romancing the Stone. I arrived on a dirty bus with chickens on it, carrying my Laura Ashley luggage, not speaking a word of Portuguese. But I had my own room and we all became great friends. They hazed me, gave me a nickname and made me a member of their fraternity.
aw: Top three favorite things about Austin?
JC: Daily Juice, Mean Eyed Cat and Big Stacy Pool.
aw: If you could make the world a better place?
JC: I would mobilize resources toward prevention versus reaction. If we can prevent people from being on the streets, prevent them from falling into poverty, prevent them from losing their health, we will solve so many problems before they even begin.
aw: If you could go anywhere in the world right now?
JC: China.
aw: Plans for the future?
JC: To find a life partner. And if I don’t have kids on my own, adopt.
MORE INFO
www.genaustin.org