Breaking into the industry of your dreams takes discipline, hard work, and commitment — and sometimes that still isn’t enough to get you to the table. When it looks like you have all the cards in hand, there are only two options: give up and quit, or do what Doris Anahi Muñoz did when trying to break into LA’s competitive music industry.

“As you’re trying to make your way through the industry, you’re hoping someone gives you a seat at the table, and then I realized that a woman like me in the community I’m from, we We had to build our own board. I had to create a space,” explains Muñoz.

By betting on herself, Muñoz was able to create Casa Mija, a “free and accessible” mentorship program that focuses on creating opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to enter into the music industry and gain valuable industry insights while connecting. with like-minded people from their communities. Muñoz understands the importance of community, it has always been a driving force in her life, a motivation as well as something she could lean on in difficult times.

“In the whirlwind and bubble of my career in the developing music industry, my brother was deported,” she says “We were scared of possible deportation with our parents and I wanted to do whatever was right. in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen again, so I came up with the idea of ​​organizing a concert and trying to raise enough money for my mom to at least start her paperwork. I needed my community to support me.

Muñoz’s first concert was a success, allowing him to launch a second and fully fund the necessary paperwork and legal services that would allow both of his parents to reunite with his brother safely. From this experience, Muñoz created Solidarity For Sanctuary, a non-profit organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of immigrant communities through music and arts advocacy on a national scale.

“From there it just grew to help different community efforts,” she says. “From people who needed to renew their DACA, to other people who needed it directly, and then that’s when it grew nationally.”

For more on the inspirational story of Doris Anahi Muñoz, watch the video from the new Uproxx AMÉRICA series above.