Hope Is Something We Create: Join Us In The Fight For Our Future
- zoeyyucraft
- Oct 21
- 7 min read
We've spent the past few weeks taking to the streets and overpasses across the state to expose the systems profiting off our pain and call for the meaningful action that we need to meet this moment. This month, from the No Kings Day rally and NMOGA annual conference in Santa Fe, to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, we made it clear: young people in New Mexico aren't waiting to act – we're building the future ourselves, with or without permission.
Read on to learn more about our latest action, watch our speech from last weekend's No Kings Day rally, and find out how you can join us in building what comes next.
EXXON PROFITS, NEW MEXICO PAYS: EXPOSING THE FOSSIL FUEL FIESTA
Earlier this month, we took action to call out the oil and gas industry's latest PR stunt and send a clear message that young people in New Mexico see through their lies.
While Exxon plasters its name across our skies as the title sponsor of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, behind the scenes, it remains one of the world's biggest polluters – expanding extraction and drilling, bankrolling destruction and driving the climate crisis that's threatening our future – all in the name of protecting their bottom line.
And if that wasn't enough, they were even the "Diamond Sponsor" for the 2025 annual meeting of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, a group comprised of the same industry insiders and climate criminals that are cashing in as they pollute our air, poison our water and destroy our futures.
But no amount of money can hide the truth: industry profits depend on extraction, exploitation, and harmful policies that keep our state locked into fossil fuels.
That's why we took action with our allies at the Oil and Gas Action Network to call out NMOGA's harm and name Exxon Mobil's title sponsorship for what it is: a greenwashed cover-up for climate destruction.
Together, we dropped massive banners from Albuquerque to Santa Fe – at the Roundhouse, in the dry Rio Grande riverbed, and just yards away from the main entrance to Balloon Fiesta Park as thousands of families poured in for mass ascension – to remind our community and the world that our future is not for sale, and our culture belongs to the people, not polluters.
READ YUCCA COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER ZOEY CRAFT'S SPEECH AT THE SANTA FE NO KINGS DAY RALLY
We brought that same energy to Santa Fe last weekend, where YUCCA Communications Manager Zoey Craft took the mic to call on the thousands gathered outside the Roundhouse for the No Kings Day rally to put their bodies, their resources, and their comfort on the line to take action alongside us in the fight for our future.
"My name is Zoey Craft, and I'm here today speaking on behalf of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action. We are a youth-led movement of BIPOC young people from across so-called New Mexico, organizing on occupied Tiwa, Tewa, and Mescalero Apache lands to confront the fossil fuel industry, challenge systems of injustice, and build the livable future we know is possible.
We've lived through wildfires and drought, school shootings, a pandemic that exposed every inequity this system was built on, and a political landscape defined by fear and inaction. We've watched as the people in power – the ones who are supposed to protect our futures – have failed us again and again in a system that was never built to serve us.
Since 2023, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in a genocide funded by the U.S. government. This year alone, over 300 mass shootings have taken the lives of our friends and family members. Tens of millions of people now live in states where reproductive care is out of reach. And 2025 will be among the warmest years on record, yet we've had to face the reality that extraction and pollution continues to grow, despite our demands in this state that has been captured by oil and gas.
We are living through collapse caused by greed and upheld by the people who profit from our suffering. And the people causing these crises still tell us to wait our turn and allow them to fix it.
But one thing has been clear to our generation for a long time, which is that no one is coming to save us.
So even when it feels impossible to dream about true justice, we must find the courage to remember that the future we are building won't come through incremental change in the same oppressive systems that have failed us – it will be won by reimagining them from the ground up.
Together, our generation has learned how to build power, how to turn our anger and grief into action, and that we stand on the shoulders of giants in this fight for justice and liberation.
We've learned that hope isn't something we wait for, it's something we create.
And we've tried everything to make this system listen. To demand accountability from the people profiting off our pain, to demand justice from the systems that promised to deliver it. But we've learned that we can't reform something that was never built to serve us, which is why we must work together to build something different.
Because no matter who sits in the White House, our communities have faced the same attacks for generations. And this moment does feel different – not because the violence is new, but because it's no longer pretending to be anything else.
We're watching parents ripped from their children by ICE, journalists silenced for speaking the truth, the military being deployed on our streets against a so-called "enemy from within", and community members criminalized for fighting for justice as power is consolidated in the hands of a wealthy few.
This isn't just another swing of the political pendulum. This is fascism in plain sight, and it didn't come out of nowhere.
What we're witnessing isn't the system breaking or democracy dying, it's the illusion fading. It's an empire built on stolen land and labor, extraction and white supremacy revealing itself for what it's always been. And if that's what we're up against, then it's not not enough to just be outraged, we have to be organized. Because young people and frontline communities don't need more allies in name, we need co-conspirators in action.
We don't need more symbolic statements of support, we don't need people who only show up when it's safe or convenient, and we don't need another round of applause for "the youth who will fix what adults keep breaking".
So if you have resources, redistribute them to the communities most impacted. If you have privilege, leverage it to disrupt the systems that keep you comfortable. If you have connections, use them to open the doors that have been closed to us. And if you have fear, bring it with you.
Because our generation has run out of patience, and we've all run out of time.
So no more waiting for someone else to fix it, no more hoping the next election will save us, no more believing that a country built on genocide and colonization will ever protect the people it was built to destroy, and no more begging for scraps from the people selling our futures for profit.
So if today was your first time showing up, don't let it be your last. Organize, learn, and fight alongside us, not where it's safe or sanctioned, but where it's risky, uncomfortable, and needed the most.
Because this fight isn't about one rally or one president. It's about all of us deciding, again and again, to show up for each other, to build something stronger and more powerful than fear, greed, and the systems trying to divide us.
Because no one is coming to save us – but together, we will build the future we deserve."
THE FIGHT IS JUST BEGINNING: HERE'S HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION
Our speech at last weekend's No Kings Day rally was a reminder that true justice and liberation won't come from the institutions that have failed us again and again – they'll come from us. From our refusal to stand by as the systems that have never protected us give way to fascism in plain sight, from our willingness to sacrifice comfort and safety to defend our communities when it matters most, from the strategies passed down through generations of resistance – and from all of us standing together, risking together, and moving together to create the world that we deserve.
If you showed up on Saturday, that mattered. Now, as we reflect on the future we're building together, we're asking you to go deeper with us – to keep showing up to organize, learn, and fight alongside us for the long haul.
That means helping us to build and sustain the movement: activating our loved ones, pooling our resources together, and making space to dream and care for one another in ways that go beyond big moments of visibility. If you're able, we invite you to make a donation to support the young people leading this fight and fuel the collective work that makes meaningful change possible. If there are young people in your life who are ready to take action, you can help them get involved in building the just and livable future we deserve by filling out our Member Interest Form.
And this weekend, we're inviting you to join us for a YUCCA Art Build in Albuquerque as we create space for our community to join hands, imagine, and create together at stations for banner making, tracing, hand signs, frame building, stamping and spray painting with stencils and linocuts!
Creative resistance shows us that art is a powerful way to tell our stories and shift the narrative – touching hearts in a way words sometimes can’t, making moments visible, and providing an opportunity for reflection and imagination to come together.
If you've been searching for a way to plug into our work and build on the momentum of this moment, now is your chance. We hope to to see you on Saturday at the Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque from 1:00-4:00 pm!
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