Josefa Castro is originally from Ecuador and she grew up in an immigrant family in Bushwick, a poor, Latino neighborhood in Brooklyn. This is where she learned at an early age the value of social justice to bring about a just society by challenging injustice. After working countless hours on a variety of neighborhood issues, such as drugs and prostitution, Ms. Castro was appointed Vice-President of the area’s first Neighborhood Block Association. Among many projects, she helped mobilize the community to successfully get the city to turn over run-down, city-owned property to the neighborhood to be transformed into community gardens and green spaces. The success of her Block Association led to the creation of other Block Associations in neighboring
