EVA MARIA’S WORK IS THE WORK OF THE MACHETE.
Grounded in empowerment, Eva Maria’s work is a vessel for transformation, spiritual discovery, healing, and wellness. Through her own lived experience, she has witnessed how systemic racism, white supremacy, and colonialism have limited our capacity to dream. Continuously morphing and evolving, Eva Maria refuses to be shackled by what this world makes of her. Instead, she is building avenues of liberation in her local community, personal life, and the world at large. Eva Maria’s work is the work of the machete. As she cuts down oppressive structures guided by the power of this tool, she hands it to others to do the same.
SOCIOCULTURAL ARCHITECT
sōsēōˈkəlCHərəl ˈärkəˌtekt
noun
Someone who is dedicated to creating solutions to structures in our society that perpetuate injustice.
The generative tension of society and culture encompassed to build new worlds.
A LEGACY IN THE MAKING
2016
Eva Maria founded what would go on to be Free Root Operation as a teenager in high school with a passion to serve and improve her community. Around this time she also co-organized a massive youth protest, with no arrests, in Chicago to honor the lives of two police brutality victims, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, and advocate for safer communities.
2020
At the height of the George Floyd uprising and a world-altering pandemic, Eva Maria helped create the coalition On The Ground to meet the immediate needs of Chicagoans. This led her to creating the groundbreaking Chicago Food Pairing Program, feeding over 500 families living in food deserts.
Current
Eva Maria is preparing to release her first single as musician Maria Machete, reimagining what it truly means to be a changemaker in her life by centering creative expression and making a difference through art. She continues to pour into Black and Brown communities and build structures for a freer world.
2018
Using the tools learned as a Sociology major at the University of Pennsylvania, Eva Maria spearheaded the first Community Needs and Assets Assessment for South Shore. The results were published through Free Root Operation as a data booklet in 2021.
2021
Eva Maria was recognized for her work to uphold human rights for all with the 2021 Reebok Human Rights Award, bolstering her ability to carry out and advance the work that she holds dearly.
A LEGACY IN THE MAKING
2016
Eva Maria founded what would go on to be Free Root Operation as a teenager in high school with a passion to serve and improve her community. Around this time she also co-organized a massive youth protest, with no arrests, in Chicago to honor the lives of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling who were victims of police brutality and advocate for safer communities.
2018
Using the tools learned as a Sociology major at the University of Pennsylvania, Eva Maria spearheaded the first Community Needs and Assets Assessment for South Shore, in which the results were published through Free Root Operation via a data booklet in 2021.
2020
At the height of the George Floyd uprising and a world-altering pandemaic, Eva Maria helped create the coalition On The Ground to meet the immediate needs of Chicagoans. This led her to creating the groundbreaking Chicago Food Pairing Program, feeding over 500 families living in food deserts.
2021
Eva Maria was recognized for her work to uphold human rights for all with the 2021 Reebok Human Rights Award, bolstering her ability to carry out and advance the work that she holds dearly.
Current
Eva Maria is preparing to release her first single as musician Maria Machete, reimagining what it truly means to be a changemaker in her life by centering creative expression and making a difference through art. She continues to pour into Black and Brown communities and build structures for a freer world.
ROOTED IN SPIRIT
Eva Maria’s passion for liberation comes from a place of faith. As she grew up and became closer with God, she realized that the vision she had for her people to thrive was not distant from spirituality, but one in the same. Growing up in the church, she was taught the stories of a God who valued justice and keeping promises to His people. She began to internalize these messages, grounding her understanding of our plight and progress in the knowledge that we will one day be free because that is God’s promise to us. Although her upbringing and practice is of Christian faith, her longing for spiritual liberation supersedes the confines of a particular religion. Eva Maria believes that for us to be in a thriving state starts with the spirit. She believes the spirit must be well fed and tended to, connected with the body and mind. She believes that the work of humanizing and providing for our most marginalized is the work of God, and thus the work of feeding the spirit. Once our spirits are free and strong, we will be unstoppable. And so, the focus of her work is on the spirit. It is from a place of divine kindness, love, and care, the same that propelled and strengthened our many ancestors in their hardest times so that we may exist as we do today. Through this work Eva Maria honors this ancestral journey, God, and herself.