Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou
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- 2021 California Political Leadership Fellow
I am a farmer and co-operator at Brisa de Año Ranch in Pescadero, CA. I was born in Miami, Florida to a Guatemalan father and a Venezuelan mother. Shortly after graduating college, I joined the Peace Corps in Togo, where I worked as a small business advisor for rice farmers in my community. It was there where I was first drawn to farming and the under-appreciated ability and wisdom that farmers possess. After two years working in Washington D.C., I moved to California to begin a season-long farm apprenticeship. It was there where I met Cole and Cristóbal – my two business/farming partners – and where we started Brisa in 2018. Fun (and not-so fun) facts: I love to run, hike, dance, and travel (in non-Covid times), I’m really into wine, my favorite comfort food are arepas, my master’s research focused on farmer cooperatives, innovations for sustainable and equitable food systems, and supermarkets and diet in Mexico, and I’m slowly (but surely) getting into baking bread and canning.