Hola, welcome to Ward 1! I’m Lane Ramona Santa Cruz (they/she), a second-generation Tucsonense, educator, organizer, madre, and bici enthusiast. I was born and raised on the Westside and Southside of S-cuk-Son, the ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham and home to the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. My parents emigrated from Sonora, Mexico, and met in their early twenties at the El Rio Neighborhood Center, a space that continues to be a hub for community resilience.

After graduating from Desert View High School, I left Tucson on a tennis scholarship to attend Samford University in Alabama but soon returned home to work my way through courses at the University of Arizona, where I earned my Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies with a focus on decolonizing education. Before running for office, I spent over a decade working on issues related to sexual and gender violence, food justice, migrant rights, DIY bicycle mechanics, and ethnic studies. I also served as a council aide for Ward 1, learning firsthand how local government can either uplift or fail our communities.

Now, as Tucson’s Ward 1 Council Member, I am committed to governing alongside our communities and building systems that truly serve working families, youth, and our most vulnerable neighbors. My work is rooted in community organizing, mutual aid, and participatory democracy, guided by values of auto-historia, m/othering, Indigenous and popular education, bicycle and food justice, and worker cooperatives.

At my core, I am an educator and community organizer-activist. As a council member, my mission is to bridge the gap between working families and City Hall, ensuring that those who have been historically excluded are shaping the decisions that impact their lives.