Born to an immigrant farmworker-philosopher turned utilities engineer and a badass homemaker-slash-photography business owner, Sarina is a bonafide Brawley gal who never forgot her roots. She volunteered as tribute for her lineage just prior to the New Millennia, opting to be born the eldest of four girls in a family riddled with generational poverty, trauma, and blessings in-kind. Following her father’s sudden cancer diagnosis in 2007, Sarina was stricken with a debilitating autoimmune disease that threatened nearly every aspect of her future, but with the help of her devoted mother, did not succeed. A lifelong band geek and scholar-athlete, Sarina graduated from Brawley Union High School in 2012 with a heart full of dreams and very little concept of the world beyond Imperial Valley.
She swapped admission to University of California, Santa Barbara for an undergrad closer to family in Phoenix where she worked in retail and briefly attended Glendale Community College before moving on to Arizona State University. Sarina studied Interdisciplinary Arts & Performance and Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, earning concurrent Bachelor’s degrees from the institution’s underrated West Campus community where she gave a commencement speech in 2017. She was fortunate enough to be able to perform in plays, show at galleries, volunteer as an art therapy facilitator, and study abroad during her educational career while constantly being hospitalized for health complications.
Sarina has worked as a server-bartender, art teacher, photographer, and most recently as a freelance journalist based in her hometown. While she didn’t set out to be a writer, she has always had a knack for words and a love for print publication, appearing as a poet and photographer in ASU’s literary magazine, Canyon Voices, where she also served as Editor and is credited with pioneering the online Digital Media section. Other notable achievements include having her photography featured in a University of Arizona Press anthology called Mexican Workers and the Making of Arizona (2018), and her partnership with the California Arts Council where she contributed both in the field and in writing to a qualitative research report called Portrait of an Arts Ecosystem: Imperial Valley (2022).
She has since taken the local journalism scene by storm, at first by accident and then on purpose, soft-launching People’s Press in 2023 to a select few before teaming up with colleague and friend, Justin Orsino, in 2024 to solidify its nonprofit status and website presence. Sarina currently serves as the CEO, Editor, Creative Director, videographer and copywriter for the Valley’s first and only Slow News and Citizen Journalism outlet. Her goal is to bring skilled work and fair pay back to the impoverished rural region, while revitalizing youth and community engagement locally and revolutionizing the standards of employment worldwide. She is supported by her partner, Matthew Gross-Sandoval, her chihuahua and spirit guide, Muffin, friends, family, and the Unconditional Love of God, The Most High.
