Don't Touch My Politics: Summer Series with City Mayor Candidate, Guillermo Creamer

Over the summer, Don't Touch My Podcast says, "Don't Touch my Politics" as we sit down with political candidates running for the Worcester City Council and School Committee seats. In this episode, we sit down with City Mayor Candidate, Guillermo Creamer to discuss his work on the national level, how it can open the door for innovative ideas in the city and how he can show up for marginalized communities. More about Guillermo: Guillermo Creamer Jr. is running for Mayor because it is time for our city to have a choice. Democracy calls for choices, and Worcester has not had a choice in over a decade. It is time to elect someone committed to bold, progressive ideas to take our city to the next level. Guillermo is a local. Attending Elm Park Community School, Nativity School, and Bancroft School, he was educated by many of the best educators Worcester has to offer. As a co-founder of Pay Our Interns, a national nonprofit that has seismically shifted the internship realm throughout the United States, Guillermo has experienced diversity and inclusion firsthand. He committed to bringing those lessons to Worcester. Guillermo most recently served as the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, ensuring Worcester’s equity lens always had a voice. During the last 12 months, Guillermo worked on the Worcester Now Next project, the first citywide planning project since the 1980s. As the lead community organizer on the project, he connected with hundreds of residents and small business owners throughout the city to hear their voices and concerns to ensure that they were included in the project.  Guillermo is unapologetic about who he is and what lived experiences he brings to the table. Guillermo is a proud, openly gay man, Latinx individual, and outspoken national organizer. He was raised by two hard-working South American immigrants in Worcester, where finances were always a topic of discussion. Similar to many residents in Worcester, the Creamers were renters in several of Worcester’s numerous triple-deckers. From Williams Street to Hamilton Street, the Creamers often moved to keep up with low rent prices to help with overall spending. After attending Elm Park Community School, Guillermo was accepted into the Nativity School of Worcester, where his educational experience put him on the path to earning a scholarship at Bancroft School. The Catholic mentality has stuck with Guillermo and is ingrained in his personal moral compass after being confirmed at St. Peters Catholic Church on Main St. He most notably took on the Bishop when he decided to bestow bigotry on the Nativity School for flying the BLM and Pride flags respectively. Guillermo spoke to over a dozen national news outlets, including a live interview on CNN where he defended Nativity on their decision to continue flying the flags.  In 2017, Guillermo, alongside a close counterpart, launched Pay Our Interns. Within a few short years of uphill advocacy, the organization and overall movement reached a pivotal moment: in a bipartisan decision, Congress agreed to allocate over $14 million for intern pay. This success began a series of wins for the organization and a nationwide movement. To date, Pay Our Interns is responsible for over $100 million in funding allocated for interns in Congress, the White House, and the State Department. The organization’s mission is simple but one that is heavily needed within our society: paying interns increases diversity and inclusion and thereby breaks down barriers to entry into the workforce.