Articles

By Orly Benaroch Light Not long ago, I sat in a room remembering my friend Hortencia Manzano Mammen, who we lost far too soon after multiple health challenges. She was only 59. We met in 2020 while her husband was volunteering for the presidential campaign. We would hold potluck meetings at her beautiful home, always decorated with a festive theme. Hortencia had a sparkle—an energy and warmth that drew people in. She had a way of making everyone feel special, like they truly

Reflections from a Former Training Captain on the 2020 Harris Presidential Campaign in San Diego By Orly Benaroch Light I volunteered as a training captain for Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign in San Diego. At a fundraiser hosted by a local women’s rights advocate, I had the chance to meet her in person. I felt hopeful about Harris; she was a former prosecutor and sitting senator, offering what seemed like real, sensible change for the country. Back then, I was conv

Orly Benaroch Light There’s a grief many women don’t talk about — the grief of a career that didn’t end with celebration, but with silence. After decades of building, leading, and showing up, some of us are left wondering how we became invisible in the very spaces we helped create. It’s not burnout. It’s not failure. It’s not even reinvention — not yet. It’s the quiet heartbreak of having done everything “right” and still being left behind. We search for meaning in the loss.