Athena Rita Burciaga

Candidate for City Council Member, Marina, District 4 · Student/Community Volunteer

Athena Burciaga is a transgender Chicana woman from a blue-collar, first-generation family in the San Francisco Bay Area who moved to Marina two years ago to attend California State University, Monterey Bay, where she is a computer science major. She works at CSUMB's Rainbow Raft Pride Center and previously served as a resident advisor in student housing, where she saw firsthand the maintenance and overcrowding problems some students face. She has served roughly a year as secretary of culture and community for the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, doing advocacy work outside electoral politics, and has spoken publicly at Marina and Seaside city council meetings in support of resolutions affirming the cities' support for transgender residents.

Burciaga has spoken out against the sitting Marina City Council's move to repeal the city's rent control ordinance, which she sees as important to keeping the city affordable. Drawing on her time as a student resident advisor, she has also called for fixing conditions in CSUMB student housing, citing problems such as black mold, asbestos exposure, and overcrowding that went unaddressed. She has said she was drawn to run for office after seeing housing affordability, transportation, and water access issues firsthand since moving to Marina, and her political engagement traces back to the 2016 presidential election.

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