Raskin praises Frost’s candid critiques on American democracy’s shortcomings, calling him “precisely the kind of young person we need in politics to confront the challenges of our time.” Likewise, Warren says she sees in Frost an advocate and empath because he “fights from the heart” and understands the problems “confronting Americans crushed by student debt, horrified by gun violence, and denied many of the same opportunities of previous generations.”
However, the Obamas, Sanders, Raskins, and Warrens of the world don’t compare with the lessons and legacy Frost’s abuela, Zenaida Argibay, left behind for her grandson. An immigrant who fled Cuba in the 1960s, Argibay stood up against the discrimination and racism Frost faced growing up. Weeks after he won in the primaries, his abuela died. Still devastated by the loss, it comforts Frost to know that she got to see her “congresista” — what she called him; it means congressman — decisively win the primaries. “She taught me a lot,” Frost says of his yeya — what he called her; he says it’s a Spanish nickname for grandma. “When she came to this country, she had multiple jobs making pretty much no money, exploiting herself so my mom and aunt could have a better life.”
“My grandma didn’t get to achieve or live the American dream, but she lived her own [American] dream. I wonder what her dream would have been if money wasn’t a concern. What would her dream have been if she had actually been supported by this country?”
Patrick Frost grows visibly shaken and teary as he remembers Zenaida, explaining the challenges of raising his Afro-Cuban son as a white man coming from a family of farmers who “grew up in a culture of racism.” He recalls the first time 14-year-old Frost asked why a white security guard had followed him around a Sports Authority store for so long. Patrick was caught off guard but told his son, “He was watching you because he thought you were gonna steal something.” Frost replied that he didn’t understand why the guard would think he’d steal something.
Patrick struggled to find an answer to satisfy his son because, “I didn’t have that experience as a kid. If I grew up never having a son of mixed race, I would not have had this experience, and I would be just as blind as the people who have not had this experience. I never felt that growing up in middle-class, white privilege… but Max taught us just through being himself.”
Throughout his adolescence and into adulthood, Patrick and Maritza were open to Frost reaching out to his birth mother. He never wanted to, until he was steeped in activism and saw firsthand how the world’s cruelties can shape a person’s decisions.
Before he launched his campaign, Frost found his mother via Facebook. When they spoke on the phone for the first time, they wept. He thanked her for “giving me up because I had such a great childhood. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my parents.” They talked about how she had grown up in a high-crime neighborhood, been battered by poverty, and lacked health care. When she had Frost, she already had seven children, and, on the phone that day, she told Frost, “I had you at the most vulnerable point in my life,’” he recalls. “There’s a Dr. Cornel West quote — it’s kind of my motto — that says, ‘You gotta see the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable.’ [So], hearing her say that was a spiritual thing, to be honest. I hung up the phone and said, I’m gonna run for Congress.”