As the Associate Director for the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network, Cano led efforts for fair immigration reform and organized for access to higher education for all. She spearheaded the strategy to pass the Minnesota Dream Act and organized students to keep the culturally and racially diverse University of Minnesota General College open. In her previous role as Aide to Minneapolis City Council Vice President Robert Lilligren, Cano pushed for initiatives to make city government more representative of the people by launching the city’s first Latino Engagement Task Force, helping to establish diverse membership on the Office of Sustainability’s Environmental Justice Workgroup, and by promoting public art investment in major transportation projects involving public and private partners. Cano recently left her position in City Hall to begin working as Senior Communications and Public Affairs Specialist for the Minneapolis School District, in charge of leading the district’s efforts to better inform families and students through the lens of language and culture.

Cano was raised in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. with her family at age ten. She has deep roots and a long history in Minneapolis fighting for student and immigrant rights, empowering disenfranchised communities, and working to advance environmental justice. Cano and her partner, Jose Luis Villasenor, and their three sons live in and are active in the East Phillips Neighborhood.

The new 9th Ward, created through the 2011 redistricting process, includes the neighborhoods of Central, Powderhorn Park, Midtown Phillips, East Phillips, Corcoran, and the Hiawatha light rail line in Longfellow.