Latinas Who Lead the Way

Last week at the National Council of La Raza conference I sat in on the "Serving, Leading & Inspiring: Latinas in Elected & Appointed Office" panel. The panelists included my former State Senator Iris Martinez (disclosure: I have donated to her campaign), State Representative Lisa Hernandez, State Representative Susana Mendoza, LA Unified School District Board President Mónica García and Elmy Bermejo, Chair of the board of HOPE, was the moderator.

The panel ended up being a story-telling session and each woman had a different story of how they ended up being an elected official. While I would have enjoyed more time for questions, it was great to hear each story.

Senator Martinez was asked to run for office by a Latino elected official, current Chicago City Clerk Miguel Del Valle. Martinez was a single mom by divorce when she ran for office. She saw this as a positive for her because she knew that when she knocked on doors in her neighborhood and a woman answered she would be able to connect. She was living a similar life. After she was elected a message was sent that back at home, we can tackle the issues we care about: daycares, afterschool programs & the challenge of raising children with gangs in the neighborhood. She was honest that yes it is hard to be in the old boys club, especially in Chicago, but it's just makes things spicy. The men do call on her and other Latinas to make things happen. Martinez thinks that Latinas need to step up and seize the opportunity, don't wait to be asked. We need to take that risk.

State Rep. Hernandez had been working with then-Lieutenant, now Governor Quinn, so she had great perspective and experience before running for office. She spoke about that feeling one gets, that she got, just after she learned she was now an elected official -- "Oh, my, gawd! What do I do now?" Hernandez's strength was that she truly was connected to the community she was now representing. Her office is run like a community center, no one is turned away and her staff is trying to address all the issues that walk though the door. She spent a good amount of time talking about her struggle with work/life balance. Does she attend her son's Little League game or that townhall meeting of constituents discussing healthcare issues? She also is learning that she can't represent and help her community if she's not taking care of herself.

Mónica García spoke of how the issues profiled in the movie "Walkout" (a must see!) is still an issue today. While the LAUSD board just passed a statement about having a goal of 50% graduation rate, her personal goal is 100%. García is tough about education and Latino families. She believes that Latino families must change their expectations. We need to expect that every Latino child can and will graduate from high school AND college. We need to stop pointing to Latino college graduates as exceptional. García also talked about how taking a leadership position often pits you against the community you are trying to help. She's been in board meetings where children have booed her for cutting teachers from the budget. To combat this pitting, she has taken student representatives into her office and showed them how the board and her come to their conclusions -- how the state allocates money and the board needs to make the tough decisions.

But Illinois State Representative Mendoza had the best story of them all. She was raised by two Mexican immigrants who hated, hated politicians. After moving back to Chicago from the suburbs, Mendoza noticed a few mailers of a local election. She was so taken by one of the pieces that she called the opponent and offered her advertising skills to craft a rebuttal piece. The man asked her to come to the office and Mendoza brought her father with - She didn't think she could trust him. And in a classic political move, the elected official offered to make a call to get her an interview with an advertising agency. He didn't have the time or money to do a rebuttal piece, he just liked her moxie. In a matter of weeks her father died suddenly, her brother quit school to come home to help with the family, the hotel she was working at offered her brother a job despite a hiring freeze and then the advertising agency called to offer her a job. When she said she couldn't accept the job because of her brother, the agency called the elected official and soon her brother had a tuition waiver. Within a few years, she was asked to run for office and won the second time she ran.

While most of the women had an inside connection when they decided to run, they certainly were not born into the business. They stumbled or worked their way into the network where they could take the next step into elected office.

The one question I asked, I'll leave you with to ponder. If increasing Latino, especially Latina, representation in elected office is important, we need to recognize that there are limited Latino-majority districts. How do we push for more Latina representation while we need to win Latino-minority districts? Their collective answer is to represent the Latina/o community, but not to run as the Latina candidate.

[Image: LAist]

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