Latino Leaders Speak by Mickey Ibarra & María Pérez-Brown

Author:Mickey Ibarra & María Pérez-Brown [Ibarra, Mickey & Pérez-Brown, María]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arte Público Press
Published: 2017-06-15T05:00:00+00:00

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Gloria Molina

County Supervisor

Los Angeles County

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June 4, 2008

Trailblazer Gloria Molina is the first Latina in history to be elected to the California State Legislature, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. As a Los Angeles County Supervisor, Gloria Molina developed a reputation as a fiscal guardian committed to achieving good government reforms and addressing quality of life issues–particularly for the one million residents living in unincorporated areas. But her main focus has been on strengthening Los Angeles County’s public health care system, first by securing $1 billion in federal funds from President Bill Clinton in 1995 to rescue the county’s struggling health care network; then by helping develop the county’s public-private partnership system of health care into the largest in the United States.

While at the California State Legislature, Molina lent her political muscle to many issues, but it was her lengthy but successful fight against building a state prison in the Boyle Heights neighborhood that made her a local legend.

Molina grew up as one of ten children in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera to a Mexican-American father and Mexican mother. She attended public schools in her hometown and attended Rio Hondo College, East Los Angeles College and California State University, Los Angeles.

My father used to say, “Con un sueño, trabajo y ganas, todo se puede lograr.” With a dream, hard work and determination, anything can be accomplished. Now, one would think with such positive inspiration that it had all been planned, that I would have known as a child that one day I would be here. But nothing could be further from the truth.

My parents are from Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. I’m first generation. Although my father was born in the United States, he was raised from the age of three in Mexico. Of course, he always longed to come back to the United States. I’m the oldest of ten children. I was raised in Los Angeles. We all lived together in a small two-bedroom house. And, of course, I was always reminded that it was my responsibility to set the example for my brothers and sisters. This is a tradition in Mexico, and I was very proud to follow through on that tradition. My parents had dreams for each and every one of us. But those dreams were really rather limited. My father aspired for me to graduate from high school and go on to be a legal secretary. That would make him so very proud. He wanted all of his children to learn English and not have an accent. That was very important to him because he didn’t want us to be discriminated. Of course, he wanted for every single one of us to graduate from high school. He’d been a construction worker all of his life and, as he said, worked with his back and his hands and did not want us to follow in that tradition.

Tradition was part and parcel of my growing up. Certainly, my brother was expected to become a lawyer or a professional.

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