In today’s Los Angeles Times, Pat Morrison has a Question & Answer session with Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the only woman to sit on the board of that governing body. I highly recommend that you read the piece because it is insightful. She even offers an explanation as to why she favored cracking down on the taco truck ordinance.
I was particularly struck by this question and Molina’s answer:
Q: Los Angeles County is majority Latino; California soon will be. Is it time to begin redefining majority and minority?
A: We’re going to be a majority, but what does that mean? If you still [have] the highest dropout rate and the most crime-infested neighborhoods and all those things, then it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t create anything unless you are empowering along the way. So, yes, we are more in numbers, but I don’t know that we are effective enough collectively, as Latinos. We will not be the power majority at all because there’s too many shortcomings in the Latino community for all kinds of reasons, unless we make the kind of dramatic changes to make sure that as you move up, you’re going to have a healthier number of Latinos in every way — health, education, financial independence.
What Gloria Molina says here really resonates with me. Latinos may continue to grow in numbers, and some may feel that we can overwhelm the establishment with those numbers, but we really can’t without making changes in how we move up. Multiplying without strategically addressing our shortcomings in health, education, and financial wellness will not change our collective lot. Smaller ethnic groups and smaller constituencies have accomplished more. I also think that we need to think more about coalition building with other groups who have common interests.
Finally, what I find most refreshing about this statement from Supervisor Molina is that she openly doubts our effectiveness and our shortcomings without sugarcoating some accomplishments simply to soothe our community. Until more in our community start to value education and professional excellence and combine that with sustained civic engagement, I don’t think our increasing numbers will matter that much.
7 responses so far ↓
1 reenee // Aug 30, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I have to agree with both you and Molina on this. You’re right, until we as a group can channel our majority into a cohesive body with an agenda that values improving our lot as a group, beginning with a decent education, nothing will ever be accomplished.
I have lost count of the meetings I’ve attended that have degenerated into several different factions, all hollering and wanting to be in control. Sadly, nothing was ever done or addressed.
Think back to the meeting in “Milagro Beanfield War” and you’ll know what I mean.
2 Michaelr // Aug 31, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Despite our rather extensive, but dubious political representation in Sacramento, and the continuous misadventures of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Gloria Molina has never succumb to emulating that predominately self-serving group of Latino politicians in Sacramento, and those on Capitol Hill. The complaints from the Latino Apologist, that because Gloria Molina has no college education she is not qualified to hold any higher public offices in Sacramento, or Capitol Hill fully resonates the superficiality that commands opinions in the Latino community. The content of character, which is widely absent in the vast majority of Latino political representation in Sacramento and DC, resonates loud and clear in Gloria Molina’s public service. She is one of the few positive entities working on the behalf of the Latino community.
3 DoctorH // Aug 31, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Gloria Molina is the reason, Los Angeles County hasn’t politically crashed and burned yet. Those obscene salaries and benefits paid to Los Angeles City Council members and that part-time Mayor that reek of taxpayer abuse would’ve never been passed had Molina been involved in the process.
4 theKaiser // Sep 2, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Isn’t it odd how so few people within the Latino community acknowledge and recognize the valued service Gloria Molina has generated all these years for Los Angeles County? I am sure if you engage with her personally you will be quite impressed. There is nothing superficial about her in the least. She doesn’t remind you she’s the Mayor, and she doesn’t hang out at the Playboy mansion and doesn’t spend 140K for Holiday cards. Maybe she has set the standard for public servants too high, that all the other local politicians are content to just mumble negatively about her. Nevertheless, we are lucky to have her, because character counts, especially in these trying economic times.
5 El Cholo // Sep 2, 2009 at 7:54 pm
It says a lot about the Latino community. They love their political thieves, their telenovela wannabes, their part time mayors, their taxpayer financed cars and rims, their midget community profiteers, their dead weight caucuses, their napping congresswomen, and their cerebrally challenged sister acts. And when one of our own does her job and she does it so well, the Latino community turns on her and says, “Who does she think she is…Henry B. Gonzalez?”
6 Michaelr // Sep 2, 2009 at 8:04 pm
That is the conundrum isn’t it…do you think it’s because we as a group are so used to being politically, economically, and socially exploited, that we lash out at someone who readily succeeds at the public level? Like Gloria Molina?
7 El Cholo // Sep 7, 2009 at 7:41 am
I actually believe she is unpopular with people like Latino Apologist because she’s too “Moreno.” The superficiality of the culture usually brings out all the stupidity of it.
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