A group of California-based lawmakers has introduced a resolution to honor one of their own: former state legislator Gloria Molina.
The resolution is led by Senator Alex Padilla in the upper house, and Representatives Linda Sánchez, Judy Chu and Tony Cárdenas in the lower house.
What you need to know
California-based lawmakers have introduced a resolution to honor pioneering Mexican-American lawmaker Gloria Molina, who died in May
Molina was the first Latina elected to the California State Assembly, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
He came of age in the midst of the Chicano movement, when young Mexican Americans began to harness and assert their political power in the face of entrenched racism.
Molina was a defender of women’s rights, public health and open spaces for disadvantaged communities
Molina was a legendary figure in California politics, known as a pioneer among both Mexicans and women. In a region that owes much of its identity to Chicanos and Latinos, she was the first Latina elected to the California State Assembly, the first to the Los Angeles City Council and the first to the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County.
“Like me, Gloria Molina was the daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico who came to this country to create a better life for their children. In families like ours, siblings are close, family is everything, and you grow up knowing that the American dream is within reach if you’re willing to work hard. That’s exactly what Gloria Molina did,” Sanchez said in a statement Friday. “She dedicated her life to public service and gave a voice to Latinos and Latinos throughout the Los Angeles area. It is an honor to introduce this resolution to honor the life, achievements and legacy of Gloria Molina.”
Molina died a month before the resolution was presented, on May 23, after a three-year battle with cancer. He announced his terminal diagnosis in March. She was 74 years old.
She was in politics for more than three decades, beginning her career “when few women or Latinos held public office,” as Padilla noted in a statement.
But even before she took elected office, Molina was a coming-of-age advocate amid the tumultuous political rise of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles and, even within the movement, alongside her peers Chicanas fighting Chicano sexism and masculinity.
The Chicano movement, he told an interviewer with the California State Archives Oral History Programit was about identifying the barriers placed before Mexican-Americans and pushing them back, “facing up and not saying, ‘por eso estamos como estamos’ [that’s why we are in the conditions we are in,]” she said. “They were charging and saying, ‘wait a minute, it’s because of racism. It’s because of discrimination. Because of lack of opportunity. Because it challenges things.'”
She would advocate for women’s health, supporting a movement end the involuntary and forced sterilization of Mexican-American women in Los Angeles County hospitalsand worked with community colleges to strengthen nursing programs and create mentoring programs to combat the regional shortage of health care providers.
“Gloria dedicated her life to public service as a relentless advocate for underserved communities in the halls of power at the local, state and federal levels. Every time we challenge the status quo and demand better from our government and our political leaders, let’s take a page from Gloria’s playbook,” Padilla said. “It is an honor to introduce this resolution to the Senate to honor her legacy of breaking barriers, her unparalleled leadership, and her commitment to improving the lives of all the Californians.”
Molina ran for the California assembly in 1982, defeating the party’s handpicked candidate and then beating the Republican candidate in the general. He went from the assembly to the Los Angeles City Council in 1986, representing his home region of East Los Angeles. He jumped to the five-seat Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1991, serving on the board until 2014, when newly enacted term limits ended his career. In 2015, he challenged City Council incumbent Jose Huizar and lost. (Huizar would later be convicted on federal corruption charges.)
Grand Park in Los Angeles was named in her honor earlier this year after her diagnosis, in honor of her work to increase access to green space.
Chu honored Molina’s commitment to environmental justice, calling her “a fierce advocate for bringing more resources and protections to the San Gabriel Mountains and Rivers” and that “more Angelenos, especially communities of color, can enjoy beauty, science, history. , and outdoor recreational opportunities” for her. Cárdenas called her “an inspiration to me and to generations of Latino politicians.”
