kikibalt wrote:Hilda Solis; Home-girl makes good, we here in La Puente are real proud of her
Solis, a woman of many firsts, had a steady rise through California's political ranks
By Rebecca Kimitch, Staff Writer
Hilda Solis' La Puente High School year book picture from 1975. (Courtesy Art)If Rep. Hilda Solis is confirmed as the the United States' first Latino labor secretary, it will be the latest in a lifetime of firsts.
Though her nomination as labor secretary may have taken some people by surprise, those who worked with her decades ago say she was a rising political star from the start, always prioritizing labor, immigration and environmental issues.
"You knew then that Hilda Solis was going to be a rising star, she had some of those qualities that you look for in leaders, she had a grasp of issues, she was a person who understood the times and knew what to do about it," said Ralph Pacheco, who served on the Rio Hondo Community College board of trustees with Solis and is now a trustee of the Whittier Union High School District.
Solis was the first person in her family to go to college, the first Latina elected to the California state Senate, the first woman to represent the San Gabriel Valley in the state Senate, the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, and the first Latina appointed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Solis's education in labor issues began when she was a child. Her Mexican-born father was a Teamster and worked for the Quemetco battery recycling plant in Industry. Her Nicaraguan-born mother worked on an assembly line making toys.
Solis declined to be interviewed for this story, with her staff citing a request by Barack Obama's transition team to avoid media contact.
As a student at La Puente High School in the early 1970s, Solis said she saw "a great lack of support" for teenagers in the San Gabriel Valley wishing to go to college.
She is the first in her family to go to college.
In addition to a bachelor's degree in political science from Cal Poly Pomona, Solis earned a master's degree in public administration from USC.
While studying at the latter, Solis got her initial taste of Washington, working in
Hilda Solis served as a member of the Rio Hondo College Board of Trustees from 1985-1992. California Rep. Hilda Solis was named by President-Elect Barak Obama as his labor secretary. (Courtesy Art)the Carter White House Office of Hispanic Affairs. She was later appointed as a management analyst with the Office of Management and Budget in the Civil Rights Division.
By age 28, Solis was ready to run for her first office. She had returned from Washington and was directing a state program aimed at helping San Gabriel Valley students go to college. She decided to take those efforts one step further by running for the Rio Hondo board of trustees.
"What good is a (college) degree if you can't get a job?" she asked during her victorious campaign.
El Monte councilwoman Emily Ishigaki first met Solis through the El Monte Business and Professional Women group before her bid for the Rio Hondo board.
"There is something about a person that you see from the very beginning, she is sincere, keeps her word, she aggressively pursuits what she believes is right... She knew what she was going to do, what she was able to accomplish. Even as a Republican, I believed that from the start," Ishigaki said.
During her seven years on the Rio Hondo board, Solis worked to improve vocational job training at the community college and increase the representation of women and minorities in tenured positions at the school, according to colleagues.
In 1992, at age 34, Solis successfully ran for the California state Assembly.
She had the early support of Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and then congresswoman Barbara Boxer. The three walked precincts together.
"Hilda Solis practices the type of grassroots politics that... promotes community and empowerment," Molina said at the time.
While serving on the Assembly, Solis became one of the loudest voices in the immigration debate. She backed a controversial bill to enforce a court ruling that undocumented immigrants may attend college if they have established California residency.
"(I) believe that keeping the doors of opportunity open for all Californians can solve many of our social and economic problems," she wrote.
She also headed up a new committee in the Assembly on groundwater contamination and landfill leakage, and served on the committees of higher education, environmental
California State Assembly Hilda Solis pictured in 1993. (Courtesy Art)safety, and labor and unemployment.
After two years in the Assembly, in 1994, Solis became the first woman state senator from the San Gabriel Valley and the first female Latino in the state Senate.
While there, she led the effort to increase the state's minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75, an initiative fiercely opposed by chambers of commerce and the restaurant industry, which said it would derail the economy.
A state raid of a sweatshop in El Monte in 1995 also gave her a firsthand glimpse of the realities of the labor sector. Authorities shut down an illegal sewing factory that had thrived on forced labor from approximately 70 undocumented Thai immigrants and had been operating for years.
Solis held a hearing on the raid and responded with demands for tougher labor laws and more money to enforce existing laws.
In 2000, the same year Solis was elected to Congress, she became the first woman to win a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for her work on environmental justice issues.
"From the start, she has been a change agent, and throughout the years she has been a catalyst for change," Pacheco said. "So it doesn't come as any surprise to me, that her trajectory, has gone higher and higher each decade, as time goes on."
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