Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Rio Hondo Community College District; Trustee Area 3

Who Am I?

I am the youngest in a family of eight. My mother came to the United States as a child, a refugee of the Mexican Revolution in the early twentieth century, who proudly became an American citizen as an adult. My father's family has deep roots in New Mexico, people who did not come to the United States as the United States came to them instead at the end of the Mexican War in the nineteenth century. My parents met in Arizona where they raised much of their family until the heat and the passage of the Right to Work laws moved my father, a loyal union man, to relocate to California. I was born in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in Lynwood, California. So whenever I am asked where I am from, I reply that I have always considered myself a bilingual and bicultural child of the Southwest.

I attended Catholic schools, first grade through high school (graduating with honors). I received my Bachelor of Arts in English and Ethnic Studies (cum laude) from the University of Southern California, and I received my Master of Arts in English from the University of California at Los Angeles. My public school experience is limited to kindergarten and graduate school. However, I learned the importance and value of public education from my parents and my siblings who attended public schools. Sending one of my sisters and me to Catholic school was my parents' choice, a sacrifice they chose to make based on their religious beliefs, not an indictment of the public schools which had served their other children so well.

I grew up in a household of the working poor. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. She was an excellent financial manager so we lived well, certainly not extravagantly, but never lacking what we needed. I knew that we were not rich and not to ask, very often, for extras, but I also knew that a reasonable request would be considered and, perhaps, answered positively. I grew up in a home that was staunchly union, grounded in faith, fiercely Democratic, engaged in reading, and believing firmly in the importance of education.

As a college student, I was a leader and activist. I was co-chair of MECHA at USC when we, Chicano students, demanded and agitated for a place of our own on campus, a place where we could feel at home at the university. The result was the founding of El Centro Chicano which just celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. El Centro sponsored the historic first gathering of Chicano writers from around the nation, the Festival de Flor y Canto, which I organized and for which I served as mistress of ceremonies as well as helping put together the videos and printed publication of the literary works presented. As a student leader, I met Cesar Chavez and many other noteworthy community activists, all committed to positive social change. I was involved in the attempt to organize the university's cafeteria workers and the groundskeepers into unions; we were successful with one group, but not with the other. It was during these student years that I learned basic organizing: how to motivate people, how to evaluate resources, and how to use them strategically.

I applied for a teaching position at Rio Hondo College upon completing graduate school at UCLA where I received a Regents Fellowship, and I was hired as a teacher of English in the Communications Department. I was 24 years old, younger than most of my students. Three years later I moved from Lynwood to Uptown Whittier where I have lived ever since. I retired from teaching at the college after 38 years. I am 62 years old. I made a lifetime commitment to Rio Hondo, our students and our communities, and I have honored it. The college honored me, naming me a Fellow of the College, in 2012.

I am a teacher. I love the teaching and learning process, the interaction between instructor and student, the magic that happens in a successful class. Through the years, I have always found it so satisfying and gratifying to watch my students at Rio Hondo grow into confident and well-prepared adults, ready to take on the world and its challenges and eager to face and mold the future. Perhaps that is why I love to go to graduation so much! Teaching has been my profession, my vocation, and my passion.

I am someone who speaks up and asks questions. I have a very low tolerance for injustice. I am an advocate, and I welcome the opportunity to be the voice for the voiceless. I have been and am an advocate for public education, for students and faculty, and for community colleges. I have been a leader in the Academic Senate, advocating for academic and professional matters and for shared governance. I have been and am a union activist as a leader in my local, state, and national teachers' union (the Rio Hondo College Faculty Association, the Community College Association, the California Teachers Association, and the National Education Association). During my first term as RHCFA president, I led the faculty in a one-day strike, our "Day of Dignity" as we attempted to bargain our first contract. It was the first strike at a community college following the passage of the collective bargaining law for education employees in California. The faculty has been bargaining successfully with the District ever since.

I have been honored with three state WHO (We Honor Ours) Awards from the California Teachers Association as well as CTA's Cesar E. Chavez Award. The National Education Association has honored me with its Cesar E. Chavez Award and the James Davenport Award for Leadership in Higher Education. CTA's Community College Association has named its award for ethnic minority leadership and advocacy the Mary Ann Pacheco Award.

I am a doer and a worker but always a listener first. I am a bridge-builder and coalition-builder. I am a neighbor and a friend. I am a mentor for my students, my colleagues and my friends as I look forward to a better future.

I am a cancer survivor. I believe in God's loving care and His plans for my future. Since moving to Whittier, I have been an active member of St. Mary of the Assumption church in Uptown Whittier. I know that the love and prayers of my fellow parishioners, coupled with those of my family, friends and colleagues, continue to help me heal and grow ever stronger. Because of them, I now am able to run for the RHC Board of Trustees with energy and enthusiasm.