By YOLANDA NAVA
Many of us are recalling with delight and gratitude our dear friend and compadre Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, as we remember his amazing political career and legacy
For sure he knew how the system worked an knew which buttons to push, and arms to twist to empower his constituents.
My first encounter with Richard Alatorre took place in 1971. Lilia Aceves, Director of the new Chicana Service Action Center, Gloria Molina and I presented testimony before The California Commission on the Status of Women in downtown Los Angeles.
We were representing Comición Femeníl to address employment needs of Chicana girls and women, and to make recommendations for legislation. This at the behest of Founding CFMN Mother Francisca Flores; who like a good mother bird, pushed her young ones out of the nest, so they learned how to fly, changing lives and our community in the doing. The rest is herstory.
During the morning break, I was talking with Phil Montes, Western Regional Director, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and his Deputy Charlie Erickson, sharing my concerns that the Commission members for California are all olde white-haired women, and lacks any minority representation.
“Shouldn’t something be done about that?”
Phil responded, “Well, there’s someone who can help, walking this way,” as he waved Assemblyman Alatorre towards our seats.
Phil introduced Gloria and me and told Richard, “These young women think women who look like them should be represented on the Women’s Commission.”
Richard looked at us and said, “Meet me at my Highland Park office tomorrow morning.”
We showed up at the appointed time Saturday morning. The Assemblyman gave us our first lesson in politics:
“I know Governor Reagan’s Appointments Secretary, Dan Whitehead, so let’s be practical, the Governor is a Republican, so give me resumes from Republican women.”
It took some digging; however, we turned up one member who was a registered Republican, Carolyn Orona.
We submitted Carolyn’s resume along with a few others, and do you know what? Carolyn Orona was appointed as the first Mexican American woman to serve on the California Women’s Commission.
Richard encouraged us and others to engage in fundraising and to walk precincts, which we did, helping to elect other Latino candidates. There was much socializing, listening to joyful Mariachi music and dancing that accompanied our activism.
Two years later, when I was hosting “Impacto” on KNBC/TV, Richard and his political ally Art Torres appeared on the show. They knew each other through Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers Union and local politics.
It was Richard who encouraged me to date Art and when we married, Art asked Richard to be his best man at the wedding. When Joaquín was born, Art asked Richard to be our son’s Godfather. The two Assemblymen served adjacent districts. Richard the 55th A.D., and Art the 56th A.D., and Richard’s then wife, Sharrell, and I had met through the women’s movement before marrying our husbands, so we were all very close…compadres y familia.
We lived in close proximity and Joaquín and Danielle enjoyed visiting Sharrell and eating her home-made bread on Saturdays, when Art and Richard were off engaging with constituents. Sharrell and I remain close, as did Art and Richard.
Two opposing Eastside camps arose in 1982 when Gloria Molina ran for the 56th A.D., with Art Torres’ endorsement.
Yet through it all, the sense of familia remained present.
Now, 49 years later, Joaquín Torres, himself an office holder in San Francisco, served as a Pallbearer at his Godfather’s Memorial Service. The cycles of life turn’ round and ‘round. Who would have thought a chance encounter in 1971 would continue to connect us all these many decades later?
An important thing to know and remember about Richard Alatorre is he had ‘heart’, a strong sense of justice, and the courage and chutzpah to challenge the powers that resisted, (and continue to resist), the empowerment of Latinos.
Richard Alatorre set a high standard of achievement, a standard to be vigorously activated at this important transitional time.
For how else can we possibly continue to move towards that ”more perfect Union”, promised in the U.S. Constitution, without the rigorous pursuit of justice?
Yolanda Nava is an award-winning broadcast journalist and author of three books . Her groundbreaking book of Latino virtues, It’s All in the Frijoles and her inspirational memoir, Through the Dark, received high acclaim. Visit: www.YolandaNava.com
