{"id":17364,"date":"2021-01-26T11:51:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T19:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=17364"},"modified":"2021-01-26T11:54:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T19:54:14","slug":"californias-alex-padilla-brings-rare-senate-perspective-an-immigrant-familys-struggle-for-dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/01\/26\/californias-alex-padilla-brings-rare-senate-perspective-an-immigrant-familys-struggle-for-dignity\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Alex Padilla supports Medicare for All, Green New Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joe Garofoli <\/a> Jan. 25, 2021 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"New
1of2New Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif. (left), who took the seat vacated by Vice President Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.Photo: J. Scott Applewhite \/ Associated Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Like
2of2Like many California Latinos of his generation, Sen. Alex Padilla\u2019s political consciousness was forged by Proposition 187.Photo: Justin Sullivan \/ Getty Images 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Alex Padilla began to choke up. He was talking about his father, Santos Padilla, an immigrant from Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California Democrat was recalling the time he brought his father with him when he was seeking the endorsement of a labor organization during his first run for office. The elder Padilla wasn\u2019t there to provide moral support \u2014 he was living evidence that the young politician came from a place where the fight for dignity wasn\u2019t an abstract concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a moment of insight into how Padilla, the first Latino to represent California<\/a> in the Senate, will bring a different life experience to Washington than most politicians \u2014 one that represents the many immigrants whose stories aren\u2019t told enough in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo many of these issues,\u201d Padilla said, \u201care personal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santos Padilla worked as a line cook for years in a unionized restaurant. But when his son was in high school, the restaurant shifted to using nonunion labor and the elder Padilla lost his health benefits. When Alex Padilla was in college, his father had his pay reduced. Soon, after 35 years on the job, he was laid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I remember the look in his eye, coming home, knowing that he couldn\u2019t provide for his family the way he wanted. That dignity was taken from him,\u201d said Padilla, 47, his voice catching during an interview on The Chronicle\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s All Political\u201d podcast. \u201cI took him to that interview so that the labor leaders in that room knew that I knew what that dignity meant, of a good union job and a good union contract.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did Padilla win the endorsement, he won that 1999 race for a Los Angeles City Council seat. Two years later, at age 28, he became the youngest person and the first Latino to be chosen by his peers to be council president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election to the state Senate and then as secretary of state followed. Last month, midway through Padilla\u2019s second term, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him<\/a> to fill the remaining two years of Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 Senate term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video caught tears welling in Padilla\u2019s eyes on a Zoom call when Newsom mentioned his parents while asking him to take Harris\u2019 place. Just like tears welled when Padilla was first sworn into office on the L.A. City Council. By his side were his father and mother, Lupe Padilla, who also immigrated from Mexico and cleaned people\u2019s houses for a living. She died two years ago; his father lived to see his son become a U.S. senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His appointment will make history. But the @AlexPadilla4CA<\/a> I know is far more interested in changing history — especially for the working men and women of our state and country.

I can think of no one better to represent the state of California as our next United States Senator. pic.twitter.com\/xiAzpTS42Y<\/a>\u2014 Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 22, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Those public displays of emotion are rare for Padilla. Many describe him as stoic, someone whose voice rarely wavers and whose oratory won\u2019t long be remembered. Those who know him say his methodical delivery is the product of his training in engineering, a field that prizes verifiable fact and precision and where flamboyance is of little value. He earned his degree from MIT and worked briefly writing software for an aerospace company after graduating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu\u00f1ez has known Padilla for 30 years \u2014 well enough to say, \u201cIf you want someone to give a moving speech, it\u2019s not Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Nu\u00f1ez adds, Padilla becomes emotional \u201cevery time he talks about his family, his mom and dad in particular. When you\u2019re second generation and you\u2019re really close to your parents, you watch their suffering and you see how much they\u2019re sacrificing for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why Alex gets emotional,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cHe understands the struggle of immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many California Latinos of his generation, Padilla\u2019s political consciousness was forged by Proposition 187, the 1994 measure that would have cut off undocumented immigrants from public education and non-emergency health care. State voters approved it, but the courts threw it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Padilla\u2019s social awareness began before that, when he was a teenager in a working-class immigrant neighborhood of Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley. Padilla played baseball in high school and began to travel to games in wealthier parts of L.A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was while I was taking those weekly bus trips to other schools throughout Los Angeles that I began to see the inequities,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cWhy are all these other schools a lot bigger, newer and in better shape than mine? Why do the communities that we were driving through seem to be in much better shape than where I grew up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noticed those inequities more at MIT. Many of the students were wealthy and didn\u2019t have to work to put themselves through school, as he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padilla will be a senator who understands firsthand what student loan debt looks like. When he was applying for financial aid, his father\u2019s income \u201cwas about $19,000 a year. Tuition alone at MIT was $19,500,\u201d Padilla said. That didn\u2019t include room and board or books \u201cor travel home for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know what it\u2019s like to scrape for it and scrape for it and work for it,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He returned to California after graduation to find the state embroiled in the Prop. 187 campaign. The message Padilla heard was, \u201c\u2018California is going downhill. And it is the fault of families like yours and people like your parents.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was offended. I was insulted. I was enraged,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cAnd I knew right then and there that while my engineering degree was well-earned, I had to do my part in electoral politics. I was cynical up until that point. But I knew that I had no choice if I wanted to help change the trajectory of California.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Rep. Tony C\u00e1rdenas, who grew up a few blocks from Padilla in Pacoima and represents the San Fernando Valley in Congress, said that \u201cProp. 187 really shocked a lot of households where we grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then, he said, people thought, \u201cEverybody is fine. We\u2019ve got green cards. We stay out of trouble. But no. Prop. 187 was attacking green card holders like my dad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe message was that, even though you\u2019ve been here legally, we\u2019re going to strip you of your rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padilla said that \u201cmy parents had been here for nearly 30 years, with no urgency of becoming citizens. But 187 changed that overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both his parents soon became citizens. And this month, almost exactly 30 years after Pete Wilson, the godfather of Prop. 187, left the Senate to become governor, their son \u2014 the son of immigrants \u2014 took the oath of office in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Martin Luther King once said the arc of history bends towards justice,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cWhat sweet justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that he\u2019s in the Senate, Padilla may surprise those who believe he will be \u201ca business-friendly moderate,<\/a>\u201d as the Wall Street Journal described him last month. While his priorities are addressing the coronavirus pandemic and hastening an economic recovery, last week he tweeted that it was time \u201cto get to work\u201d on \u201cMedicare for All,<\/a> Green New Deal<\/a> and immigration reform.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week will be about celebrating a new administration and a hopeful new day in Washington. It will also be about getting to work on:
– Effective vaccine distribution
– Getting our economy and jobs back on track
– Medicare for All
– A Green New Deal
– Immigration reform\u2014 Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) <\/strong>January 18, 2<\/strong>021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Padilla briefly worked for Sen. Dianne Feinstein when he first started in politics, and he surprised many Latino Democrats by endorsing her in 2018 over Kevin de Le\u00f3n. But he will be far different from the state\u2019s moderate senior senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor people who say he\u2019s not progressive enough, I say, wait and see,\u201d said Nathalie Rayes, president and CEO of the progressive Latino Victory Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padilla said he \u201cdefinitely will be more progressive than Sen. Feinstein,\u201d while quickly adding that he respects her and has learned much from watching her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe perspective and the life experience that I bring to the Senate is my own,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m going to be unabashed about it because of what I\u2019ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because, C\u00e1rdenas said, \u201che will always be Alex from Pacoima.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Garofoli<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com<\/a> Twitter: @joegarofoli<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Joe on:https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SFChronicle\/<\/a>joegarofoli<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of \u201cIt\u2019s All Political,\u201d The Chronicle\u2019s political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly\/2LSAUjA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy \u2014 which he discussed on NPR\u2019s \u201cTalk of the Nation\u201d after being told he couldn\u2019t say the word \u201cballs\u201d on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a92021 Hearst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Garofoli  Jan. 25, 2021 (SFChronicle.com) Sen. Alex Padilla began to choke up. He was talking about his father, Santos Padilla, an immigrant from Mexico. The California Democrat was recalling the time he brought his father with him when he was seeking the endorsement of a labor organization during his… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17364"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17364"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17370,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17364\/revisions\/17370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}