As a leading newspaper in the Latino community, to which we owe our existence, we are proud every time young Latinos burst onto the local political scene, advance their candidacies, lend their voices to the service of the group’s interests, harbor dreams of electoral success and advance in leadership roles: your homeland, the city, the county, the state, the country.
This electoral contest is no exception.
Gabriela Gómez, Miguel de la Rosa, Jorgel Chávez and separately Jorge Herrera are running for leadership positions. The first three, as candidates for councilors of the city of Bell Gardens, which shows that this municipality of 40,000 inhabitants east of the city of Los Angeles and which has suffered for many years of scandals as well as economic, social and educational, is moving forward. Her children stay or return to serve her.
Gómez, Chávez and De la Rosa have as rivals Isabel Guillen and Michael Reveles (who are running for a four-year term) and Samuel A. Pérez, Jacob V. Poliqui and Jennifer Rodriguez (two years).
Gabriela Gomez
On her website, Gabi or Gabriela Gómez shows the portraits of other public servants who support her. They are the mayors of the neighboring cities east of Los Angeles, in a corridor with an absolute majority of Latino residents and with whom Bell Gardens shares a similar problem. There is Rubén García, yesterday mayor of Long Beach and today congressman; Mario Trujillo of Downey; Gil Hurtado of South Gate; Jose Solache of Lynwood; Eddie de la Riva of Maywood, all mayors, all Latinos, among other elected officials like County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
She herself was appointed to the Bell Gardens city council and mayor – a position in which council members take turns.
This activist works as a department spokesperson for DPSS (the county Department of Public Social Services). As a city official she focuses on the issues of residents who rent their homes and pursuing a rent stabilization ordinance. In addition, he says, he is working on preparations for the future Southeast Gateway Line rapid train line that will run parallel to the I-710 highway that crosses the city, to facilitate access for passengers. The same I-710 corridor generates serious air pollution problems that negatively affect the health of residents, and promotes ecological solutions such as traveling in so-called micromobility, that is, short-distance transportation using bicycles, scooters and bicycles. with electric assistance for individuals, considering it an issue of environmental justice.
In education, Gabriela promises to work with the district to ensure funding for school programs and financial aid for students, as well as strengthening after-school programs, particularly for those who need assistance with homework.
Jorgel Chavez
Jorgel Chávez is seeking re-election to the same position, which he entered for the first time four years ago, after having been a commissioner on the municipality’s Planning Committee from 2019 to 2020.
The story of his life, as told in Spanish on his website, is characteristic of American Latino youth. It’s like a dream that is unfolding and coming true. He says: “I am pleased to say that my parents chose to raise me in this beautiful city. I graduated from local schools within the Montebello Unified School District, and am a proud Bell Gardens Intermediate Falcon and Bell Gardens High School Lancer. I graduated from the University of Southern California in May 2021 with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, and a Minor in Communications, Politics, and Law. “I was the first in my family to graduate from high school and a 4-year institution.”
The main figures in his progress were his immigrant parents, who married “at a very young age to achieve the American dream.” Many years later, he says they still haven’t made it. They always told him: “Don’t forget where you come from.”
For this reason, he is in small city politics, with joy and ambition.
In addition to partial employment on the city council, he is a Union Organizer with the California Fast Food Workers Union SEIU. And ends: let’s work together.
Miguel de la Rosa
According to the specialized site Ballotpedia, Miguel De La Rosa is running in a special election for the Bell Gardens General City Council in California. He is currently the president of the Bell Gardens planning commission, to which he was appointed in 2021 by Chávez, and along with his colleagues is seeking the city council position.
Miguel, who had already run for office in 2022, served as a leader of three nonprofit organizations focused on advocating for first-generation college students and providing them with resources to thrive, as he explains on his website. Its program focuses on working with Bell Gardens youth, who make up more than 30% of the population, building on experience gained, such as establishing the first Cal State University Long Beach Scholarship Fund (CSULB). ). This was both for DACA students, undocumented young people who came to the country as children and are Americans in all but their immigration papers, and for first-generation students.
Jorge Herrera Ávila
For his part, Jorge Herrera Ávila is running for the municipal council of San Gabriel, a neighboring city with 38,000 inhabitants. It emphasizes its public safety support plan and its joint work in the city’s Asian community, and its experience in public relations and customer service. His rival in this round of elections is Tony Ding.
“To support community-police relations,” he says, “I will advocate for increased cultural competency training and de-escalation tactics for law enforcement. I will also work to establish community advisory boards that allow residents to participate in police decisions and foster open dialogue between the community and law enforcement.”
Like the other candidates, he supports increasing the supply of affordable housing, strengthening community partnerships, protecting renters, facilitating access to resources and assistance programs, including financial literacy and homebuyer education.
His service record shows involvement in local community organizations, such as as president of the South Bay Chinese American Association.
Contrary to Bell Gardens, 60% of San Gabriel’s population is of Asian origin and the proportion of Latinos is around 20%. Regarding the Latino community, he says that when he served as Vice President of Communications at SoCalGas he played a role in the creation of an employee resource group called GENTE, which promoted dialogue with the participation of Latinos.
Conclusion
These four candidates seem to be open to the real world and its difficulties, which is why one of them, in response to a question from Real America News about who their main rival is, said: voter indifference. It is up to them to shake that indifference.
Together, Jorge Herrera Ávila, Miguel de la Rosa, Jorgel Chávez and Gabriela Gómez represent the best of Latino youth, as well as the diversity of our community and their process of participation in local life within their communities. We trust that they have a bright future ahead of them in representing the population. Real America News supports their candidacies and calls on its readers in those districts to vote for them in the national elections on November 5.