The Los Angeles Council gave former assemblywoman Cindy Montañez a very special and, above all, well-deserved recognition. The daughter of immigrants from Veracruz, Mexico, Cindy grew up in the city of San Fernando where she was a council member, her platform for going to the State Assembly.
In the lower house, she made history by being the youngest woman elected to the California legislature at just 28 years old. She was also the first Latina and the first Democratic woman to chair the Assembly Rules Committee. She was an assemblyman from 2000 to 2006.
When she left the Assembly, life gave her two very strong passes in politics: She lost in her attempt to be a state senator. She won the seat, the now California Senator Alex Padilla; and then in 2013 she was defeated by Nury Martínez when she wanted to be a Los Angeles councilor for the San Fernando Valley.
In 2015, he wanted to unseat Nury from the Council and could not. As an interesting fact, Nury had been his campaign manager when she first ran for Assembly.
Following her defeat, she found a new career as a fierce advocate and leader in the fight for environmental justice and became president of the environmental advocacy organization TreePeople; and through that work, she was able to bring more than 1,000 trees to San Fernando.
She was on the Unemployment Appeals Board and was assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Electricity.
In 1993, when he was a student, he participated and was a key player in the student group that led a hunger strike at UCLA against Chancellor Charles E. Young, who for years had not accepted the Chicano Studies program. Cindy and her fellow strikers succeeded in creating what is now known as the César E. Chávez Department of Chicano and Chicana Studies.
Her achievements in public service and her work for the environment earned her the respect and admiration of her community, and she is considered a local hero in San Fernando. In early August, in her honor, she named Pocket Park in San Fernando after her, as she helped make it beautiful.
Life has continued to play crookedly for this tireless Mexican-American leader, not only politically, but has messed with her health, as she is fighting the hardest battle of her 49 years, an aggressive cancer that seems to have no cure.
During the tribute they gave her by naming Pocket Park after her, she said excitedly that everything she has done in life has been from the heart.
“When you see a monarch butterfly, I hope you think of me,” he told the assembled crowd.
he’s doing well
After knowing the sentence for three and a half years in federal prison for the political veteran, Mark Ridley-Thomas, as punishment for supporting Los Angeles County contracts in exchange for benefits from the University of Southern California (USC) for his son, many wonder if the sentence for former councilor José Huizar, who is expected in December, will be just as benign. The doubt arises because justice is always more implacable against Latinos.
By the way, it was striking that Ridley-Thomas maintained a group of faithful followers who accompanied him throughout the process, despite the seven charges against him. His loyal supporters could not cry in court when the sentence was announced. And it is necessary to recognize that despite his mistakes, the politician knew how to attend to the needs of his community and compensate those who supported him very well.
For federal judge Dale S. Fisher, however, one thing was clear: There is no justification for monetizing an office and masterminding extortion.
Like nothing
Councilman Curren Price works on the Council as if there were no various criminal charges against him. He was not Latino because there would be protests every day in the Cabildo.