Salud is supported by Texas Mutual Workers Compensation Insurance Company.

And carry yourself with confidence and and just be present when you're in spaces.

So it's important that we we we bring others along.

We build that network.

Always remember that you are a value you and shine, Ullah.

Welcome to Salad.

I'm Melanie Mendez Gonzalez, your host.

If there's one common thread between all our Latina leaders, it's their appreciation for education.

So on today's episode, we're focusing on three leaders in that field, one who has thrived in teaching music, and another who runs a national nonprofit dedicated to equity in education.

And our first guest, who is the youngest Latina nationally to have ever been elected to serve on a state board of education.

Let's meet these incredible women from us.

Let's get started by you sharing with us What do you do?

Oh, yeah, it's funny.

I get that question all the time because nobody goes to see the Board of Education.

And so So I serve on the Texas State Board of Education, where aboard a partizan board is 15 members from across the state are the districts that we represent are all very geographically diverse.

But our total population is roughly around 1.5 to 1.6 million people.

We're responsible for the review approval and implementation process of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

So those are the standards that our public school children learn from kindergarten through 12th grade.

So I read that you are the youngest Latina to be elected to a state education board.

Yes.

Yes.

So I was elected at 27 when I started.

So and I've been on the board now about a decade.

So I it's it's been a journey.

And there was a lot of growing pains in the beginning.

I was green to politics my first and started my family wasn't at all involved in, you know, voting and elections and those sorts of things.

I started campaigning at 25 and a half, 26 years old against an incumbent who, you know, had a lot of he had degrees under his belt.

I had a bachelor's, you know, going up against a PhD.

And so there were a lot of things and and I'd never been involved in politics before.

So I definitely had to start very grassroots.

So would you say that that's your leadership style or how would you describe your leadership style?

Yeah, I definitely I think collaborative leadership, transformational leadership is something that I, I think I'll own right.

I, I come to this space shaped word of education, dimensions of water.

15 For context, we represent all of this.

Children of Texas.

Right.

It's over five and you know, about five and a half million Texas public school children, about 54% of those identify as Latino.

And on the board today, we have two Latinas.

We are the only two of the board of 15 that represent on the board.

Representation has always been really important to me.

Voice and access.

What is the expertise on the board that helps to inform decision making?

And I can tell you the majority of the people that serve on this board are not educators and have never worked in a school district.

Mm hmm.

And so for me, making transformational decisions that will impact students in classrooms today.

Right.

Because that's also really important.

One of the things I always think about, and I'll always say is some of the best leaders are the ones who put themselves in environments where they're supported by people that are much smarter than them.

Right.

And and I really thrive on that.

So I really try my best to do that as much as I can.

And, um, and then I find that together we can make transformation and transformational change, albeit it's not quite as quickly as I wish that we could make change, but we know that we have to be patient, especially in the environment that we're sort of contending with today in education here in Texas.

Would you share a little bit more about how you grow up, how you grew up in your family?

Yeah, definitely.

So I will say I recognized my privilege in that.

I grew up in a very loving home with two parents who are still married.

And so even though we grew up in low income community, I never wanted for anything.

And here you are now.

So what do you say to other women, Latinas, who maybe see a similar situation and want to go into service?

What is it feisty you give to them?

A couple of things that I've learned the hard way.

So number one, media can be your absolute ally or they can work against you and it should matter.

It's the individual's part.

It's the individual's responsibility to manage that relationship.

Right.

And it's a lesson I learned the hard way early on.

I was so new to politics is so new to the attention that I didn't respond promptly.

I didn't answer questions directly because I was just trying to do it perfectly.

Yeah.

And because I waited so long or because I was trying to get the right answer before I gave any answer, I allowed media to write their own narrative about me.

I gave up my own storytelling and things were written about me that weren't true.

And so then I added work to my shelf by having to walk back all of the mistakes that I made.

I had to rebuild relationships with media, and it's definitely gotten better.

I love media and and it's it's an absolutely important platform to use when it comes to sharing stories and letting people know what's happening.

But you have to you have to have some media intelligence early on.

Number two, when you decide to run for public specifically in public office, I think board service is absolutely another avenue for this.

But when it comes to running for public office, it takes a really thoughtful, important conversation with family, because it's not just an individual running for office.

It's your entire family running for office.

You are on full display if you have any gaffes in your history, if you have all of those things will eventually sweep through because people will pick and prod, unfortunately, and again, create narratives around you or your family members.

You have to be okay with the vulnerability and you have to be okay with the criticism because it will come.

And then I think the the last piece, which is always a little bit embarrassing to me because I, I hate to have to say it, but it's it's the reality that we face as a as a young Latina in politics right now.

I'm still fairly young and I'm almost 40.

In this space, I find myself to usually be the youngest, the only brown person in the room, only female.

As much as I hate to acknowledge stature.

Like I'm only five foot and five foot, nothing wrong.

Stature is important.

I find myself having to look up at men and look up at other taller women all the time.

Right?

So I try my best to wear heels as much as possible.

Stand tall, always make eye contact, don't shy away.

And because I have to remember that I earned the speech that I mean, just like everybody around this table, around the room.

But to carry yourself with confidence and and and and just be present when you're in spaces.

Right.

I think that's really important.

Never be afraid to speak out loud, even if you're still in the learning, because silence is deafening.

If you're quiet in really important times, you start to establish this expectation that you can be overlooked along the journey.

When you said all these lessons you learned of were there mentors along the way that helped you and you share?

Yes, definitely.

Dr. Sylvester Perez, who was a long time superintendent in in town and was incredible support for me.

He gave me the ins and outs about who who I should talk to, when I should talk to them, how I approached the conversation really early on.

And then I have Dr. Carol Harle, who is longtime board member in Northside, SD and longtime educator in the city, and one of the most humble and brilliant individuals I've ever met.

That's really beautiful.

Thank you for sharing that, Madison, And thank you for sharing so much of your story with this.

Appreciate it.

And of course, thank you for having me.

Melanie It's always a wonderful to share space with you.

And since freshman year was 1000 students, but that day it was 500.

So tell me, what do you do?

So I'm the president and CEO of Adra, and we are a nonprofit education civil rights organization that was founded 50 years ago.

And we help our community through training teachers, through building student and parent leadership programs by going to the halls of the Capitol and Congress to advocate for equal educational opportunity and our organization's been doing that for 50 years.

And so we're very excited to be celebrating our 50th anniversary.

And I'm a civil rights lawyer by training.

And so before joining Adra, I was honored to lead the Southwest office of MALDEF, where I represented the rights of students and voters and immigrant families to protect the Texas Dream Act, to defend DAKA, and of course, to challenge the school funding system of our state, to challenge anti-immigrant laws like SB four that was passed by the legislature back in 2017.

That that's a lot of work in justice.

Tell me how you became so passionate about that work.

I think one just being from San Antonio, right?

I'm a proud the Hannah of Mexican-American and Panamanian roots.

San Antonio has an extremely proud and long history of social justice movements from America to, you know, having national organizations founded here like Avanza and MALDEF and ADRA and so one, and just being born into this community and being able to be inspired by such a rich and diverse set of leaders.

I am a product of my parents, Rosa and Lewis, and my stepmom, Imelda, and they were products of the Chicano Civil Rights movement.

And so they instilled in me that the way to empowerment is through education and through empowering others.

And so I've really gotten to benefit from that social justice movement and carry on the legacy and been really good to be a part of history.

What kind of challenges did you face as a Latino leader?

Well, I think being sometimes being underestimated, right.

And that's a challenge.

It's also kind of fun.

You know, I think just the the challenge I think a lot of us have is as as women and particularly women of color and as Latinas, sometimes we tend to normalize chaos and just do things because things need to get done and not necessarily stop and really invest in ourselves.

So what advice would you give to women who you would like to mentor?

I think building a strong network of other women, particularly women of color and Latinas, but just women that have your back that you can, you know, share a little Cheeseman with.

You can bend, you know, so my my mentors, I mean, I think growing up in San Antonio, you know, we have the the privilege to be around, you know, and have access to very inspirational leaders like, you know, Maria Avril Savall, like Rosie Castro, you know, Nina Perales and Al Kaufman at MALDEF, and Dr. Joseph Cardenas, who founded IDEO, a Dr. Cook, one of the.

These are all, you know, people that I've been inspired by.

I think more than anything, my parents have been, you know, my mentors.

But I would say I have gotten some incredible, credible advice.

And just getting to watch her has been such an important part of my professional development.

And that's Dr. Murray out of that.

So or we call her Kucka.

You know, she led Ida 26 years as as its president and CEO before me.

And she taught me that, you know, you have to invest in your people.

And I think that we you know, we do a really good job of that and a jury and, you know, see the future and so really create spaces and train up others, bring up others.

That's amazing.

You mentioned that sometimes you're the only Latina in the room, but what is that feel like?

What advice do you have for other Latinas who find themselves working for things that they're passionate about but are the only ones in the room?

I mean, I think that that's part of it, right?

We have to when you talk to a Latina and you mess with a Latina, you're messing with with her, her family.

Right.

And to us, that means you're messing with our whole community.

Right.

And so it's important that we we we bring others along.

We build that network.

It's not about, oh, I'm the one who made it or I'm I'm special.

Or this it's about building power in our community.

And I think that I think it's fitting that, you know, I get to lead an organization that as its symbol, has the gadfly, which looks like a little dragonfly.

And because a social gadfly is someone who rouses others from complacency, right?

When a national reporter one time called it a gadfly organization, and it's something that our organization has worn and something I wear as as a badge of honor, you know, to to be able to ensure that that you're passionate about something, even if you're the only one in the room.

Selena, have you ever received advice that you just didn't take?

I think I've received I think a lot of us received advice like, it's so important to invest time and invest in yourself.

And I think, again, you know, a lot of times we normalize chaos.

We, you know, we're determined to achieve our goals, but that can come at great sacrifice.

And so I think when we talk about investing in people that can't just be other people, that has to be invest in yourself.

And so that's something that I feel like I've gotten better at as of as a mom, you know, And I think, you know, you can you can have it all, but maybe not all at the same time.

And you have to prioritize and and and invest in yourself at times.

And I think of it like, you know, apparently I like insects, you know, gadflies, butterflies.

But I think, you know, I think of it as, you know, the way that a butterfly cocoons.

Right.

Sometimes you're cocooning in your professional life and then you, you know, you're resting your you know, maybe aren't the the best lawyer one day in court, but then but you're like an amazing mom or, you know, partner and and vice versa, right?

Some day you're just a badass in court and, you know, maybe you didn't get to make the best dinner or, you know, for your family.

And I think you can you can have, you know, all the things, but it's often, you know, not all at the same time and just kind of accepting that that it is silly to determine what is success to her.

And I think being able to do every day what, you know, is doesn't feel like work, what really feels like a calling.

And I think many of of us that I idea and you know in in the civil rights field you know feel like we are doing our life's work as opposed to work.

And so that to me is success.

You know, I like to laugh, I like to dance.

I so finding joy in every day to me is also really important.

We appreciate your leadership here in our community.

Thank you.

So, Rhonda, you are a mariachi teacher with San Antonio Asti, but when you tell people about your job, how do you describe what you do?

I tell people that I have the best job in the world because I get to do what I love to do.

I get to do my what is my passion is teaching the children about their culture, teaching them all about mariachi music and more importantly, teaching them to have pride in who they are.

And why did you choose to teach mariachi?

I started as a performer, a mariachi performer.

I started at Fiesta, Texas.

I was working with mariachi companies in America and Fiesta, Texas, and a woman by the name of Camille Locke, who was the fine arts coordinator for mariachi with San Antonio Independent School District, saw me perform and said, Hey, I'd really like for you to think about consider coming to teach mariachi.

And of course, I was a performer and I thought, I don't I don't want to teach, and that's not for me.

And she said, I really need female representation.

We have a lot of male teachers, but I really want a female to come and be a part of the team to really show help mold these young ladies that are wanting to join Mariachi.

And that's what stuck to me.

So I decided, okay, I started with the school district in 1994, and I worked at different various different schools around the city.

So I've had the privilege of working in middle school, high school and even elementary.

Had it been challenges along?

In your career, Rhonda, both as a performer and a teacher, can you share with me?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face?

When I started, which was in the nineties, when I started to work professionally as a female, there were very few females that were a part of the professional groups.

And so one of the biggest challenges was to to to be a part of that male dominated genre, to be able to stand up there and perform at that level.

Right?

Because it was it wasn't common.

So it was it was breaking those barriers, breaking down those walls.

A lot of challenges that I faced in teaching the same thing.

It was male dominated.

There were no female mariachi instructors.

And so bringing the female aspect into into the teaching of it was a challenge because I had to kind of remember that, hey, there's a, there's the female that we need, the finesse.

Right, Right.

And so teaching some of the of the instructors was even to the presentation of the female on stage.

So I would see a lot of the mariachi groups where the girls were their heroes come differently.

There wasn't a lot of uniformity.

So I brought that to the table and it's kind of like, Hey, you know, let's try things this way.

Let's let's really bring forth our females so they can shine and they can look different, you know, from the men.

We can see that their faces, you know, having them comb your hair back and having them uniform with nice, beautiful hair, bows and earrings and things like that.

So bringing the uniformity to it was something that was challenging because they weren't used to that.

So how did you overcome the challenges of just being a woman in these industries?

Or what advice would you give to other Latina teachers in mariachi music?

My best advice to to the young ladies that are starting today is believe in yourself is always remember that you are a value your and shine when you're on that stage.

Be prepared.

You always have to be prepared because all eyes are on you.

Right?

Right.

So be ready with your music.

Make sure that you when you're on that stage.

Part of getting rid of that nervousness that we face is being prepared.

Right?

So make sure that you educate yourself, you learn and you fully equipped yourself with the tools so that when you're up on that stage, that doesn't hinder you.

That's wonderful advice.

Wanda, what type of impact do you believe you're making as an educator and a role model?

I would like to believe that I'm making a very positive one in which I am teaching my students to have confidence in themselves and to follow their dreams.

And so I believe that I'm making an impact because I'm bringing it to even younger generations now where they're falling in love with it, even younger.

And because of that, they're starting to see how there's all this available for me.

So when I go to college, if I decide to go to Baylor, if I decide to go wherever it's available for me, I can continue mariachi.

So this is something that is really going to be resourceful for our students as they decide to pursue their education beyond high school.

Because for a lot of them, they wouldn't go to school.

Mariachi program offers students discipline, learning to work as a team, learning to be a leader in the community.

The advice that I would give my students is be prepared, know your music, know the language, equip yourself and always remember that you're a star.

You shine anyway.

That you will believe in yourself and never let your passion die because you are afraid to explore it.

You're giving them tools to take with them in their life.

That's beautiful.

Rhonda.

Kiki, so much.

We're so glad you joined us for this episode of Salute with the focus on Latinas leading an education.

Thank you for spending time with us and we'll see you next week on Salud Notes that Demos are supported by Texas Mutual Workers Compensation Insurance Company.