Pride in their heritage

When Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina Supreme Court justice this summer, her professional success confirmed the gains that women of Hispanic background are making nationwide.

Sotomayor, a New York City native of Puerto Rican descent, is one of a growing number of Hispanic women assuming top leadership positions in government, academia, law, business and other areas. They are community leaders, advocates and activists.

"These are women that are very competent," said Dolores Huerta, a nationally known labor leader and social activist from California. In the 1960s, when Huerta was fighting for labor rights, there were other Latinas in leadership positions, but nothing like today, she said.

"Young Latinas can see that they don’t have to be super rich to make it. They can come from humble beginnings and they can be Latinas and don’t have to give up their heritage," she said. "And you don’t have to be part of the president’s cabinet or be a member of the Supreme Court to make a difference. We are worthy, for who we are."

In the Richmond area, Hispanic women also have found success and ways to help their community while taking pride in their heritage.

When Evelia Gonzalez Porto came to the Petersburg area 30 years ago, she found few Hispanics living here -- and those who did had no voice.

"At the beginning, we were very few and it was very difficult to be accepted. You always had to try to sort of make people believe in you, that you were really a part of the community, not a foreigner," she said. "I was educated, knew English well and it was still difficult."

A native of Colombia, she was an arts lover who had studied in Buffalo, N.Y. before moving to Virginia.

"I was taught early in life to give back to the community where you live," said Gonzalez Porto, who now lives in Richmond.

She did just that when she came to central Virginia. She became a promoter for Latino artists and a leader for Hispanic women entrepreneurs.

She became involved with the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, which was just getting started. That involvement led her to other groups, including the Latin Ballet, and to numerous boards in the local and state arts community, including a seat on the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Since 2003, she has organized the Hispanic Women in Arts event that is held annually in Richmond and features amateur and local professional artists.

"I promote all of my artists . . . I want them to succeed and to become part of the system," she said. "They have to learn how to do it, how to go to the galleries, how to do the exhibits and then sell and market their art."

She is proud, she said, to see more opportunities for Latinos in the local arts community and in other areas.

"So how much we have advanced in 30 years? We have the Hispanic Chamber, we have the Latin Ballet, we have the Hispanic Liaison Office in the city of Richmond and the Hispanic Liaison in the governor's office," she said. "We have gone a long way. There is a certain awareness of our community."

The fight is still needed, but at a different level, she said.

"I always remember what my grandfather used to tell me, 'the wind hits only the trees that are taller, those are the ones that are hit by the heavy winds, so when you stand out, the wind is going to be against you, that means the criticism, but it doesn't matter, keep on going, don't look back, just keep on going.'

"I am not afraid of being left out anymore. This is my Virginia as much as anybody else's . . . I came with a lot of cultural wealth and that is something that people should take advantage of. We have brought a culture and that has to be respected and that has to be promoted."

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Tanya Gonzalez wears many hats. She is at community festivals, public forums, and on the airwaves of Richmond's Spanish radio.

At local schools, the 33-year-old Texas native mentors children and often talks to school officials about issues concerning Hispanic students. When needed, she translates for city agencies, including the Richmond Police Department.

As manager of the Richmond Hispanic Liaison Office, Gonzalez knows the ins and outs of the local Latino community. Her knowledge comes not only from her job, but also from her own devotion to a community she has seen develop over the years.

In 1999, when Gonzalez returned to Richmond after five years at Brown University, she found a more diverse Richmond.

"I knew the community here was growing and I knew there weren't systems of support at that time," she said.

She saw an opportunity to help and joined the staff of the Refugee and Immigration Services as an immigrant-community liaison. A year later -- in 2004 -- she took the Richmond Hispanic Liaison Office job.

Since then, she has been a go-to person in the Latino community.

"I was doing community work full time and realized at that point that it was my path," said Gonzalez, whose father is Mexican and whose mother is of Italian and Slovak descent.

"It is almost like I do have this natural drive to assist and help, but it is very much a two-way street. I don't feel like I am coming in and I am helping people. I see it more as an interaction and I am getting more from them interacting with me."

She sees the ongoing change in demographics in the country as an opportunity to carry out the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to do away with racial and ethnic division.

"I am conscious of how multiracial and multiethnic our country is becoming. Even taking myself as an example, if I identified as Latino that's fine, but I could identify with several different groups . . . As a country, our idea of identity is going to continue to change.

"Hopefully we will be more as Dr. Martin Luther King said, about your character and about morals, about what your thoughts are and finding common ground amongst that versus just focusing on race and ethnicity."

. . .

Growing up in Richmond, Judy Mejia struggled with her identity. As the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and an African-American father, she felt different.

"We got a lot of flak for being different, and it was hard. Growing up here 10 or 20 years ago, it was a little tougher, people really didn't understand us," she said.

Schoolmates were curious -- and tough.

"Your hair, why don't you perm it? Why is it so big and frizzy, or why are you eating burritos, or why is your mom speaking Spanish?" she recalls people asking.

The African-American culture was present, but she was mostly immersed in the Hispanic traditions, spoke Spanish at home and learned English in school.

"The Latino culture was a big part of our growing up. Our mom wanted to make sure that we spoke Spanish so we could speak to our friends, and so when we went to Mexico we could speak the language," the 28-year-old said.

Her experiences created a passion for helping other young people, especially Hispanic women overcoming barriers to completing college.

It started at George Mason University, where Mejia started a mentoring program for freshmen and sophomore Hispanic female students.

"Research was released that Latinas were not staying in college, particularly at large institutions like George Mason," she said. "I had noticed so many of the women I had met in my first and second year, I didn't see them when I was on my third or fourth year in college. They had other obligations, they had to work, they had to take care of siblings, they might have had kids, so it was hard to see that I had the opportunity to go through and finish college and others fell off the map."

The Mariposas Mentoring program was an effort to stop that cycle and help keep Latinas on track to finish college, she said.

"To date this program still exists, I am very proud to say," she said.

Her passion for helping has continued in her job as program manager for the Richmond Families Initiative at the University of Richmond, where she seeks ways to connect students and their community. In her role as a member of the Board of the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network, she also continues to specifically work to encourage Latino participation and success in higher education.

"I am encouraged to see there is coordination among Latinos and there are people who have interest in the Latino community to provide services and offer opportunities so that Latinos can move forward," she said. "I know a lot of them just want their children to have an opportunity to go to school and do something better for themselves, which is similar to what my mom wanted for us."

. . .

At 11, Alejandra Zapatero saw the lengthy, complicated process her parents went through to become U.S. citizens. It was then that she began to think of herself as a future immigration attorney.

The 25-year-old, one of four Hispanic students in the University of Richmond's School of Law, will graduate in May.

"Immigration is important to me not only because of my parents' background, but I also like the idea of the more the merrier," she said. "If there is somebody who would like to come to this country and be a contributing member of society, I would like to facilitate that person's arrival."

The plan, she said, is to help the vulnerable.

"I have been put in a position and given opportunities that a lot of people don't have and so I think that it is my responsibility to disseminate those opportunities to whoever I can," said Zapatero, the daughter of Peruvian immigrants who moved to the Hampton Roads area in the early 1980s.

As president of the Hispanic Law Students Association at UR, Zapatero has worked to increase student participation in a mentoring program to help immigrant children, and in a pro-bono clinic to help local immigrants with legal issues.

"There is always a way to get involved in your community," she said. "The ESL [English as a Second Language] mentorship program with the public schools in Richmond is important because a lot of the Hispanic students get sort of left behind in the shuffle. If I can take an hour out of my day to make a whole semester worth of math easier for somebody, then it is definitely worth it."

Her dreams are big, she said. A law degree would put her in a position to impact people's lives while giving her a choice of doing policy work, running for elective office or even following in Sotomayor's footsteps, she said.

"I think it is amazing that she is on the Supreme Court. . . . I am impressed by her, I look up to her," Zapatero said of Sotomayor. "She is controversial to a lot of people, but she can easily be a role model for a lot of women and a lot of Latinas who didn't think something like that was possible. She made it clear to me that my goals are within . . . reach."

Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or .