Leticia Quezada

Quezada was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where her father was a copper miner, and grew up in Ciudad Juárez. She immigrated to Pittsburg, California, as a teenager after the death of her father from tuberculosis.{{citation|last=Quintanilla|first=Michael|title=Voice of Experience : Painful Memories Buoy Leticia Quezada's Fight for Bilingual Schools|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=January 28, 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-28-vw-1440-story.html|access-date=2016-07-31}} She struggled in a school district that did not make a strong effort to help her transition from a solely Spanish-speaking school into an English-speaking one.{{citation|title=Diversity and the Effective Corporate Board|first1=Ram Kumar|last1=Mishra|first2=Shital|last2=Jhunjhunwala|publisher=Academic Press|year=2013|isbn=9780124105324|page=110|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbdEjggQjdYC&pg=PA110}}.

Quezada pursued her bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, graduating in 1975{{citation|title=Latina to Join L.A. Community College Board|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|first = David G.|last=Savage|date=July 26, 1985|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-26-me-5051-story.html|access-date=2016-07-31}}. with honors, and received her master's from Cal State Sacramento.

Despite earning a teaching credential, she was unable to get a job as a teacher in the Los Angeles school district, as the district did not consider her specialty, bilingual education, to be needed.{{citation|title=Conversations/Leticia Quezada; L.A.'s Schools Chief Wants Power, And the Vote, for Immigrant Parents|department=Week in Review|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Robert|last=Reinhold|date=November 29, 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/29/weekinreview/conversations-leticia-quezada-la-s-schools-chief-wants-power-vote-for-immigrant.html}}

Before joining the school board she worked for the Chicana Service Action Center in Los Angeles{{citation|title=Race and the War on Poverty: From Watts to East L.A.|volume=3|series=Race and Culture in the American West|first=Robert|last=Bauman|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2014|isbn=9780806185200|page=127|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RHcCBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA127}}.

and as a community relations manager for the Carnation Company. She also served as president of the Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional in 1981, chaired Los Angeles County Californios for Fair Representation, and worked as a coordinator and delegate for the 1984 presidential campaign of Walter Mondale.{{citation|title=California Latinos Ardently Wooed by Uncertain Suitors|first=Jay|last=Mathews|date=May 31, 1984|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/05/31/california-latinos-ardently-wooed-by-uncertain-suitors/354421db-aa0a-495d-bf49-cadedd82565a/|accessdate=2016-08-01}}.

In 1985, the trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District appointed Quezada to its board, after another member resigned to become City Controller. Although another Latino, J. William Orozco, had previously served on the board, Quezada became its first Latina. She left the board again in 1987,{{citation|pages=20, 86|title=The Los Angeles Community College District Crisis, 1981–1987|last=Erickson|first=Lowell Janes|year=1997|publisher=Los Angeles Valley College|url=http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED407955.pdf}}. when she secured a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board, becoming its first Latina.{{cite web | url = https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8th8s4g/entire_text/ | title = The Papers of Leticia Quezada: A Life Dedicated to Honor Mexican and American Cultural Values | via = Huntington Library | access-date = }}

As a LAUSD board member, Quezada pushed for an improved bilingual education program, increased parent control in local education, year-round schooling, and allowing non-citizen parents to vote in school board elections.{{citation|title=Democracy for All: Restoring Immigrant Voting Rights in the U.S.|first=Ron|last=Hayduk|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=9781136791352|page=136|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZPNTKNYRLxYC&pg=PA136}}.{{citation|title=Noncitizen Voting and American Democracy|first=Stanley Allen|last=Renshon|authorlink=Stanley Renshon|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2009|isbn=9780742562653|page=60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRArMcgE_TwC&pg=PA60}}. During her time on the board, Quezada opposed lowering academic standards for student athletes{{citation|title=Los Angeles schools drop no-pass, no-play rule|first=Jay|last=Mathews|date=January 24, 1990|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/01/24/los-angeles-schools-drop-no-pass-no-play-rule/a673d418-1cc7-4aa9-8e5b-a486093ec915/|accessdate=2016-08-01}}. and served as a strong advocate for Latinos and immigrants in lower socioeconomic classes.

During Quezada's first year in office, "The Master Plan" was adopted into the school district. The plan called for an increase in the number of bilingual teachers and teacher training plans for bilingual assistants to eventually become teachers. In addition to being a voice for "The Master Plan," Quezada also advocated for a $5,000 salary incentive for bilingual teachers and college programs for bilingual teachers in training.

In 1992, Quezada was elected as the President of the Board of Education, and was the first Latina to hold that position.{{citation|title=Quezada Is 1st Latina to Head L. A. Schools|date=July 7, 1992|first=Charisse|last=Jones|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-07-me-1800-story.html|access-date=2016-08-01}}. As president, she recruited teachers from Mexico to make up for a shortage of bilingual teachers.{{citation|title=Los Angeles Schools to Hire Bilingual Teachers From Mexico|date=August 4, 1993|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/04/education/los-angeles-schools-to-hire-bilingual-teachers-from-mexico.html|accessdate=2016-07-31}}.

She led the board through some of its most chaotic years, which included a battle against state school vouchers (Proposition 174), teacher strikes, attempts to break up the district, a controversial redistricting effort that ensured greater Latino representation on the board at the expense of the San Fernando Valley,{{citation|title=Latina President on the Defensive in New District : Leticia Quezada: She calls for unity. But area activists bemoan a loss of representation and are reluctant to accept their new voices on the board|first=Henry|last=Chu|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=July 12, 1992|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-12-me-4196-story.html|access-date=2016-08-01}}. and $700 million in damage to district facilities caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.{{citation|title=Quake aid checks dispatched as FEMA mobilizes more staff and rain holds off|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=January 24, 1994|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/01/24/quake-aid-checks-dispatched-as-fema-mobilizes-more-staff-and-rain-holds-off/59bd8afb-ae2b-449c-a991-dd2976cb56ba/|accessdate=2016-08-01|first1=Christine|last1=Spolar|first2=William|last2=Claiborne}}. Two years after her election to president, Quezada announced that she would step down from the school board. Her departure coincided with the passage of Proposition 187, which forced public schools to bar undocumented children.{{citation|last=Pyle|first=Amy|title=Quezada Won't Seek Another Term on L.A. School Board|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=December 15, 1994|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-15-me-9210-story.html|access-date=2016-07-31}}.

In 1992, Quezada ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, for California's 30th congressional district, but she lost in the primary to Xavier Becerra.{{citation|title=Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles|series=Haymarket|first=Rodolfo|last=Acuña|publisher=Verso|year=1996|isbn=9781859840313|page=99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lQXqQPNOUcC&pg=PA99}}. Her campaign had been hurt by losing the support of United Teachers Los Angeles, the local teachers union which was unhappy with her over a contract dispute.

From 1995 until 2002 Quezada was the director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.{{citation|title=Changing the Mainstream: Mexican Cultural Institute Works to Promote Cultural Vibrancy and Heritage|date=April 18, 1996|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|first=Matea|last=Gold|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-18-me-59981-story.html|access-date=2016-07-31}}.{{citation|title=Coast of Dreams|first=Kevin|last=Starr|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|year=2011|isbn=9780307795267|page=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fw5N5qg5BHQC&pg=PA155}}.{{citation|title=The Sons and Daughters of Los: Culture and Community in L. A.|first=David E.|last=James|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2003|isbn=9781439901373|page=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nu5YoI8GbsQC&pg=PA155}}. In 2003 she joined California State University, San Bernardino as the program manager for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Palm Desert, and in 2008 she became the university's interim director of extension programs in their College of Extended Learning.{{citation|url=https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/csusb_mag_08-wtr.pdf|magazine=CSUSB Magazine|date=Winter 2008|publisher=California State University, San Bernardino|page=13|department=College News|title=Extended Learning: Branching Out}}.

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Category:1953 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Chihuahua (state)

Category:California State University, Sacramento alumni

Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni

Category:School board members in California

Category:Mexican emigrants to the United States