Molina was the first Latina to serve in the state assembly, city council, and board of supervisors for Los Angeles. Gloria Molina, a pioneering Chicana leader in California state and local politics for more than three decades, has passed away after a three-year battle with cancer, according to her family. She was 74 years old.
Molina passed away on Sunday evening at her Mount Washington residence, surrounded by her family, according to a statement released by her daughter, Valentina Martinez.
exterior featuring blackboards on the street and a mural of women. Two gents are standing in front of the food court rising above San Francisco’s ‘doom loop’: We are dismantling stereotypes.
Molina was the first Latina to serve in the state assembly, Los Angeles city council, and Los Angeles county board of Supervisors. She was a Democrat.
“It takes courage to be the first woman in the room, and Gloria was the first woman and first Latina in nearly every room she was in,” tweeted Los Angeles County supervisor Janice Hahn. “She opened the door for the rest of us, not just for herself. The political women of Los Angeles County owe a debt of gratitude to Gloria Molina.
Molina paved the path for future generations of leaders, according to Karen Bass, who became the first female mayor of Los Angeles last year.
In a statement, Bass described Molina as “a force for unapologetic good and transformational change in Los Angeles” who “advocated for those who did not have a voice in government through her pioneering environmental justice work, her role as a fiscal watchdog, and her advocacy for public health”.
In a Facebook post from March, the lawmaker disclosed her terminal cancer battle.
“You should know that I’m not sad,” she wrote. “I feel incredibly privileged as I approach this transition in my life. I have an incredible and caring family, fantastic friends, and have worked with dedicated coworkers and a devoted team.”
Molina was the eldest of 10 children born to working-class parents on May 31, 1948, in Montebello, California.
She served on the Los Angeles city council from 1987 to 1991 before being elected to the Los Angeles county board of Supervisors in 1991. She served on the board until 2014 when her term expired.
Subsequently, the board of supervisors voted to rename downtown’s Grand Park Gloria Molina Grand Park. Molina was a member of the Los Angeles county metropolitan transportation authority, which announced intentions to name the East Los Angeles Civic Center subway station after the pioneering official.
Molina also founded “East LA stitchers,” a group of quilters who have been working to complete quilts that Molina was too unwell to finish.
In a Facebook post, her family praised Molina’s artistic passion:
“We will miss watching Gloria the artist imagine and create beautiful quilts that tell the story of our Mexican roots, and Gloria the teacher who shares her passion with others so that they, too, may express themselves through this art.”
“Most of all, we will miss Gloria, the strong and selfless matriarch of our family,” the statement continued.
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