Hilda Zacarias , councilwoman from Santa Maria, spoke to students and faculty Thursday to share her personal experiences as a “Si Se Puede” activist, inspiring others to act and the importance of knowing your ethnicity.
“I really do not have a sense of limitation on what I can do, or what I believe in and almost certainly those of us called ‘Si Se Puede’ activists have a sense of justice and still being within ourselves,” said Zacarias. “A lot of our identity comes from the sense of who we are and where we come from.”
More than 150 students and faculty members were part of the audience of the 17th annual Leonardo Dorantes Memorial Lecture series at the Garvin Theatre. The lecture was established in honor of an ESL student who was tragically killed in an assault with strong racial overtones.
Among the audience was Superintendent-President John Romo who introduced Zacarias as an inspirational role model to students on how her political leadership began at a community college.
Zacarias was born of Texan farm worker parents and was brought to Santa Maria when she was only a child. She considers herself a “chicana chingona”, which she explained as: “They’re those chicanas and Latinas who had made significant professional education and cultural achievements.”
“I always thought that chingona meant a really kick-ass chica,” said Zacarias.
In 2006, Zacarias received her master’s degree in Public Administration at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The following year, Zacarias was elected to the Santa Maria city council, where she is presently serving her first four-year term.
The audience was very attentive while Zacarias shared how her mom became her inspiration to become an activist, after she saw how her mother was involved in several farmers’ protest.
“My Mom felt that it was important to help others at all times…she was a “chingona”, she believed in serving others, helping others and defending those who cannot be defended,” said Zacarias.
What really made her become an activist was when she read an article in the paper in which George Hobbs, the late Santa Maria mayor, stated that there was a “Mexican problem in Santa Maria.” She responded with a letter to the editor speaking up for others, and at the same time she unconsciously gave birth to being a “Si Se Puede” activist experimenting with privileges, prejudice and racism.
Zacarias went on referring to “activist as a dirty word” because of the value given by bureaucrats who neutralized someone’s efforts. She proudly embraced the word and became councilwoman after she saw 15,000 Hispanics marching for immigrant rights in Santa Maria and by the political action of PUEBLO, a non-profit political power organization.
“I felt honor, and still feel honor to have been accepted by those votes from the individuals of the city of Santa Maria, in spite of the fact of being a crazy liberal activist… so I became only the third woman in 102 years to be in the city council of Santa Maria, and the first Chicana,” said Zacarias.
Zacarias invited all students not to see Harvard as an obstacle, but as a reality and to become a “nerd” when it comes to school. She considers herself a leader who exercises her power by helping followers not to be isolated from politics, but rather to become participant activists.
She challenged students to commit to family, to community, to seek injustice to make a difference and to make a powerful impact becoming a “chingon,” or “chingona” by graduating from a University and to come back to be a speaker for the Dorantes Memorial.
She concluded with a quote that she dedicated to Leonardo: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” spoken first by Martin Luther King, Jr..
“It was really inspiring; I think leaders like Hilda are what we need in this society to have a better sense of who we are and where to go,” said student Karla Ramirez. “Now I feel like I can go to Harvard myself and make a positive change for my community.”