“May you be lucky” is the phrase that Olivia Zepeda hears most often walking the streets of Yuma County, in the state of Arizona, right on the border with Mexico. She is the first Hispanic woman to apply for the position of County Superintendent of Education and luck isn’t exactly what she needs. What Zepeda needs is to mobilize a segment of Latino voters who traditionally vote poorly in mid-term elections.
“If I can get Latin Americans in San Luis and Somerton to vote, I have a good chance of winning,” she says at a support meeting where supporters and a small but effective army of election promoters showed up, going from house to house. inviting people to vote and get to know the candidate.
Olivia Zepeda prepares the campaign material that will be delivered during her tour through the streets of San Luis, Arizona.
(Alejandro Maciel)
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In reality, Zepeda doesn’t need much introduction. For 45 years he pursued his vocation as a teacher in classrooms and met generations of that county’s residents firsthand. In a recent week of September in temperatures of 95 degrees with humidity close to 60 percent, Zepeda is not afraid of the heat. Together with his voting promoters, he knocks on doors, leaves information and talks with neighbors.
“Your face looks familiar to me,” says a man who opens the door for him. “Didn’t you work at Rio Colorado Elementary School? I think you taught my daughter.” They both laugh and then Zepeda explains the importance of going to the polls next November. “Count on my vote,” he tells her.
But it’s not just classrooms that are what Zepeda knows. About 10 years of his teaching career were spent outside the classroom as an associate county superintendent. There he encountered the administrative labyrinths of schools, budgets and the most urgent needs of teachers. But he also learned of the problems faced by many of the 203,881 inhabitants of this county, where 65.5%, according to the 2020 census, are Latinos and the median household income is $ 48,790 per year.
“None of this is unknown to me,” says this 66-year-old woman with a friendly smile, whose childhood was very similar to that of many of the children studying in this region.
Always ahead
For those who started working at the age of 4, necessity is the mother of all resources. Zepeda remembers the day when his pride made him solve a serious problem. “I was 8 years old and the teacher mistreated me a lot and she told me I had to bring a dictionary the next day or she wouldn’t let me into the classroom. I asked my mother and she told me that she had no money, that she could not buy the dictionary which cost 4 pesos ”, remembers Zepeda and gets excited. “So I told my mom to help me sell popcorn. But we only had one burden. So my mom bought me 10 bags and she made me popcorn. Sell them at 1 peso, she told me.
To his surprise he sold them all and from there he started a business that lasted a year. “My father told me later that, during that time, thanks to the popcorn, the whole family moved on,” he says with deep satisfaction.
This is perhaps one of the greatest talents that have been recognized in this San Luis Rio Colorado woman and mother of 2 daughters: her ability to find solutions when it seems all roads are closed.
Olivia Zepeda and Juana Toledo speak with a resident of the city of San Luis.
(Alejandro Maciel)
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As an associate superintendent, she was required to solve problems that the incumbent himself did not want to address. You have many anecdotes from that time, such as when the school cafeteria employees were willing to sue the District for mistreatment and abuse. “But the workers, as they knew me, wanted to talk to me and no one else … I finally managed to find a solution and the district avoided a million dollar lawsuit.”
“The Republicans drive by in their trucks, with flags and follow us and register, they try to scare us, but they can’t. They are afraid of losing, but they don’t scare us. “
– Juana Toledo, volunteer promoter of the vote
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But perhaps his most difficult challenge was when a student died inside one of the schools due to an ill-anchored target that fell on the boy and died. “It is the worst thing he has ever experienced, because I know firsthand the suffering of the parents and, as on so many other occasions, it was I who took care of things”.
In that moment of crisis, she showed what she was made of and why they trusted her. She mobilized resources, organized rooms to assist parents, students and teachers, called counselors, organized meetings, and managed to negotiate with parents who were angry about what had happened. “In the end I was able to tell them that, in their situation, I would be as upset as they were, but it reassured them that the schools were safe and that they would do everything possible to improve the safety of the students.”
On the streets of Yuma County, Arizona, there is a huge electoral buzz, where Latin candidates dominate the scene.
(Alejandro Maciel)
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why has he never held the position of county school superintendent, I ask?
“Because they always put obstacles in my way and I preferred to withdraw from the superintendency to take care of a school,” he replies.
But for someone like Zepeda, used to taking on challenges and overcoming herself, the idea of being a county school superintendent has never completely failed.
“Yuma County has been my home for over 50 years. My experience covers curriculum development, education, budget management, human relations, and educational leadership. The qualities I will bring to the county as a school superintendent are consistency, dedication, reliability and innovation, ”she says with conviction. “I have prepared my whole life for this moment.”
forged in the field
Olivia Zepeda, (first from right) as a teenager, at work in California.
(Olivia Zepeda Archive)
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Zepeda lives with her husband in Yuma. Her house is surrounded by extensive agricultural areas. While her husband drives, she identifies the crops. “That’s lettuce there, those trees will soon give oranges and lemons.” Zepeda gets excited when she talks about the way dates are grown. “It is a machine that has a spinning wheel in which there are several workers who cut the dates that are already in the bags”. Her husband, Manuel Zepeda, nods.
In fact, it has always been surrounded by the farm fields. And when he needed it, he came back to them.
Manuel Zepeda repairs one of his wife Olivia’s posters.
(Alejandro Maciel)
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“My father was a bracero and we traveled with him following the crops. We used to go near Modesto, California, and when we were lucky we slept in a little house provided by the butler, but when we were unlucky we would settle under the trees ”.
From those difficult years an inner strength was born that it is impossible not to see. Despite her sweet face, she has an energy and an unshakable will to make things happen.
“I remember a lot my mother who, despite her shortcomings and having nothing, never lost her optimism. I remember that she housed the wooden house that they gave us in some fields. I remember her cooking her, and the smells of the dishes she prepared with all dedication for my father, my sister and me to eat.
And I say he remembers smells, because he lost his sense of smell at the age of 11, when one day, while working on the fig harvest in Planada, California, a small plane passed and sprayed them with insecticide. “I haven’t smelled since then, but I have memories of how things smell.”
“My father told me later that, at that time, thanks to the popcorn, the whole family moved on.”
—Olivia Zepeda
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For a migrant girl who went back and forth between California and Arizona, the prospects for formal education were little or no, and what was expected of her was to finish high school and then go to work in a shop. This was her aspiration as her father, who saw her as a way out of poverty and escape backbreaking agricultural work.
But that wasn’t in his plans.
Throughout his childhood, Zepeda remembers that every free day he had, vacation, weekend or vacation, he worked with his father. “Those memories don’t hurt me, on the contrary, I appreciate them very much because I know they molded me into the strong woman I am now.”
And no doubt he will need all his strength for this electoral competition. His opponent, Republican Tom Hurt, won him by just over 3,000 votes in last August’s primary.
“There aren’t that many votes,” I tell him optimistically.
“There are many votes here, but that doesn’t stop me. We know that if we can get the Latins to vote, we can win. “
scary tactics
This is the “army” of election promoters supporting Olivia Zepeda’s campaign.
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But getting Latins to vote isn’t his only challenge. In recent weeks, its army of election promoters has been harassed by groups of Republicans who persecute them and record them on video cameras. “It scares me a lot, they are very angry people”, says Eloísa (she asked not to use her name for security reasons). “They want people not to go out, not to vote, they don’t want anything to change,” she says as she adjusts her mask so her face can’t be seen.
Juana Toledo is 77 years old. And since 1985 she has been working as a volunteer convincing people to register and go and vote. “I know where the vows are,” she says as she eagerly walks one of the streets of San Luis. “Yes, they persecute us, they record us, they tell us rude things, but they don’t stop us. What happens is that they are very afraid of losing, because they know we can completely transform this county, “she says as she quickly walks from house to house.
Joining Zepeda is Zahid Templates, a 23-year-old candidate for the Gadsden School District Board of Trustees. “We have to start taking political positions, moving forward from the ground up, to solve the serious academic problems in our schools,” he says in impeccable Spanish and with a personality that demonstrates enormous political potential.
Tony Reyes, former mayor of San Luis, expressed his support for Olivia Zepeda and asked the promoters of the vote to continue their work. “You will be helping to change the political face of the county,” he said.
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They and the other candidates who support Zepeda are part of that new generation of young Latinos, convinced that it is time to participate and make things change in this county that during the elections of 2 August voted 39.56% in favor of the Republicans against 25.29% of Democrats.
“It’s Olivia’s time,” says Tony Reyes, former mayor of San Luis, Arizona. “She is a luxury candidate. I wish we had so many people like that to support. “
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