Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 056: Interview with Councilwoman Nury Martinez

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Capítulo 056: Interview with Councilwoman Nury Martinez · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:03
Speaker 1: Radio Radio Radio Commies, a myth and Bullshit radio phonic
0:17
Speaker 1: novella Look At a Radio hosted by Malamno. Hello, Hello,
0:23
Speaker 1: welcome back to Look at the Radio. Welcome to season
0:27
Speaker 1: three of Look At Our Radios. Because fem revenge has
0:31
Speaker 1: never sounded so sweet. Look at That our Radio is
0:34
Speaker 1: a radio phonic novella archiving the brilliance and legacies of
0:38
Speaker 1: women and fems of color. I'm Diosa and I'm Mala,
0:41
Speaker 1: and we are less Mammy's of myth and bullshit. Last
0:44
Speaker 1: look Radio radiophonic novella, which is really just a very
0:48
Speaker 1: extra way of saying a podcast. It's a podcast and
0:51
Speaker 1: we love our podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.
0:54
Speaker 1: So last time on look at Radio Capito fifty five Labla,
0:59
Speaker 1: we talked about the narrative of She Devils and in media,
1:08
Speaker 1: I'm like, what word is this? As always look at
1:10
Speaker 1: That our radio we record at Rado Spasio, a community
1:13
Speaker 1: radio station hosted at Espacio eighteen thirty nine in Boil Heights.
1:17
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us once again. Also special shout
1:20
Speaker 1: out to Rape. We have new my and they sound amazing.
1:26
Speaker 1: I'm sure in the past you've noticed that it picks
1:29
Speaker 1: up a lot. You can hear the cars going by,
1:31
Speaker 1: so hopefully you won't hear that this time. So once again,
1:34
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you. SASO. Make sure you
1:39
Speaker 1: check them out on Instagram. Yes, so we have a
1:41
Speaker 1: full gupp for y'all today. We have a guest. We
1:45
Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about, so we're just gonna
1:47
Speaker 1: jump right into announcements and we have our first pop
1:50
Speaker 1: up of nineteen very exciting, our first pop up ever. Yeah,
1:55
Speaker 1: really ever, we're laid on the pop up train, but
1:58
Speaker 1: we're gonna do it with our own will spin, our
2:00
Speaker 1: own little twist. So Mocha had the dominguetto coming up
2:05
Speaker 1: February tenth, eleven am to four pm. What are we doing.
2:11
Speaker 1: We are having the major pop up. I loved you,
2:15
Speaker 1: but I love me more. So we need everybody in
2:18
Speaker 1: the l A area. Anybody who's Alcamore, who's ever had
2:21
Speaker 1: their heartbroken, who's little piste off because of an ex
2:24
Speaker 1: If that sounds like you, come out to get um
2:28
Speaker 1: February tenth, come to pop up. It's going to be
2:31
Speaker 1: like an interactive sort of pop up. We're gonna have merch,
2:34
Speaker 1: but we want you to bring items that maybe remind
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Speaker 1: you of an X, or maybe gifts that your ex
2:42
Speaker 1: gave you that you're ready to part with that you're
2:43
Speaker 1: ready to let go. Maybe some old love letters that
2:46
Speaker 1: an old flame route in desperation. Yeah exactly, but once
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Speaker 1: maybe that you want to get rid of the ones
2:54
Speaker 1: that you want to get rid of. I was just
2:55
Speaker 1: telling the other day, I was going through, you know,
2:58
Speaker 1: sorting through things, and I found like all these old
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Speaker 1: love letters at some random person that was pursuing me
3:03
Speaker 1: gave them to me back in college, and I threw
3:05
Speaker 1: them all away, and Mama was like, you should have
3:07
Speaker 1: held onto them. Yeah, but I was ready to part ways.
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Speaker 1: So if you still have your stuff and you want
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Speaker 1: to part ways with it, you're ready to let it go,
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Speaker 1: bring it to pop up. We're going to have um
3:18
Speaker 1: ways to dispose of them, fun ways, cute ways, ways,
3:21
Speaker 1: more to be revealed to be revealed, and we also
3:24
Speaker 1: have a selfie station, a self love selfie stage. We're
3:29
Speaker 1: gonna leave it at that so you can come and
3:30
Speaker 1: check it out in the flesh in person. Yes, yes, yes,
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Speaker 1: I have some old love letters that this guy um
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Speaker 1: hand wrote to me and mailed to me when I
3:39
Speaker 1: was in college, but like they were written out of
3:41
Speaker 1: desperation and I've held onto them because my nineteen year
3:44
Speaker 1: old self, I was like, you know what, I might
3:46
Speaker 1: need these one day, so I've kept them. So I'm
3:49
Speaker 1: going to be bringing my old ship, but I want
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Speaker 1: to get rid of It's going to be a community. Yes,
3:54
Speaker 1: We're also going to be participating as well. Yes, so
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Speaker 1: that's pop up then and also very exciting. We have
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Speaker 1: the l A Made Series with the Los Angeles Public
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Speaker 1: Library coming up. Uh. Also you want to talk more
4:06
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, So as a part of LA Made
4:09
Speaker 1: Series with the l A Public Library, we are partnering
4:11
Speaker 1: with local libraries to do our Latin X text podcasting.
4:16
Speaker 1: One on one workshops are going to be free and
4:17
Speaker 1: open to the public. Um. We're gonna be starting at
4:21
Speaker 1: Ben Franklin Library here in Boile Heights and we'll be
4:23
Speaker 1: throughout l A County and it's all going to lead
4:26
Speaker 1: up to a special event in the fall. Yes, so
4:29
Speaker 1: come on out, come on now. Keep an eye on
4:32
Speaker 1: our socials on our Instagram for more information. So we're
4:37
Speaker 1: so excited to announce a new segment, a new reoccurring
4:40
Speaker 1: segment called Vision Una. Vision is our newest little addition
4:48
Speaker 1: to our look at that a repertoire. So we just
4:51
Speaker 1: want to highlight our nail art, you know, and see
4:53
Speaker 1: what mood we're in, what inspired it, if we went
4:56
Speaker 1: anywhere special. We want to shout out a nail artist
4:59
Speaker 1: and nail tech, you know, so just another way to
5:01
Speaker 1: just sort of highlight our expression. So what are your
5:04
Speaker 1: nails like this week? Okay, so my nails are a
5:07
Speaker 1: little off brand because I actually have the stiletto nails
5:10
Speaker 1: and I always have the coffin and drag me for this.
5:13
Speaker 1: I do not care. But my partner actually, um likes sistiletto,
5:18
Speaker 1: so he asked me if my next set could be stiletto.
5:21
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, you know, I'll try it, and
5:23
Speaker 1: I like it, but it just doesn't feel like me,
5:25
Speaker 1: you know. So I'm gonna give these a run for
5:27
Speaker 1: a few weeks and then I'll go back to the coffin.
5:29
Speaker 1: But that's literally the main reason I did it. Yeah,
5:33
Speaker 1: and they look great but really cute. I like them, um,
5:35
Speaker 1: shout out to my nail tech. Her. She goes by
5:37
Speaker 1: retro nails on Instagram and she owns her own beauty
5:41
Speaker 1: collective called Wittier beauty collective Latina run the nail texts Latina.
5:46
Speaker 1: The women that do hair are also Latina. So it's
5:49
Speaker 1: really you know, I like to support absolutely that's cute. Yeah,
5:52
Speaker 1: and I've been going to her for a few months
5:53
Speaker 1: now since um look at her life like a little
5:56
Speaker 1: love and shout out. And I'm actually I'm doing the
6:00
Speaker 1: coffin nail this time. I know I've got the coffin
6:02
Speaker 1: and we're both doing flex. Yes, I was inspired by Bosa.
6:06
Speaker 1: I got mine after she got hers, and I wanted
6:08
Speaker 1: I was going for like an iridescent fish, like a
6:11
Speaker 1: mermaid tail. That's how I feel. They look very like
6:13
Speaker 1: galactic e yes. Yes, yes, yes, that was my goal.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, I hope you liked her nail. This has
6:19
Speaker 1: been vision. So what do we have coming up next? Theosa?
6:23
Speaker 1: All right, so we are bringing back oh yet look
6:26
Speaker 1: us everyone's favorite segment. My favorite segment next to Unia
6:32
Speaker 1: Vision now my new favorite segment. Okay, So this question
6:38
Speaker 1: um was submitted via Instagram and it says, how was
6:41
Speaker 1: it first sharing y'all's baby slash art? Whether it has
6:45
Speaker 1: been this podcast or articles you've written, Oh, how has
6:49
Speaker 1: it been? I was in the first time sharing it.
6:53
Speaker 1: I think we were we were excited. We're very excited.
6:57
Speaker 1: I think we knew that what we were doing was
6:59
Speaker 1: very us. It was something we loved. We weren't we
7:03
Speaker 1: We weren't hesitant to put it out. No, UM, I
7:06
Speaker 1: think we were very We've talked about this before, but
7:08
Speaker 1: we were very methodical about um putting it out. So
7:11
Speaker 1: we you know, with the idea came to us literally
7:14
Speaker 1: in July. UM I asked my left she would do
7:17
Speaker 1: the podcast with me. In September we plotted, and November
7:21
Speaker 1: it was released. So it was months of keeping it
7:24
Speaker 1: on the low. The mommies didn't know. Nobody knew what
7:27
Speaker 1: we were doing. Um. And that's just really our way
7:29
Speaker 1: of doing things, as we keep things very on the
7:31
Speaker 1: low until we're ready to launch it. That's just our style. UM.
7:35
Speaker 1: And when we put it out, like people were really
7:37
Speaker 1: excited and Latina Rebel shared it and other podcasts shared it,
7:41
Speaker 1: and we knew that we were onto something once we
7:44
Speaker 1: shared it. Yeah, you know, it was like our self titled,
7:48
Speaker 1: like we just dropped it. Nobody had any idea, there
7:51
Speaker 1: were no so you know, UM, no, it was cute.
7:56
Speaker 1: I think that um, you know, people were so supportive
8:00
Speaker 1: at the beginning that that also helped us to really
8:02
Speaker 1: just keep going and see the value and what we
8:04
Speaker 1: were doing. There is something about positive like affirmation from
8:07
Speaker 1: your community that really motivates you to keep creating. Right. Well, actually,
8:11
Speaker 1: I don't know if we've shared this, but the intention
8:13
Speaker 1: of the podcast was actually just going to be monthly,
8:16
Speaker 1: so we're only going to do one a month, and
8:18
Speaker 1: then when we saw folks responses, we were like, oh, no,
8:21
Speaker 1: this has to be bi monthly. The people want. Give
8:24
Speaker 1: the people what they want, they want more what they want,
8:28
Speaker 1: talk about talk about our biggest fan who my partner, Yeah,
8:34
Speaker 1: speaking of needing more? Right, right, right, Okay, my boo
8:38
Speaker 1: is our fact checker, right, And he'll listen and he'll
8:40
Speaker 1: be like, um, actually he's the one that he's the
8:42
Speaker 1: one that told us that Miguel is not from not
8:45
Speaker 1: from I don't know where. Mala said, I don't know,
8:47
Speaker 1: I made Santa Monica and he said, no, he's from
8:51
Speaker 1: San Pedro. He's a harbor boy. So y'all need to
8:53
Speaker 1: go and correct that. So he's our fact checker. He'll
8:56
Speaker 1: tell us like, hey, this guppy gal was really good.
8:58
Speaker 1: I think that it was a little short. You should
9:00
Speaker 1: have then more, That's what he'll tell She was constructive feedback.
9:04
Speaker 1: He's our a fact checker. It was great. He was like,
9:06
Speaker 1: the content is too good for it to be this short.
9:09
Speaker 1: More positive affirmation. We need more content. So thank you
9:12
Speaker 1: for that. Next question, um, what are some topics you're
9:16
Speaker 1: excited to talk about this year? So, um, last year
9:20
Speaker 1: we went to the Facebook Ignite and in speed us
9:23
Speaker 1: sessions with other Latino creators and we actually met Balina
9:27
Speaker 1: of Super Mamas and they're o G podcasters and she
9:30
Speaker 1: actually gave us the tips. She was so nice to share. Like,
9:33
Speaker 1: something that they do is they break their cot people
9:36
Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, they break their season up in two quarters.
9:38
Speaker 1: So we borrowed that, borrowed that idea, and what you're
9:41
Speaker 1: going to see this year for Local is that we're
9:43
Speaker 1: going to be very thematic. So we're we broke ourp
9:47
Speaker 1: our season up in two quarters. So this is Local
9:50
Speaker 1: Epistemology Quarter, and you'll see what the next quarter is
9:54
Speaker 1: and that'll be a surprise. Yes, uh so I think
9:57
Speaker 1: something I'm excited to talk about is what our guest
10:02
Speaker 1: is bringing after our song break. Yes, I'm premature as always,
10:07
Speaker 1: but that's what I'm excited to talk about. And what
10:10
Speaker 1: else I think, you know, any conversations having to do
10:13
Speaker 1: with with look at Pistemologies, They're going to be good,
10:15
Speaker 1: They're gonna be fun. I'm excited to revisit our original canon. Right,
10:20
Speaker 1: this is like what we created, right, Like our original
10:24
Speaker 1: content is look at Epistemologies. So we're going to revisit that,
10:27
Speaker 1: and that's going to be cute. Yes, next question, I
10:30
Speaker 1: know y'all are queens, but any resolution absolutely not. What
10:36
Speaker 1: do I need to change about myself? Okay, I'm flying? Okay,
10:43
Speaker 1: what is We're at the end of January, right, what
10:45
Speaker 1: is a resolution? Resolution you're willing to share with our
10:48
Speaker 1: look on what is? I guess my resolution? My resolution
10:54
Speaker 1: is to like maybe like not be a hot mess.
10:58
Speaker 1: That's a good one. That's a good one. That's my resolution.
11:00
Speaker 1: And every here I get a little less messy every
11:02
Speaker 1: year incrementally, and you grow. Thank you, Thank you for
11:06
Speaker 1: validating me. Think there you have grown. You see that
11:11
Speaker 1: you hear that exactly? Yes, straight from the side's mouth, right,
11:15
Speaker 1: how about how about you? Okay, so this is like
11:17
Speaker 1: a t M I but I don't really care. Bring
11:19
Speaker 1: it Okay, so when this is going to something that
11:22
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about actually for look up and
11:24
Speaker 1: stemologies next time. Um, a preview, but a resolution for
11:29
Speaker 1: me is to actually like masturbate, you know, because there's
11:34
Speaker 1: something about survivors actually masturbating and feeling pleasure you know,
11:39
Speaker 1: for themselves but not from another partner, but actually you know,
11:42
Speaker 1: pleasing themselves. And it's actually not something that I do.
11:45
Speaker 1: And whether that be consciously or subconsciously, I'm not sure,
11:48
Speaker 1: but I think that's something I want to explore this
11:50
Speaker 1: year with myself as like self care. Oh yeah, that's
11:53
Speaker 1: a great resolution. So yeah, no, you know what my
11:56
Speaker 1: resolution is actually laser hair removal. That's the one. That's
11:59
Speaker 1: the one. But that the masturbation one is a dope resolution.
12:03
Speaker 1: I mean I haven't even started, but you know, eventually,
12:06
Speaker 1: that's the one resolution that like you cannot fail at
12:09
Speaker 1: that resolution. Okay, well you know what I mean. We're
12:13
Speaker 1: at the end of January and I still have this,
12:14
Speaker 1: so I mean, we'll see how this year goes. That
12:17
Speaker 1: is so funny to me. I love it. Good resolution
12:21
Speaker 1: it um. Okay, So a quick word from our sponsors. So,
12:26
Speaker 1: as you know, we have teamed up with Therapy for
12:29
Speaker 1: latin X, amazing resource for the community. UM, we are
12:35
Speaker 1: happy to shout out Therapy for latin X. They use
12:37
Speaker 1: the latest technology to make it as easy as possible
12:40
Speaker 1: for people to find therapists, life coaches, emergency mental health centers,
12:44
Speaker 1: and free or low cost community clinics. Here I look
12:47
Speaker 1: at at our radio, we are all about the glow up,
12:49
Speaker 1: which includes going to therapy, talking about mental health candidly,
12:53
Speaker 1: and just trying to live your best life. Absolutely. So
12:57
Speaker 1: you know, Yosa and I, we both highly recommend go online,
13:00
Speaker 1: go on Instagram, check out Therapy for latin X, check
13:03
Speaker 1: out their online database, find some mental health resources near you.
13:08
Speaker 1: So very exciting. I'm really excited to announce we are
13:13
Speaker 1: bringing on a very special guest onto the podcast for
13:16
Speaker 1: an interview. Yes, so we are really excited to invite
13:21
Speaker 1: or to introduce our next guest. Councilwoman Nuri Martinez from
13:25
Speaker 1: Council District six UM. She has just recently been elected
13:30
Speaker 1: as pro tempore President pro Tempore of the l A
13:33
Speaker 1: City Council and as Councilwoman, she is champion of bringing
13:36
Speaker 1: basic services of city government to the often underserved communities.
13:40
Speaker 1: She represents as one of the only two women elected
13:43
Speaker 1: out of eighteen l A City offices. She is the
13:45
Speaker 1: first Latina to ever hold a leadership position position on
13:48
Speaker 1: the City Council. At City Hall, Council Woman Martinez leads
13:52
Speaker 1: the council on major initiatives such as fighting human trafficking,
13:55
Speaker 1: empowering women, and reducing the negative impact of those who
13:59
Speaker 1: would pollute our environment. Councilwoman Martinez was elected to the
14:02
Speaker 1: l A City Council on July in a special election
14:07
Speaker 1: and was re elected in In addition to serving as
14:11
Speaker 1: the President pro Tem of the Council, she is the
14:14
Speaker 1: chair of the Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice Committee
14:18
Speaker 1: and vice chair of the Transportation Committee. She is also
14:21
Speaker 1: a member of the Immigrant Affairs, Civil Rights and Equity Committee,
14:25
Speaker 1: and Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee, as well as
14:27
Speaker 1: a graduate of San Fernando High School and California State
14:31
Speaker 1: University Northridge, seeing her husband. She and her husband Jerry
14:34
Speaker 1: live in the Sun Valley with their daughter Isabelle. So
14:37
Speaker 1: after our song break, we're gonna bring on Mary Martinez
14:40
Speaker 1: and have a little chat, and we love a valley girl.
14:42
Speaker 1: We love a valley girl. Not the man, not the men,
14:45
Speaker 1: only the women. We'll be right back and M and
15:33
Speaker 1: ship all right, so welcome back. That was our song
15:39
Speaker 1: break and now here with us at Radio Spasio. We're
15:42
Speaker 1: very excited to introduce Council Women Nari Martinez. Welcome. Thank
15:46
Speaker 1: you very much. As as to see you ladies again.
15:48
Speaker 1: Last time we saw each other it was almost a
15:50
Speaker 1: year ago, right you guys from Seed our events for
15:54
Speaker 1: International Women's Days, So it's nice to see you guys
15:57
Speaker 1: are still doing good work. Thank you, Thank you. Um,
16:00
Speaker 1: so we're really excited to have you on the show
16:03
Speaker 1: and to have I know that it's also Human Trafficking
16:06
Speaker 1: Awareness Month. Isn't that a shame that we have to
16:08
Speaker 1: have a human trafficking Awareness month to make people aware
16:11
Speaker 1: that it's a crisis and epidemic in our country that
16:15
Speaker 1: we need to teach adults that it's playing wrong to
16:18
Speaker 1: traffic any human being anywhere in the world. Absolutely, and
16:22
Speaker 1: we're so happy that you're here to talk with us
16:24
Speaker 1: about this specific issue. And I'm wondering if you can
16:27
Speaker 1: tell our listeners, um, some of whom are out of
16:29
Speaker 1: state or international, a little bit about yourself your office
16:32
Speaker 1: the sixth District. Well, I'm a valley girl born and
16:35
Speaker 1: raised in the valley. I actually grew up in Pacoima Um.
16:38
Speaker 1: I was born in North Hollywood and at the age
16:41
Speaker 1: of six, my parents about the first home in Pocoma
16:43
Speaker 1: and we moved, and so I grew up in the
16:46
Speaker 1: community of Pocoma. My mother still lives there. My father
16:48
Speaker 1: passed away about two years ago, but my sister and
16:51
Speaker 1: my mom still live in Pocoma. They even never wanted
16:53
Speaker 1: to leave. Is where we call home, and I currently
16:54
Speaker 1: live in the community of Sun Valley, which is literally
16:56
Speaker 1: about three five minutes away from my folks um and
17:00
Speaker 1: my husband is also from from paco where his parents
17:02
Speaker 1: moved to Silmar, which is another five minutes over north.
17:05
Speaker 1: So this is what we call home, and we decided
17:07
Speaker 1: to stay and UM try to improve some of the
17:11
Speaker 1: needs of the community that we grew up with. Pacina
17:13
Speaker 1: in the Northeast Valley historically have been um an area
17:17
Speaker 1: where we've always felt that we sort of been dumped on. So,
17:20
Speaker 1: for example, some of the largest landfills in the entire
17:23
Speaker 1: city are located in my neighborhood, so most some of
17:25
Speaker 1: the most of the city's trash ends up in our backyards.
17:28
Speaker 1: A lot of the auto dismantlers, a lot of the
17:30
Speaker 1: junk yards. Everything that no one else wants to sort
17:32
Speaker 1: of ended up in this in these neighborhoods, And and
17:35
Speaker 1: for generation after generation you have entire families growing up
17:38
Speaker 1: across the street from this. So I got really involved
17:41
Speaker 1: at a really young age. I think I was in
17:42
Speaker 1: high school and we just had a teacher strike that
17:46
Speaker 1: I finally got settled this week. But as a high
17:48
Speaker 1: school so I was very involved with the first strike
17:50
Speaker 1: in n that I've ever lived through as a product
17:53
Speaker 1: of Valley USD. And so I became really um involved
17:57
Speaker 1: in what I consider my home. And why is it
18:00
Speaker 1: that my neighborhoods looks so much different than the west
18:03
Speaker 1: side of the valley. It's like comparing apples to oranges.
18:06
Speaker 1: We call ourselves valley people, but there's two valleys, to
18:09
Speaker 1: be honest with you, the valley where everything that no
18:12
Speaker 1: one else wanted ends up in and in the valley
18:14
Speaker 1: where you know, you have nice homes and manicured lawns
18:17
Speaker 1: and better schools, and and there's there's a tale of
18:21
Speaker 1: two cities right there. And so we just, um, my
18:24
Speaker 1: district entails the communities of Vannay's Lake Baboa, Panorama City
18:29
Speaker 1: or Leader North Hills and Sun Valley, which is where
18:32
Speaker 1: I live, and so it's kind of like you know, centered, um,
18:36
Speaker 1: it's smack in the middle of the valley. Well, it's
18:38
Speaker 1: so great to hear that you're from the valley and
18:41
Speaker 1: that now you're the councilwoman for your district that you
18:44
Speaker 1: grew up in. So often I feel like Latina's, especially
18:48
Speaker 1: now that we're we're getting our degrees, we leave our
18:49
Speaker 1: communities and then we don't go back, right, So you know,
18:52
Speaker 1: if we're not reinvesting in our communities, you know who
18:55
Speaker 1: who is there to make it better, right, right, But
18:57
Speaker 1: we also have to leave by example. And I think
18:59
Speaker 1: from my career for an example, I think there's a
19:00
Speaker 1: really negative connotation about politicians, what they do, how they
19:03
Speaker 1: assent to power. A lot of people feel out of
19:06
Speaker 1: touch with their own elected officials, and so I think
19:09
Speaker 1: it's really important that when you run UM you have
19:11
Speaker 1: some real roots so that people know who you are.
19:13
Speaker 1: People know where I live, and people know where my
19:15
Speaker 1: parents live. And so if I'm not doing a good job,
19:17
Speaker 1: someone's going to call my mom. Usually why it works
19:21
Speaker 1: or they end up knocking at my doorstep, you know,
19:23
Speaker 1: in the middle of dinner saying hey, we need X,
19:26
Speaker 1: Y and Z and so. But it's good. I mean,
19:28
Speaker 1: people should know where you live. My my kids plays
19:31
Speaker 1: across the street from our neighborhood park, so we interact
19:35
Speaker 1: with our local neighborhood. We go to public schools, and
19:38
Speaker 1: so it's it's a good thing for us to see people,
19:41
Speaker 1: um to relate to people where people just like everyone
19:44
Speaker 1: else and we've got the same issues. I'm grappling with
19:47
Speaker 1: the same issues in my neighborhood as my neighbor and
19:49
Speaker 1: so it's up to me or try to fix that.
19:51
Speaker 1: But to also, you're right, I think so many of
19:53
Speaker 1: us usually get learned by you know, by school, and
19:57
Speaker 1: that's great and you want to go to school, but
19:59
Speaker 1: sometimes it's it does it does make a difference when
20:02
Speaker 1: those people come back and they model for the younger
20:06
Speaker 1: generations that you two can leave the community and you
20:08
Speaker 1: two can come back and be a positive role model. Yeah,
20:11
Speaker 1: I agree. And speaking of community issues and things that
20:14
Speaker 1: might be affecting residents of the valley, we're here talking
20:17
Speaker 1: again about human trafficking. Is this something that we see
20:20
Speaker 1: really affecting the communities out in your district. Yeah, it's
20:23
Speaker 1: a real tragedy, and I think it's a dirty little
20:26
Speaker 1: secret in this country. I think we want to think
20:28
Speaker 1: about human trafficking as a world a third world issue,
20:31
Speaker 1: that it's happening in Central America or Southeast Asia and
20:34
Speaker 1: some of these poorer countries, and some how these girls
20:37
Speaker 1: are being brought here by horrible people. And there is
20:40
Speaker 1: some of that, there is international trafficking. But the trafficking
20:43
Speaker 1: that I that I am addressing in my neighborhood, um
20:46
Speaker 1: is trafficking of of American kids, of our kids, of
20:49
Speaker 1: kids that look like you. And I um that so
20:52
Speaker 1: many of us just because we see a young girl
20:55
Speaker 1: selling her body, for example, on Supovita Boulevard and Van
20:58
Speaker 1: Oyen that's a really hot spot in my district and
21:01
Speaker 1: the community of Vanney's, and so because we see a
21:03
Speaker 1: girl who might be brown or black, and we think, well,
21:05
Speaker 1: that's not our problem. We're just gonna keep driving. But
21:08
Speaker 1: you know it's not until you stop and you realize
21:10
Speaker 1: that some of these girls are as young as in
21:12
Speaker 1: thirteen years old. Where it is in someone's head. Is
21:15
Speaker 1: that normal that you're going to stop into communities like
21:19
Speaker 1: mine in the middle of the day or night and
21:22
Speaker 1: pick up a thirteen year old for sex. Where in
21:25
Speaker 1: the hell is that normal? And so a lot of
21:28
Speaker 1: these people I like, I don't call them traffickers, that
21:30
Speaker 1: kind of pedophiles, because that's what they are, the pedophiles,
21:34
Speaker 1: and they're um. There are people that we need to
21:36
Speaker 1: put away. But this issue of human trafficking isn't new.
21:40
Speaker 1: I've grown up in this area my entire life, and
21:42
Speaker 1: so growing up I always knew we had hot spots
21:44
Speaker 1: for prostitution along Lancashire San Fernando Road, um in the
21:48
Speaker 1: communities of Sun Valley and North Hollywood, on Sepovida in
21:52
Speaker 1: Van Nuys, So I've always known. But a month after
21:55
Speaker 1: I got elected in the cops said to me, you
21:58
Speaker 1: want to come in and see what we do. You know,
21:59
Speaker 1: I don't really know a whole lot of cops, but like, sure,
22:02
Speaker 1: what does that look like? What is it that you do?
22:04
Speaker 1: Who are you arresting? And I stumbled upon um again,
22:08
Speaker 1: girls that I've always known that have been on these corners.
22:11
Speaker 1: But at the end of that right along about three
22:14
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, when they pulled out these girls
22:16
Speaker 1: back to the station, I started to notice that these
22:19
Speaker 1: girls were really young, and I started to ask, what
22:22
Speaker 1: are you doing with these kids? What do you mean kids?
22:25
Speaker 1: You mean with the prostitutes, the hookers? I go, well,
22:27
Speaker 1: first of all, how do you call a thirteen year
22:29
Speaker 1: old a hooker or a whore or a prostitute? I mean,
22:33
Speaker 1: we were all thirteen year olds at once. I don't
22:35
Speaker 1: ever remember wanting to stand on the corner and sell
22:38
Speaker 1: my body. Someone's doing, someone is threatening that girl to
22:41
Speaker 1: do that. It's a man who's who she's, who's has
22:44
Speaker 1: her under his control, who has branded her with his
22:47
Speaker 1: pen name on her body, who has drugged it and
22:50
Speaker 1: being her so much that she isn't in his submission.
22:54
Speaker 1: And so I think I needed I had a real
22:56
Speaker 1: long conversation with um LP leadership about how we needed
23:00
Speaker 1: to change the way we talked about. These girls are
23:03
Speaker 1: not hookers or not someone's property, their children, and for
23:07
Speaker 1: that matter, they're victims and someone's victimizing them. Who who
23:10
Speaker 1: are these people? And shouldn't we turn the table on
23:12
Speaker 1: these folks? And instead of arresting the women, shouldn't we
23:15
Speaker 1: go after the pamps? And how do we do that?
23:17
Speaker 1: So it's been it's taken a while it's not easy
23:20
Speaker 1: to change, um, you know, the culture of a department UM.
23:24
Speaker 1: And so it's taken a really, really long time. And
23:27
Speaker 1: it's also taken a long time to talk to neighbors.
23:29
Speaker 1: No one wants to see a guy pick up a
23:33
Speaker 1: girl and and pull up on their in front of
23:35
Speaker 1: their driver, in front of their house and have sex
23:37
Speaker 1: at two in the morning, right, I mean, nobody wants
23:39
Speaker 1: to see that. Right. You don't want to walk when
23:40
Speaker 1: you're walking your kids to school. You also don't want
23:43
Speaker 1: to step on a used condom in front of your house.
23:46
Speaker 1: So it becomes a quality of life issue. And I
23:48
Speaker 1: get it. I totally get and I understand. And some
23:51
Speaker 1: of these neighbors were up and ours because they just
23:53
Speaker 1: don't want these prostitutes in front of the house. So
23:55
Speaker 1: it's also changing their way of thinking. It's like, this
23:59
Speaker 1: is not a victimless crime. These children need some sort
24:02
Speaker 1: of UM assistance and we need to put the bad,
24:05
Speaker 1: bad people away. So it's taken a really long time
24:08
Speaker 1: for us to change the way the neighborhood feels about
24:10
Speaker 1: some of these folks. And the way the Department lp
24:13
Speaker 1: D in particular, you know, takes on this issue, and
24:16
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It wasn't until just a few years ago
24:19
Speaker 1: that the law changed so that children who have been
24:24
Speaker 1: trafficked are considered trafficking victims because before they would be
24:27
Speaker 1: charged right for prostitution or solicitation. And so what ends
24:31
Speaker 1: up that's a great point. So what ends up happening is, um,
24:33
Speaker 1: these kids get arrested, they get sent to driven a home,
24:36
Speaker 1: and once in juven a hole, they get they get
24:38
Speaker 1: prosecuted and now you've got a record right for solicitation.
24:41
Speaker 1: And these kids end up in droven a hall. And
24:43
Speaker 1: so a lot of these kids come out of the
24:44
Speaker 1: foster care system, which is another thing we don't talk about.
24:47
Speaker 1: Who are these children? Who do they belong to? And
24:50
Speaker 1: so we've have failed these kids along the way. Someone
24:53
Speaker 1: took advantage of how their age and the fact that
24:55
Speaker 1: they don't don't necessarily have a permanent home, and so
24:58
Speaker 1: they've taken advantage of these kids. And some of these
25:00
Speaker 1: kids have been passed around twelve thirteen times from home
25:04
Speaker 1: to home to home to home, and so yes, men
25:07
Speaker 1: take advantage of that, and so yes you have women
25:09
Speaker 1: recruiting other girls for the pimp. And so what ends
25:12
Speaker 1: up happening I talked to the Juvenile UM, some of
25:15
Speaker 1: the Juvenile Justices UM judges, and I said to them,
25:18
Speaker 1: I said, so if you're putting them back into prison
25:21
Speaker 1: or into that prison pipeline, and after they do their time,
25:24
Speaker 1: what happens to them when they get back into the
25:26
Speaker 1: foster care system? And then what happens It's the same
25:29
Speaker 1: recruiting effort all over again. It's cyclical. So they do
25:32
Speaker 1: their time, they go back to a group home, and
25:34
Speaker 1: they go back to a foster home, which the pimps
25:36
Speaker 1: know where they're at. They go back pick them up,
25:38
Speaker 1: and then they came back into the streets. So what
25:40
Speaker 1: we're doing isn't working. And so we've we've challenged the
25:44
Speaker 1: foster care system and the city, UM, the County District
25:47
Speaker 1: Attorney's office that we need to look at the issue
25:50
Speaker 1: a lot different. We need to train our social workers,
25:53
Speaker 1: we need to train society to be able to look
25:56
Speaker 1: at what the science of a of a victim is,
25:58
Speaker 1: what it looks like trauma and formed approaches UM. I
26:02
Speaker 1: used to work at Peace Over Violence as an emergency
26:04
Speaker 1: response to advocate and we worked. I worked with a
26:07
Speaker 1: lot of young girls at the Start Center after their
26:10
Speaker 1: start exam right after they had been picked up or
26:13
Speaker 1: recovered um or they sought out help. And it really
26:17
Speaker 1: was incredible to realize how for many of them, by
26:20
Speaker 1: the time they're fifteen, they've already had a very, very long,
26:23
Speaker 1: difficult life. Right. And you know, mentioning the age group
26:27
Speaker 1: that you mentioned, and that's the average age of entry
26:29
Speaker 1: is twelve to fourteen, right, And I think it's really
26:32
Speaker 1: important that you bring it up because there's a common
26:34
Speaker 1: misconception that you know, um, you choose this life, right,
26:41
Speaker 1: And there may be adult women who do choose to
26:43
Speaker 1: work as sex workers, but this is a completely different
26:45
Speaker 1: sort of issue, right, And that's my point when I
26:48
Speaker 1: talked to neighbors in particular, when they're like, well, these
26:50
Speaker 1: girls are out there, it isn't it doesn't seem like
26:52
Speaker 1: they're they they're having a hard time with that. I said, well,
26:56
Speaker 1: we're thirteen, fourteen years old and you have no place
26:58
Speaker 1: to go or run away to. You and your parents
27:01
Speaker 1: have kicked you out, or there's simply there isn't a
27:02
Speaker 1: guardian to look over you. And that person is just
27:05
Speaker 1: trying to survive and eat every day. What is she
27:07
Speaker 1: supposed to do? Right? And they're under the age of
27:11
Speaker 1: consent legally right. So there's all these different factors that
27:14
Speaker 1: tell us will know this isn't right. You know, I
27:17
Speaker 1: invite as many UM as people are that are interested
27:19
Speaker 1: in this issue, I invite them to come with me. UM.
27:22
Speaker 1: I formed a Human Trafficking Task Force, which I've advocated
27:25
Speaker 1: every year for the past three years from million dollars
27:28
Speaker 1: and it's and it goes through it just it goes
27:30
Speaker 1: through the police department. But the whole purpose is we
27:33
Speaker 1: partner up with the nonprofits who are actually reciping survivors
27:36
Speaker 1: off the street. And so now we're gonna launch UM
27:39
Speaker 1: at the end of the We launched it already, but
27:41
Speaker 1: we're having a press conference this week in the South
27:44
Speaker 1: Bureau because we've seen the number of of of kids
27:47
Speaker 1: or women I should say UM decrease in the valley
27:50
Speaker 1: because of our Human Trafficking Task Force. But they're going
27:53
Speaker 1: somewhere else, and I'm not naive to that. I know
27:55
Speaker 1: the problem will move somewhere else, and so we are
27:59
Speaker 1: partnering up with UM, the South Bureau and the local
28:03
Speaker 1: elected officials and community groups. UM. We've now established a
28:07
Speaker 1: Human Trafficking Task Force in a South Bureau as well,
28:09
Speaker 1: because those numbers are just they're they're off the charts. Um,
28:13
Speaker 1: you know you've got you've got thirteen year old half
28:15
Speaker 1: naked at one o'clock in the afternoon walking around Western
28:19
Speaker 1: Avenue soliciting. And so we've seen the numbers move around,
28:23
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna try to make an impact there
28:24
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah. Um, you know earlier you you spoke
28:28
Speaker 1: about societal awareness and even just community awareness, right, So
28:32
Speaker 1: one thing we wanted to ask you are what are
28:34
Speaker 1: some red flags that we as community members can look
28:37
Speaker 1: out for for identifying a human traffic victim? What There's
28:42
Speaker 1: a couple of things, and I I also like to
28:44
Speaker 1: talk to parents about being awhere about who your kids
28:46
Speaker 1: are speaking to on social media. Social media has completely
28:49
Speaker 1: transformed the way we communicate with each other, but it's
28:51
Speaker 1: also become very dangerous for some of these young kids
28:54
Speaker 1: to be sort of learned into this world by some
28:56
Speaker 1: guy on the internet, right, or or or another girl
28:59
Speaker 1: friend that's, hey, come and meet this guy at the mall,
29:01
Speaker 1: and somehow they get um, there is some of that.
29:03
Speaker 1: Sometimes they get lurned into it or get kidnapped and
29:05
Speaker 1: they fall into this world of human trafficking. But the
29:08
Speaker 1: human trafficking that I'm talking about, UM, and what I
29:11
Speaker 1: make my community aware of is please let us We
29:14
Speaker 1: do not ever, ever, ever advocate you getting involved. These
29:18
Speaker 1: pimps are are well known gang members. They are operating
29:21
Speaker 1: huge enterprises of drug trafficking, gun trafficking, and human trafficking.
29:26
Speaker 1: It's a one billion dollar industry in this country to
29:28
Speaker 1: traffic kids. They have figured out that they make more
29:31
Speaker 1: money trafficking a young girl, especially if you've got four
29:35
Speaker 1: or five of them in your possession, than it is
29:37
Speaker 1: to sell drugs. And that's how the gangs are making
29:39
Speaker 1: their money. So we never asked the community to get involved.
29:42
Speaker 1: But it's it's not that difficult. If you see the
29:44
Speaker 1: same car circling your neighborhood over and over again. Everyone's
29:48
Speaker 1: got a phone these days. Take snap a picture and
29:52
Speaker 1: we have a human trafficking taskper scenari area. Send it
29:54
Speaker 1: to the police department and we'll be able to track
29:57
Speaker 1: run those license plane numbers and we probably would know
29:59
Speaker 1: if that guy is familiar with the area of there's
30:01
Speaker 1: some sort of UM wrap sheet on him. The other
30:04
Speaker 1: thing is taking pictures of the girls. UM. I would
30:07
Speaker 1: never recommend you walking up to one of these kids. UM,
30:10
Speaker 1: because someone is watching that girl twenty four seven, even
30:14
Speaker 1: if they're standing by themselves, or they might be standing
30:16
Speaker 1: with another girl. Work in that corner, there is a
30:19
Speaker 1: pamp either across the student in a motel room or
30:22
Speaker 1: in his car, making sure that they're keeping an eye on,
30:26
Speaker 1: making sure she doesn't run away, making sure there isn't
30:28
Speaker 1: any cops around. So I never ever advise that you
30:31
Speaker 1: walk into because the girl will probably just walk away
30:34
Speaker 1: from you, even though she's probably dying to tell you
30:36
Speaker 1: what's happening. That's never it's never a good idea, and
30:39
Speaker 1: we never want to put her in jeopardy. She never
30:41
Speaker 1: want to give the pamp the impression that she's got
30:43
Speaker 1: some sort of relationship in that neighborhood, because then that
30:46
Speaker 1: puts her in serious, serious harm. So what we try
30:49
Speaker 1: to do is so if you see the same car
30:52
Speaker 1: in your neighborhood more than two times, it is because
30:54
Speaker 1: he's work in that corner with these kids, and we
30:57
Speaker 1: want we want the license plate number and the make
30:59
Speaker 1: and mott of the car. UM. If you see the
31:02
Speaker 1: same girl UM, usually we can take a picture and
31:05
Speaker 1: then connected with UM one of our three organizations we
31:09
Speaker 1: work with, which is Journey Out Saving Innocence and CAST
31:12
Speaker 1: the three known organizations that work directly with survivors UM.
31:17
Speaker 1: And so what we do is we try to figure
31:19
Speaker 1: out if any of these organizations have ever seen her,
31:22
Speaker 1: and if they have, there's probably somebody that they're working
31:25
Speaker 1: within the organization that can make contact with her whenever
31:27
Speaker 1: she's back on the street. So that's what we try
31:29
Speaker 1: to do. But we never get involved with asking our
31:32
Speaker 1: questions or confronting any of these guys because they're all
31:35
Speaker 1: armed and dangerous. Does that make sense, Oh, yeah, absolutely absolutely,
31:40
Speaker 1: And you know, I think also it's important to talk
31:43
Speaker 1: about all the different types of human trafficking that might exist.
31:46
Speaker 1: So sex trafficking is a big one, but even labor
31:48
Speaker 1: trafficking right right, Um, that's that's the same thing. I mean,
31:52
Speaker 1: you're under someone's control. A lot of them are working
31:54
Speaker 1: off their debt to someone who bought them to this country,
31:58
Speaker 1: and that's usually these nail shops, these mashops, these nail shops,
32:03
Speaker 1: massage parlors, the restaurant industry, um, nannies, right, you have
32:09
Speaker 1: a lot of it's sort of they become indentured servants
32:12
Speaker 1: and they're paying off the debt of how they got here.
32:14
Speaker 1: Some of them get learned under completely different um UH circumstances,
32:19
Speaker 1: their their promise, X, Y and Z, and they ended
32:21
Speaker 1: up in someone's house UM, working seven days a week
32:24
Speaker 1: taking care of kids and clean an entire mansion for
32:27
Speaker 1: little or Normaley with absolutely no UM connection to the
32:31
Speaker 1: outside world. That's labor trafficking. Absolutely, so many, so many
32:35
Speaker 1: important issues UM that you've brought to the podcast today
32:38
Speaker 1: and we thank you so much for doing so. Do
32:40
Speaker 1: you have other UM initiatives, events, programs you'd like to talk?
32:44
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna just I'm gonna make a plug for
32:47
Speaker 1: my human trafficking town UM, not the for the totlet drive,
32:51
Speaker 1: so every you know, unfortunately we have this month to
32:53
Speaker 1: increase awareness. But a couple of years ago I started
32:56
Speaker 1: talking to some of the organizations like what are you
32:59
Speaker 1: in need of Everyone's in need of money, and we
33:01
Speaker 1: we actually need transitional housing to be able to house
33:04
Speaker 1: some of these kids after we rescue them off the street,
33:06
Speaker 1: and we're working on that. But you know what's really impactful,
33:09
Speaker 1: and I've never thought about it, is when we rescue
33:11
Speaker 1: a woman off the street, she probably only comes with
33:14
Speaker 1: with the clothes on her back. So many of the
33:17
Speaker 1: things that we take for granted as women, like your shampoo,
33:19
Speaker 1: your conditioner, the products used for your care, feminine hiding projects.
33:24
Speaker 1: A lot of these things these girls do not have.
33:27
Speaker 1: So what we try to do is we do a
33:28
Speaker 1: big drive. You know, shampoo, makeup, um, feminine hydring products, pads,
33:35
Speaker 1: tampons in particular are very expensive. What we try to
33:37
Speaker 1: do is we collect all of this for about a
33:40
Speaker 1: month and then we equally distributed to the three organizations
33:43
Speaker 1: and we restock all of their Tolley trees in their
33:46
Speaker 1: offices so that when a woman wants to come in
33:49
Speaker 1: and they just want to talk, they're they're greeted with, hey,
33:51
Speaker 1: you can walk into our our our pantry and pick
33:54
Speaker 1: out whatever you want. The other thing that makes a
33:56
Speaker 1: big difference is these gift courts to like Target, all
34:00
Speaker 1: Greens and CBS. So handing a woman a gift card
34:04
Speaker 1: for fifteen dollars and saying, hey, just go buy your
34:06
Speaker 1: own stuff if you don't see stuff here that you like,
34:08
Speaker 1: if you've used before and you have a particular product
34:11
Speaker 1: you want, It's very empowering for a woman to be given,
34:14
Speaker 1: you know, in a form of not cash, but in
34:16
Speaker 1: a form of cash gift card, so she can walk
34:19
Speaker 1: in there and buy whatever. That's very important because usually
34:22
Speaker 1: it's a man who's buying all that stuff for her
34:25
Speaker 1: and controls it. And so that's what we do, and
34:29
Speaker 1: we were Our drive is until mid February. So if
34:32
Speaker 1: you want to contact my office, you can drop off
34:34
Speaker 1: any of the toilet trees either at City Hall or
34:38
Speaker 1: at my son Value or Vannine's office, or just simply
34:41
Speaker 1: call me and I could get in touch with one
34:43
Speaker 1: of my staff and we can we can go pick
34:46
Speaker 1: them up from you. I have a lot of interest
34:47
Speaker 1: from some of the schools, believe it or not, some
34:49
Speaker 1: of the girls that I've interacted with, some of these
34:51
Speaker 1: high school girls that want to sort of do their
34:54
Speaker 1: drive at school, and they're they're leading the way. We
34:57
Speaker 1: just had um uh An all girls yesterday show up
35:01
Speaker 1: to City Hall with a U hot truck full of
35:05
Speaker 1: feminine hygiene products. Yes, so you know, like always, women
35:08
Speaker 1: are getting it done right. I mean, if anything, we
35:10
Speaker 1: are the ones who take charge and we organize and
35:13
Speaker 1: so on. So I was really part of the fact
35:15
Speaker 1: that I met this young woman at an event and
35:17
Speaker 1: she said she wanted to help. And I didn't even
35:19
Speaker 1: have to ask her twice. She was already on it.
35:22
Speaker 1: You know. She put together herself more class at school
35:25
Speaker 1: and she got it done. And she has actually another
35:28
Speaker 1: truck that she's going to deliver full of products next week.
35:30
Speaker 1: So it's wonderful. Marlboro Marlboro All Girls School in Los Angeles?
35:36
Speaker 1: Did you go that? I know, but I used. I
35:37
Speaker 1: went to a private Catholic school and we used to
35:40
Speaker 1: run against them, compete against the class country. That was
35:43
Speaker 1: the top school. They were number one and we were
35:45
Speaker 1: number two for class country. I went there for the
35:47
Speaker 1: first time last year. It's a beautiful campus. Thank you
35:50
Speaker 1: very much for giving me her time. And I hope
35:52
Speaker 1: your your listeners can really take a we all look
35:57
Speaker 1: into this issue. It really impacts women in particular. But
36:00
Speaker 1: even we have good men among us. Many to step
36:03
Speaker 1: up and say we gotta be bet, we gotta raise
36:05
Speaker 1: better men, and men got to get up and call
36:07
Speaker 1: their own right. It's supply and demand right, right, who's
36:10
Speaker 1: paying who's driving the sales, who's financing the billion dollars
36:14
Speaker 1: and just who's making the money right, And so a
36:17
Speaker 1: lot of times so we've got good, good men on
36:19
Speaker 1: our side. We need more. We need men to talk
36:21
Speaker 1: to other men about how this is not You're a
36:25
Speaker 1: woman gave birth to you. You know you've got sisters
36:28
Speaker 1: and you know women girlfriends. We gotta do the right thing.
36:32
Speaker 1: Many to step up and help us agree. I mean,
36:34
Speaker 1: I actually have a few more questions, if that's okay. Okay.
36:38
Speaker 1: So I wanted to congratulate you for being elected as
36:41
Speaker 1: City Council President pro tempore. Actually don't know what that means.
36:45
Speaker 1: It's like my friend, but vice president know that it's
36:48
Speaker 1: a big deal, because I wanted to ask you if
36:51
Speaker 1: you could explain what that role means. So I was
36:53
Speaker 1: assistant pro temp um when I first for the last
36:57
Speaker 1: three years may be four, and we had one of
37:01
Speaker 1: our colleagues moved on to the private sector, so he
37:03
Speaker 1: vacated his seat. So there was another election. Basically to
37:06
Speaker 1: be able to um elect, I got appointed as assistant
37:10
Speaker 1: protemp but president pro tem you have to get elected
37:12
Speaker 1: by your colleagues. So there was an election on January fifteenth,
37:17
Speaker 1: And essentially is it's leadership. So it's the president of
37:20
Speaker 1: the city Council, which is your president. Her Wesson. I'm
37:24
Speaker 1: essentially the vice president of the City Council, and then
37:27
Speaker 1: we have Assistant pro tem which is Jobuskaya, who represents
37:29
Speaker 1: the harbor area of San Pedro. And so what essentially
37:33
Speaker 1: is we are the leadership of the council. And there
37:34
Speaker 1: has never been a Latina in my position, so it
37:38
Speaker 1: is a lot. There is a lot of responsibility that
37:41
Speaker 1: comes along with it. It's it's of course running the meeting,
37:43
Speaker 1: sitting the agenda for the City Council, making sure your
37:46
Speaker 1: partnering with your colleagues and everyone's issues are being addressed.
37:50
Speaker 1: So there's a lot that goes into, you know, making
37:52
Speaker 1: sure that everyone is happy. But more than anything, it's
37:55
Speaker 1: it's sitting the the agenda for the city Council, making
37:58
Speaker 1: sure our communities are represented. That's what's more important, is
38:01
Speaker 1: making sure everyone's has a voice. So I'm very honored.
38:04
Speaker 1: It's it's it's quite the uh, the vote of confidence
38:08
Speaker 1: from from the council because I got a new unanimous vote,
38:11
Speaker 1: and it's just another way to elevate latin as um
38:14
Speaker 1: who want to enter the career of politics. It's it's
38:17
Speaker 1: such a rewarding experience. It's hard and not everyone's cut
38:20
Speaker 1: out to do this and they tell my my my
38:21
Speaker 1: women friends. Listen, women are doing amazing things. Um, we're
38:25
Speaker 1: running our own businesses, we're teachers, we're running down profits,
38:31
Speaker 1: we're getting other men elected. We do a really good
38:33
Speaker 1: job about doing that. We're running their offices. There's no
38:36
Speaker 1: reason why we can't have more women on the city council.
38:38
Speaker 1: Women are doing amazing things across the city. The issue
38:41
Speaker 1: becomes is, you know, for some of us, um is
38:45
Speaker 1: you know, are you it's a cut through business and
38:47
Speaker 1: so a lot of people don't want to have their laundry,
38:50
Speaker 1: their their dirty laundry, you know, being aired all over
38:52
Speaker 1: the place. And so I have a lot of respect
38:54
Speaker 1: for that. But also women have to take so much
38:57
Speaker 1: more into consideration. Some of us who have more who
38:59
Speaker 1: are moms, some of us who um, you know are married.
39:03
Speaker 1: We have to balance your whole home life between that
39:06
Speaker 1: in our careers. But that's for any career woman, right
39:09
Speaker 1: It's like finding that right partner that's going to be
39:11
Speaker 1: able to support you to do that and not feel insecure,
39:14
Speaker 1: right Like you're sort of taking the spotline and making
39:17
Speaker 1: sure that we're also um in partnership with someone who's
39:21
Speaker 1: going to be a partner in raising kids. I mean,
39:23
Speaker 1: I have one daughter. I've made a conscious decisn't she
39:25
Speaker 1: just have one? And she's a handful, she's ten years old.
39:28
Speaker 1: But even that figuring out when I'm going to have
39:31
Speaker 1: my kid right, figuring out what that looks like. When
39:34
Speaker 1: I have to run around, you know, five days a week,
39:37
Speaker 1: m between council meetings and community events, it does take
39:41
Speaker 1: away time from my family. And for women, that's another
39:43
Speaker 1: added responsibility. A lot of the men who run for
39:46
Speaker 1: office usually have someone taking care about that at home.
39:50
Speaker 1: So again, men do better. And you know, it's it's
39:53
Speaker 1: the way it is. And we're and we're judged differently, right,
39:56
Speaker 1: and we're making such a big deal about red lipstick.
39:59
Speaker 1: And I've been a woman Martinez. We have noticed your
40:03
Speaker 1: looks that you serve every single time. You are so
40:08
Speaker 1: stylish and so fabulous. Favorite favorite things, Oh well, thank you.
40:15
Speaker 1: You know what. I take a lot of pride about
40:17
Speaker 1: how I look and think, you know, I I love
40:19
Speaker 1: and Latina's do that right, and we we we we
40:22
Speaker 1: pay attention to fashion. But I get it from my mother.
40:25
Speaker 1: I think that you know, I've been wearing red lips
40:27
Speaker 1: sinceince someth in high school, probably since junior. Our style
40:30
Speaker 1: to our mother's right. My mom always said you were
40:32
Speaker 1: a red lipstick when you leave the house, that by
40:34
Speaker 1: us the vanyards, and you make sure you look right.
40:37
Speaker 1: You said you look right, and so I just get
40:40
Speaker 1: it from my mom. Private colors are part of our culture,
40:43
Speaker 1: and I love um to stand out that way. Um.
40:46
Speaker 1: I like a good makeup and like good hair, like
40:49
Speaker 1: big hair. You know you have great hair. Great, it's
40:53
Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot that goes into it. I
40:55
Speaker 1: was just blessed with my mother's hair, I guess. But
40:58
Speaker 1: I tell my daughter the same thing. And we gotta
41:00
Speaker 1: show up, I mean, because so many people are depending
41:03
Speaker 1: on this. But then so many people think we're going
41:04
Speaker 1: to fail, right, I mean, there's the expectations we put
41:07
Speaker 1: on ourselves is important, and we want to have the
41:10
Speaker 1: smartest but we also want to have the look, so
41:12
Speaker 1: we try to rock it every time we go to
41:13
Speaker 1: city council. Absolutely, it makes the difference. It makes a difference.
41:17
Speaker 1: So if people are, you know, wanting to know more
41:20
Speaker 1: about you in your office, where can they follow you?
41:22
Speaker 1: Where can they find you? How they can they can
41:24
Speaker 1: follow me on on Facebook. I'm very active on social media,
41:28
Speaker 1: you know, on City six, Neuri on Instagram. My my
41:32
Speaker 1: Facebook page is just just google Neuring Martinez and you'll
41:35
Speaker 1: find me. The other thing I want to also promote
41:37
Speaker 1: a good little plug in is for my Ready for
41:40
Speaker 1: Women Fellowship. I think it's so important that if you
41:43
Speaker 1: want to enter the world of politics, you understand what
41:45
Speaker 1: it looks like. You know, it's just not about coming
41:47
Speaker 1: into doing great interviews like you know I'm doing today
41:50
Speaker 1: and it's fun, but it's also the policy work that
41:52
Speaker 1: comes along with it. You know, how do you become
41:54
Speaker 1: the best voice for your community making sure those issues
41:57
Speaker 1: get addressed and yet your communities are not left out
42:00
Speaker 1: Because we talk about budget, that's exactly what happens. It's
42:03
Speaker 1: like what communities are being left out making sure we're
42:05
Speaker 1: fighting for resources and a lot of that happens inside
42:08
Speaker 1: the building, and so people need to understand how the
42:10
Speaker 1: building works. Um, the politics behind passing really significant legislation.
42:16
Speaker 1: There's a lot of politics behind that as well the
42:18
Speaker 1: deals that are made. And so I want to be
42:20
Speaker 1: able to create a fellowship to bring in some of
42:22
Speaker 1: those ladies to follow me. Shutow my staff and myself
42:25
Speaker 1: so you sell you yourself. Understand how this works. It's
42:28
Speaker 1: just not about the campaign once you get elected. That's
42:30
Speaker 1: only half of it. The other half is you need
42:32
Speaker 1: to show up and you need to you need to produce.
42:34
Speaker 1: And so what I tried to do through the fellowship is,
42:37
Speaker 1: first of all, it's paid UM because I don't believe
42:40
Speaker 1: everyone needs to get paid. Everyone needs to get paid.
42:43
Speaker 1: So I don't believe in free internships. I want people
42:45
Speaker 1: to get paid what they're worth. And so the mentorship
42:49
Speaker 1: program is geared towards UM college students or graduate women,
42:54
Speaker 1: and we select about three or four a year, and
42:57
Speaker 1: so we're getting up right now with a selections. We'll
43:00
Speaker 1: begin in May. And so I want our listeners to
43:03
Speaker 1: know that if you're a woman who wants to run
43:05
Speaker 1: for office, you already know that. I don't want you
43:07
Speaker 1: to think about it. You know this is what you
43:09
Speaker 1: want to do. Give me a call, apply for a
43:11
Speaker 1: fellowship program, Come get you have to get selected, Come
43:14
Speaker 1: work with us for the entire summer, get paid, and
43:17
Speaker 1: then go back, finish your education, go back to your neighborhoods,
43:20
Speaker 1: and run for office. Beautiful creating opportunities. Nary Martinez. Thank
43:25
Speaker 1: you so much for being here. We really appreciated this conversation.
43:28
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, and as always, you can tune
43:30
Speaker 1: in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audio Boom and SoundCloud and SoundCloud.
43:36
Speaker 1: Visit our website look at thought o, look at thought
43:38
Speaker 1: our radio dot com. Follow us on Instagram and on Twitter,
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Speaker 1: Visit us on Facebook. Until next time us