Cabildo '85 Asks Exonians to Build, Lead, Fight
Maria Cabildo ‘85 shared her efforts to build affordable housing and champion social justice reforms with the Exeter community at her assembly this past Friday, September 29. She spoke of her experience as a Latina at PEA, and how she decided to run in the special election for a central Los Angeles congressional seat.
Cabildo is the co-founder of the East Los Angeles Community Corporation, a nonprofit that advocates for economic and social justice in Boyle Heights and East L.A. by developing affordable housing and providing economic opportunities for low and moderate income families. Cabildo described her job as helping “families along a continuum of wealth building.” She then asked the Exeter community to think about what they fought for, saying that “there is no end to the causes you can take up, and there is no end to the good that you can do in the world. There is enough for everyone… Our contributions enhance our country.”
Born in an immigrant household, Cabildo grew up surrounded by the families she would later help find affordable housing. “My mom always made sure we had enough food in case someone stopped by,” Cabildo said. “Wherever two people can eat, three people can eat. Wherever three people can eat, four people can eat and so on, and so on, and so on.” She described her childhood home as a place with “typical Latino culture,” and admitted that “coming to Exeter was a very big leap” for her, but that “staying in east L.A. and the uncertainty of opportunity was far more frightening than venturing east.”
Her close rapport with the citizens of the district was one reason that motivated Cabildo to run for the congressional seat. Previously, the seat belonged to Xavier Becerra, who was appointed State Attorney General. In order to replace him, the state decided to hold a special election. Cabildo experienced initial disappointment in the race as only men jumped into the campaign and sponsors were quick to follow. Furthermore, Jimmy Gomez, the appointed candidate and assemblyman, was not even from the community, and could not speak Spanish, “even though he had the largest foreign born population in any district in the state.” “He didn’t grow up in the neighborhood,” Cabildo said. She had been resigned to vote for someone who didn’t necessarily know her community, until her mentor, Linda Griego, convinced her to think about running.
Donald Trump chose to repeatedly attack, scapegoat and insult us during the presidential campaign and because of this our rich heritage, diversity and contribution to our country have been overshadowed by political semiotics and malicious tweets, ...
Donald Trump’s election, as well as her distraught daughter’s reaction, were the nails in the coffin for Cabildo. “Donald Trump chose to repeatedly attack, scapegoat and insult us during the presidential campaign and because of this our rich heritage, diversity and contribution to our country have been overshadowed by political semiotics and malicious tweets,” said Cabildo during her assembly. With his ascendancy, her daughter’s hope that the ‘glass ceiling’ could finally be shattered was broken. “My daughter was in tears,” Cabildo admitted. “And after I calmed her down the first thing out of her mouth was ‘What about my future?’” Cabildo herself felt “rejected,” because she had devoted her whole life to public service, only to find that “this country didn’t want me.” The inauguration of Trump presidency, her work with low-income families in the area, and her desire to secure her child’s future gave her the final push to join the race as a congressional candidate.
Cabildo finished third in a field of 23 candidates, but she was not deterred by the result of the race. Her time as a congressional candidate made her realize that she wanted to spend more time with her children, so she started a consulting practice called Fireflowers Partners, with the goal of helping clients spark changes.
During her time at Exeter, Cabildo addressed her struggle with adjusting to the new environment and making friends in a predominantly white, privileged school. “I didn’t make any friends until my end of prep year,” Cabildo said. Cabildo mentioned that a teacher in her first semester of prep year “wrote my parents a note questioning my cognitive ability.” She also added that if her parents had known what cognitive ability meant, “[they] would have been so offended that [I] wouldn’t have come back.”
After Exeter, she attended Columbia, graduating with a degree in urban studies. From there she went to MIT, but she did not enjoy the top-down environment. She returned to LA as the need for affordable housing became more prominent than ever before, enrolled in UCLA and graduated with a masters in urban planning.
Another legacy that Exeter holds for Cabildo, is a certain “curse” of success. Cabildo stated that people, especially those from her community, think that she is extremely successful for “going to Exeter, an Ivy League school, MIT, UCLA and starting a foundation…” but Cabildo cannot help but feel that she isn’t “doing anything with my life… I could have done something!”
Prep Bea West found Cabildo personable and her story powerful. “It was nice how [Cabildo] appealed to the emotional and gave her personal testimony, and used ‘I’ statements about her ideas rather than ‘you’ statements,” she said. Prep Alicia Coble was hooked by Cabildo’s speech disability, saying, “The whole thing about her voice was empowering. I used to have a really bad stutter and hearing her saying that my voice disability doesn't hold me back was really empowering.” In a similar vein, upper Adrian Kyle-Venzon related to the fact that she was born to immigrant family. “I relate to that idea of wanting to succeed, and feeling a greater pressure to succeed because I myself am an immigrant,” he said.
At her Latin Study lunch, Cabildo also gave advice for students interested in going into public service. Cabildo advised students to be tenacious, referring to her own struggle both with the campaign and the founding of her organization. In 1995 when Cabildo was working to launch her nonprofit, people told her that it was too late. “But I didn’t listen to them, and now we have leveraged over 200 million dollars into the community,” Cabildo said. Even when she was in the race for the congressional seat, people in her community discouraged her from running, saying that “it wasn’t her turn,” or that “they didn’t want her to get hurt.” Despite all the opposition, Cabildo prevailed, and she continues to inspire others. “I don’t believe in scarcity. I believe in abundance… and we can not be who we ought to be until the dreamers get to be who they ought to be,” Cabildo said.