Quezada Steps Out of Politics but Is Still Speaking Up

Just as gritos of independence echoed throughout Los Angeles to mark the 185th anniversary of Mexico’s freedom from Spain, Leticia Quezada has declared her own independence after 10 years in politics.

She stepped down in June after spending the last eight years on the L.A. school board, wanting to do something different. “Politics,” she explains, “isn’t new to me.” No more late-night school meetings; no more talk about dismantling the nation’s second-largest district. No more playing to the crowds or to the bizarre infighting that dominates the two opposing camps of local Latino politics.

As of July 17, when she became president of L.A.’s Mexican Cultural Institute, a nonprofit organization aimed at fostering greater understanding between Mexican Americans and the land of their forebears, she has been free to speak her mind.

Listen, for example, to what she says about Mayor Richard Riordan:

“I think Richard Riordan needs to be [as mayor] the person that he is in private life. He’s doing a lot of things as mayor that he wouldn’t do if he was acting in his personal life. Proposition 187 is a good example. I think he as a private citizen would have been adamantly against Proposition 187. As mayor, he took no position.”

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Quezada’s political enemies, particularly supporters of County Supervisor Gloria Molina--who haven’t liked Quezada since she joined the L.A. community colleges board in 1985--were skeptical of her retirement from the school board.

“Must be running for something,” they said.

When I visited Quezada the other day at the Olvera Street offices of the Mexican Cultural Institute, she laughed at such speculation. “I went out on my own terms,” she said.

She said she tired of the political grind, noting that she passed up two chances to run for the state Assembly in the last three years. Her opponents wonder too if her bitter congressional primary election defeat in 1992 to the Molina-supported candidate, Xavier Becerra, played a role in her decision.

“I lost that race in June and the next month, I became president of the school board,” Quezada noted. “I was too busy worrying about other things.”

The continuing hassles over teachers’ pay cuts, the district’s breakup, plummeting student test scores and teaching reforms took their toll on her.

In search of a career change, Quezada, 42, agreed to become president of the cultural institute. It was in tune with her own involvement in promoting better ties between Mexico and the millions of L.A.’s residents who are of Mexican descent. In 1988, she helped persuade former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to establish the institute here.

She doesn’t see the institute or its programs as a vehicle to foment anti-Americanism among Mexican Americans or others. “It’s not a matter of denying their American allegiance, but it’s to recognize that they are bicultural,” she explained. “If they don’t want to, that’s OK. But I want the opportunity to be available for those who do want to be bicultural.”

Quezada’s new job is also a chance to regain part of her past. Born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, she came to the United States at age 13 and ignored her Mexican self. “Forget Spanish and learn English and U.S. civics” was her guiding rule as she adapted to this country.

Later in public life, she discovered she had to relearn Spanish and regain her grasp of Mexican history and traditions. Her new job helps her with that--and other things too.

At Friday night’s Mexican independence celebration at City Hall, she handed the words of Mexico’s national anthem to L.A.’s three Latino council members in case they wanted to know them.

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Quezada’s political savvy remains sharp. She’s looking for an American flag to match the silk Mexican one that adorns her office. She praises Councilman Richard Alatorre (“a consummate politician”) and scorns others like GOP presidential front-runner Bob Dole (“Doesn’t register an opinion from me”) and Molina (“Even less [than Dole]”).

And this about L.A.’s fractured politics: “We have too many Lone Rangers . . . Danny Bakewell, Xavier Hermosillo, Nate Holden, Mark Ridley-Thomas . . . who are espousing ‘This is the truth. This is the answer.’ I think people who really care about the city of L.A. need to beware of those prophets of answers. And they need to encourage people who come forward and say, ‘I want to know how you want to do it.’ People who are willing to put aside their own personal agenda are what the city needs.”