Sister Act’s Ascent to Congress Has Roots in No-Nonsense Upbringing

The Sisters Sanchez made history when labor lawyer Linda won election to the 39th Congressional District in southern Los Angeles County, and in January joined the four-term Loretta, who made national headlines in defeating longtime Rep. Robert K. Dornan, a staunch conservative.

Now, Reps. Linda and Loretta Sanchez, who grew up in working-class Anaheim to become the first sisters to serve in Congress, say the book they are in negotiations to write will have resonance for Latinos and women throughout the United States.

“We want it to be inspirational, because our story is an inspiration,” said Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

Sanchez, 43, who was first elected to the central Orange County district in 1996, said three-fourths of the book will explore the impact on the nation of the growing U.S. Latino population.

“I would like to provide a vision of what the Hispanic community is and what it needs; if we do it correctly, it will help all Americans,” Loretta Sanchez said.

Much of the inspiration for the story lies in the chronicle of two daughters of immigrants who made it to the halls of power without the familial political service tradition of, say, the Kennedys or the Bushes, the Gores or the Rockefellers.

The key to their success is no mystery to Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), 34.

“Immigrants have more hope; they seek out opportunities more than people who have things,” she said. “They believe anything can be possible. [My parents] were very forward-thinking. They saw the value of education.”

Maria Macias and Ignacio Sanchez met on the floor of a Los Angeles rubber factory in the ‘50s. They decided early on that each of their seven children would go to college. The three girls and four boys became two congresswomen, two business owners, a mortgage broker, a securities broker and a civil engineer.

The Sanchez sisters’ earliest lessons in politics were in making deals with five siblings over what to watch on the family television, or trading food so their strict parents would see that all finished their meals as required. They learned sacrifice as teenagers working at menial jobs, often donating their wages to help the family steer an older sibling through college.

In the 1960s, Macias persuaded her husband to move the family from El Monte to a 1,000-square-foot, one-bathroom house in Anaheim, which was then a small city surrounded by orange groves. The neighbors were professionals at Rockwell Corp., and Disneyland was no more than a seasonal attraction.

“I knew my children would mingle with the children of engineers at school,” said Macias, who, like her husband, was raised in a relatively prominent family in a U.S. border town and fell on hard times when her father died. “I figured these people will be good for my children; my children will learn from theirs.”

Neighbors were initially aghast when they glimpsed the Mexican American family with four children and a fifth on the way, said Macias, who cleaned houses and sold jewelry to supplement the family income. The next-door neighbor immediately put her home up for sale, only to regret it after she befriended Macias during the escrow period.

Loretta and her siblings say they didn’t feel poor. Because her mother sewed her clothes, Loretta recalls telling a taunting classmate in high school: “Excuse me, do you mean to tell me that your mother does not care enough to sew your clothes?”

What their parents lacked financially they compensated for with will and caring. Macias delivered hot lunches every day to each of her children. Ignacio spent his free time working with the boys’ Scout troops, fixing a community baseball outfield wall or coaching the boys’ soccer team. Each week, he chose a chapter from a book in Spanish, such as “Don Quixote,” and asked the children to write reports.

When Ignacio Sanchez spied a small print from an unwashed hand on the refrigerator or a toothpaste tube squeezed in the middle, he’d quickly nail the culprit.

“My father was like Encyclopedia Brown,” said Mike Sanchez, 31, a Stanford graduate and founder of a capital investment lending firm. “He would match dirty prints to hands. He was a super-sleuth.”

Brother Frank Sanchez, 41, an assistant engineer for the city of Long Beach, said Loretta thrived in a household where there was little tolerance for anything but A’s on a report card. As the oldest girl, she adopted the role of teacher, using instructional materials from the school to review lessons with her two younger sisters during summers.

“She was a role model for all the girls; she was an overachiever,” Frank Sanchez said. “In a way, she was always a politician. She taught Linda and [sister] Martha that you have to grease the wheel before you get it to move.”

For example, he recalls, Loretta learned to make cheesecake, her father’s favorite. She would surprise him with it, and only after he ate it would she ask to go to the movies.

Both Linda and Loretta played softball. But while Loretta’s goal was to look good and keep her uniform clean, Linda fretted about her playing. She would come home dirty, and even with a broken leg on two occasions, Frank said.

Family policy decreed that the Sanchez kids get jobs when they became teenagers. Loretta began at Sav-On, earning $2.65 an hour as an ice cream scooper. Linda worked with her father as a machinist’s aide.

If there wasn’t money for college, the children were required to seek scholarships, loans and jobs to get them through.

When Linda Sanchez was weighing plans for college, it was Loretta who urged her to apply to the country’s most prestigious universities, not the local community colleges, as her guidance counselors had suggested.

“When you’re a Latina, a lot of people assume you are just going to stay close to home,” said Linda, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 1991 and UCLA law school in 1995. “Loretta told me to aim for the stars.”

Loretta got her bachelor’s degree from Chapman University in Orange and a master’s in business administration from American University in Washington, D.C.

She took a job as finance manager for the Orange County Transportation Authority, and later specialized in municipal finance for private firms, eventually launching her own consulting business.

Her local government contacts led to a friendship with Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly, who encouraged her to try for a seat on the Anaheim City Council in 1994. Running as Loretta Sanchez Brixey, using her husband’s last name, she ran eighth of 16 candidates, winning 6% of the votes. She saw that as a victory.

“I figured I had done pretty well, and people liked me,” she said.

Two years later, with Linda campaigning at her side, Loretta upset Dornan, the conservative icon assumed to have an iron grip on the 46th district.

When the 39th district was redrawn, Linda followed her sister’s footsteps and found the path anything but smooth. She had to fend off the perception that she was an outsider from Orange County buying the election with her big sister’s help.

Once on Capitol Hill, the media focused briefly on the sister act, only to find that the two didn’t interact much, and even scrapped a plan to live together. Linda is more of a night owl, Loretta an early riser.

For their brothers back in California, their differing personalities were old news.

Linda “always wanted to blaze her own path,” said brother Ignacio, 37.

“Loretta works with the system,” Mike added. “Linda questions the system and fights” if necessary.

The sisters have yet to sign a contract with ReganBooks, a division of Harper Collins, but “it’s going to happen,” book agent Linda Konner said. They plan to work on the book during the August congressional recess and complete it with the help of a ghostwriter this year, with a release date sometime before the 2004 presidential election.

“It’s a great story, a great American story,” said Amin David, head of Los Amigos of Orange County, an Anaheim-based Latino rights group. “It’s not like there were any welcome mats laid out for the Sanchez sisters. They had to make it to Washington on their own.”