My parents came to America from Argentina, fleeing collapse and insecurity. They came here to provide a better life for me, one which simply couldn’t be found in Argentina, and I’m more than thankful I was born here. To immigrate in search of a better life for one’s children is a praiseworthy act of devotion, of love.
Millions of young Latinos live in this country today because their parents or grandparents made the decision to immigrate in search of a better life. Far too often, what they and their children found instead was only poverty, bigotry, and hardship—oft-insurmountable obstacles. It’s thus inspiring to find a Hispanic person who did escape hardship, who overcame adversity. Hilda Solis is one such person. She’s a role model for all …show more content…
Both of her parents worked in factory jobs paying little; many assumed, due to her family’s low place in the totem pole of American society, that she wouldn’t go far. “Your daughter is not college material,” she remembers her high school guidance counselor telling her mother. “Maybe she should follow the career of her older sister,” the counselor continued, “and become a secretary.” Thankfully, Solis didn’t listen to those who told her what she could and could not do. She became the first in her family to attend college, graduating from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1979. Afterwards, she worked in the Jimmy Carter Administration and directed a major program in California helping low-income students in attending college.
In 1991, Solis was elected to the California State Assembly, where she sponsored a prominent bill to allow undocumented immigrants who lived in California to attend a state college. Impressed by her political courage, her constituents elected her as a State Senator, and in 2000 as a U.S. Representative. After eight years in Congress, Solis was appointed by President Barack Obama to be Secretary of Labor. She’d been passionate about labor since her parents’ days as low-wage
Millions of young Latinos live in this country today because their parents or grandparents made the decision to immigrate in search of a better life. Far too often, what they and their children found instead was only poverty, bigotry, and hardship—oft-insurmountable obstacles. It’s thus inspiring to find a Hispanic person who did escape hardship, who overcame adversity. Hilda Solis is one such person. She’s a role model for all …show more content…
Both of her parents worked in factory jobs paying little; many assumed, due to her family’s low place in the totem pole of American society, that she wouldn’t go far. “Your daughter is not college material,” she remembers her high school guidance counselor telling her mother. “Maybe she should follow the career of her older sister,” the counselor continued, “and become a secretary.” Thankfully, Solis didn’t listen to those who told her what she could and could not do. She became the first in her family to attend college, graduating from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1979. Afterwards, she worked in the Jimmy Carter Administration and directed a major program in California helping low-income students in attending college.
In 1991, Solis was elected to the California State Assembly, where she sponsored a prominent bill to allow undocumented immigrants who lived in California to attend a state college. Impressed by her political courage, her constituents elected her as a State Senator, and in 2000 as a U.S. Representative. After eight years in Congress, Solis was appointed by President Barack Obama to be Secretary of Labor. She’d been passionate about labor since her parents’ days as low-wage