Featured Powerful Latina with Passion

Thelma Reyna, Ph.D., does a piece on a woman who has found her passion in improving education, first for her own child and now for all children in the Los Angeles schools. What can we learn from this woman’s work and her passion?

MATILDA VERA: “PARENT OF THE YEAR” WITH A PASSION FOR CHANGE

Starting when she was 14 years old, Matilda—or Mati, as she likes to be called— hung out with the wrong crowd. She was one of eight children, the youngest girl, born to parents in Guadalajara, Mexico. Her mother had no education beyond the second grade and became a single mom at an early age.

Mati came to the United States at the age of four and didn’t care much for school. In fact, she dropped out at the 11th grade and was soon on the path to nowhere.

“Up til about the age of 35,” says Mati, “I was attracted to men who were in jail, men who got in trouble. I had to live and learn. Then I had a son, who is now five years old.”

Starting a New Life

In fact, her son, Antonio, who was a “miracle baby,” is the major reason Mati turned her life around for the better. After surviving his mother’s high-risk pregnancy, the little boy became Mati’s reason for living. She was a school bus driver for Murchison Elementary School, when she enrolled her boy at the age of three years in the Headstart Program at the Boyle Heights State Street Pre-School. She began volunteering in the program to be near her son, and she got hooked.

“Despite my job as a bus driver, I volunteered more than 40 hours a week at my son’s school,” she says. “I realized how important parents are in their kids’ educational success.”

Recognition and Honors for Mati

Mati went to weekly parent meetings, discussed budgets, and participated in decision making. She quickly caught the attention of other parents and school leaders, who gave her more and more responsibility. In June 2009, Mati was named the “Parent Advocate of the Year” by the Los Angeles County Board of Education (LACOE). Then, on February 3, 2010, Mati was honored by the California Headstart Association as the statewide “Parent of the Year” at a special ceremony in Long Beach.

“It was a great honor to me to receive this award,” she says. “The conventions I had attended, the leadership training the program gave us, it all made me realize how much our children need us in their school lives.”

And Mati is now a spokesperson for this philosophy. In her acceptance speech in Sacramento, she told the audience: “In education, we [parents] are the minority. Are we going to kill our children’s dreams? Or will we walk with them side by side to make their dreams come true?”

Growing Responsibilities as a Leader and Parent Volunteer

So Mati is more involved as a parent volunteer than ever before. She has now been a school bus driver for 12 years. She is a volunteer at the Foundation for Early Childhood Education (ECE) at the Headstart agency in El Monte, as well as at her son’s school in Boyle Heights. In addition, she serves on the LACOE Policy Council in Santa Fe Springs. She was elected to this position by the Foundation for ECE.

Mati has also been president of PTA, has headed committees, and always seeks ways to involve PTA’s more in Headstart programs. At LACOE, she led the Education and Transition Committee, which collected and donated 500 books to start a lending library for parents.

Looking Ahead

As if she needs more obligations, Mati plans to apply this month for the Board of Directors of the El Monte Headstart agency. They oversee operations in 26 school sites in Southern California and have greater influence in policy decisions. If elected, her term would be ongoing. Also, Mati plans to help facilitate the Parent Involvement Academy, which gathers in March to celebrate their 14th anniversary.

With her strong passion for giving parents a voice in school matters, and for supporting her son’s educational career, Matilda Vera is an outstanding role model not just for parents, but for young women and Latinas all over America. May her success continue!