This past week Minnesota Representative María Isa Pérez Vega stood among a large crowd of lawmakers, legislators, and community advocates in the governor's chamber. They were there in support of the signing of the African American Family Preservation Act into law. The new law aims to prevent Black children from being needlessly separated from their families and placed in the foster system.
The room was filled with emotion as, for many there, this moment was something they’d spent years fighting for. Pérez Vega fought long and hard for this bill herself, stating during a particularly heated committee hearing that “We’re carrying generations of pain,” and stressed “there’s been tension for decades and centuries.”
Pérez Vega is wrapping up her first term as state representative for District 65B and is running for reelection. She says she's learned a great deal from her time in office - not just about policy making but also about how to care for herself.
“We lose a lot of self care in these spaces,” she said as her eyes began to well up with tears, “but we’re never alone.”
Pérez Vega notes the Capitol wasn't made for people like her. “I'm kind of like the fly in a glass of milk here,” she laughs. “As a hip hop artist who has utilized a global culture that is older than me… [and] bringing that into every initiative and policy that I work on.”
As a Latina Minnesotan, Pérez Vega says she deals with discrimination every day, inside and outside the capitol. But she says it will never stop her.
“I've seen it with my grandmother, with my mother, I've witnessed it as being a mother for five years…It's even within our own homes and the discrimination and disparities of sexism and racism and machismoism.”
Pérez Vega has been closely involved with activism and community organizing in the Twin Cities from a very young age. Her mother was the first Latina to direct the Office of Equal Opportunity and her godmother Sharon Sayles Belton was the first African American and first woman to serve as the Mayor of Minneapolis. She says they were denied many opportunities but it never stopped them either. “Seeing [Belton] contribute to history, and going for the role and not stopping, created that impact for me to be where I'm at today.”
Pérez Vega says, if re-elected, she will work to ensure the plans for the Minnesota Latino Museum are finalized.
“It's important that we recognize the history of our communidades, of how artists from our communities connect,” she said. “So I'm carrying that baby again, and I want to see it go through the finish line.”
On a related note, she also hopes to advocate for more changes in education:
“I want to be able to create opportunities for music and cultural arts to not be cut. With my school district that I represent, there is over a $111 million deficit. And what's the first to go? The things that helped me become a lawmaker…I wouldn't be an elected official if it wasn't for the arts, and I know how impactful that will be.”
Pérez Vega urges people to become civically engaged in their community to create change. “Some folks are gonna say things don't change, but that's not true. I've seen it, I've made a change,” she emphasized. She says even if you didn’t have the same influence, mentorship, and upbringing as she did, you’re still capable of making change. “It's never too early to start your activism… it’s never too late either…you don't have to be an elected official.”
(This story was reported as part of the Center for Broadcast Journalism's Summer Journalism Intensive, a training program for young aspiring reporters from diverse communities.)
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