May 28, 2025 • 42 mins
This week on Locatora Radio, Diosa and Mala reconnect with a trailblazing public servant, Senator Sasha Renee Perez. Senator Perez made LA history as the youngest elected Mayor of Alhambra. She's done it again as the youngest State Senator in California and the youngest woman currently serving in the state legislature.
Diosa and Mala dive into her fire recovery efforts, the district she represents, and the diverse community of constituents she advocates for every day. She walks us through the responsibilities of her role in the California State Senate and the real-world impact of her work.
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look already, Ola La, I'm Viosa and I'm Mala. Today
we have an interview with Senator Sasha Renee Betiz of
Ahambra Enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Just got sworn in. This is your first year in office.
Yeah as a senator. You were the mayor of Alhambra previously,
But as a California State Senator, where is your drive
to work? At one hundred and fifty percent coming from?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I feel this deep sense of responsibility I think to
my community, right. I mean, you know, I've been in
the SGV my whole life, right, and I think being
a kid that's that's from my community. And seeing the
pain that we just went through with the fires, and
seeing the pain that folks are going through now with
(00:46):
this new federal administration, and having people approach me and
say I'm depending on you and I'm scared about what
this moment presents, really drives me to want to do more,
to do every thing I can. I work seven days
a week, NonStop, and I also love what I do,
(01:07):
like very deeply, so it doesn't feel like work. Today
is supposed to be my day off. I worked all
day and I feel a real deep sense of commitment
to the work.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And tell us about the district you represent, the San
Gabriel Valley and tell us about who your constituents are
for anyone not familiar with that area.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, So the SGV is a place that is so
special to my heart, right outside of the City of
Los Angeles. That includes communities like al hambram Honree Parks,
and Gabriel, Rosemead Temple City that are predominantly API. You'll
hear researchers sometimes refer to it as an Ethno burb
(01:48):
because you have API folks that have basically created a
suburb that is almost entirely you know, diverse, right, rather
than kind of when you think about these suburbs, I
think people tend to think of white folks, and this
is a predominantly Asian American Pacific Islander community. And then
(02:10):
you have the northern part of my district, right Altadena, Pasadena,
which has recently gained a lot of tension, that has
this huge historically black community. You have Latino communities all
throughout parts of Pasadena, parts of Glendale, even parts of Alhambra,
and in Glendale a huge Armenian community, one of the
(02:31):
largest actually in the entire nation. So my district is
one of the most diverse in the state. It's also
one of the only districts that does not have one
single racial majority. We're made up of a lot of
different folks and I think that's what makes you know
the area, the San Gabriel Valley so unique.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Absolutely, And I want to remind our listeners that we
had a guest Bianca maboute Luis who talked about Ethno
Burbs and this is maybe during season nine, So I
just want to kind of call back to that because
you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It per book Unassimilable. Yes, yes, and very much writing
about the retention of culture and language in the San
Gabriel Valley.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, and how assimilation has not been the goal or
the driving life force for those communities there. So I'm wondering,
let's go back recap for our listeners. We did an
interview with you during the pandemic when you became the
mayor pro tem of al Hambra. Tell us about becoming
mayor of Alhambra and then how that led you in
(03:35):
one way or another to now you're holding office as
California State Senator. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, it's it's crazy because that feels like eons ago
now first running for office. You know, when I ran
for the City of Alhambra to run for council, it
was really at a point in my life when I
think I felt really fed up and really angry. To
be perfectly honest, I had just lost, you know, my
(04:04):
cousin who had passed away after being chronically homeless for
most of his life and the year before, and I think,
through going to therapy and really reflecting on what that
meant and the frustration I felt with the system, I
came out of that saying, you know, I'd want to
step out from being behind the scenes. I had worked
(04:25):
in policy my whole life, and I want to start
being the decision maker because I felt like those voices
weren't represented at the table. And I saw the homelessness crisis,
and I felt like it was so clear to me
what was coming now. I could have never predicted that
a pandemic was on its way that was certainly going
to exacerbate the situation, and that's exactly what ended up happening.
(04:48):
And so I started running in twenty twenty, and we'd
go into shutdown mode, and all of a sudden, I
have hundreds of people contacting me through my website saying
I don't know how I'm going to pay my rent,
I don't know how I'm going to pay for food.
And it was like this shocking moment. I think I
had prepared myself for people attacking me and calling me
(05:11):
like me names, and I realized that that doesn't bug
me at all. But when somebody looks you in the
eye and says I'm depending on you because I don't
know what's going to happen next, and I'm scared who
that hits in a different way, and I suddenly felt
I think that sense of responsibility I was talking about earlier,
(05:32):
of like I don't just want to do this, I
need to do this, and it just really kind of changed.
I think everything for me and my campaign just became
about mailers and other things, but answering people's questions that
they had about tenant protections and learning all these different
county and city and state laws that were getting passed
(05:54):
so that I could better interpret to people the law.
So i've and then I and I defeated the incumbent
by sixty points. I mean, it was crazy, so to
come out on the other side of that, and you know,
and then to be in office and to be delivering
for my community. And then all of a sudden we
(06:16):
had the redistricting process happen and All Hambra got moved
into the Senate district and people started talking with me
about running for Senate. And I will be honest with you,
I was like, these folks are not going to vote
for me. I was like some you know, little brown
renter girl from all Hambra, Like this is not They're
not going to want to elect someone like me. And
this group called Close the Gap, who's dedicated to electing
(06:40):
women to office. They just kept on trying to convince
me for almost a year, and they sat down and
they'd show me data, and they'd bring me and sit
me down to lunch and have me talk to consultants.
And I was just like, I don't think that this
is viable. And then I left to Chile and was
in South America for a month and I just sat
down and I thought about it, and I thought, if
(07:03):
I don't try to do it, I'm going to wonder
for the rest of my life what would have happened.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, that's amazing. So what would you say, was like
the deciding factor for you? Was it the months of
like being courted, having this moment of like what if,
Like was there more to it?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I think I knew that there was still a lot
of work to do at the state level. My background
is actually in state policy, Like that's where I started
doing a lot of my policy work, and there were
so many things that I saw coming. I think the
homelessness crisis was still something that I saw that there
needed to be work done at the state level. But
then you know, all of a sudden, from two point
(07:40):
zero started to come right and what was that going
to mean? You know, for the state of California to
need to act as the resistance once again. And I
think I really kind of felt like, Okay, I wanted
to be a part of that no matter what happened,
especially with the threats to education. I've worked in the
education space for so long. Into immigration, there was so
(08:02):
much that they wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
There, don't go anywhere, lookomotives, We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
And we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I'd love to take advantage of having you here and
have you like debunk things we see online about the
homelessness crisis in California, specifically in La County.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Look, I think the homelessness crisis has really been something
that's been created over time with a multitude of kind
of bad policy decisions. Right, we slowed down on building housing.
I mean that is really I think the crux of it.
And when we slowed down on building housing and suddenly
we had a housing shortage issue, but so many people
(08:46):
still wanting to move to California, it drove up rent
prices drastically. And the challenge that we're now facing is
we've invested so much money into resolving homelessness, but we
have a constant stream of folks that are falling into homelessness,
and we really have no safety net to protect those
(09:09):
folks that are right on the edge of poverty. You know,
I was reading a study the other day and something
like ninety two percent of folks that are homeless said
that if they had just been given a housing voucher
for one month's rent, that that would have prevented them
from falling into homelessness. And so we have more and
more people that are right there at the line because
(09:30):
California's frankly become unaffordable and it's difficult for anybody to
live here. So it is a constant challenge that we're
in that as we're trying to house the current folks
that are currently facing homelessness, we have this new stream
of folks that are constantly falling into this situation. And
(09:51):
now you know, the state is trying to rush to
build more housing, is trying to rush to make sure
that that process is streamlined. At the l local level,
you have a lot of local cities that have refused
to build new housing, refuse to build permanent supportive housing,
and this has now become a crisis of multiple proportions.
(10:13):
So it is it is going to take time. And
I think that that's also the hard part. And even
when we do start to make a measurable difference, because
we're not doing anything to fix this pocket of folks
that are constantly living on the edges, it's like an
unresolvable issues. So you have to have a multifaceted approach.
(10:35):
And you know, that's what I've been really focused on,
is us trying to address just that. I think when
we see on TV visually, the folks that are most
interface and we see on news cycles about this is
people that have addiction issues, right a mental health issues.
Those folks need a whole different set of supports, whether
(10:55):
it's through you know, Ala County DMH or you know
Dragon Alcohol rehabilitation services. But most people who we don't
often see on the streets, they're often living in their cars,
they're sleeping on people's couches, and are families that are
doing this. Those are the folks that you know, with
a little bit of economic support, we could go and
(11:17):
get them back into housing and make sure that they're
not falling deeper into homelessness.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's the classic putting a band aid on a leak, right,
it's just not stopping the leak. Yeah, And it's just
such a multi layered issue. And I think in LA,
especially if you're out and about, you can see when
someone is like newly homeless, like they just you know,
(11:44):
lost their housing. And I'm curious too about the folks
that maybe you heard from back when you were starting
to campaign.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
If you ever hear follow ups.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
From those folks, like folks who are struggling, folks who
are looking looking for help and support with housing, with rent,
what have you, What is that feedback loop, like do
you hear from them again?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Do you follow up with them?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Like? What does that look like, yeah, a lot of folks,
I'll run into them again, or I'll go check on them.
There was one family in particular that I got very
involved with when I was running for city council, and
they were in a situation where their landlord had intentionally
shut off the power and shut off the water in
their building in order to try to force them out.
(12:32):
Because if you remember, at the time, we had very
heavy protections in place, right, so if you weren't able
to pay your rent, you were basically held harmless. You
couldn't be evicted. And so this landlord was essentially doing
these illegal practices to try to force out the tenant.
And the tenant that was there was a mother and
(12:54):
her husband. Her husband was struggling with some major health
issues along with her children when was in high school
and another was in elementary school, and it was I mean,
it was just shocking and unacceptable what was happening. So
we reported the landlord to the Department of Public Health
because it's a public health violation to do that. And
(13:18):
I saw them, gosh, not too long ago, I want
to say, like five or six months ago, and they
had shared with me that they weren't living there anymore
that they moved into another location. They obviously got tired
of dealing with this person that was being very antagonistic
towards them. But one of the things I think that's
really important to me is when I go through that
process with somebody, is to really educate them around their rights,
(13:39):
right and empowering her as the mother as well as
her as her two children to understand that they have
rights and protections in that moment, and you know, in
talking with her, that's what she was sharing with me.
You know, I really appreciated you just empowering me to
know that I have rights. I can fight back, right,
I don't have to just accept what they're telling me.
(14:00):
I have protections too. So it's you know, it's tough.
I think we tried to do our best to help
folks out. But you know, even in that situation, they've
moved to a place that's now smaller, and maybe it's
it might be tighter quarters, but you know, when when
you're dealing with the landlord that's that aggressive and antagonistic,
(14:24):
it's just it's not a healthy place for someone to live.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So before we stepped into the studio, we were talking
about the fact that almost immediately after you got sworn
into office, the wildfires.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
The fires took place here.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
In LA and you were on the ground immediately and
working in the community. And I'm wondering what that introduction
was like for you, you know, to this office and
having this huge disaster take place right away and just
hitting the ground running.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It was so overwhelming. Oh my gosh, January was one
of the hardest months of my life. I don't think
I've ever experienced anything more more challenging. Oh my goodness.
I started on January sixth, and the legislature and Sacramento
and the fires happened on the evening of January seventh,
and so you know, when I got that phone call,
(15:19):
I didn't sleep that night. I was up until four
in the morning in the office, and then I went
back to my apartment. I napped for twenty minutes, and
then I took the first flight back to LA And
it was just like not knowing what I was walking
into the bizarre nature of seeing a community that I
know in love on fire. And then when I got
(15:39):
back here on January eighth, we went to go and
see the area and much of it was still on fire,
so that was also bizarre too, because we couldn't get planes,
you know, up into into the sky of helicopters rather
to put out the flames because the winds were still
very high at that point. But it was it was
just so overwhelming and bizarre, and I think I just
(16:02):
didn't really have a moment to process it, because if
I think I would have processed it, I would have
freaked out. So I just had to do it, and
that was just it. I just had to jump right
in and not think about it and be like, I'm
this is work, I'm working, and let me just focus
on on delivering for folks.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Don't go anywhere, Lokamotis.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
We'll be right.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Back, and we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
That raises me to my really basic question that I
have for you, because I think, like, as I go
deeper into my career here with look at Dora and
just being somewhat someone that's online and like very politically
informed and tries to be really informed, there is a
basic misunderstanding of like civic engagement and what elected officials
can do and what they should do. So I want
(16:53):
to ask you just a really basic question like what
does a state senator do? Cause I feel like people
might not even know what that is. You know, what
does she What does the state center actually do?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So we write laws for the state of California. To
put it very simply, So anything that happens at the
federal level, you know, I am not a US senator,
so I have no jurisdiction over that. You know people
have messaged me about like impeaching the president. That is
not something that I have any jurisdiction over. So when
(17:25):
we write laws, it is specifically for California and impacting
all of California. So like a local city council member
or a local mayor would be writing laws specifically for
their city or their town, and for us, we have
to think statewide whenever we're working on something and doing something.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
No, I think that's really important basic explainer for anybody, right,
for anybody, so that you know where to go. Yeah,
when you do have an issue, you save yourself the
run around and go directly to the person, the office,
the department that can do something for you, right, that
can handle.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
What you need.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Before we came into the studio, you were talking about
a bill that you recently presented. Can you tell us
more about that for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah, so, as you know, you know, Elon Musk, Trump
Doge have been just on this craze cycle of cutting
everything and so many of the life saving services that
we depend on, whether it's been Medicaid, you know, social Security.
They're now talking about eliminating the Department of Education, They're
(18:32):
talking about eliminating FEMA. And you know, I have heard
from so many of my constituents that they want for
me to fight back. You know, we're the state of California.
We're the most powerful state in the nation. We can't
allow this to happen. We give more of our federal
tax dollars to the federal government than we receive back.
(18:53):
So I've introduced a bill to withhold federal funding should
the administration continue to cut life saving services. And part
of the reason why I'm suggesting that we go that
route is because at some point we're going to need
to backfill those services, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's Social Security.
(19:16):
I mean, this is presenting real policy and budget questions
that we're now having to deal with, and it is
about time for us to say no more. If you
want to continue doing this, then we're going to have
to hold on to our dollars because we have to
continue to provide those services to our constituents to make
sure that people are staying alive. And you know, this
(19:37):
is my form of saying enough is enough. And what
I've heard from my constituents is they're like, we don't
know what we want you to do, but please just
do something.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
So yeah, And I have a follow up question to that,
because my lingering question, as all of the cuts have
been made at the federal level, is how does that
not affect like unemployment at the state level, And is
that something that you're also seeing and maybe like with
one of the implications of like then the budget constraints,
or then how does this fill out into or spill
(20:08):
over into the state of California.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Oh, my gosh, absolutely, I mean that is part of
what is driving If you've seen some of the news recently,
the County of La is facing a budget crisis, the
City of La is facing a budget crisis. If you
saw you know, headlines just a couple of months ago,
right after the fires happen, the state government invested two
point five billion dollars into the La wildfires, both Palisades
(20:34):
and Eton. And what that helps to cover is all
of those fire trucks you saw coming from all over
the state of California and even outside of the state.
Those firefighters need to get paid for their time, all
the resources that were used, whether it was city or
county resources. That's to help cover and foot the bill
for that. We're depending on FEMA to reimburse us for that.
(20:54):
So if you were to eliminate that department, if we're
not to not receive those dollars, that has huge impact
on the state budget. So many of our local communities
depend on Medicaid for example, you know, cutting that that
cuts those folks out of health care. These are huge, huge,
(21:14):
huge items, and you know, we have multiple lawsuits moving forward.
The attorney generals joined together with other states to sue
the federal government. But if any of these things were
to go through and continue moving forward, we are going
to be in a real, real crisis. And I really
want to emphasize that. My hope is that you'll have
(21:36):
other states begin to speak up and say we can't
do this. I mean, if they're to eliminate FEMA, it's
not just California that takes the hit. Kentucky just went
through one of the biggest floods that they've seen in
the last twenty five thirty years. Their folks are relying
on FEMA too, So it's not just a California issue.
It is all of us.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Right. And then with the changes of the climate crisis
that we're in, we can only expect more natural disasters
in across the nation.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, We're in March. Well, we're now about
to enter into April. Think about that. I mean, we
still have several months of the year left. And that
is the scary part is we could be in for
more climate disasters, more natural disasters that we don't know
that are coming, and it might not be California. It
could be another state.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah. The bill that you've presented about withholding federal funding
and to be clear, this is funding that California pays
to the federal government. Yes, it's not the other way around. Yes.
Have you gotten good feedback on this bill? Have you
gotten pushed back on this bill? What has the response
been after you presented it?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So we introduced this four days ago, so it's still
relatively new. But I have talked with some constituents about it,
because I've spoken to a couple of groups over the
last several days, and the response that I've gotten from
constituents is overwhelmingly, this is the exact direction and that
we want to see are elected officials going, We want
to know that these critical services are going to be covered,
(23:06):
if not for me, then for my friend, my neighbor,
my family member. And this is a kind of response
that I think folks need in this moment.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So earlier you shared that there is not necessarily a
consensus between the Democratic Party and maybe a certain stance
that Democrats should be taking right now, but you're taking
a clear stance right and it's a pretty big one.
You're saying, like, we're going to withhold our federal dollars
that we pay to the federal government. Is that something
(23:35):
that you think could be a model? And also like
what could like if you could waive a magic wand
what do you think the Democrats should be doing or
could be doing differently?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So, oh, my goodness, so many things. And let me
also say too, I think one of the things that's
really interesting about this moment is Democrats have suffered one
of the biggest losses that we've seen in some time
right in this election, and so you see the party
kind of struggling to figure out, like where do we
go in this moment? And so, you know, my ideas
(24:07):
and the thoughts that I have could be very different
than any single one of my colleagues. But I'm of
the perspective that, you know, this moment is calling upon
us to fight back. I really love seeing what AOC
and Bernie Sanders are doing, traveling across the country, going
to red states, rallying folks and calling out what is happening.
(24:30):
I think that's something that's so critical for us to
do in this moment as Democrats, is for us to
be truth tellers and to say that you have billionaires
that are coming in and trying to buy and purchase
our government. That's what this is about at the end
of the day. And these cuts are being made to
give them bigger tax cuts. You had FAA employees be fired,
(24:52):
and now Starlink is being considered. Elon Musk's own company
is being considered to backfill that, like he basically set
it up so that he could sign another contract with
the federal government. That's insane. We're watching these things happen
in real time. You have the President of the United
States doing a car show for Tesla on the White
(25:15):
House lawn. This is unacceptable. These folks are treating our government,
our federal government, like their own personal piggy bank, and
as somebody that's a renter, as someone that's working class
that grew up in a union household. How I feel
about it is hell no. We have to fight back
(25:35):
and call it out and push back on them. Why
would we allow for democracy to unravel before our very eyes?
I mean, it is absurd to me. And when I
talk to my voters that is how they feel. They
feel just as infuriated as I do. And I'll be honest,
even folks that are independent and even some Republicans. So
(25:58):
that is my perspective. I think we need to get
out there. We need to go to conservative areas, and
we need to be who we've always been. The Democratic
Party seems to be trying to find its sole. We
know who we are. We are the party of the
working class. We are a diverse party who invites everyone
in and when somebody doesn't fit at our table, we
make it longer and we bring another seat. We do
(26:21):
not cut people out and demonize people in order to
get results. We can get results without demonizing people. So,
you know, I'm so frustrated and enraged in this moment,
and I think that that's what folks want us to capture.
They want to meet us, to meet that energy and
(26:42):
to fight back for them.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Beautiful and all that note, Right, Like, let's talk about immigration,
because talk about demonizing people and blaming people for problems
and misplacing blame. Right, Let's talk about immigration and what
you're seeing on that side of things in office.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, it's oh my goodness, it is a scary time.
I think the thing that's been so frustrating to me too,
is this immigration issue intersects so much with what the
fires did in Alta, Dina, right, because you had this
huge Latino population that was an Altadena. Many of those
folks were undocumented. And so I've lost my home, I've
(27:23):
lost everything, I've lost my job. And then January twentieth
comes and Trump is sworn into office and is trying
to make good on all of his promises to deliver
mass deportations, and so you have folks that are scared
to even ask for help. You know, what we've been
doing FEMA workshops on a regular basis over the last
(27:43):
seven eight weeks now, and we will regularly connect with
folks that are living out of their cars because they're
too scared to get help, even if they are documented,
because maybe they have a family member who's undocumented and
they think that putting themselves on a list might put
their other family member at who doesn't have papers. That
is so heartbreaking to me. And you know, we've seen
(28:06):
just whether it's at our schools. You know, we're seeing
Adya loss, students not coming to school because their parents
are scared to send them. They're scared that their kids
will be taken. They're scared that they might be taken
and their kids might be left at school by themselves.
So it is impacting every fabric of our society, and
even with work as well. You know, I've heard from
(28:28):
folks that work in the ad business. After January twentieth,
they had like half of their workforce just completely disappear.
So we're going to start seeing the ripple effects of this.
We already are. But you know, for the folks that
are not moved by the argument that this is inhumane,
this is also bad economic policy, and it will take
(28:52):
some time, but we're going to start to see the
results of that.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Thank you for providing some of that background in that
context as to how the fires fascerrated this immigration policy
that we're seeing at the federal level. The city of
la is also a sanctuary city, but there's also you
know a lot of back and forth with the federal
government right and wanting to go after sanctuary cities. I
(29:16):
saw that you've also been leading workshops like how is
your office also providing that information for your constituents about
their legal rights, whether they're undocumented or not.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, so we have been having regular Our workshops are
really centered more around the fireed but we do workshops
in Spanish so that we're able to answer questions that
folks have, you know, around immigration as well. We partner
with Cheerleve really heavily on this, so Cheerless President at
all of the workshops that we've been hosting, and that's
(29:48):
it's you know, been very helpful for folks. I think
we've serviced something like almost a thousand residents over that
time period. We're going to start doing virtual workshops as well,
because we know that's a big need. There's some folks
that have questions around their immigration status or what to
do if ICE does approach. But they feel most comfortable
participating in a virtual format rather than coming in person.
(30:11):
So we'll be doing that as well with the Attorney General.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So yeah, to kind of shift the tone a little
bit as we are, you know, walking through this interview
with you, have.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
They been nice to you at the State Senate?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Like newly sworn in, young, Latina, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. Let's have that conversation now, let's have the
representation conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, I mean you are the youngest senator in California
and the youngest woman serving in California legislator. So do
you like, do you feel that you know what I mean? Like,
is that something that you're feeling when you're walking through
the state capital the halls?
Speaker 4 (30:49):
What's tea?
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah, it's it is definitely something I feel. I would
say that my colleagues have all been in credit supportive, right.
I think even if they didn't know who I was,
they kind of had a crash course and figuring out
who I was because I was suddenly ultra ultra present
(31:11):
because of the fires. Right, So they've all been wonderful
and just making sure that I'm doing okay and checking
in and trying to give me the supports that I need.
And our leadership in particular, the President pro Tem of
the Senate, Mike Maguire, has been incredible. I mean I
think he called me almost every day in January and
(31:32):
the evenings, would even just sit on the phone with
me as I cried, and you know, that was just
like really really powerful, and I think I just so
needed that in those moments. And he's been through three fires,
so he really has He represents the North Coast, really
has a strong understanding of what it is like to
go through something like this. But I will say I
(31:53):
think for other folks, right, so as the fires were happening,
I did so many press conferences I lost count because
there was such this desire for information. But I'd show
up sometimes to a press conference or you know, to
a meeting, and then people look at me and they're like,
it's so great you're here. Where's the Senator, you know,
(32:14):
And I'm like, I'm actually the Senator, And then the
look of like shock and horror on their face, right,
because I'm I'm not an old white guy in a suit,
so it catches people off guard, but I'm so used
to it. I got the same reactions when I was
in Alhambra too, so and it's always it's always kind
of funny to me.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I mean, if I may, you're like a very beautiful,
petite senator with fabulous.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Hair, so.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
You know, yeah, I would also be like, wait, this
is our senator. Wait a second, I'm sorry, if I.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
May senate, it's time.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I mean, have you had young women ask you for
count soul, for advice about running for office?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Oh my gosh, all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
What kind of questions do do women have for you?
And what do you tell them?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Oh my gosh. I mean, I everything everything from dating
to balancing, like work life balance to you know, what
do I do when I'm sitting in a room and
I'm feeling intimidated? How do I go about fundraising? How
do I go about endorsements? What do I do when
someone's man'splaining? I mean, literally everything that you could imagine.
(33:34):
I've been asked, and I'll be honest, I don't always
have like a super great specific answer for all of
those questions. I sometimes I think you just kind of
have to figure it out on your own. But it's
just this crazy process of kind of like trusting your
gut and going through it and faking it till you
(33:55):
make it and you know and and and then you
just if I if I spent I try not to
spend too much time thinking about the position I'm in
because it kind of freaks me out a little bit.
When I first got elected, you know, I remember I
was sitting in my office and I was typing on
my computer and I heard one of my staff answer
the phone and she went Senator Soshohony Perez's office, speaking
(34:18):
and I heard her do that, and I was like,
oh my god, oh my god, like, oh my god,
so hard. I'm like freaked me with you know, It's
like it just trips you out a little bit. So
I just try to do the work. Sometimes I tell
my chief, like on days when I'm feeling very like
(34:41):
insecure and kind of questioning, you know, just feeling that
sense of and forgetting the word for it. Is it
imposter I'm feeling imposter syndrome. I like joking me tell
my chief. I'm like in my head, I just tell myself,
like I work for you, like I'm not, you know,
I work for you, and I'm just like I'm not
(35:01):
actually the senator because like it can it's just a
little bit trippy sometimes. I bet, I bet.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
And there's two questions that you said you've been asked
that I want to go back to. And the first
one is about do you ever walk into a room
or have like a bill that you're gonna present and
feel intimidated? And if you do, you know, is there
maybe like an inner dialogue or like affirmations? What do
you do when you do you talk to yourself?
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah, oh my gosh. And I feel I feel intimidated
all the time. I feel insecure all the time. I
mean human, you know the folks I talk to that
are like I never feel a friend. I'm like, that
is so good for you, that's amazing. I don't I
don't know what that's like, but great, you know. I
(35:45):
I just try to hype myself up. My staff laughs,
but to hype myself up for things. I'll like play
Doughci or Grilla and love it and we'll just like
sing at the top of my lungs. I also try
to prep as much as possibly. I think prepping helps
me feel really good, and you know, reading through like
research and you know, thinking about what I want to
say and kind of like taking notes and giving myself
(36:07):
like a moment to reflect, and that always helps me
feel like prepared, which I think helps me to also
feel confident. But oh my gosh, I question myself, you know,
all the time, So I think that that's just normal.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Batties have bad days too, Yeah, yes, of course, of
course we've all been there.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Well, it's really affirming to hear that, because you know,
I think there's like our senators, our representatives are like
not superhuman, you know, and I do think there's a
lot I mean rightfully, so there's pressure, right because they're
representing a lot of people, but at the same time
they're also only human. But you know, also to keep
with this light tone, I want to ask you now
about dating, and in the sense like can you date
(36:52):
when you're a state senator? Right, Like the time constraints
and also the privacy, right, Like, yeah, we don't have
to get into the weeds of like if you're dating,
but like, is it even possible to date right now?
Speaker 3 (37:04):
It's really really difficult, and the schedule makes it so
that it's like just super super challenging. And in addition
to that, I've there are so many guys that get
very intimidated. I met someone just recently that my friend
had introduced me to and we're having a like conversation
(37:27):
and he was like, oh, so you work for a
senator and Sacramento. That's so cool. And I was like, oh,
I'm like looking at him, like am I going to
say this? And I was like, I'm I'm I'm the senator.
I don't work for the senator, And like the look
on his face was just like like, you know, just
(37:47):
totally stunned. And that happens a lot. And then you
get like fans as well, which is like a strange
thing to navigate. So I don't know. I've joked with
others elected officials that are women who I've met from
all across the country and we're like, we almost need
like a self help group for this because it is
really really difficult.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
So when AOC was first elected and on the scene,
and you saw the way that the public treated her,
the criticism, the cartoons, you know, the way that she
was I mean, the racism, all of that, did that
come into your mind at all when you thought about
yourself and this journey.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, oh, absolutely talk about that.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
I was so nervous about that and what that would
be like. And now that I'm here, I could tell
you that that doesn't really bug me at all. I've
been called every name in the book. When I was
first selected to council, there was one individual wh used
to harass me a lot, who's now a supporter, I
might say, which is also very funny, but used to
(38:52):
call me a little girl all the time. I've had
people call me a communist and all the curse words
that you can think of, and I don't know, it
just didn't I don't want to say it didn't phaze me,
but it didn't affect me the way that I thought
it that it was going to. But you know, as
I mentioned before, just having folks tell me like I'm
(39:15):
depending on you, like I don't know how I'm gonna
feed my kids, and like I really need you to
help me, and I think that you can help me.
I think that you have the answer. Oh my goodness,
that like that weighed on me in a way that
I didn't anticipate it would. But the hateful comments are
kind of like, okay, whatever, you.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Know, yeah, yeah, they come with the territory. It sounds
like it's part of the job. You almost expect expect
for it to happen. I'm wondering if there's an issue
that you really want to work on during your term
that is just like really important to you at your core,
or maybe something that we don't really think about a
lot or talk about a lot.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Before the fires happened. I think the two things that
I was really excited about was working on policy around education,
so making sure that we're improving, you know, literacy rates
for black and brown kids, and we're seeing more in
black and brown kids go on to college and to
(40:13):
university and you know, realize whatever their dream career may be,
and that that was something that was really important and
special to me. I chair the I'm the Chair of
Senate Education for the Senate, and so it's a huge
committee and I'm really honored to be in that leadership role.
But that decision was made to appoint me there in December,
(40:35):
so it was right before the fires happened, So that
was really I think a big focus of mine. And
then obviously, you know, life throws curve balls, so this
has now taken precedent, but that's definitely at the forefront
of my mind as well as the homelessness crisis. I
think the housing and homelessness is going to continue to
(40:56):
be a huge issue. The rent here in California is
too damn high and it is near impossible for any
one of us to survive.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
So well, thank you so much, Senator for joining us today.
This has been such an incredible conversation, and yeah, thank
you for your time.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Any parting words for constituents that might be listening.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Yeah, if anybody needs assistance, if they're looking for help
or resources, if they have questions, please reach out to
my office. You can head to our website and there's
a request form directly there. Reach out to me anytime.
I'm available on social media. All of my social media
Sacherine Perez and if you send me a message reach out,
(41:40):
I will do my best to get back to you.
The official pages are Senator SRP. My team manages those,
so I'm happy to have folks submit anything that they need.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
There as well.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
We're here to help them serve and that's what we
do all day long.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Look at Otter Radio is executive produced by THEOSFM and
Mala Munios.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Stephanie Franco is our.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Producer, story editing by me viosa.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
Creative direction by me Mala.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Look At Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michaultura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
You can listen to look at Radio on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Leave us a review and share with your prima or
share with your homegirl.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And thank you to our lok A motes, to our
listeners for tuning in each and every week.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Besitos
Look already, Ola La, I'm Viosa and I'm Mala. Today
we have an interview with Senator Sasha Renee Betiz of
Ahambra Enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Just got sworn in. This is your first year in office.
Yeah as a senator. You were the mayor of Alhambra previously,
But as a California State Senator, where is your drive
to work? At one hundred and fifty percent coming from?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I feel this deep sense of responsibility I think to
my community, right. I mean, you know, I've been in
the SGV my whole life, right, and I think being
a kid that's that's from my community. And seeing the
pain that we just went through with the fires, and
seeing the pain that folks are going through now with
(00:46):
this new federal administration, and having people approach me and
say I'm depending on you and I'm scared about what
this moment presents, really drives me to want to do more,
to do every thing I can. I work seven days
a week, NonStop, and I also love what I do,
(01:07):
like very deeply, so it doesn't feel like work. Today
is supposed to be my day off. I worked all
day and I feel a real deep sense of commitment
to the work.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And tell us about the district you represent, the San
Gabriel Valley and tell us about who your constituents are
for anyone not familiar with that area.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, So the SGV is a place that is so
special to my heart, right outside of the City of
Los Angeles. That includes communities like al hambram Honree Parks,
and Gabriel, Rosemead Temple City that are predominantly API. You'll
hear researchers sometimes refer to it as an Ethno burb
(01:48):
because you have API folks that have basically created a
suburb that is almost entirely you know, diverse, right, rather
than kind of when you think about these suburbs, I
think people tend to think of white folks, and this
is a predominantly Asian American Pacific Islander community. And then
(02:10):
you have the northern part of my district, right Altadena, Pasadena,
which has recently gained a lot of tension, that has
this huge historically black community. You have Latino communities all
throughout parts of Pasadena, parts of Glendale, even parts of Alhambra,
and in Glendale a huge Armenian community, one of the
(02:31):
largest actually in the entire nation. So my district is
one of the most diverse in the state. It's also
one of the only districts that does not have one
single racial majority. We're made up of a lot of
different folks and I think that's what makes you know
the area, the San Gabriel Valley so unique.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Absolutely, And I want to remind our listeners that we
had a guest Bianca maboute Luis who talked about Ethno
Burbs and this is maybe during season nine, So I
just want to kind of call back to that because
you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It per book Unassimilable. Yes, yes, and very much writing
about the retention of culture and language in the San
Gabriel Valley.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, and how assimilation has not been the goal or
the driving life force for those communities there. So I'm wondering,
let's go back recap for our listeners. We did an
interview with you during the pandemic when you became the
mayor pro tem of al Hambra. Tell us about becoming
mayor of Alhambra and then how that led you in
(03:35):
one way or another to now you're holding office as
California State Senator. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, it's it's crazy because that feels like eons ago
now first running for office. You know, when I ran
for the City of Alhambra to run for council, it
was really at a point in my life when I
think I felt really fed up and really angry. To
be perfectly honest, I had just lost, you know, my
(04:04):
cousin who had passed away after being chronically homeless for
most of his life and the year before, and I think,
through going to therapy and really reflecting on what that
meant and the frustration I felt with the system, I
came out of that saying, you know, I'd want to
step out from being behind the scenes. I had worked
(04:25):
in policy my whole life, and I want to start
being the decision maker because I felt like those voices
weren't represented at the table. And I saw the homelessness crisis,
and I felt like it was so clear to me
what was coming now. I could have never predicted that
a pandemic was on its way that was certainly going
to exacerbate the situation, and that's exactly what ended up happening.
(04:48):
And so I started running in twenty twenty, and we'd
go into shutdown mode, and all of a sudden, I
have hundreds of people contacting me through my website saying
I don't know how I'm going to pay my rent,
I don't know how I'm going to pay for food.
And it was like this shocking moment. I think I
had prepared myself for people attacking me and calling me
(05:11):
like me names, and I realized that that doesn't bug
me at all. But when somebody looks you in the
eye and says I'm depending on you because I don't
know what's going to happen next, and I'm scared who
that hits in a different way, and I suddenly felt
I think that sense of responsibility I was talking about earlier,
(05:32):
of like I don't just want to do this, I
need to do this, and it just really kind of changed.
I think everything for me and my campaign just became
about mailers and other things, but answering people's questions that
they had about tenant protections and learning all these different
county and city and state laws that were getting passed
(05:54):
so that I could better interpret to people the law.
So i've and then I and I defeated the incumbent
by sixty points. I mean, it was crazy, so to
come out on the other side of that, and you know,
and then to be in office and to be delivering
for my community. And then all of a sudden we
(06:16):
had the redistricting process happen and All Hambra got moved
into the Senate district and people started talking with me
about running for Senate. And I will be honest with you,
I was like, these folks are not going to vote
for me. I was like some you know, little brown
renter girl from all Hambra, Like this is not They're
not going to want to elect someone like me. And
this group called Close the Gap, who's dedicated to electing
(06:40):
women to office. They just kept on trying to convince
me for almost a year, and they sat down and
they'd show me data, and they'd bring me and sit
me down to lunch and have me talk to consultants.
And I was just like, I don't think that this
is viable. And then I left to Chile and was
in South America for a month and I just sat
down and I thought about it, and I thought, if
(07:03):
I don't try to do it, I'm going to wonder
for the rest of my life what would have happened.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, that's amazing. So what would you say, was like
the deciding factor for you? Was it the months of
like being courted, having this moment of like what if,
Like was there more to it?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I think I knew that there was still a lot
of work to do at the state level. My background
is actually in state policy, Like that's where I started
doing a lot of my policy work, and there were
so many things that I saw coming. I think the
homelessness crisis was still something that I saw that there
needed to be work done at the state level. But
then you know, all of a sudden, from two point
(07:40):
zero started to come right and what was that going
to mean? You know, for the state of California to
need to act as the resistance once again. And I
think I really kind of felt like, Okay, I wanted
to be a part of that no matter what happened,
especially with the threats to education. I've worked in the
education space for so long. Into immigration, there was so
(08:02):
much that they wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
There, don't go anywhere, lookomotives, We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
And we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I'd love to take advantage of having you here and
have you like debunk things we see online about the
homelessness crisis in California, specifically in La County.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Look, I think the homelessness crisis has really been something
that's been created over time with a multitude of kind
of bad policy decisions. Right, we slowed down on building housing.
I mean that is really I think the crux of it.
And when we slowed down on building housing and suddenly
we had a housing shortage issue, but so many people
(08:46):
still wanting to move to California, it drove up rent
prices drastically. And the challenge that we're now facing is
we've invested so much money into resolving homelessness, but we
have a constant stream of folks that are falling into homelessness,
and we really have no safety net to protect those
(09:09):
folks that are right on the edge of poverty. You know,
I was reading a study the other day and something
like ninety two percent of folks that are homeless said
that if they had just been given a housing voucher
for one month's rent, that that would have prevented them
from falling into homelessness. And so we have more and
more people that are right there at the line because
(09:30):
California's frankly become unaffordable and it's difficult for anybody to
live here. So it is a constant challenge that we're
in that as we're trying to house the current folks
that are currently facing homelessness, we have this new stream
of folks that are constantly falling into this situation. And
(09:51):
now you know, the state is trying to rush to
build more housing, is trying to rush to make sure
that that process is streamlined. At the l local level,
you have a lot of local cities that have refused
to build new housing, refuse to build permanent supportive housing,
and this has now become a crisis of multiple proportions.
(10:13):
So it is it is going to take time. And
I think that that's also the hard part. And even
when we do start to make a measurable difference, because
we're not doing anything to fix this pocket of folks
that are constantly living on the edges, it's like an
unresolvable issues. So you have to have a multifaceted approach.
(10:35):
And you know, that's what I've been really focused on,
is us trying to address just that. I think when
we see on TV visually, the folks that are most
interface and we see on news cycles about this is
people that have addiction issues, right a mental health issues.
Those folks need a whole different set of supports, whether
(10:55):
it's through you know, Ala County DMH or you know
Dragon Alcohol rehabilitation services. But most people who we don't
often see on the streets, they're often living in their cars,
they're sleeping on people's couches, and are families that are
doing this. Those are the folks that you know, with
a little bit of economic support, we could go and
(11:17):
get them back into housing and make sure that they're
not falling deeper into homelessness.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's the classic putting a band aid on a leak, right,
it's just not stopping the leak. Yeah, And it's just
such a multi layered issue. And I think in LA,
especially if you're out and about, you can see when
someone is like newly homeless, like they just you know,
(11:44):
lost their housing. And I'm curious too about the folks
that maybe you heard from back when you were starting
to campaign.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
If you ever hear follow ups.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
From those folks, like folks who are struggling, folks who
are looking looking for help and support with housing, with rent,
what have you, What is that feedback loop, like do
you hear from them again?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Do you follow up with them?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Like? What does that look like, yeah, a lot of folks,
I'll run into them again, or I'll go check on them.
There was one family in particular that I got very
involved with when I was running for city council, and
they were in a situation where their landlord had intentionally
shut off the power and shut off the water in
their building in order to try to force them out.
(12:32):
Because if you remember, at the time, we had very
heavy protections in place, right, so if you weren't able
to pay your rent, you were basically held harmless. You
couldn't be evicted. And so this landlord was essentially doing
these illegal practices to try to force out the tenant.
And the tenant that was there was a mother and
(12:54):
her husband. Her husband was struggling with some major health
issues along with her children when was in high school
and another was in elementary school, and it was I mean,
it was just shocking and unacceptable what was happening. So
we reported the landlord to the Department of Public Health
because it's a public health violation to do that. And
(13:18):
I saw them, gosh, not too long ago, I want
to say, like five or six months ago, and they
had shared with me that they weren't living there anymore
that they moved into another location. They obviously got tired
of dealing with this person that was being very antagonistic
towards them. But one of the things I think that's
really important to me is when I go through that
process with somebody, is to really educate them around their rights,
(13:39):
right and empowering her as the mother as well as
her as her two children to understand that they have
rights and protections in that moment, and you know, in
talking with her, that's what she was sharing with me.
You know, I really appreciated you just empowering me to
know that I have rights. I can fight back, right,
I don't have to just accept what they're telling me.
(14:00):
I have protections too. So it's you know, it's tough.
I think we tried to do our best to help
folks out. But you know, even in that situation, they've
moved to a place that's now smaller, and maybe it's
it might be tighter quarters, but you know, when when
you're dealing with the landlord that's that aggressive and antagonistic,
(14:24):
it's just it's not a healthy place for someone to live.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So before we stepped into the studio, we were talking
about the fact that almost immediately after you got sworn
into office, the wildfires.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
The fires took place here.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
In LA and you were on the ground immediately and
working in the community. And I'm wondering what that introduction
was like for you, you know, to this office and
having this huge disaster take place right away and just
hitting the ground running.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It was so overwhelming. Oh my gosh, January was one
of the hardest months of my life. I don't think
I've ever experienced anything more more challenging. Oh my goodness.
I started on January sixth, and the legislature and Sacramento
and the fires happened on the evening of January seventh,
and so you know, when I got that phone call,
(15:19):
I didn't sleep that night. I was up until four
in the morning in the office, and then I went
back to my apartment. I napped for twenty minutes, and
then I took the first flight back to LA And
it was just like not knowing what I was walking
into the bizarre nature of seeing a community that I
know in love on fire. And then when I got
(15:39):
back here on January eighth, we went to go and
see the area and much of it was still on fire,
so that was also bizarre too, because we couldn't get planes,
you know, up into into the sky of helicopters rather
to put out the flames because the winds were still
very high at that point. But it was it was
just so overwhelming and bizarre, and I think I just
(16:02):
didn't really have a moment to process it, because if
I think I would have processed it, I would have
freaked out. So I just had to do it, and
that was just it. I just had to jump right
in and not think about it and be like, I'm
this is work, I'm working, and let me just focus
on on delivering for folks.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Don't go anywhere, Lokamotis.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
We'll be right.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Back, and we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
That raises me to my really basic question that I
have for you, because I think, like, as I go
deeper into my career here with look at Dora and
just being somewhat someone that's online and like very politically
informed and tries to be really informed, there is a
basic misunderstanding of like civic engagement and what elected officials
can do and what they should do. So I want
(16:53):
to ask you just a really basic question like what
does a state senator do? Cause I feel like people
might not even know what that is. You know, what
does she What does the state center actually do?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So we write laws for the state of California. To
put it very simply, So anything that happens at the
federal level, you know, I am not a US senator,
so I have no jurisdiction over that. You know people
have messaged me about like impeaching the president. That is
not something that I have any jurisdiction over. So when
(17:25):
we write laws, it is specifically for California and impacting
all of California. So like a local city council member
or a local mayor would be writing laws specifically for
their city or their town, and for us, we have
to think statewide whenever we're working on something and doing something.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
No, I think that's really important basic explainer for anybody, right,
for anybody, so that you know where to go. Yeah,
when you do have an issue, you save yourself the
run around and go directly to the person, the office,
the department that can do something for you, right, that
can handle.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
What you need.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Before we came into the studio, you were talking about
a bill that you recently presented. Can you tell us
more about that for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah, so, as you know, you know, Elon Musk, Trump
Doge have been just on this craze cycle of cutting
everything and so many of the life saving services that
we depend on, whether it's been Medicaid, you know, social Security.
They're now talking about eliminating the Department of Education, They're
(18:32):
talking about eliminating FEMA. And you know, I have heard
from so many of my constituents that they want for
me to fight back. You know, we're the state of California.
We're the most powerful state in the nation. We can't
allow this to happen. We give more of our federal
tax dollars to the federal government than we receive back.
(18:53):
So I've introduced a bill to withhold federal funding should
the administration continue to cut life saving services. And part
of the reason why I'm suggesting that we go that
route is because at some point we're going to need
to backfill those services, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's Social Security.
(19:16):
I mean, this is presenting real policy and budget questions
that we're now having to deal with, and it is
about time for us to say no more. If you
want to continue doing this, then we're going to have
to hold on to our dollars because we have to
continue to provide those services to our constituents to make
sure that people are staying alive. And you know, this
(19:37):
is my form of saying enough is enough. And what
I've heard from my constituents is they're like, we don't
know what we want you to do, but please just
do something.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
So yeah, And I have a follow up question to that,
because my lingering question, as all of the cuts have
been made at the federal level, is how does that
not affect like unemployment at the state level, And is
that something that you're also seeing and maybe like with
one of the implications of like then the budget constraints,
or then how does this fill out into or spill
(20:08):
over into the state of California.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Oh, my gosh, absolutely, I mean that is part of
what is driving If you've seen some of the news recently,
the County of La is facing a budget crisis, the
City of La is facing a budget crisis. If you
saw you know, headlines just a couple of months ago,
right after the fires happen, the state government invested two
point five billion dollars into the La wildfires, both Palisades
(20:34):
and Eton. And what that helps to cover is all
of those fire trucks you saw coming from all over
the state of California and even outside of the state.
Those firefighters need to get paid for their time, all
the resources that were used, whether it was city or
county resources. That's to help cover and foot the bill
for that. We're depending on FEMA to reimburse us for that.
(20:54):
So if you were to eliminate that department, if we're
not to not receive those dollars, that has huge impact
on the state budget. So many of our local communities
depend on Medicaid for example, you know, cutting that that
cuts those folks out of health care. These are huge, huge,
(21:14):
huge items, and you know, we have multiple lawsuits moving forward.
The attorney generals joined together with other states to sue
the federal government. But if any of these things were
to go through and continue moving forward, we are going
to be in a real, real crisis. And I really
want to emphasize that. My hope is that you'll have
(21:36):
other states begin to speak up and say we can't
do this. I mean, if they're to eliminate FEMA, it's
not just California that takes the hit. Kentucky just went
through one of the biggest floods that they've seen in
the last twenty five thirty years. Their folks are relying
on FEMA too, So it's not just a California issue.
It is all of us.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Right. And then with the changes of the climate crisis
that we're in, we can only expect more natural disasters
in across the nation.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, We're in March. Well, we're now about
to enter into April. Think about that. I mean, we
still have several months of the year left. And that
is the scary part is we could be in for
more climate disasters, more natural disasters that we don't know
that are coming, and it might not be California. It
could be another state.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah. The bill that you've presented about withholding federal funding
and to be clear, this is funding that California pays
to the federal government. Yes, it's not the other way around. Yes.
Have you gotten good feedback on this bill? Have you
gotten pushed back on this bill? What has the response
been after you presented it?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So we introduced this four days ago, so it's still
relatively new. But I have talked with some constituents about it,
because I've spoken to a couple of groups over the
last several days, and the response that I've gotten from
constituents is overwhelmingly, this is the exact direction and that
we want to see are elected officials going, We want
to know that these critical services are going to be covered,
(23:06):
if not for me, then for my friend, my neighbor,
my family member. And this is a kind of response
that I think folks need in this moment.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So earlier you shared that there is not necessarily a
consensus between the Democratic Party and maybe a certain stance
that Democrats should be taking right now, but you're taking
a clear stance right and it's a pretty big one.
You're saying, like, we're going to withhold our federal dollars
that we pay to the federal government. Is that something
(23:35):
that you think could be a model? And also like
what could like if you could waive a magic wand
what do you think the Democrats should be doing or
could be doing differently?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So, oh, my goodness, so many things. And let me
also say too, I think one of the things that's
really interesting about this moment is Democrats have suffered one
of the biggest losses that we've seen in some time
right in this election, and so you see the party
kind of struggling to figure out, like where do we
go in this moment? And so, you know, my ideas
(24:07):
and the thoughts that I have could be very different
than any single one of my colleagues. But I'm of
the perspective that, you know, this moment is calling upon
us to fight back. I really love seeing what AOC
and Bernie Sanders are doing, traveling across the country, going
to red states, rallying folks and calling out what is happening.
(24:30):
I think that's something that's so critical for us to
do in this moment as Democrats, is for us to
be truth tellers and to say that you have billionaires
that are coming in and trying to buy and purchase
our government. That's what this is about at the end
of the day. And these cuts are being made to
give them bigger tax cuts. You had FAA employees be fired,
(24:52):
and now Starlink is being considered. Elon Musk's own company
is being considered to backfill that, like he basically set
it up so that he could sign another contract with
the federal government. That's insane. We're watching these things happen
in real time. You have the President of the United
States doing a car show for Tesla on the White
(25:15):
House lawn. This is unacceptable. These folks are treating our government,
our federal government, like their own personal piggy bank, and
as somebody that's a renter, as someone that's working class
that grew up in a union household. How I feel
about it is hell no. We have to fight back
(25:35):
and call it out and push back on them. Why
would we allow for democracy to unravel before our very eyes?
I mean, it is absurd to me. And when I
talk to my voters that is how they feel. They
feel just as infuriated as I do. And I'll be honest,
even folks that are independent and even some Republicans. So
(25:58):
that is my perspective. I think we need to get
out there. We need to go to conservative areas, and
we need to be who we've always been. The Democratic
Party seems to be trying to find its sole. We
know who we are. We are the party of the
working class. We are a diverse party who invites everyone
in and when somebody doesn't fit at our table, we
make it longer and we bring another seat. We do
(26:21):
not cut people out and demonize people in order to
get results. We can get results without demonizing people. So,
you know, I'm so frustrated and enraged in this moment,
and I think that that's what folks want us to capture.
They want to meet us, to meet that energy and
(26:42):
to fight back for them.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Beautiful and all that note, Right, Like, let's talk about immigration,
because talk about demonizing people and blaming people for problems
and misplacing blame. Right, Let's talk about immigration and what
you're seeing on that side of things in office.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, it's oh my goodness, it is a scary time.
I think the thing that's been so frustrating to me too,
is this immigration issue intersects so much with what the
fires did in Alta, Dina, right, because you had this
huge Latino population that was an Altadena. Many of those
folks were undocumented. And so I've lost my home, I've
(27:23):
lost everything, I've lost my job. And then January twentieth
comes and Trump is sworn into office and is trying
to make good on all of his promises to deliver
mass deportations, and so you have folks that are scared
to even ask for help. You know, what we've been
doing FEMA workshops on a regular basis over the last
(27:43):
seven eight weeks now, and we will regularly connect with
folks that are living out of their cars because they're
too scared to get help, even if they are documented,
because maybe they have a family member who's undocumented and
they think that putting themselves on a list might put
their other family member at who doesn't have papers. That
is so heartbreaking to me. And you know, we've seen
(28:06):
just whether it's at our schools. You know, we're seeing
Adya loss, students not coming to school because their parents
are scared to send them. They're scared that their kids
will be taken. They're scared that they might be taken
and their kids might be left at school by themselves.
So it is impacting every fabric of our society, and
even with work as well. You know, I've heard from
(28:28):
folks that work in the ad business. After January twentieth,
they had like half of their workforce just completely disappear.
So we're going to start seeing the ripple effects of this.
We already are. But you know, for the folks that
are not moved by the argument that this is inhumane,
this is also bad economic policy, and it will take
(28:52):
some time, but we're going to start to see the
results of that.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Thank you for providing some of that background in that
context as to how the fires fascerrated this immigration policy
that we're seeing at the federal level. The city of
la is also a sanctuary city, but there's also you
know a lot of back and forth with the federal
government right and wanting to go after sanctuary cities. I
(29:16):
saw that you've also been leading workshops like how is
your office also providing that information for your constituents about
their legal rights, whether they're undocumented or not.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, so we have been having regular Our workshops are
really centered more around the fireed but we do workshops
in Spanish so that we're able to answer questions that
folks have, you know, around immigration as well. We partner
with Cheerleve really heavily on this, so Cheerless President at
all of the workshops that we've been hosting, and that's
(29:48):
it's you know, been very helpful for folks. I think
we've serviced something like almost a thousand residents over that
time period. We're going to start doing virtual workshops as well,
because we know that's a big need. There's some folks
that have questions around their immigration status or what to
do if ICE does approach. But they feel most comfortable
participating in a virtual format rather than coming in person.
(30:11):
So we'll be doing that as well with the Attorney General.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So yeah, to kind of shift the tone a little
bit as we are, you know, walking through this interview
with you, have.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
They been nice to you at the State Senate?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Like newly sworn in, young, Latina, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. Let's have that conversation now, let's have the
representation conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, I mean you are the youngest senator in California
and the youngest woman serving in California legislator. So do
you like, do you feel that you know what I mean? Like,
is that something that you're feeling when you're walking through
the state capital the halls?
Speaker 4 (30:49):
What's tea?
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah, it's it is definitely something I feel. I would
say that my colleagues have all been in credit supportive, right.
I think even if they didn't know who I was,
they kind of had a crash course and figuring out
who I was because I was suddenly ultra ultra present
(31:11):
because of the fires. Right, So they've all been wonderful
and just making sure that I'm doing okay and checking
in and trying to give me the supports that I need.
And our leadership in particular, the President pro Tem of
the Senate, Mike Maguire, has been incredible. I mean I
think he called me almost every day in January and
(31:32):
the evenings, would even just sit on the phone with
me as I cried, and you know, that was just
like really really powerful, and I think I just so
needed that in those moments. And he's been through three fires,
so he really has He represents the North Coast, really
has a strong understanding of what it is like to
go through something like this. But I will say I
(31:53):
think for other folks, right, so as the fires were happening,
I did so many press conferences I lost count because
there was such this desire for information. But I'd show
up sometimes to a press conference or you know, to
a meeting, and then people look at me and they're like,
it's so great you're here. Where's the Senator, you know,
(32:14):
And I'm like, I'm actually the Senator, And then the
look of like shock and horror on their face, right,
because I'm I'm not an old white guy in a suit,
so it catches people off guard, but I'm so used
to it. I got the same reactions when I was
in Alhambra too, so and it's always it's always kind
of funny to me.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I mean, if I may, you're like a very beautiful,
petite senator with fabulous.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Hair, so.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
You know, yeah, I would also be like, wait, this
is our senator. Wait a second, I'm sorry, if I.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
May senate, it's time.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I mean, have you had young women ask you for
count soul, for advice about running for office?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Oh my gosh, all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
What kind of questions do do women have for you?
And what do you tell them?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Oh my gosh. I mean, I everything everything from dating
to balancing, like work life balance to you know, what
do I do when I'm sitting in a room and
I'm feeling intimidated? How do I go about fundraising? How
do I go about endorsements? What do I do when
someone's man'splaining? I mean, literally everything that you could imagine.
(33:34):
I've been asked, and I'll be honest, I don't always
have like a super great specific answer for all of
those questions. I sometimes I think you just kind of
have to figure it out on your own. But it's
just this crazy process of kind of like trusting your
gut and going through it and faking it till you
(33:55):
make it and you know and and and then you
just if I if I spent I try not to
spend too much time thinking about the position I'm in
because it kind of freaks me out a little bit.
When I first got elected, you know, I remember I
was sitting in my office and I was typing on
my computer and I heard one of my staff answer
the phone and she went Senator Soshohony Perez's office, speaking
(34:18):
and I heard her do that, and I was like,
oh my god, oh my god, like, oh my god,
so hard. I'm like freaked me with you know, It's
like it just trips you out a little bit. So
I just try to do the work. Sometimes I tell
my chief, like on days when I'm feeling very like
(34:41):
insecure and kind of questioning, you know, just feeling that
sense of and forgetting the word for it. Is it
imposter I'm feeling imposter syndrome. I like joking me tell
my chief. I'm like in my head, I just tell myself,
like I work for you, like I'm not, you know,
I work for you, and I'm just like I'm not
(35:01):
actually the senator because like it can it's just a
little bit trippy sometimes. I bet, I bet.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
And there's two questions that you said you've been asked
that I want to go back to. And the first
one is about do you ever walk into a room
or have like a bill that you're gonna present and
feel intimidated? And if you do, you know, is there
maybe like an inner dialogue or like affirmations? What do
you do when you do you talk to yourself?
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah, oh my gosh. And I feel I feel intimidated
all the time. I feel insecure all the time. I
mean human, you know the folks I talk to that
are like I never feel a friend. I'm like, that
is so good for you, that's amazing. I don't I
don't know what that's like, but great, you know. I
(35:45):
I just try to hype myself up. My staff laughs,
but to hype myself up for things. I'll like play
Doughci or Grilla and love it and we'll just like
sing at the top of my lungs. I also try
to prep as much as possibly. I think prepping helps
me feel really good, and you know, reading through like
research and you know, thinking about what I want to
say and kind of like taking notes and giving myself
(36:07):
like a moment to reflect, and that always helps me
feel like prepared, which I think helps me to also
feel confident. But oh my gosh, I question myself, you know,
all the time, So I think that that's just normal.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Batties have bad days too, Yeah, yes, of course, of
course we've all been there.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Well, it's really affirming to hear that, because you know,
I think there's like our senators, our representatives are like
not superhuman, you know, and I do think there's a
lot I mean rightfully, so there's pressure, right because they're
representing a lot of people, but at the same time
they're also only human. But you know, also to keep
with this light tone, I want to ask you now
about dating, and in the sense like can you date
(36:52):
when you're a state senator? Right, Like the time constraints
and also the privacy, right, Like, yeah, we don't have
to get into the weeds of like if you're dating,
but like, is it even possible to date right now?
Speaker 3 (37:04):
It's really really difficult, and the schedule makes it so
that it's like just super super challenging. And in addition
to that, I've there are so many guys that get
very intimidated. I met someone just recently that my friend
had introduced me to and we're having a like conversation
(37:27):
and he was like, oh, so you work for a
senator and Sacramento. That's so cool. And I was like, oh,
I'm like looking at him, like am I going to
say this? And I was like, I'm I'm I'm the senator.
I don't work for the senator, And like the look
on his face was just like like, you know, just
(37:47):
totally stunned. And that happens a lot. And then you
get like fans as well, which is like a strange
thing to navigate. So I don't know. I've joked with
others elected officials that are women who I've met from
all across the country and we're like, we almost need
like a self help group for this because it is
really really difficult.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
So when AOC was first elected and on the scene,
and you saw the way that the public treated her,
the criticism, the cartoons, you know, the way that she
was I mean, the racism, all of that, did that
come into your mind at all when you thought about
yourself and this journey.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, oh, absolutely talk about that.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
I was so nervous about that and what that would
be like. And now that I'm here, I could tell
you that that doesn't really bug me at all. I've
been called every name in the book. When I was
first selected to council, there was one individual wh used
to harass me a lot, who's now a supporter, I
might say, which is also very funny, but used to
(38:52):
call me a little girl all the time. I've had
people call me a communist and all the curse words
that you can think of, and I don't know, it
just didn't I don't want to say it didn't phaze me,
but it didn't affect me the way that I thought
it that it was going to. But you know, as
I mentioned before, just having folks tell me like I'm
(39:15):
depending on you, like I don't know how I'm gonna
feed my kids, and like I really need you to
help me, and I think that you can help me.
I think that you have the answer. Oh my goodness,
that like that weighed on me in a way that
I didn't anticipate it would. But the hateful comments are
kind of like, okay, whatever, you.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Know, yeah, yeah, they come with the territory. It sounds
like it's part of the job. You almost expect expect
for it to happen. I'm wondering if there's an issue
that you really want to work on during your term
that is just like really important to you at your core,
or maybe something that we don't really think about a
lot or talk about a lot.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Before the fires happened. I think the two things that
I was really excited about was working on policy around education,
so making sure that we're improving, you know, literacy rates
for black and brown kids, and we're seeing more in
black and brown kids go on to college and to
(40:13):
university and you know, realize whatever their dream career may be,
and that that was something that was really important and
special to me. I chair the I'm the Chair of
Senate Education for the Senate, and so it's a huge
committee and I'm really honored to be in that leadership role.
But that decision was made to appoint me there in December,
(40:35):
so it was right before the fires happened, So that
was really I think a big focus of mine. And
then obviously, you know, life throws curve balls, so this
has now taken precedent, but that's definitely at the forefront
of my mind as well as the homelessness crisis. I
think the housing and homelessness is going to continue to
(40:56):
be a huge issue. The rent here in California is
too damn high and it is near impossible for any
one of us to survive.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
So well, thank you so much, Senator for joining us today.
This has been such an incredible conversation, and yeah, thank
you for your time.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Any parting words for constituents that might be listening.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Yeah, if anybody needs assistance, if they're looking for help
or resources, if they have questions, please reach out to
my office. You can head to our website and there's
a request form directly there. Reach out to me anytime.
I'm available on social media. All of my social media
Sacherine Perez and if you send me a message reach out,
(41:40):
I will do my best to get back to you.
The official pages are Senator SRP. My team manages those,
so I'm happy to have folks submit anything that they need.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
There as well.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
We're here to help them serve and that's what we
do all day long.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Look at Otter Radio is executive produced by THEOSFM and
Mala Munios.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Stephanie Franco is our.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Producer, story editing by me viosa.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
Creative direction by me Mala.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Look At Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michaultura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
You can listen to look at Radio on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Leave us a review and share with your prima or
share with your homegirl.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And thank you to our lok A motes, to our
listeners for tuning in each and every week.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Besitos
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.