Ysabel Jurado: A daughter of the community achieves victory to represent LA’s Council District 14
“Today, I proudly endorse Ysabel Jurado for LA City Council District 14; Ysabel embodies the very essence of our shared struggle, recognizing the historic solidarity between Filipinos and Chicanos in the labor movement. In her, I see a beacon of hope, a leader who understands the importance of unity in the fight for equity and justice. She honors the legacy of our predecessors — Black, Anglo, Filipino, and Chicano — who stood side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, demanding fair wages, dignity, and respect. The only way we achieved better living conditions for all workers and their families was to struggle together, as we must do now to gain just governance. I’m honored to join hands with Ysabel and march forward, knowing that our diversity is our greatest asset and our unity is our most potent weapon in the struggle for our collective liberation.” – Dolores Huerta, 2011 Medal of Freedom recipient
CONSIDER for a moment, the impact of Huerta’s endorsement of Ysabel Jurado that comes from the wisdom of her heart? Isn’t it huge in effect?
Ysabel Jurado won many hearts in Los Angeles’ Council District 14, as over 80,000 homes were reached by the November 5 Election Day. Her campaign’s currency and formidable strength was listening. She listens intently to the constituents, ordinary families who wish to have better city services, to have lights in their streets, to protect them and to make the street services more visible.
Jurado captured 44,966 (or 57%) of the votes in the race against Kevin De León who got 33,634 (42%), a margin of over 11,000 votes. With that, Jurado was declared the new CD 14 representative, ushering in a new era of leadership and ending the curse of corruption.
She received grassroots donations only and still doubled her campaign balance than her opponent. Her opponent is now under investigation for money laundering.
The Los Angeles Times on August 3, 2024 reported that Jurado raised $123,807 while Kevin De León raised $292,460.
Naomi Villagomez Roochnik, Jurado’s campaign manager, said: “We got outraised this time. We’re still going to come in first place, our money was raised by actually talking with the residents who want meaningful, material change in this community,” as reported by Boyle Heights Beat’s Alex Medina in August 2024.
Just weeks before the election, De León started door knocking, and some residents were convinced by the food vouchers giveaway from his city council’s funds. Other council districts have similar giveaways. A Jurado supporter countered and persuaded a fellow voter by sharing facts: “The food giveaways will continue (as Jurado spoke about in the last rally), but our neighborhood will have direct access to CD14, when she wins.”
Access to politicians is a must. Resident voters are hungry to talk to them. Why? The majority of their complaints are about failure to deliver city services, on time. Imagine if these nuisance complaints were removed from their daily lives? Residents would feel safe and secure in their neighborhoods.
Jurado became a political candidate after seeing failure upon failure, that she needed to step up. The bar of political representation has been so low: 70% of the electrical poles had unmaintained streetlights, homelessness has spread from downtown Skid Row to CD 14, tenants displaced by landlords, public safety issues, parks and recreation services, and after George Floyd, a critical reckoning that was expected remediating the unequal distribution of city services has not quite occurred to the degree that folks wanted.
Seven to 10 years?
When they call the streetlights’ maintenance number, all they get is an unresponsive telephone line, Jurado said.
On Jurado’s website, she asserts that LA City Hall’s elected officials had failed CD 14. She described the backroom gerrymandering that was exposed by the Los Angeles Times on October 9, 2022.
The article described the involvement of then LA City Council President Nury Martinez, councilmembers Gilbert Cedillo and Kevin De Leon, and labor leader Ron Herrera. The leaked audio tape was described by LA Times to diminish the Black voters, denigrating Mike Bonin’s son as “parece changuito” as like a monkey, including and putting down their own Latino communities of Oaxacans and Indigenous folks.
Does it really take seven years for lights to be replaced and 10 years for trees to be trimmed by LA City?
I agreed with Jurado’s observations regarding lights and trees, from my personal experiences of securing local city services at my former office address on Temple Street. The trees fronting our State of California Department of Health along Temple St. have not been trimmed for 20 years. The trees were trimmed on the 27th year of my public service to the State, after consistent follow-up in 2004.
This October 2024, Mayor Karen Bass signed her Executive Order #9, which encourages us all that an expedited timeline for infrastructure repairs will occur.
Co-governance and metaphor of dancing circles create momentum
Jurado gained supporters and volunteers through hard work, building consensus, and touching bases with students.
I was part of her rally on October 20, 2024 where she motivated the canvassers, the same day that the Dodgers won the National League Championship Game, qualifying them to be part of the World Series.
Her campaign accomplished participatory citizenship building, which includes roundtables on issues: housing for all, homelessness, labor rights, public safety, climate and environmental justice, transportation, empowerment and safety for LGBTQ+ and neighbors.
She has been widely endorsed by 45 organizations, including The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, health care and workers’ rights unions, the Philippine Los Angeles Democrats, and many more progressive groups.
Over two dozen public figures endorsed her, some of whom are: Dolores Huerta, Jackie Goldberg, David Kim, Frank Yokoyama, Melissa Ramoso, and more.
Ancestral wisdom of the heart, love and continuity of intergenerational service
Equally impactful and quite deep is the support of Jurado’s father, Carlo Jurado, a DJ at various community events.
I asked Mr. Jurado if he foresaw his daughter running for City Council. “She was focused, disciplined and detail-oriented. Once she believes in something, she would pursue that,” he said.
“When I would fix cars and bicycles, she was always around. If I ask for a Phillips screwdriver, she knows how to hand me the precise tool, “habang nagkukutingting, at hindi nangangalatsutsi (while fixing and repairing, and not wasting time chasing women).”
“She [Ysabel Jurado] is my only daughter, one should be proud of one’s own daughter. Ysabel asked me ‘Sa tingin mo ba, Dad, okay lang na tumakbo ako? (In your point of view, Dad, is it okay that I run for office?)’ I am behind you all the way. Win or lose, the house is here. Come home, you are still my daughter. Nothing is changed.”
“My mother [the late Irene Jurado, who was lead counsel for The Evening Post] gave me life. My [late wife Jocelyn] showed me life. And now, my children [Raphael and Ysabel] are showing me how to love life,” he concluded in sharing of his ‘wisdom of the heart.’
Ysabel’s grandmother, Irene, ranked #5 in the bar exam and shattered the glass ceiling of an all-boys club of attorneys and judges, as the first practicing female lawyer in Iligan, a highly urbanized city in the region of Northern Mindanao.
Can you glean perhaps the continuity of public and community service in her family? It spans generations from her feminist grandmother who fought on behalf of the residents of Iligan, to now granddaughter Jurado, fighting for the residents of CD 14. Her parents, too, gave temporary havens to relatives coming from the Philippines to follow their American dreams.
Her father and mother organized weekly gatherings for all to come and to dance and to sing karaoke, while barbecuing. Weary and tired from working, they renew themselves with a fiesta community culture of infusing joy in their dancing circles, creating a space for belonging for newcomers and residents.
Stephanie Uy, a former Search to Involve Pilipino Americans board member and a close friend of Jurado’s who volunteered for the campaign, shared her insights.
“I am a very good friend, we [Jurado and I] have been best friends since we met at a political campaign in 2013. We cut our political teeth together. I have seen her grow as a person, as a leader, as a mother. Her whole life has culminated in her running for this office. We have poor service in CD 14 and Ysabel saw it as a sign to step up. She is sincere and she is rooted in the community,” Uy said.
Steeped in Filipino culture of being a ‘person for others’
Her immediate family, steeped in love, did not only influence Jurado, she also got love from several aunts and cousins. She got pregnant at 17 years old and thought her future would be bleak. Instead, one of her aunts sat her down and offered to co-parent her baby while she worked. She sent herself, by working, and earned two degrees from UCLA: a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctorate Degree.
When we had a dialogue on how to describe her philosophy of co-governance, I offered a metaphor – a circle? “No, as that is closed,” Jurado said. Is it an ecosystem of spiral motions?
“No,” she said, “what comes to mind is dancing circles. It reminds me of my religion class at Immaculate Heart.” She quickly texted her teacher. Could she be referring to the ‘Dancing Sun,’ when the Virgin Mary appeared to the three young shepherds? It was described as a piercing beacon of light, a source of hope, but also country folks erupted into praying and dancing on October 13, 1917.
Dancing shows a balance of energy, one to the other, from the one leading the dance to the one following. It is a display of resilience, up and down movements, with flexibility and grace. The dancer has to stay balanced, focused, and committed to the Movement and the Moment.
Speaking of Movements and Moments, Jurado took a seminar on “Rebellious Lawyering” – a vision of problem-solving that collaborates well with others, to frame a problem from different vantage points, and to monitor the execution of the strategic interventions and managing the organizations involved in the advocacy, such that active citizenship is a must. Gerald P. Lopez at UCLA taught it, and its content was driven by the radical practices and diverse array of social movements that arose in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s.
Ysabel’s run was not only about making history — it’s about shaping it. Her vision, compassion, and commitment are exactly what District 14 needs, especially as we accept the monumental challenges of housing and homelessness. Her bold, creative solutions, combined with her extensive professional experience, make her the right leader at this very moment to deliver the transformative change Los Angeles truly deserves in City Hall.
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for AJ Press for 16 years. She also contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico and over 22 national parks in the U.S., in her pursuit of love for nature and the arts.
