Chávez granddaughter promoted in West Wing
On the morning of one of the most consequential decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, overturning Roe vs. Wade, Elaine Coronado touched down in San Antonio from Washington, D.C.
San Antonio is her second home and where her parents were waiting with tacos.
The longtime, top-notch event planner is also co-founder of a network of Latinas called Leonas.
Spanish for lionesses, the group’s 800 members nationwide advocate for equity and inclusion, especially in Washington, especially in the White House, especially in the West Wing.
In spite of everything going on — including damning revelations about the insurrection coming out of the Jan. 6 select committee hearings — Leonas has remained steadfast.
Its members, who raised money for Biden’s presidential campaign, are still unsatisfied with the number of his Latina appointments.
A year ago, when I first talked to Coronado and Leonas’ other co-founder, María
Rita Jaramillo, they felt “ghosted” by the Biden White House and described his Latina appointments as “Spanx slim.”
Today, they’re celebrating the elevation of Julie Chávez Rodriguez, 44, to senior adviser and assistant to the president. Her promotion was announced last week. She’ll hold on to her current post as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
She comes from a family with a civil rights legacy.
Her grandfather was labor leader César Chávez, who founded the union that became the United Farm Workers.
As with so many national events, there’s often a local connection.
Chávez Rodriguez is the daughter of native San Antonian
Arturo Rodriguez, former UFW president, and the late Linda Chávez, another powerful figure in her life.
Rodriguez, now UFW president emeritus, continues to advocate for farm workers’ rights. He’s a graduate of St. Mary’s University and the long-shuttered Catholic boy’s school, La Salle High, on the city’s South Side.
He lives in San Antonio with his second wife, Sonia Rodriguez, a past president of Communities Organized for Public Service, now COPS/METRO Alliance, for which she continues to do advocacy work.
Chávez Rodriguez’s parents met in 1973 during the UFW’S grape boycott in Detroit, Michigan. It was a tense time. Two farm workers had been killed during labor strikes in California. Teamsters had sided with growers.
Less than a year later, her parents decided to get married. His girlfriend said “yes,” but he’d have to ask her father César Chávez for her hand.
“Can you imagine that?” Sonia Rodriguez said, both of them laughing.
Chávez Rodriguez grew up within the UFW union. At 5, she knocked on doors in La Paz, UFW’S headquarters. At about 8, she got a first-hand look at the judicial system after being arrested with her father during a boycott.
She heard death threats against “her Tata” first-hand, her father said.
At 10, she was at her grandfather’s side during his last fast, a water-only fast. It lasted 36 days.
She and her sister Olivia measured how much he drank, reporting it to his doctors.
Chávez Rodriguez is among the first few Latinas ever to serve in the West Wing.
“It’s great news,” Coronado said. “Leonas has been advocating for a Latina in the president’s circle.
“We need more Julie Chávez Rodriguezes in this administration,” Coronado said, pointing to data not well-known. “In 2060, one-third of all females in this country will be Latinas.”
Chávez Rodriguez will meet with the president alongside White House chief of staff Ron Klain, deputy chief of staff Jennifer O’malley Dillon and communications director Kate Bedingfield.
They’ll sit in the Oval Office, where a bronze bust of her grandfather sits behind the president’s desk — just one generation between them.
It’s the kind of goose-bump story that makes you believe in the promise of democratic ideals.
It’s what gave me hope amid the devastating news from Washington on Friday.
“When Julie told us about her promotion, I wasn’t surprised,” Sonia Rodriguez said, tearing up. “She has become such a role model for Latinas.
“To pass her over would have been horrible.”
Leonas would take that a little further. Given what the administration faces in November, it had better do a lot more.