Dulce Vasquez clearly remembers cleaning million-dollar mansions with her mother as a child to help make ends meet due to the financial circumstances she experienced as an immigrant from Mexico. Higher education and a determination to succeed helped her discover her passion to better serve her community. Today, she is running for Los Angeles City Council.
She said one of the reasons she’s campaigning is because she strongly believes South L.A. needs more educators in office.
“Education was what catapulted me out of poverty,” said Vasquez. “And it really is that mechanism for our entire society, no matter at what level.”
Vasquez is seeking the council seat in District 9. If elected, at age 35, she would be the youngest person elected from her South Los Angeles district. She currently works for Arizona State University’s California Center in Downtown L.A., where she advocates for more inclusive education policies. Vasquez has also spent the last decade of her life mentoring young girls in the South Central Los Angeles area and is now putting that training to use in her first run for office.
Vasquez’s platform centers on the issue of education, housing and homelessness in South L.A. If elected, she promises to provide rental subsidies for residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to expedite construction of affordable housing.
“I did my master’s thesis on student debt, and while I didn’t take out any student debt, I recognize how broken our system is of financing education,” Vasquez said.
She plans to create more green spaces in South L.A. schools by opening more clean playgrounds, which would provide more equitable recreational opportunities for children and families. She also wants to ensure better access to fast, reliable internet for students.
According to the County Department of Parks and Recreation, Los Angeles has a median of 3.3 acres of park space per 1,000 people, well below the median of 6.8 acres per 1,000 people in other high-density U.S. cities.
Vasquez stresses that the district has failed at keeping South L.A. clean compared to other cities in Los Angeles County
“That’s not only a structural issue; it’s also a cultural issue. Why don’t we have a campaign to beautify our streets to literally empower people to say I am responsible for that napkin right there?” said Vasquez. “I am responsible for the kid who just threw his McDonald’s cup out the window.”
Long before her campaign began, when Vasquez turned 7, she was an unaccompanied minor on a plane ride to America. She dreamed of playing with Barbie dolls, owning Disney novels and getting the chance to eat at McDonald’s for the first time.
Soon after Vasquez arrived in the U.S., she began helping her mother clean houses. Her mother was determined to give Vasquez an adequate education, so she enrolled her in public school, where she began to excel academically and improved her English.
After receiving her U.S. citizenship at the age of 14, Vasquez dived into her first experience in U.S. politics. She became a volunteer for the Howard Dean Campaign during his 2003 - 2004 presidential campaign election while still living in Florida.
“I had this sense of responsibility for elected service and elected office, and I thought that was just a civic duty that came with being an American citizen,” said Vasquez.
When Vasquez was 18, she enrolled at Northwestern University and earned her Bachelor of Science in political science. Northwestern is where she met her current best friend, Jessica Vasquez, someone she now calls when she feels overwhelmed or stressed.
“Being her best friend, I can see that she is really emotionally invested,” Jessica said. “Not just mentally, though, but she’s emotionally invested in this district and in downtown Los Angeles. She genuinely wants to see things get better, not just for her, but for others.”
After she completed college, she moved west in 2008 to pursue her graduate studies. Vasquez described how earning her graduate degree in public policy from UCLA gave her better understanding of the ways policy coincides with education.
Zaid Diaz-Arias, a sophomore serving as the parliamentary secretary of USC’s Student Government, currently serves as Vasquez’s campaign field and volunteer coordinator. Diaz-Arias said he immediately felt connected to Vasquez when he first met her because of their shared Mexican origin, beliefs, customs and traditions.
“She’s young, she’s spirited, energized and like a fighter. I resonated with her like that,” said Diaz-Arias.”I saw myself in her. And I feel like she’s representative of my generation, my culture and my values.”
Vasquez has a long history of serving her community and credits Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with inspiring her to run for office.
“I saw a lot of myself in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s younger than I am, but she went from very, very well-educated bartender to Congress,” Vasquez said.”And I’m sitting here, as a higher-ed executive administrator thinking that I am not good enough to be able to do that.”
Vasquez is running for office against four other candidates.
“I could absolutely do a better job reaching the constituency that I want to serve than the folks that are in office right now,” Vasquez said, her voice sparking with enthusiasm. “It takes literally the most nominal level of effort to do a good job compared to what they’re doing right now. So many people were left behind, particularly in this community.”
Voters can cast their ballots for Los Angeles City Council of District 9 on June 7, 2022.