- [Announcer] Funding for this episode of "Que Pasa NJ" with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Hackensack Meridian Health, the Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825, PSE&G, ROI, "NJ Business Magazine."

- Hola familia, welcome to this month's episode of "Que Pasa."

This month we are lucky to have assemblywoman, Annette Quijiano, Delia Garcia, the author of the new book, "Latina Leadership Lessons," and Ana Rubio, the executive director of the nonprofit called Challenge Day.

Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget to ask yourselves, "Que Pasa?"

(upbeat Latin music) And our first guest is Annette Quijiano, assemblywoman from the 20th Legislative District.

Welcome to "Que Pasa."

- Thank you.

It's such a great space.

- Tell me about...

I know you worked at the governor's office, more for chief council.

How many years did you do that?

- I worked five and a half years there for three Democratic governors.

- And then when did you decide to run for office?

I know it was happenstance that somebody left the ticket.

- Well, yes, (Carlos laughs) someone resigned in 2008 and I got a phone call and the question was, "Are you ready to run?"

And I thought about it because I was chief of staff for Senator Lesniak for a few years, in Governor's council for five and a half.

And I was like, "Yeah, I think I'm ready, I can do it."

And I said, "Yes."

And then we had to wait for the county committee to meet and I won by five votes.

- Wow.

- So five is my favorite number.

So I call myself the accidental assemblywoman.

- (chuckles) Now, you are currently the majority conference leader, first Latina to hold that position.

- Yes.

- Tell me about that.

How is the work that you're doing in the assembly?

- Well, I think my role more as majority conference leader is to listen to the members, make sure that they're at the meetings that they need to be at on time.

So my job downstairs is to run the caucus meeting and to make sure that they go to the floor to vote on time.

But also if there's a question, our issue, we discuss it downstairs.

- So I understand also, prior to your position as a conference leader, you were chair of the judiciary committee.

Tell me some of the work you did there as chairperson.

- Well, that was an exciting assignment.

It really was.

We dealt with the major issues of the day.

I held a committee hearing on expungements, getting ready for the Cannabis Bill, and we realized that it's very cumbersome.

And so we worked on changing the process to make it easier.

We also did, I think one of my longest committee hearings was over six hours and it had to do with a package of gun bills.

It was very emotional and I don't think anyone had ever seen a committee chair cry.

But when we were talking about eliminating the statue of limitations on filing for sexual abuse when it happened as a child and we were gonna open a window, it was raw.

It was so emotional that just thinking of it makes me emotional.

There was a grandmother who shared her own personal story for the first time in her 60s.

She had never mentioned what had happened, but she felt that she needed to come and share her story.

- One of the more intriguing parts of your family history, both parents from Puerto Rico.

- Yes.

- Is that they're a small business owner.

So therefore, you've been a small business owner 'cause I know you help a lot.

You helped mom and dad over the years very much.

Tell me about- - Well, my dad had a flower shop and we learned early on that I don't see dimensions and space.

And I say that because he is an artist, you have to be able to see triangles and circles.

I don't see that.

Okay.

But I'm a good businesswoman.

I honed my skills as a businesswoman.

I could sell anything to anyone at any time.

And I also delivered.

As a florist, you don't get paid unless you deliver.

And not only do you have to deliver, you have to make sure you don't leave the flowers outside because they can die before the person receives them or damage them so much that once they get in the house within days, they're dead.

And so we have to replace them.

So as good business, you make sure your flowers are fresh and that you're able to deliver it.

So my mother said to me, she didn't care how many tiles, how many degrees I had that everyone comes home to help and I did that gladly.

- Now, I understand you have a new venture, you're the contributor on a new book that came out and I know you had an event recently- - Yes.

- Regarding the launch of the book.

- Last night in Elizabeth, we had the launch and my good friend, Delia Garcia is the editor and she had called me up one day and said, "Do you have 10 leadership lessons that you would share?"

And I wasn't sure, you know, we all have opinions on everything, but I was like, "Okay, let me think."

And I start writing it out, and I submitted it and I wasn't sure if I was gonna be chosen because you know, she had the whole country to pick from.

And I was excited and humbled that she actually picked me as one of 50.

- That's great.

Do you want to read a part of it to us?

- Sure.

Here's one and I'll tell you why I wrote this.

Number five, "Don't let others define who you are.

Too many of us along the way, especially the first in our family, have had our dreams squash by someone who assumed we were reaching beyond our capabilities.

Don't let others assumptions or stereotypes limit you.

The only picture that truly matters is the one you have over yourself.

Reach for the stars."

- Great.

- And I included that there because when I was in high school, we all have that day when you're asked, "What do you be when you grow up?"

And I said, "An attorney."

And my high school counselor looked at the record and saw I was a granddaughter of a farm worker.

I was a child of parents that were divorced and back then they would say, "Broken home."

My mother always said, "Our home isn't broken."

And knowing that I had a last name that twist tongues and not many people knew how to say it and that English may not be our first language, I was told not to reach so high that I should consider being a hairdresser like my mother, which I have no problem.

My mother being a hairdresser has been our lottery ticket for our family 'cause she had her own small business.

But the thing is, that's not me.

I don't like to play with hair, I don't like to play with my own hair.

So let alone be a hairdresser.

The high school counselor took out another student's permanent record and told me that I would be competing with people like that.

And so I took a peek, I saw who it was and yes, she had an attorney in the family, but I told him I wasn't gonna compete with her.

I was gonna compete with myself.

Either I put the time in because I wanted to be an attorney or I didn't.

And so when I went home, I told my mother and she said, "We're gonna make a pact today.

If you work hard, I will support you in any way that I can, but you have to do the work.

No one in our family had ever gone to college, let alone law school."

And she goes, "Go to the library, do your research, and then come back and tell me what you wanna do."

I did that and that's why I would always, always support funding libraries.

So I came back and we made the pact.

And when my tuition was due, she would make sure that everybody got permanence, waves, curls, permanence in that beauty shop.

And she put the money on the table and said, "Here's the money for tuition."

When law school got tough, which, you know, you went to law school.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- And it really did get hard some days.

I would remember that high school counselor and when I passed the bar and I passed two states first time I sent him a thank you note for inspiring me.

- Kudos to you and everything you've done assemblywoman.

And we'll have you back to get some more updates.

- Okay.

- Gracia.

- I look forward to it.

Mucho Gracias.

- And up next we have Delia Garcia, author of "Latina Leadership Lessons."

(upbeat Latin music) Welcome back.

And up next, we have Delia Garcia, author and business owner.

Welcome to "Que Pasa."

- Thank you, Carlos.

- Tell me about this project that you launched recently.

- Oh my gosh, it's the love of my life.

I've done many things, but this has been the culmination of it.

I was elected in the Kansas House representatives in 2004.

I was 27 years old, so I was also the youngest female.

And it was, I think at that moment that I saw the importance of representation being the first Latina, one of my mentors said, "Don't be the last Latina, Delia."

And so this book is the culmination of making sure that we're telling powerful stories.

It's 500 leadership lessons from 50 Latinas from 25 states, three generations.

And hearing their powerful advice.

Many times when I was making laws on the house floor, they would be debates late nights and I would feel low spirits 'cause sometimes we felt a little beat up and I would always go back to what Maya Walitos would say or also envision them that they're up in the gallery and their advice.

And so it's been amazing to hear the women share their advice.

A lot of them, many of them shared their ancestors advice to them.

And I think that's the beauty of this book is everyone gives homage to our heritage, our familia, and along with other great stuff.

- Sure.

You also were the first Latina secretary of Labor in Kansas.

- Yes.

- And then you went on to work, is this your... You currently at US Department of Labor Women's Bureau?

- Yes.

- In what region is that?

- So I'm the administrator for the Women's Bureau in the South Central, so.

- South Central?

- South Central United States.

- Does it also have a number I know like- - Oh yeah.

- We're region two here for FEMA and- - Yeah.

Region five.

- Region five?

- Yes.

- Gotcha.

Gotcha.

- So, and then that's the other thing is, I mean, I wanna have to pinch myself.

I get to get paid to make sure women workers are supported following some of the advice in this.

And so having that at the same time as launching the book has just been really serendipitous.

So, God is great.

Yes.

- You're very busy.

You're very busy.

- (chuckles) Yes, yes, yes.

But it's also having fun, you know, talking about what I know and love.

My mother's in the book too, that everyone in the book that's in the book I love.

I've worked with every single person.

- That's great.

- And so to uplift their leadership and really say, "Look, this is the model, this is what Latina leadership looks like all over the country."

Snapshot.

It's a snapshot.

There's more than us.

- Now, we're earlier in the show, we had assemblywoman Quijiano.

- Yes.

- And we talked a little bit about her small business background in her family and you too.

- Yes.

- Have a small business background.

You know, your parents had a Mexican restaurant.

- Yes.

- Tell me a little bit about how that was growing up and having experience.

Did you help out in the business?

- Oh yes.

Helping out was not an option.

Not to, (Carlos and Delia laugh) we're the oldest in the state of Kansas, 1963, so we're celebrating 60 years this year.

And, you know, it was then that I learned customer service.

As little girls, I'm one of five daughters.

And so we would go and take the menus and as we get older, we get to the cash register.

If we were short on staff, we'd be in the back, in the kitchen.

So always learning to just help and jump in.

Our restaurant is in front of railroad tracks and there would be times where families would be on the trains and they'd jump off and it's as if there was a great word of math and said, "If you need it, good meal, you can stop and you get back on the train and people would go north for jobs."

And I remember my grandfather would always say, "When the family come in, go sit with them and talk with them."

And we'd sit with them and then they'd leave.

But it was beautiful to see my grandfather treat everyone like familia.

We didn't know these people.

And so I knew and wanted to do that in all the work that I've done.

And so the restaurant has been a huge pinnacle, not only in the community but in my life service and I love Assemblywoman Quijiano's story because her family visits my family.

She also started as a teenager organizer around when they were gonna take off Spanish language in one of the cable stations.

That's actually how I started as a teenager.

Also organizer, you know, various issues in my home community.

And so identifying that with many traits over the women in the book, it's just, I love uplifting that and other Latinas to see this is you, people think, "What does this definition of the leadership look like?"

Well, this is it.

We are it.

I always say growing up in a family of five daughters and one bathroom, we learned how to deal with adversity.

We deal with negotiating early on.

And those are skills that are transferrable forever.

- Tell me, what was your biggest surprise putting this book together?

What did you not realize when you started getting all this data?

Is there some data points that were surprising to you and some that you were expecting and they panned out the way you thought?

- You know, the beauty of...

I wanna write a book about writing the book (Carlos and Delia laughs) because that was the real aha.

I began writing the book during the pandemic.

So it was a really reflection point, not only for myself, but for the women in the book.

I caught them at a time where we weren't able to be in presence with each other.

So I guess you could say some of it was part of a therapy of the 50 women, maybe a handful of them know each other.

Not all of them know each other like all of them.

Probably the one who might, would be the person who wrote there forward, who is civil rights and labor rights icon, Dolores Huerta.

And she mentions it in her forward.

I know many of the women, but I can say that they all have not met each other.

And the underlying kind of theme was pretty much the same.

Like the top one was a lot of times we doubt ourselves.

So it's believing in ourselves (speaks in foreign language), own your power and also the self-love, self-care, the importance of that.

I like to say the (speaks in foreign language) (Carlos laughs) to the importance of taking care of ourselves so we can take care of others.

I'm very empowering and confirming that.

I would think, God, I thought it was sci-rockets not rocket scientists, it's rocket science.

It's actually simple.

We just gotta practice it and remind us and surround ourselves by mentors and tribes and sisterhood like Assemblywoman Quijiano.

- Now, I know these are Latina lessons.

Now give our viewers a Latina lesson.

What would you say?

I know that's the pressure 'cause you have 500.

(laughs) - Yes.

- Give me one or two of the lessons that are some of your favorites or that you think ring true.

- One of mine is that, and one that we hear from many is dream big, instead of worrying big.

We're always second guessing sometimes ourselves.

And really just going with that gut feeling.

Many times when I thought about a piece of legislation and I didn't put it out on paper, I didn't talk with committee, and then one of my colleagues brought it out and they were a superstar and I'm like, "Oh, (fingers snap) I should have done that."

So really following that moral compass.

And then I would definitely say and probably the most extreme moments of my career where I have been in tears, it was so important to have a tribe of sisterhood around, to be able to lean on, cry with, be uplifted.

And so having that also, one of the lessons is surrounding yourself by your sisterhood tribe (speaks in foreign language) per se.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And then again, just being a mentor and serving as a mentee.

I think that's important to always be a lifeline learner.

Some line that I keep saying as we're doing the launch is I thought, "At one point life was linear and now I've realized that life is curvy like me."

(Carlos chuckles) And I wanna embrace that and I want others to embrace the same thing because it's those learning points that really make us grow.

- Thank you for being a role model and thank you for joining us on "Que Pasa."

- Thank you so much.

- And up next, we have Ana Rubio, the executive director of the Nonprofit Challenge Day.

(upbeat Latin music) Welcome back.

And up next we have Ana Rubio, the executive director of the nonprofit called Challenge Day.

Welcome to "Que Pasa."

- Thank you for having me, Carlos.

- Tell me a little bit about your family's journey from Mexico to the United States.

- So my grandfather first came through the Bracero Program and so he was able to bring his family, my mother from Aguascalientes when they were about 11.

My father also came around that same time, and they are from Jalisco, Mexico and they met here in middle school and in the community and started a family very, very young.

My mother was 14 and my father was 17.

- Wow.

Tell me a little bit about that program that you referenced.

- The Bracero Program?

- Yes.

- So it was a program that was designed to allow people to work in the fields because they didn't have enough workers here in the US.

And so my grandfather was able to apply to come here and work and so he would go back and forth.

- Okay.

- He'd stay here for months, go back, see the family, come back.

And so that was happening for about two or three years before he was able to actually bring the whole family over.

- That's great.

- Tell me about Challenge Day, the organization, your executive director.

How long have you been there?

- I have been with Challenge Day for 15 years.

- Wow.

Wow.

- Yeah, I started as a client relations assistant and just have worked in every position at Challenge Day and now about seven months ago I was promoted to executive director.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- Tell me about the work of Challenge Day.

- So we work in middle schools and high schools, all across the nation and actually all over the world.

So we've been to 49 states in the US.

We've been to every province in Canada and we have a Belgium office, an office in the Netherlands.

We've done days in Uganda, we are doing days in New Zealand next week.

So we've been kind of all over the world spreading, you know, the work of Challenge Day, helping youth with building emotional tools.

So we focus on social-emotional learning and it's very experiential, so you don't go, and you get talked at.

It's really about doing activities, teaching the youth how to use the tools.

And hopefully by the end of the day, we've empowered them and they feel inspired to go out into the world and be the change that they wish to see in the world.

- Tell me, I know, I read in some of the materials about a specific case of a teacher in Freedom High School, I believe.

- Yes.

- Can you tell me a little bit about that scenario?

- Yeah, so Annalouisa Ortega is a Spanish teacher at Freedom High School.

She actually was the advisor for the Latinos Unidos Club and she actually, I personally know her.

She helped me apply for college.

So when I had doubts around, you know, if we were gonna be able to afford it, if I wanted to try and go into a four-year university, she was the one that really inspired me and said, "You know, you can do this, let's apply.

It doesn't matter if you get in or you don't, just take that first step."

And so when I got my acceptance letter, you know, I spoke to her and I said, "You know, I don't think my family can afford this university.

It's very expensive.

It was a private college."

And she helped me fill out all the paperwork for FAFSA and I was able to go pretty close to a full ride to St. Mary's College for four years.

- That's great.

So what was the scenario in which the Challenge Day methodology had a turnaround for the students at Freedom?

- So what Annalouisa did was she shifted a little bit of the focus to really bring in a variety of students.

And a lot of the times the Latino students weren't getting really involved.

And so with her rapport with them, she was able to bring a lot more Latinos into the room.

And as we all know, you know, there's a certain culture, right?

What happens at home stays at home.

You know, you don't talk about what's going on, you know, we put on a strong face and everything's fine.

And so this program is really designed to show the humanity of what's happening, allow people to speak to what they're going through, and really find that common ground with people.

And so the way that it shifted is that all these students came together, they were able to get real with each other and they really connected on a very vulnerable space and then continued to do the work.

And so having Annalouisa Ortega kind of guide be the change team, really allowing the students to continue to, you know, do activities on campus, utilize the tools and bring additional people into, you know, the movement of being the change.

- Sure.

How did you see the students academically after the Challenge Day program was implemented?

- Yeah, so Challenge Day, because it's a social-emotional learning.

What we're teaching them is social awareness, self-awareness, responsible decision-making.

And so it kind of opens the door to what we believe is like if you are emotionally doing well, then you're able to focus more.

And it's been proven, right?

You see those grades go up, you see a lot more connection at school.

You get to kind of see that shift in the paradigm of the school and the climate.

- Sure.

What are some of the favorite lessons you've learned while working at Challenge Day for 18 years?

- So for me, I think the lesson of that we're not alone, right?

Sometimes, there's that feeling that you're the only one that understands what you're going through and that you have to do it alone.

And so as we do activities throughout the day, you get to see that there's other people with life experiences that are similar to yours, right?

And then that makes you feel connected in a different way.

You connect not only on that vulnerable state, but also in that the playful way, right?

So we do activities where we're playing throughout the day and then we get real.

And so I think that's the biggest piece and the biggest takeaway is being able to understand that you're not alone, that you have support systems and that you know somebody's gonna be there for you.

- How many schools and students do you impact here in New Jersey?

- I know this year alone we're doing over 30 days.

- Okay.

- Or over 30 Challenge Day programs, which that calculates out to be about 3,000 students.

- Okay.

- About 700 adults or so.

- Great.

- So there's 100 students per program, 25 adults per program.

- How can you get more information on Challenge Day if you're a parent, if you're a student, what are the steps that we should take?

- Ideally, if you go to the website, www.challengeday.org, you'll find all the information there.

You can also contact us via phone (925) 957-0234.

And we're on social media, so Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, we're all over.

And so yeah, just reach out to us.

We'd love to support the community.

We'd love to, you know, continue to build on what we already have.

- Is it an application process?

How does it work if you're a school district?

- Yeah, so if you're a school district, there is an application, it's called a booking form.

And so what we ask is all the information around the school.

So school name, address, what are the school issues that are happening?

What is the school seeing?

The community issues that are impacting the youth.

And that way we get a chance to really look at how do we align the facilitator body to really speak to what's happening in that community?

So that's the way that we pair people up to send them out into the rooms.

- Well, thank you for joining "Que Pasa" and keep having a positive impact on the life of young people.

- Thank you so much, Carlos.

I appreciate it.

- Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap of episode four.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for hearing the amazing stories from three very successful Latinas.

They faced obstacles, they faced hurdles, but they always overcame.

And don't forget to ask yourself, "Que Pasa?"

- [Announcer] Funding for this episode of "Que Pasa NJ" with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Hackensack Meridian Health, the Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825, PSE&G, ROI, "NJ Business Magazine."

Thanks to the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Find out more about our familia at shccnj.org.

This has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.

(upbeat Latin music)