[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5163-5164]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO GLORIA MOLINA

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am pleased to pay tribute to my 
good friend Gloria Molina, who is serving her 24th and final year on 
the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Gloria is a trailblazer 
who has inspired countless young women to pursue public service, and 
she is retiring from office at the end of this year after more than 
three decades of extraordinary service on behalf of the people of 
California.
  Gloria Molina was raised in Pico Rivera, the eldest of ten children 
born to a Mexican mother and Mexican-American father. A graduate of El 
Rancho High School, she worked full time as a legal secretary while 
attending college and becoming certified as an adult education 
instructor, teaching clerical skills to adults at the East Los Angeles 
Skills Center.

[[Page 5164]]

  Gloria entered government service as a staff member, first for 
Assemblymember Art Torres and later for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. 
In 1982, after serving in the Carter White House and with the San 
Francisco Department of Health and Human Services, she made history as 
the first Latina ever elected to the California State Assembly.
  Gloria was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1987 and the 
County Board of Supervisors in 1991, making headlines each time for 
becoming the first Latina to serve in those positions.
  Since 1991, Supervisor Molina has represented nearly 2 million 
residents in the First District of our Nation's largest county, where 
she has focused on making services more effective and on completing 
major capital projects that improve the quality of life for residents 
of her district and the entire county. Among the initiatives she 
championed are the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, a six-mile light 
rail line connecting East L.A. to downtown and the rest of the county's 
mass transit network; the state-of-the-art LAC-USC Medical Center in 
Boyle Heights; the Plaza de Cultura y Artes at El Pueblo Historic 
Monument, a museum dedicated to showcasing and preserving the history 
of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles; the Los Angeles River 
and San Gabriel River Master Plans, both of which serve as blueprints 
for ``greening'' local rivers and their tributaries; and the 
construction of more than 1,100 new affordable housing units in the 
First District.
  I have known Gloria for many years, and I am honored to salute her as 
she prepares to retire from elective office. I am pleased to join 
Gloria's many friends, family members, associates, admirers, and 
grateful constituents in wishing her health, happiness, and all the 
best as she embarks on the next phase of her life.

                          ____________________