School Board Seat Is Latest Milestone in Educator’s Career

Victoria Castro doesn’t believe the political Year of the Woman ended at the close of 1992. For Castro, it extended to April 20 when she became the second Latina elected to the Los Angeles Board of Education.

The victory was another milestone in Castro’s 25-year career in education, which began in teaching and includes her current position as principal of Belvedere Junior High in East Los Angeles.

The congratulatory floral arrangements continued to fill her office with the sweet smell of her spring victory weeks after she won in her first try at elected office.

“I had to do this,” she said of her decision to run after toying with the notion for years. “When people I voted for won (last November), I knew it just was the time to do it.” The continuing school district disputes and strike threats further motivated her, she said.

“The frustration level as a principal came to me as I saw the different groups--teachers against administrators and non-teaching personnel--pitted against each other,” Castro said.

When she takes office in July, Castro will represent the heavily Latino 2nd District, which was created last year by joining five densely populated cities in Southeast Los Angeles County--South Gate, Huntington Park, Maywood, Bell and Cudahy--with Boyle Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake and the Pico-Union district.

Castro said she intends to work closely with school board President Leticia Quezada, a Latina who endorsed her. Castro plans to campaign strongly for improved school safety and parent empowerment, two central issues in her platform.

“Many of our parents don’t understand the world our kids live in--the meaning of the clothes they wear or the way they act,” she said. “We have a large immigrant population that doesn’t understand the education system here, their children’s rights, the changes of coming to a different country.” Castro wants to offer workshops to help parents deal with these modern growing pains.

School safety is another high priority for her. Belvedere Junior High has lost several students in the last few years to drive-by shootings. “Learning doesn’t go on until students and teachers feel safe. Reading and writing are almost secondary to their safety,” she said.

Some of Castro’s critics are concerned with that priority, although they admit that the very real danger of campus violence makes for a difficult learning environment. But they contend that Castro cares more about cosmetics than academics. As one teacher put it: “She’s more concerned with how things look than how things are.” That means “painting over graffiti so the school looks pretty” and supporting the school’s award-winning mariachi program, said the teacher, who requested anonymity.

Others at Belvedere, particularly secretaries, counselors and members of the music department, are quick to support Castro.

“It’s true she’s on your case if you drag your feet and that has made her some enemies, but she’s very supportive of innovative plans,” said counselor Jesse Villa.

“She’s not confrontational, but she is a consensus builder, a coalition builder,” continued Villa, explaining why some may consider her too quiet as a leader.

Castro’s victory is largely attributed to the volunteer and financial support she received from non-teaching personnel unions, which formed last year in response to the heavy influence on campaigns by the United Teachers-Los Angeles union. UTLA threw its support to Larry Gonzalez, a school board member from 1983 to 1987 who made another run for a board seat.

The unions proved vital to Castro’s victory, noted Prof. Fernando Guerra, head of Chicano Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Guerra said the presence of the two unions siding with opposing candidates “canceled each other out.” Despite Gonzalez’s name recognition, support from the non-teacher unions and key endorsements gave Castro added publicity.

Guerra speculated that the movement last November to throw out incumbents might have fueled Castro’s support from voters. Among those who won election in November were an unprecedented number of women, including four Latinas elected to the state Assembly.

Castro sees herself as a “Chicano activist” and has been involved in political issues since her school days at Roosevelt High. In her senior year at the Boyle Heights school, a counselor suggested that she forget about her dream to attend Mills College, a women’s college in Oakland, and instead go to East Los Angeles Junior College.

“I thought if she was trying to limit my horizons, what was she doing to the less academic child?” Castro said.

She attended a Mexican-American conference on leadership in April, 1963, and became active in the burgeoning Chicano movement.

As a student attending Cal State Los Angeles, she became president of the Young Chicanos for Community Action, participated in the forming of the MEChA student group, and spent much of her time demonstrating for la causa of the Cesar Chavez-led United Farm Workers. The experience gave her a sense of who she was, she said, although it did cause her to take almost 10 years to receive her bachelor’s degree. Castro later received a master’s degree in urban education and administration from Pepperdine University.

Her parents “had very strong work ethics, they were active in their unions,” she said. Her father, Pete Castro, a native of Zacatecas, Mexico, immigrated to the United States at 7 with his family, who worked the fields for a living. The family of her mother, Carmen Castro, hailed from Mexico City before moving to El Paso, Tex. At 14, Carmen packed her own grandmother’s bags and left for a new life in Los Angeles. Carmen Castro had supported herself and her grandmother, an achievement that later instilled confidence and inspiration in Victoria Castro. “I credit a lot to my mother’s independence,” the educator said.

There is one downside to Castro’s election: the matter of money. As a school board member, Castro will receive an annual salary of $24,000--a substantial cut from the $70,000 she earned as principal.

She said she is perusing the classified ads hoping to find a part-time position in education. “I keep reminding myself that God will provide,” she said.