On this week’s "In Focus SoCal," host Tanya McRae is joined by California Assembly member Blanca Rubio, who represents the 48th District.
Rubio has a unique background compared to many other representatives, as she herself is an immigrant from Juarez, Mexico. She opened up about her experience being undocumented in the U.S. and what is was like being deported as a child.
“We were deported to Juarez,” she said. “If you know anything about Juarez, Juarez is the cartel capital of the world — so, very dangerous, especially for women. There's all those stories about the women of Juarez who have never been heard from again. My parents really wanted us to have a better life. But my father was like, 'There's no way we can have a life here.' And so we came back.”
Rubio's parents risked everything to get their four children back into the U.S. Her mother even carried one of her children across the Rio Grande river to get across the border. Rubio remembers the day her family arrived in Los Angeles because it was the day Elvis Presley died, and it was all over the news.
The assembly member received her bachelor's degree in business administration and master's degree in education with a multiple subject teaching credential from Azusa Pacific University.
Before being elected to the Assembly, Rubio spent 16 years as a schoolteacher and was also a board trustee for the Baldwin Park Unified School District. She says that her jump into teaching in the classroom happened unexpectedly.
“In 2000, the teacher shortage happened. There was a teacher shortage because the legislature had passed the bill for class size reduction. So, they had 20 students in one classroom, from K to third grade, which opened up a whole bunch of positions. So my boss was like, ‘You should teach.' And I was like, ‘No, it’s scary. Why would I teach?’ And she was like, ‘I think you’d be fantastic.' And I joke that all we needed was a degree and a pulse and I had both.”
In 2016, Rubio joined the California State Assembly. Two years later, her sister, Susan Rubio, was elected as a California state senator. They're the first sisters to ever be elected and serve in the California State Legislature. Despite being in different houses of the state government, the sisters have worked on several pieces of legislation together. According to Rubio, there is one in particular that they are most proud of.
“Domestic Violence is always an issue for us. The federal government has a lifetime ban on owning a gun if you have a domestic violence misdemeanor. Low and behold in California, the ban was only for 10 years. And so we wanted to replicate that or codify the federal law into state law. Finally [we] got that bill passed by the skin of our teeth. Now it's illegal if you have a domestic violent misdemeanor to ever own a gun in California.”
To learn more about Rubio, tune into "In Focus SoCal."
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