0:05

Hi, I'm Pete good a judge, and this

0:07

is the deciding decade.

0:13

From fully tackling systemic racism

0:15

to levenling the playing field for small business

0:17

owners of color, to opening up educational

0:19

opportunities for minority students, it has

0:22

never been more important for us to break

0:24

down systemic and institutional barriers

0:26

and deliver true equity and roads to prosperity

0:29

for communities of color. From the

0:31

beginning, the Latino community has been a vital

0:33

part of America's story and now

0:35

represents the fastest growing demographic

0:37

group in America. Leaders across

0:39

the nation in politics, advocacy, and entertainment

0:42

are working to expand opportunity and

0:44

build empowerment for Latinos so that

0:46

everyone has a chance to benefit from

0:48

and fully contribute to American life.

0:52

With a prolific career dating back to the

0:54

early two thousands, Eva Longoria has

0:56

long been considered one of Hollywood's leading

0:58

actresses and has per do TV

1:00

shows and important documentaries such as

1:03

two thousand Fourteens, Food Chains, as

1:05

well as directing episodes of some of our favorite

1:07

shows such as Blackish and Jane the Virgin.

1:10

On top of all of that, Eva as a leader in

1:12

her philanthropic work and social and political

1:15

activism. Some of the highlights from work

1:17

she has done include founding the Eva Longoria

1:19

Foundation, which helps Latinos build

1:21

better futures for themselves and their families

1:24

through culturally relevant education and entrepreneurship

1:26

programs, co founding groups like

1:28

the Latino Victory Project, a progressive

1:30

political action committee aimed at increasing

1:33

the number of Latino candidates in local, state,

1:35

and national elections, and Momental

1:37

Latino, a coalition of a hundred

1:39

and thirty organizations focused on health,

1:42

education, economy, and politics

1:44

and helping Latinos disproportionately affected

1:46

by the pandemic. She has been campaigning

1:49

for candidates and causes that are moving the

1:51

country and the world forward. Eva,

1:53

it's an honor to be joined by nice

1:56

to nice to be with you. I

1:58

feel like I should be interviewing you. You are the fascinating

2:01

one. I am just a boring old

2:03

actress. Hardly. You've got a fascinating

2:06

story. I'm looking forward to digging into it

2:08

right now. In fact, let's start there. Let's

2:10

start all the way at the beginning, literally the beginning

2:13

for you. So you were born in Corpus

2:15

Christi, Texas, in but

2:17

I saw that your family. You don't have to

2:19

say the year, Pete, you don't have to

2:21

say the year. Yes, yes,

2:24

it's relevant. It's definitely relevant when

2:26

I was born because I feel

2:28

like so many things happened.

2:31

But I was reading that your family was in that area since

2:33

the six hundreds. Do I have that right? Yeah?

2:36

Never, we never crossed the border. The border

2:38

crossed us. I my

2:41

whole life have identified as Mexican American,

2:43

and I and my dad would always say, well,

2:45

we're technically Spanish. And I was like, no, we're

2:47

Mexican, like everybody knows that. And

2:50

he's like, no, no, we're Spanish. And

2:52

then I was on a show by

2:55

Dr Henry Lewis Gates and it's on PBS,

2:57

and they do your lineage and

2:59

your genealogy. So they took

3:01

my d n A, my my parents

3:03

day name, my father's and my mother's and

3:05

then they can pinpoint exactly

3:08

your genetic makeup and it

3:10

turned out we were still eighty five percent

3:12

Spanish blood, which is crazy.

3:14

Um So that that rocked my world because

3:17

I was like, wait, we were the colonizers. Oh

3:19

my god, we were the bad guys. Uh.

3:21

And I was like um uh

3:23

and then we had about you know, obviously

3:25

some indigenous blood that was identified

3:27

as Maan. I mean, it was a fascinating

3:30

thing to to be a part of. But what Dr

3:33

Gates said on the show which really struck

3:35

me. He goes, you're the most American person

3:37

I've ever had on the show

3:39

because you're you're the furthest back

3:42

from before the Mayflower and before all

3:44

of that. He said, um, you know, before

3:47

Christopher Columbus, before all of it, he said, your family

3:49

was already here. And he they

3:51

found the exact ancestor, which

3:54

is my thirteenth great grandfather, who

3:56

was eleven years old when he left Spain to go

3:58

to the New World. And they had

4:00

the letter where he wrote to the king

4:03

and he said, I would like to join my uncle in

4:05

the New Spain, and they

4:07

granted his permission. He got on a ship

4:09

at eleven years old landed

4:11

in around Vera Cruz area.

4:14

So then somehow

4:16

the Longoria has made their way north to what

4:19

is current day Monterey, the

4:21

valley South Texas really uh,

4:23

and the king gave out land grants and the

4:26

Longorias were one of the people that got

4:28

some land grants, and it was I think like six

4:30

Lamborious. So my my immediate

4:33

direct lineage was one of those

4:35

plots, but all the plots next to us

4:37

were also Lamborious as well. So the

4:40

huge longboard Longoria is like smith

4:42

in that's like in

4:45

Malta, by the way, so nowhere

4:47

else, but definitely in Malta. Definitely Malta.

4:50

Okay, yeah, but that was that the six three

4:52

and um that same that same

4:54

piece of land that that land grant

4:56

was we still have today, we still are

4:59

on the same rank. So

5:01

how do you think about a heritage that includes

5:04

colonizers and the colonized

5:06

land that has been US, has been

5:08

has been Mexico. How does that shape your

5:10

your concept of what it is to be American. Well,

5:13

I have to say, growing up as a Texan, we're

5:15

raised as being Texans first. There's

5:18

such a pride of being being

5:20

from Texas and that Texans have and

5:22

hold. But growing up you

5:25

you don't really get the colonized

5:27

history and you don't get obviously the

5:29

history of the underdog. And so my

5:31

family was under five different flags

5:33

without ever moving from New Spain

5:36

to Mexico to France, to the Republic

5:38

of Texas to the United States. I mean there was many,

5:40

many exchanges of the land. And

5:42

so when I when I went to

5:45

college, you know obviously that you

5:48

get critical thinking classes and

5:50

it's not the history you grew up learning. And

5:52

so I wish that there was more of that history

5:54

in Texas history and uh, and

5:56

then I got my masters in Chicano studies,

5:59

and that really blew my mind wide

6:01

open as far as you know, the Battle

6:03

of the Alamo, I mean, just just that history

6:06

and what it meant at the time,

6:08

and the Mexican American War,

6:11

the settlers Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin

6:13

and I'm really going back and so my it's

6:16

shaped me in the sense of how people

6:18

don't really know the history, and especially

6:20

if we look at what's happening today and how it's relevant.

6:23

Is the vilification of Latinos

6:26

in the United States and the the

6:28

racist victriol directed

6:30

at anybody who's of Hispanic descent,

6:33

and the hashtag go home. You

6:35

know, when you go I am home. I've

6:39

been home. Um, there's nowhere to

6:41

go back to. And so um,

6:43

that's you know, kind of like what's shaped my more

6:46

recent views of really trying

6:48

to get you know, this revisionist history

6:50

out there too. So people know the real truth about

6:52

our roots. You

6:55

mentioned people saying go home, and this is something

6:57

that President Trump has done many times,

6:59

including telling women of color

7:01

in the United States Congress, US citizens,

7:04

all of them, most of them born in the US, go

7:06

home. And I wonder, what do you feel like when

7:08

you heard that? And that hit you too in a way?

7:11

Oh gosh. Of course, first of all, let's

7:13

just set aside the misogyny in

7:15

that, and then you know, second of all,

7:17

the the ignorance in that,

7:20

and especially coming from a world leader, words

7:22

matter, and so everything stings

7:25

whenever people are uneducated

7:28

about the history of immigration

7:30

in our country. And that's really what that's why I went

7:33

to get my master's was because immigration

7:35

was such a hot topic then. I

7:37

mean, it's been on the administration's

7:39

agenda for many presidents, not just you

7:41

know, recent recent ones,

7:44

but like I was like, wait, what is the history of

7:46

our immigration and what why is this

7:48

this way? And when you really look deep into

7:50

the history of it, then you bet you have a better understanding

7:52

of it. You become literate and you can speak on it.

7:55

And it's amazing how uneducated

7:58

this outgoing administration has

8:00

been. And one of the things that really strikes

8:02

me is that the last time we

8:04

had real immigration reform in the country,

8:06

it was in the mid nineteen eighties. You and I were both

8:08

children, Ronald Reagan was president.

8:10

He was understood as a bipartisan achievement,

8:13

And it feels like something that Americans

8:15

of both parties believe we ought to do in

8:18

commands a strong majority of support among

8:20

the American people, but can never get an

8:22

adequate majority in the American Congress. Well

8:24

why do you think that is Well, because

8:26

people don't understand that immigration Comprehensive

8:29

immigration reform is very difficult. There's many

8:31

tenants to it. So one tenant

8:33

is a guest worker program. Another

8:35

tenant is a pathway to citizenship,

8:37

which is also the most contested

8:40

of any immigration policy, which is,

8:42

you know, should should people have a pathway to citizenship?

8:45

Should there be a penalty? Should there be attacked?

8:47

And you know, all of that stuff if you take

8:49

that out, because I will tell you most

8:51

of these migrant

8:53

workers not that they don't care to be citizens.

8:56

They want to be legal. They want to be able to

8:58

walk in the street, go to work, go

9:00

back to Mexico, come back and work, go

9:02

back like you know, as the border should be porous.

9:05

That's what I feel we should focus

9:07

on is is understanding that agriculture

9:10

is totally dependent on migrant labor. Huge

9:12

agriculture is still a huge part of our economy. And

9:15

so if you if you separate it out a little bit

9:17

and really look at at the problems. You look at

9:19

the visa programs and you see low

9:21

low skilled workers are only allotted

9:24

a certain amount of visas. But yet like doctors

9:27

and high tech people, you know those those

9:29

visas are different. So like you've understanding

9:31

all of those layers, and when people say you get getting

9:33

the getting line, just like everybody else that

9:35

came to this country, you have to understand there is no

9:37

line. And then you pile on top of that political asylum.

9:40

So the things that are happening in Central America,

9:42

the instability that by the way, was caused by the

9:44

United States, that instability and why

9:46

people are fleeing these horrific situations.

9:50

It's not a red or blue decision.

9:53

It's a life and death decision. I

10:12

want to come back to to your own journey. You won

10:14

in the ninety nineties the Mims Corpus Christi

10:17

beauty pageant. This brings an opportunity

10:19

to compete in Los Angeles and a talent

10:21

show. You go there, and Los Angeles

10:24

winds up being home in many ways.

10:26

Did you expect that you were going to stay? And what

10:29

was it like to go from Corpus CHRISTI l a,

10:31

Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, I haven't really

10:33

been outside of Texas. And I

10:36

entered this beauty pageant because

10:39

it was a scholarship pageant, and uh,

10:41

and I needed to finish my last year of college.

10:43

And I was like, Okay, I'll

10:45

enter that scholarship pageant, hoping I would get

10:48

fourth place, by the way, because the fourth place was

10:50

books and tuition, and all I needed

10:52

was like one more year of tuition. And I

10:54

ended up winning the whole thing, which

10:57

paid for my last year of college, and in

10:59

the price packet was a

11:01

trip to Los Angeles. Um so I graduated

11:04

with my bachelor's degree in education, and

11:06

literally the next week I was using it as like vacation,

11:09

and I came to l A. And I don't know what

11:12

came over me, but I

11:14

I fell in love. I mean the minute I landed,

11:16

I was like, oh my gosh, look at these palm trees

11:19

and and then I competed in this acting competition

11:21

and I had all of these callbacks and agents

11:24

and managers wanting to sign me, and I said, what

11:26

does what does signed me me? I didn't know,

11:28

and so I said, Mom, I think

11:30

I'm gonna be an actress. I mean just like

11:32

that, just one day. I didn't even know what the word

11:34

meant. And she said okay.

11:37

But my parents were happy because I had already like

11:40

They're like, you have your degree. They

11:42

knew I could get a job anywhere. And I said, oh, yeah,

11:44

I'm gonna go get a job. That's what I'm gonna do. And

11:46

so that's what I did. I was here maybe three

11:48

days, and then I went to attempt agency

11:51

in Los Angeles because I was like, I can

11:53

type, I know word, I know Excel

11:57

and uh. And the the agency,

12:00

the temp agency, hired me. They said, why don't you work

12:02

here? And I said, okay, I don't. I don't

12:04

know what you what it is here and they said, well, you know, we

12:06

find jobs for people and it's like matchmaking

12:08

for jobs. And I said okay, and I worked there.

12:10

I mean literally within a week, I had a job

12:12

and I had I would audition

12:16

in between all of this and just kind of figured

12:18

it out. But I don't know what got

12:20

into me, because I didn't grow up wanting

12:22

to be an actors. I didn't even know what that meant. Celebrity

12:25

culture wasn't a thing. There wasn't magazines

12:27

and obviously websites and social media.

12:30

I think that the closest thing we had to tableau was a

12:32

National Enquirer, which was like aliens

12:35

landed, and you know, I don't know

12:37

what it was. But I just came here and I figured it out, and I

12:39

took classes and just kind of approached

12:41

it strategically of like, well, let me learn

12:44

about this. But then you did something

12:46

unexpected. So you you you get not just

12:48

a job, but a lot of jobs. You have an incredible career.

12:51

Desperate Housewives is a huge hit. And

12:53

then you decided to go to school and get

12:55

a master's degree in Chicano studies.

12:57

So you're well known, you're wildly successful, You've

13:00

you've got more than enough going on. What tugs

13:02

you back to getting a master's degree? You

13:04

know, in my family,

13:06

I'm the underachiever. If

13:09

you can believe that, I'm not sure

13:11

I can. I come

13:13

from a family of educators, my mom's a teacher.

13:15

My my sister is a teacher, and my answer teacher

13:17

like, and so college was a big thing. And

13:19

my mom just kept bugging me, and she's like, you know, all

13:22

your sisters have masters and you don't

13:24

like And I'm like, Mom, I'm on the number

13:26

one show in the world, not in the United States, in

13:28

the world, and she was like, uh huh,

13:30

and when are you going to get your master's? It

13:32

was it was a big deal in my family.

13:35

And and then at the time again,

13:37

like I said, immigration was a big thing happening

13:39

in the moment. And I've had

13:42

the privilege of having an amazing mentor in

13:44

Dolores work Up and so that's

13:46

why I've been a farm worker advocate for most

13:48

of my adult life is because of Dolores. And

13:50

she would tell me things and I said,

13:52

but why why is that? Why don't farm workers

13:55

have water in the fields? And she'd explain, well, there's

13:57

a policy that you know, a lot of the games

13:59

we made in this civil rights movements have been dismantled

14:01

now. And why don't farm workers have

14:03

shade? Why can't they take breaks

14:06

in the fields? And she would say, well, you

14:08

know, because the governor and she would explain

14:11

policy to me then why things

14:13

were the way they were. She said she you

14:15

should read this book. It's a really amazing book. It's called

14:17

Occupied America by Dr Junia and

14:20

he's the he's the godfather of Chicano

14:22

studies in the United States. He's actually,

14:25

um uh, the architect of like Mexican

14:27

American studies. He's brilliant and

14:29

the book like rocked my mind and

14:31

I said, I want to write this author. I wonder if he'd

14:33

have a conversation with me. And I sat and

14:35

talked with him maybe four hours. He

14:37

was just a remarkable professor. Um.

14:40

And he said, you know, you should take my class. And

14:42

I said, what's your class? And he said, it's ch Kino one to one

14:44

And for people don't know what Chicano is, chi Kino.

14:46

It was a politicized term in the civil

14:48

rights movement about it was also putting

14:51

the census one year um trying

14:53

to aggregate, you know, all Latinos

14:55

under an umbrella, and it was before the word Latino,

14:57

and it was where you know, there's a lot of we're not a model to

15:00

groups. So identity is a big thing for us. But

15:02

it really became a politicized it means,

15:05

it meant something more, but it's it's the

15:07

history of Mexican Americans in this country, and

15:09

so it's cheap on a one to one and I took

15:11

it. I took that class and I was like wow,

15:14

and it was so comprehensive. It was like I was

15:16

telling you from from pre Columbian civilization.

15:18

Oh, Mick told text aspects to NAFTA

15:22

to present day.

15:24

So that was like huge,

15:27

uh, you know, uh, spectrum

15:30

of our history. And so after you

15:32

take that class, you can kind of go, oh, I'd really

15:34

like to know more about this. So I'd really like to know more about

15:36

that. And so I took another class and another class, and eventually

15:38

they said, you know, you have to enroll. You've got to get

15:40

your masks, You've got to enroll the program. And I

15:43

tried to secretly do it, um

15:45

because I didn't want the press finding out,

15:47

because then I would I thought, oh god, if they find out

15:49

that, I'm gonna have to finish.

15:53

And so of course they did, and I was like,

15:55

oh my god, why why couldn't this

15:57

have been secret? Um? But honestly it

15:59

was I was so thirsty

16:01

for knowledge about

16:03

any topic that was immigration

16:06

adjacent and that touched upon it. And as you

16:08

know, most most world issues

16:11

just bump up against each other. So

16:13

education has been so important for you, it's been so important

16:16

for your family. And then your foundation means

16:18

that if you've done a lot of work on

16:21

issues related to education for the

16:23

Latino community in the US, what what conclusions

16:25

have you drawn and what are the areas you think we're going to

16:27

need to pay the most attention to make

16:30

things better in education in the next decade. Yeah.

16:33

Well, because of my master's my thesis

16:35

was on latinas and stem fields,

16:38

and I used my master's

16:40

thesis as the basis for the foundation,

16:42

so um, all the research I did,

16:45

UM, I wanted to know what

16:49

made certain latinas successful.

16:51

And so I interviewed twenty latinas

16:54

and stem fields, an engineered x

16:56

on, a professor at m I T bio

16:59

researcher or you know, at a pharmaceutical

17:02

company, and I said, I wanted to

17:04

know the common denominator

17:06

of success, not the barriers. There are so many

17:08

studies that tell us the barriers. We know the barriers,

17:10

like I we know the barriers.

17:13

I want to know why did those women why

17:16

were those women successful, those latinos and

17:18

and is there something we can replicate?

17:20

And so in the study, we found that

17:23

they all had any at

17:25

least one engaged parent in their education,

17:28

one parent that was like pushing and pushing

17:30

and advocating and putting them in a higher class

17:32

and going to the school and saying why isn't my

17:34

daughter in math class math club, or why isn't

17:36

she on this higher track, or why can't

17:39

my daughter take um A P classes they're

17:41

taking, you know. And so that

17:43

was the number one thing in our finding was was having

17:45

an engaged parent that said the word college,

17:48

college, college, college in the household.

17:51

The second one was after school

17:53

activities, any anything that kept

17:55

him at the school longer, because

17:57

it didn't it didn't even have to be academic. It could have been

17:59

banned, it could have been cheerleading, anything

18:02

that just had them engaged

18:04

in the school community. Um

18:06

and all of them were involved in something

18:08

we could track or math club or

18:10

robotics or whatever. And so

18:13

with the eveleng Gloria Foundation, we were like, Okay, we know,

18:15

we know parental engagement works, and we know after

18:18

school programs worked, So we set up all of our

18:21

programs to to do that. And we have this six

18:23

week parental engagement program that

18:26

parents take. So it's not even the it's not even the

18:28

kid, it's the parents take it. And they learned

18:30

how to advocate for their kid. They learned

18:32

how to navigate the school system. So

18:34

many of our parents, regardless of language,

18:37

we're so intimidated by the school. They didn't

18:39

know what transcript meant. They didn't know, uh,

18:42

you know, high track versus a low track. They

18:44

didn't know they could go to the school and asking you

18:46

please, um, you know, put my daughter

18:49

in a higher, higher class or I

18:51

feel like you know. So many of the students were straight

18:53

as students, but on a low track. And

18:55

then they realized when they get to high school, they're

18:57

not prepared for college because they've been on a lower

18:59

track. And so once the parents

19:01

finished and completed the course, we

19:04

saw an increase in graduation.

19:07

I mean a so we

19:09

go wow. Once their parents got

19:11

involved, it was game over, I mean

19:13

game over. These kids were going to be successful.

19:16

And not only that, those parents became multiplayers.

19:18

So those parents took that information back into

19:20

their communities, into their neighbors and to their sisters,

19:22

and they said you know what you should do. You should go ask

19:24

for their transcript because you've got to look at their transfer

19:27

and they were so proud of everything

19:29

they've learned and how to advocate for their child

19:31

and to take that back into the communities. And so we've

19:34

we've helped over twenty n Latinas.

19:37

So let me connect a thread

19:39

from from education to what you're saying about your

19:42

interest and involvement and advocacy for farm

19:44

workers. So when

19:46

you're encountering a student, especially

19:49

maybe a young Latina STEMS

19:51

student who maybe hasn't

19:53

heard about the heritage and the tradition of

19:56

organizing farm workers, doesn't know who Dolora

19:58

Squerta is U and might

20:01

not know about how that leads

20:03

to to where we are today. One of the most

20:05

important things that you think a new generation should

20:08

know. And how would you explain it? Yeah,

20:10

it's a it's a it's a beautiful history. UM.

20:13

And also you know when you think about Dolores,

20:16

what you think about our history to UM.

20:18

You know, people know se us your job is, but

20:20

what they don't know was more

20:23

so is Dolores. And so even even

20:25

a lot of these movements that have happened

20:27

UM have always been in a patriarchal way, and

20:29

so I would love for them to know more about

20:32

the number of female organizers

20:34

that that work by the scenes. If you see just this past

20:36

election, it was women of

20:39

women of color who showed up, um,

20:41

and and women of color who organized.

20:44

And so I think, UM, we have a lot

20:46

of lessons to learn from from the

20:48

historically how women have shown

20:50

up and been involved in activism,

20:53

and particularly farm workers. It's my

20:55

desire. You know, people ask me,

20:57

because I mean I was I didn't grew up as a farm worker.

20:59

I I UM, people

21:01

ask me what my connection is. Why do I advocate

21:04

for them? And I said, because I eat like

21:07

we should all advocate for

21:09

them. During this global pandemic.

21:12

Um, every time you go to the supermarket, there's food

21:14

there, and there's food there because these phone workers

21:16

are still working. And um,

21:19

you know, the the pandemic has deemed farm

21:21

workers essential, and us

21:23

in the advocacy world go, They've always

21:25

been essential. We

21:27

didn't need a global pandemic to tell us

21:30

they're essential to the food supply and

21:32

the economy and the economic engine

21:34

of the United States. They should always

21:36

be applauded and uplifted and supported and

21:38

given a livable wages and

21:41

livable living quarters and um

21:43

instead of vilified and and living

21:45

in fear or being deported or being

21:48

arrested or being targeted. And my

21:51

wishes that we all could appreciate the

21:53

work that they do well. There's

21:55

something about workers being treated

21:57

as essential and visible

22:00

at the same time, depending on

22:03

the purpose at the moment. Right So, what

22:05

do you think is most important right now, especially

22:08

in the context of the pandemic, to make sure

22:10

that farm workers and other essential workers

22:13

get the support that they need. You know, there's so many

22:15

great organizations that are doing

22:17

amazing work, but the number one thing for farm

22:19

workers is many of them are going to work

22:21

without ppe. I mean there's just there.

22:23

There's not enough. They don't have the money for it,

22:26

and their bosses don't provide it. Um.

22:28

Their living quarters often don't have

22:31

you know, clean running water, they don't have

22:33

soap, they don't so like the washing

22:35

of the hands, which is required right now, is

22:38

you know, something as simple as basic as

22:40

that. And then the

22:42

poverty wages. You know, farm farm

22:44

workers still aren't protected

22:46

under labor laws. You know, children are

22:48

in the fields and um,

22:51

there's no minimum wage and

22:53

so a lot of those laws that apply

22:55

to them are archaic and barbaric.

22:58

And you see, you know, kids as on as

23:00

twelve carrying fifty pound

23:02

baskets of tomatoes, and then you see

23:04

that exact family who picked those tomatoes

23:07

go to the supermarket and can't afford to buy that

23:09

tomato. That's a tragedy. You

23:28

know. It strikes me that sometimes the way we think as

23:30

citizens is different than the way

23:32

we think as consumers. Right there. I think there's so

23:34

many of us who, uh, you know, if

23:36

we were voting on a referendum that said, should there

23:38

be higher wages for farm workers, we would

23:40

vote yes, yes, of course. But then

23:43

when when you're at the supermarket

23:45

and you pick out this avocado instead

23:48

of that one because it's five cents cheaper, you

23:50

don't realize that's a vote on the exact same

23:52

issue. It just hasn't been presented to you as a

23:54

referendum. It's been presented to you,

23:57

you know, as a food item. And yet that choice

23:59

you make in the marketplace is as

24:01

powerful, maybe maybe has even more

24:03

implications than the choice you would make if somebody

24:05

actually came up and said, you know, with the clipboard,

24:08

what do you think should happen to farm workers in this country.

24:11

But that's where the information becomes so important,

24:13

right, so important. And it's such a

24:15

good point that you said that, because if you do think of the supermarketing

24:18

people, this kind of surge

24:20

and interest of where your food comes from.

24:22

Right, Like, I am meeting soy and I'm

24:25

gluten free, and I'm you know, all

24:27

of these choices that you can

24:29

now make buying organic

24:32

people, I'm buying organics. I don't want to. I don't

24:34

want to ingest pesticides, but

24:36

you should buy organic because that means farm

24:39

workers were not sprayed by pesticides.

24:42

Right, Like you go, oh yeah, i'll pay, I'll

24:44

pay twenty cents more. The restrictions

24:47

on pesticides being sprayed or the regulations

24:49

on it is based on weight of a

24:52

man, like a hundred and fifty pound man.

24:54

So if you're a child working in the farm workers,

24:56

if you're a woman working in the in the field, I

24:59

mean, um, that dose

25:01

that you're getting and ingesting as

25:03

you're picking and you're in the field is deadly

25:06

and and cancerous and causes

25:09

a lot of health problems for our farm workers. So next

25:11

time you go to the store instead of going I want to buy organic

25:13

because I want to eat healthy. You'd say, I want to buy

25:15

organics. I want to make sure I'm protecting farm workers.

25:19

You know that that point about how they calibrated

25:21

the regulations on pesticides is

25:23

so interesting, and I'm gonna try not to fully

25:25

geek out with you, but but one question I

25:27

think you might have an interesting take on. So I think a lot about

25:30

what we measure, what we count, and how

25:32

that expresses what matters. You mentioned earlier

25:35

that the term chicana was included

25:37

on the census once and that was very important, and just

25:39

how we gather data around economics,

25:42

around people, around wages. Obviously, the Census

25:44

in particular has been an issue

25:46

recently because the targeting of undocumented

25:48

immigrants. If there were two

25:50

or three bodies of information,

25:52

two or three statistics that don't exist right

25:54

now that could Is

25:56

there anything that you think it would make a difference

26:00

to gather some form of data

26:02

or measure something or pay attention to something

26:04

that we have the capability to find

26:06

out, but we just haven't ever done it, or

26:08

if we have, it hasn't been made public or nobody's

26:11

really looked at it. I

26:14

love that geeky question because I am an academic

26:16

at heart. You know, we have

26:18

to do more studies that contribute to the

26:20

body of knowledge, and I don't think there's enough studies

26:22

out there. Even if you see medical studies, they

26:25

don't really include people of color, sometimes

26:27

heart heart disease, diabetes,

26:30

and until you

26:32

have a seat at the table. You know, this is what makes

26:34

me crazy about Washington and government

26:37

and women's reproductive rights. When you have a

26:39

table of nine men making decisions about

26:41

women's reproductive rights, that's just insane

26:43

to me, Like you don't have a uterus. I

26:45

think it's it's about that, Like we need innovation

26:49

to happen, it comes

26:51

from within our community.

26:53

And so that's why I focus so much

26:55

on women and stems because if women, if

26:57

if Latinos could become doctors and

27:00

they had a family member that

27:03

was you know, had sickle cell or

27:05

that had like something that's regionally an

27:07

ethnically a problem health

27:10

problem for our community, they would go and want to research

27:13

that. And so I think that that's

27:15

that's what we do need, more and more, more studies

27:17

that are specific and data

27:19

that that's specific to our communities. I

27:21

also think, you know, again looking

27:24

at the guest worker program in

27:27

immigration and looking at UM. You

27:29

know, there's so many I'm I'm I'm

27:31

a YouTube geek when I go, you

27:34

know, what is the electoral

27:36

college and I'll go look at that YouTube for dummy

27:38

video to see how does it say? So I did that

27:40

with UM. With the visas, I was like, what's

27:43

an h one visa? And

27:45

there's so many great professors that break

27:47

it down in a way that that goes. It's actually

27:49

simple, Matthew. We only give you

27:52

know, ten ten passes to the

27:54

party out and there's eight hundred

27:56

people wanting to get into the party. We

27:58

have a bottleneck problem. It's very like they break

28:00

it down in a way. And so I would like

28:02

some data as far as how

28:04

our visa systems work specifically

28:07

for the guest worker program and immigrant migrant

28:09

labor. That would be uh some metric

28:12

system that I think could be valuable.

28:14

Just like UM, forget his name, you probably

28:16

know his name. Biden just appointed him to Homeland

28:19

Security. Yes, the

28:21

Cuban, Yes, who

28:23

was the architect of DOCCA and how he

28:25

came up with DOCCA? And he is a you

28:27

know, a Cuban refugee and

28:30

he kind of he comes from

28:32

a community in which he understands empathy

28:35

and compassion, and we

28:37

have to solve a problem like that's important

28:40

that somebody that somebody in that position

28:43

understands it intricately, just

28:45

like why is Betty Betsy Devace,

28:47

you know, the Secretary of education,

28:50

Like you see where that's a problem. I

28:52

think there's a lot of metrics

28:55

and tracking and data that would be so valuable

28:57

as to how policies right. We just need

28:59

the formation because like I said, people go gand

29:02

the back of the line go home. All those

29:04

are those are ignorant statements because you're

29:06

not even talking about the problem.

29:09

So in order for that change to happen,

29:11

everybody needs to be engaged. And you have

29:13

been a leader in mobilizing

29:16

and engaging Latinos to vote, founding

29:18

Latino victory, connecting with voters,

29:20

especially in Texas, Florida, California, other

29:22

places with critical elections going on. You

29:25

know, we call this podcast the Deciding Decade because

29:27

I love thinking about what the ties will lead

29:29

to. So if you're looking ahead to or

29:32

even just two, what

29:35

do you think are the things that there needs to be more

29:37

of starting now in order to

29:40

build and engage and enduring

29:43

and activated Latino electorate.

29:46

Well, you know, like I said, we're

29:48

the fastest growing demographic in the United States.

29:51

A Latino turns eighteen every thirty

29:53

seconds. You know, this is the first

29:56

election that we've been the largest

29:58

minority voting block. UM.

30:00

But demography is not destiny, and

30:02

so we have never as

30:05

Latinos, we've never voted over eligible

30:08

voters. This election, over

30:10

two thirds of eligible voters voted

30:12

right. So we're

30:15

moving in the right direction. But let me tell you, we're not always

30:17

going to have a racist, misogynist bigot

30:19

on the ticket. You know, patriarchy

30:22

and white supremacy come in many forms, and

30:24

so I think we have to keep our eye

30:26

on the prize and stay engaged UM

30:29

and UM. You know, voter outreach and voter

30:32

education, it's it's it's UH

30:34

year round work. I think what what has

30:36

to happen is UM candidates

30:39

and and parties, you

30:41

know, can't just come two months before in election

30:44

and say your vote matters. You have to

30:46

come at us year round with outreached

30:48

our communities that say your lives matter,

30:50

Your lives matter to to us,

30:53

and how can we engage in these communities

30:55

all the time, not just during election years

30:58

and election cycles. Um,

31:00

of course this is this is something that cuts across politics,

31:03

entertainment, a lot of other fields. I mean, how do

31:05

you say representation has changed, especially

31:07

Latino representation on the screen just

31:09

in the years since you first arrived

31:11

in l A as a young person from Corpus

31:13

CHRISTI looking for your first gig. Yeah,

31:16

it uh ebbs and flows.

31:18

You know, there's like a the

31:20

hot term right now is diversity everywhere,

31:23

corporate America, Hollywood politics.

31:26

But what's happening I think here in Hollywood

31:28

is the way in which people consume content

31:31

has shifted. And because

31:33

of that, it's really given content creators the power.

31:36

You don't have to go through this archaic

31:39

system of studios and networks

31:41

and you could be a content creator on YouTube. You can

31:43

go do your own show on your iPhone. I mean,

31:45

technology is really disrupted the

31:47

way we do business here and because of

31:50

that, we've been able to tap into new talent

31:52

pools. And usually those new talent pools

31:54

are communities of color, lgbt

31:56

Q, indigenous communities.

31:59

I mean, every every anything, there's so much opportunity

32:02

that you don't have to go through

32:04

the gatekeepers anymore. And

32:06

I think that's a good thing. Um. Somebody

32:09

was asking me, you know, how do we educate

32:12

the gatekeepers of all these studios and networks here

32:14

in Hollywood to hire more women, to hire

32:16

more diverse people as screenwriters

32:19

and as producers and directors. And I was like, I

32:21

don't think we educate the gatekeepers. I think we changed

32:23

the gatekeepers very good.

32:25

Yeah, we're going to change them. There they got

32:27

to go. The

32:30

other thing is is we look to the future. I

32:32

would love to know what your greatest sources

32:35

of optimism are. I mean it kind of uh

32:37

a kind of sense, just the way you talk about your advocacy,

32:40

your activism, and your work. You are

32:42

very much alive to all of the problems and obstacles

32:44

out there, but you don't seem to focus

32:46

on them or let them, uh

32:49

diminish your optimism. So what gives

32:51

you hope? Yeah? Oh my gosh,

32:53

I'm I'm actually an optimist at heart. I

32:55

mean, I'm half class fool for everything.

32:58

Uh. But I think probably

33:00

the thing that this particular year

33:02

has given me so much hope. And Obama

33:05

had said it as well about

33:08

our youth, like when you see

33:10

the amount of young people

33:13

in the streets and protesting,

33:15

and whether it was you know, the Women's March,

33:17

or whether it was Black Lives Matter or UM,

33:20

whether it was you know, joy to the polls,

33:22

the amount of young people who were engaged,

33:25

and if you look at the past civil rights leaders

33:27

of our time, you know, Martin Muther King

33:30

was young, Representative John

33:32

Lewis was young. I mean they were they

33:34

were young. And so when you see

33:36

our youth civically

33:39

engaged, it's it's actually exciting

33:41

because you know that's going to be civically

33:43

engaged adults and hopefully that manifests

33:46

and change and progress. I'm

33:55

fascinated by Eva's family history, a

33:57

ninth generation Texas from a family

34:00

we who, as she says, didn't cross the

34:02

border, the border crossed them. She's

34:04

connected to America's story with roots that

34:06

go back to the very beginning, before the beginning,

34:08

even there's such a rich history here

34:11

and now she and so many in her

34:13

community are leading the charge on figuring

34:15

out how to make this country better in the future

34:17

for the fastest growing demographic group in the

34:20

nation, Latinos, from improving

34:22

our conditions for farm workers to changing our

34:24

food system to encouraging young Latinos

34:26

to pursue and thrive in STEM and other

34:29

educational opportunities. She reminds

34:31

us of a world of possibility for a vital

34:33

part of our national life and for our country as

34:35

a whole, and I'm glad Eva has decided

34:37

to take her voice beyond the predictable

34:40

spaces and drive action on these opportunities.

34:47

For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit

34:49

the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

34:52

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

35:00

Two