Los Angeles – John Noguez, mayor of the Los Angeles municipality of Huntington Park, attributes much of his success in life to his mother, who toiled as a domestic servant to make sure he got an education and a grounding in good values.
Born Juan Reynaldo Rodriguez Noguez at Hollywood’s Kaiser Hospital, this son of Mexican immigrants says he has always felt close to his homeland.
“Sometimes I have to go to Mexico” in order to feel at home, the mayor confesses.
He grew up in Boyle Heights, a diverse neighborhood east of downtown L.A., and attended Roosevelt High School, where the presence of 13 other students named Juan Rodriguez prompted him to start going by John.
“When my mom came to work in the United States she was a servant. She worked cleaning houses in Beverly Hills and she worked seven days a week because she had two children to support,” Noguez recounted in an interview with EFE.
John’s father, a gardener, divorced his wife and returned to Mexico, leaving her and the two youngsters in California.
“He never went to school,” John says of his dad. “But my mother was very progressive and she went to school, learned English and moved forward with her two children.”
The politico said that his desire to do well in school was due to the influence of his mother, as “she always reminded me how important it is to study.”
“Son, I don’t want you to have the youth I had, I want you to excel,” John says, quoting his mother. “And that’s the message she sent me from a very early age.”
Noguez studied real estate at California State University in Los Angeles and began putting that knowledge to work at the age of 19, when he became a student staffer at the Los Angeles Assessor’s Office, where he is now a state-certified appraiser in charge of valuations of historic buildings in the city’s downtown.
About six years ago, John says, people urged him to enter local politics.
“They told me: ‘Mr. Noguez, you as a representative of the assessor’s office provide a good example of what a Mexican or Latino in the United States can be’,” he recalls.
Noguez says that while he remained reluctant, “my family later convinced me and here I have a second job as mayor of Huntington Park”.
Becoming city clerk in September 2000, he won a seat on the town council in March 2003 – garnering the most votes of any candidate – and was elected vice mayor by his council colleagues.
A year later, he obtained the top job. Since then, he has dedicated much of his time to educating Huntington Park residents about the importance of historic preservation, along with working to improve public transportation, health care for the elderly and the range and quality of activities available to area youth.
Noguez says he’s very conscious of his obligations as a role model for young Latinos.
“Parents have to remember that determination (for their children to succeed) is important,” the mayor says.
“I tell all the parents and their kids: ‘please don’t stop studying’. They must study everyday to get ahead and contribute to improving our community,” Noguez said.
