Having that Latino background
for you shaped your journey or
made the journey different more
meaningful on your path to becoming
helping Human Services secretary.
You know having. Lived only as a Latino
where I can simply tell you that I,
I can't say what it does for others.
But as an American, what it does is it
gives me a chance to really live out
this dream that my parents believed in
and put their faith in when they you
know put their roots here in Sacramento,
CA and I got to tell you, I'm I'm
thrilled that they decided to do that.
I'm thrilled that now I get to help
others live out that American dream.
And from my perspective it's been a great.
Opportunity to really live out
what a democracy gives you,
and that's the chance to pursue a
dream in ways that you never expected.
I'm I think I've got a better job
than Captain Kirk did in in Star Trek.
I get to go more places than he had.
You know where they say,
go to another place where no man
or woman has gone before.
Oh, I think I'm going to do that.
And now I want to talk about role models.
That that that's something that you
serve as now just being in that kind
of position that you're in now.
But my question for you is how
is the meaning of what it means
to be a Latino role model?
What does it mean to be a Latino role
model in the modern day compared to
how it was maybe when you were young?
Let's I'll tell you how I hope it's the same.
I hope like my role model is my mother
and my father that I work hard that I
I don't take for granted what I have.
My father used to say.
If I get up in the morning,
go to work, it's a good day.
I have many good days.
I hope that I can continue to
believe that I don't need a whole
lot to have have it be a good day.
That type of humility,
that type of work ethic II
hope never leaves me the things
that perhaps are different.
I get to see and do things that a guy
who didn't go past the 6th grade.
A woman who didn't come here till
she was 18 from Molokai, Leasco,
Mexico probably didn't see in their
in their horizon and so hopefully
because I get to see a little
bit farther down the horizon.
What I understand is that there are
a whole bunch of folks who would love
to be able to have the site that I do,
and there's no reason why my mother
and my father couldn't have had a
chance to go to college and use their.
Capabilities in even greater ways,
and so hopefully I can help others
get to do more but still remember to
have that ethic that humility that
makes you understand that you're
bringing people along to be successful.
I've talked I've spoken to so many first
generation students and a lot of them
tend to be Latino with very similar
backgrounds to what you and I tend to have.
My question for you is actually I was
reading your biography not too long ago
and I don't know if you recall this,
but there was a mention in there
about your application to Stanford
and how you ended up applying.
Can you kind of bring me up
to speed on that story?
Yeah, and but I first have to give
that admonition you always see.
Do not try this at home because this
is not the way to apply to college.
I essentially applied to one college when I
was growing up and I applied to that college,
UC Davis because I had gone to
a summer program when I was,
I think, a sophomore.
Where I was told, you know,
they saw some promising me and I got
to go to one of these summer camps
at Davis and they said yeah keep
up your grades and chances are you
can go to this university when you
when you graduate from high school.
So I applied to UC Davis fully
expect to get if I get if I can
get there I'll get there.
It just happened that a friend of mine
was about to discard an application.
I didn't know what it was.
I asked him what he was about to throw
away in the waste bin and I said oh
don't don't throw away give it to me.
I filled it out, sent it in.
It was to Stanford University.
I didn't know where Stanford
was two hours from Sacramento,
but I still didn't know what it was I got in.
Didn't know where it was until
the day I drove there.
Looked on the map with my
mother and I got in the car and.
My first day enrolling at Stanford,
I got to drive into the campus
of a great university.
And for the final question here,
I want to talk about in light of this
being such a big year for Latinos,
with Senator Padilla,
California's first Latino Senator yourself,
helping team with Services secretary,
even some other roles being filled
for the first time by Latinos,
Big Year for Latinos in 2021.
Given that it is his Hispanic heritage month,
what's your response to just?
Seeing Latinas in these
positions for the first time.
Let's celebrate, let's be proud.
But let's recognize that it's it is a
little disheartening that it's the first.
In a specially for a state
where there are so many of us,
but it's the first and that's the beginning
that the door has been cracked open,
somebody is going to try to hold it
there so others have an opportunity.
It's as I said,
I I'm getting to see things that my
parents never got to see over that horizon.
Senator Alex by the is getting a show.
People that Crest over the horizon and
hopefully others will follow because
reality is at the end of the day,
whether you call me Latino.
Whether you call me American.
At the end of the day,
I'm no different from most other people.
I have the same kind of dreams that other
people have and what we show people is.
Don't be afraid that that's the
first Latino to be U S senator or
secretary of Health and Human Services.
He still cares about your health.
He still wants your family,
even if they're not like you to have
the best possible at the end of the day,
we all have those dreams and the only
thing I would impart on anyone is that as
Secretary of Health and Human Services,
the one thing I do want to leave.
With folks that maybe others haven't.
Is this concept I you know?
I keep saying it gotten us, you,
Eric, you may know what that means.
Gaas. Look it up in Spanish.
You're not going to get the
full flavor of it.
To me, it's gut grits and game put together,
and hopefully that's one thing I bring.
Whether it's as Secretary of
Health and Human Services,
or as the California Attorney General
in the past or as a member of Congress
before I hope what I can say is that
one thing I leave is what had been said.
I learn from his parents,
and that's gotten us.
In any last comments for you.
We celebrate, enjoy and understand what
it means to celebrate Hispanic Heritage
month in a country that lets us all
celebrate because it does give us a chance
to dream and look over the horizon.