Tag: Bell Gardens High School

Worth Gold: Feminism and Leadership at the Miss Bell Gardens Pageant

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Bell Gardens City Council members with the 2015 Miss Bell Gardens Court. Photo: City of Bell Gardens

“All the court members agreed it was a great experience. One princess, Vanessa Perez from UC Irvine said:

‘I’ve lived in this city all my life. I’m proud to be from here and to get more involved.’

Mayor Jennifer Rodriguez sums up that though the pageant and competition, “may seem like something small… it’s going to be a life-changing experience.”

Read the full story here: Worth Gold: Feminism and Leadership at the Miss Bell Gardens Pageant”

     Thank you to city staff members Angie Contreras, Ana Ramirez, and pageant director Sylvia Blush for working so hard to honor our young ladies this year.

 

royal court hand out - final photo

Latina Leadership in Bell Gardens, a new KCET essay

“In the parking lot of the Food-4-Less supermarket on the corner of Atlantic and Slauson, two high school students stood near the sliding door entrance registering people to vote. The young women wore jeans and T-shirts (Garcia was probably in a Grateful Dead shirt), their hair gathered loosely into ponytails. Their temples beaded with sweat, both because of the weather and from asking complete strangers to sign state-issued documents.

They spoke to people in Spanish because that’s what they grew up speaking to their parents and neighbors. One of those teenagers was a then-sixteen-year old Assemblymember Garcia, a junior at the time. The other student was me.”

Read the entire essay here about Asm. Garcia’s developing leadership and strategies to work with community to make change.