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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2014)
4 street roots Jan 3, 2014 MADRIGAL, from page 1 parenting advice. At 35, Madrigal is the youngest person to become county chair. She’s also the first Latina. “If you look at political participation for the Latino community, to see someone in that position is an amazing legacy to leave,” says Daniel Ledezma, who chairs the board of directors for the Latino Network and recently took a position with the Governor’s office to focus on education and equity. Marissa Dominique Madrigal was bom in Los Angeles (L.A.) in 1978. At age 3, her father, a banker, was transferred, moving the family to Mexico City. Madrigal says the smells, sounds and language of the country are of her first memories. She didn’t know anyone when she moved there. Her family moved back to LA. before she started first grade. Madrigal says she didn’t feel completely 'Mexican, nor completely American, and emerged from the experience as a more resilient person. She had to make new friends in new places, which she says made her more open to different people early in life. She describes her childhood as “pretty great” She attended Catholic school. She took piano lessons, tennis and gymnastics. She has an older sister, and a younger brother, with whom she fought with like cats and dogs. They’re now close. When she was 14, her family moved to Ridgefield, Washington. As a child, Madrigal remembers her father bringing home The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She would become upset after reading in the papers . about bear poaching or some other wrong. After reading about a boy working in a shoe factory in Mexico, her father got in touch '^J^ngaTheipeTraise^monejr^rtheboy*"' “She was a very globally empathetic child, which I think was very unusual,” says her mother, Elizabeth Madrigal. “But not in a wimpy way. She was a crusader.” Elizabeth Madrigal describes her daughter as inquisitive and observant, and expected her to grow up to be a doctor or scientist. She recalls her daughter once saying to her, “That person is not a nice person. I don’t know why you’re friends with her.” Elizabeth Madrigal remembers thinking her daughter had a point. P H O T O B Y JA K E T H O M A S M arissa M adrigal talks with the director o f the Oregon Opportunity Network, John Miller, a t the a n n u a l Homelessness Day o f Awareness. her daughter in 2003.' “Just the fact that I was a mom made it more difficult for me to get respect from . people — an unwed mother, even though I was with the father,” she recalls. “Oh my gosh. People objected so strongly to it.” Her family was priced out of their neighborhoodinSoutheast Portland and her friend Elizabeth Madrigal if her daughter knew anyone. Elizabeth Madrigal suggested her daughter. After meeting for coffee, Morris, seeing that she was eager to learn and had good political instincts, hired Madrigal. Madrigal says she showed up for work at Morris’ basement and compensated for her lack of experience by simply doing what she was told. She did bookkeeping. She helped get a campaign float in a local parade. She got a "I think people describe her as a 'non-politician' because helium tank and blew up balloons. She went to house parties. She recruited volunteers. site's the p o litic ia n th a t we a ll w ant, Sfc> s f o la f to get stuff ' On election day, Morris narrowly kept her dene and net take credit for it." seat Morris says that politics can be an emotional roller coaster, but Madrigal was — FELISA HAGINS SERVIC E E M P L O Y E E S IN T E R N A T IO N A L U N IO N 4 9 steady throughout the campaign. “Marissa’s got a really good sense of equilibrium; she doesn’t go off the deep struggled financially. They ended up moving end,” says Morris. “I don’t know if it was my family or to a large apartment complex in Northeast Madrigal worked on two more campaigns upbringing, but I’ve always had a sense of- Portland that was home to many before she was referred to Jeff Cogen, who fair and unfair, a sense that people and immigrants. It had “giant, nasty was running for a seat on the Multnomah things and hying things need to be centipedes,” and the landlord began raising County Commission. With Cogen, she protected from bad things,” says Marissa the rent and evicting tenants. latched on to a rising star that would take Madrigal. Many tenants, says Madrigal, didn’t speak her to the top floor of the county’s offices. Worried that she wasn’t being challenged English, and she remembers hearing from The county level of government has a enough in high school, her family enrolled one of her neighbors about a Vietnamese sometimes unnoticed, yet important role, her in a program that allowed her to begin family that was put out on the street along providing services to some of the poorest college early. At age 16, she began attending with all their belongings. and most vulnerable people living in the Clark College in Vancouver. Around the same time,-Madrigal had area through its clinics, mental health Madrigal entered the University of another experience that put her on her services and other functions. As the region Washington at age 18 and graduated two current path: her first immersion in a '" still struggles with the aftermath of th e . years later in 1998 with a degree in zoology. political campaign. Working on a campaign Great Recession, it has its work cut out for After spending a year in Seattle, she moved helped her understand politics as a force it to Vancouver with no clear idea of where that could improve the condition of At times, it’s suffered from an image her life was headed. She worked at an office marginalized people. problem. Nearly a decade ago, the county job, partied on the weekends and published “I really began to feel that the people was mired in the “Mean Girls” era, a a quarterly magazine called the “Radioactive don’t have to put up with this,” she says. dysfunctional period that was marked by an Pickle” that included poetry and reviews of “We can do something about it We can vote ongoing and very public spat with hardworking bands that got little attention for better people. We can raise a ruckus.” commissioners and then-County Chau- in other periodicals. In 2004, Madrigal worked for Betty Sue ‘ Dianne Linn. “I was a fun person, but I guess it wasn’t Morrjs, a former Washington state legislator In 2006, Cogen was elected to a seat on a meaningful existence the way I feel like who was making a bid for one more term as the County Commission along with Ted my life is now,” she says. Clark County commissioner. Morris was Wheeler, who ousted Linn as chair. Their Madrigal says two events brought more looking for a campaign manager and asked election was seen as setting a new focus to her life. The first was the birth of tone and direction for the county. Four years later, Cogen was appointed county chair after Wheeler resigned to become state treasurer. Later that year, Cogen was elected in a landslide to a full term. Cogen used his time at the county to help open a one-stop center for survivors of domestic violence, a mental health crisis treatment center, secure funding for the county library, as well as other accomplishments. Affable and well-liked, Cogen enjoyed a harmonious relationship with the Multnomah County Commission and seemed destined for higher office until news broke last summer that he had an affair with a health policy adviser, forcing his resignation. Austin, the county’s spokesperson, says that the scandal was demoralizing for county employees who worried that their work was being overshadowed. “When that scandal gets mentioned, people see the county logo; they see us,” he says. Described by people close to her as smart, knowledgeable, collegial arid trustworthy, Madrigal helped restore calm and confidence to the county. Before taking over for her old boss, Madrigal had been a quiet, yet sterling, presence. “A lot of her accomplishments will go unsung because she’s that type of problem solver,” says Ledezma, who has worked with Madrigal on issues overlapping both the county and city governments. Felisa Hagins, political director at Service Employees International Union 49, says that Madrigal has been particularly attentive to the needs of immigrants and low-income workers. Hagins recalls telling Madrigal about a check-cashing scam that was ripping off immigrants. She recalls Madrigal reacting rapidly, reaching out to immigrant groups and the sheriff’s office to stop the scam. “I think people describe her as a ‘non- See MADRIGAL, page 5
