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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