In what will be the first progressive appointment of his administration, President-elect Barack Obama invited Southern California Congresswoman, Hilda Solis, to join his cabinet as the Secretary of Labor. This is especially welcome news to labor and immigrant rights groups who have constituted Solis’ primary base in her rise to national prominence. The daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrant laborers, Solis brings the most solid progressive credentials of any member of the Obama cabinet-including Obama himself. She has won abundant praise and wide support because of her positions on labor rights, immigration issues, environmental protection and women’s rights, to name a few. Her appointment reflects the growing power and influence of the labor and immigrant struggles of Southern California and across the country as her trajectory, like that of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, took rapid upward turn thanks to the political energy and power unleashed after the struggles against Proposition 187 in California. For those looking for hope in the great labor and immigration struggles we’re still engaged in, look no further at what your work has wrought: Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor.
(Full disclosure: I know and have worked on a number of issues with Hilda since we fought Proposition 187 in California in the early 90’s and have, since then, found her to be nothing, if not a smart and capable fighter and an upright person. In addition to celebrating Hilda’s political capabilities, I am also likely being moved by the fact that I’ve never seen someone whose extraction so closely resembled my own (Central American immigrant unionist household) enter the Star Chamber of global power, except maybe to clean it. May she enlighten it with the warmth and brilliance of Southern California and the Américas. In sum, I can say without reservation, that this really is one to celebrate as I am about to go do as soon as the this period in my sentence drops….
Of América 
December 19, 2008 at 5:26 pm
This is excellent news, and your endorsement is frosting on the cake!
December 20, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hate to lose Hilda Solis as the great and tough representative she has been for the East Los Angeles area, Solis as Secretary of Labor is just what the country needs and at just the right time in our history. She is already giving the right wing Robber Barons the big chill.
BTW, Hilda Solis’ congressional seat will probably be sought (according to the chisme) by another tough fighter for democracy and human rights , Calif. State Senator Gloria Romero.
Go Hilda!
January 3, 2009 at 4:19 pm
It is truly disgusting that Obama would hire a woman, herself the daughter of illegals to preside over as important an issue as immigration. She clearly has Mexicans’ best interest in mind over American citizens’. And so does the idiots that posted the above replies.
Illegal Mexicans are sucking the financial life out of this country, and we are under no moral obligation grant them amnesty. Most of the country is against any form of amnesty.
And who is this clown referring to “right wing robber barons”? What a moron.
I understand that most Mexican’s are a profoundly pathetic group who are totally unable to adjust to modernity and create a society without rampant corruption, however American’s cannot sit idly by and let Mexican nationals take this country down along with their own.
Joe S.