By: Andrea Méndez y Carlos Casillas
With Latino roots, Alexandria Contreras, 26 years old, was born and raised here in Downey. Her mother is from Mexico and her father was born here with Latino ancestors as well. Growing up, she went through the Downey school system and graduated as a distinguished graduate with honors from Warren High School.
Contreras then attended California State University, Long Beach where she received a Bachelor’s in Political Science with an emphasis on Law, Politics, and Policy and a minor in American History.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, Alex Contreras had planned to go and pursue her master’s degree in urban planning and sustainability. While she had planned on attending Law school, she found herself with a job opportunity fundraising for nonprofits in Boston, Massachusetts.
Then she went to Albuquerque, New Mexico working as an assistant volunteer coordinator for a homeless shelter, “Joy Junction”. She then gets a job with NextGen America where she engaged with young people to teach them the power of their vote and why it was important for them to be voting.
She said; “As Latinx people, we are a constantly growing group of people and we must be aware of what’s going on and get involved civically.” After a few years, she made her journey back home saying that, “I had learned so many amazing things and I wanted to bring it back and apply it to my community.”
Contreras made the huge decision to run for the City Council because of the connections she had made with several people. She heard their stories of how they worked hard but suddenly would get the rent raised and would be unable to pay these overwhelming prices. This became the foundation for Contreras’ drive to make a difference in her community.
Campaign project
Alexandria Contreras decided to be a candidate for the City Council for District one, where Blanca Pacheco, -current Mayor,- is her opponent.
“I knew running a campaign would cost money,” says Alex. “We had originally planned on announcing the campaign earlier but with the Murder of George Floyd and with all the protests and what was happening to all of our black brothers and sisters it felt wrong to be asking people to get involved in my campaign and ask for donations when the money should be going to a cause that is bigger than me and my campaign.”
Contreras wish that until after July 1st, people donate the money to organizations, bailout funds, and Black Trans funds so they can help make a difference. However, she is accepting volunteers to help with her campaign to get it running. Apart from herself, her team consists of her friends and volunteers that have helped her grow.
Within the city, Contreras has found no political mentor, she says. Through her time with NextGen, Alex says she grew accustomed to running statewide campaigns. Outside of her city, she has been able to connect to people within Los Angeles County to learn about their experience running a campaign.
She specifically mentions candidates from Whittier and Culver City helping her the most with their experience and wisdom.
Scandalous increase
Amidst the topic of the council passing the 2.3 million dollar budget to Police spending, Contreras mentions that she had called by phone into that city council meeting when the decision was made.
Alex Contreras states; “with the COVID crisis going on, the budget is a moral document. The budget is what city leadership decides is valuable and what the care about. I was disappointed with their decision to increase the police budget.” Contreras believes that the new police budget should have been used to better the education system and the community as those are deemed more important than the police.
She also states that it could have been used to help community members pay off their rent and mortgage these past three months because “just because we are reopening doesn’t mean people have their 3 months of rent or mortgage to suddenly come up with and pay. If we do not prioritize this we are going to lose people and that is not going to be good for our city.”
Pedestrian and cyclist
For those that are unaware, Alex Contreras has spent most of her life being an advocate for walking and cycling. According to Contreras, this all started because of the community she grew up in. In her area, (North Downey) there are no sidewalks. If anyone wanted to go for a walk or ride their bicycles, Contreras says they would have to walk in the middle of the road. However, this case is also very common in South Downey.
Contreras plans to fix up these areas and making it safer for the community to go outside without worrying about their safety. Contreras believes that these are the changes that should have been implemented into the general plan rather than focusing so much on the police.
“Imagine if we had a community urban system for everyone,” says Contreras, “They can all safely get to school, the mall, and all these places without worrying about their safety. This is something the city council needs to do and when I am elected into the council that is something I want to push for because I grew up like that. It isn’t fair for the future generations to grow up like that and we need to change that.”
Disappointed by Pacheco
When on the topic of Downey’s current mayor, Blanca Pacheco, Contreras comments that, “just because someone is skin folk does not mean they’re kinfolk.” Contreras says that when she had learned that Pacheco was running, -the previous time-, she as well had been filled with hope that a Hispanic woman from the Democratic Party was running for a council that was mainly republican.
However, “just like the rest of my community”, she says, Alex is disappointed with Pacheco conforming to the council’s traditional ways and did nothing for her community.
When asked how she would confront this challenge if elected into the City Council, Alexandria Contreras says, “If people know what I have done in the past and what I have advocated for they’d see that I have 6+ years of experience advocating for the progressive right thing to do for the people”.
“When I get in there [the council], even though I don’t know what the rest of the council is going to look like, I am planning on making sure my voice is not just my voice but our [the people] voice. This is something that has been crucial in my campaign since the beginning.”
Citizen’s voice
About the marches in Downey, Contreras was also asked to touch upon why she believes the people in Downey aren’t as involved in these events as citizens in other places: “I think one of the reasons why is because there is a culture here of disconnection. The Downey community is disconnected from what’s happening because they believe that since it [the protests] are happening in Los Angeles that it isn’t a Downey issue when yes it is.”
Contreras reports that she was at both of the Black Lives Matter marches in Downey and while there was a good turnout, there were more people supporting as they drove by. The lack of communication within the city is what Alex mainly believes to be the reason for a low turnout.
“People are disconnected to their community and think nothing is happening when in fact a lot is going on, just under the surface,” says Contreras. “Like the Queer collective here in Downey. I don’t think a lot of people have heard about it because it’s a very much non-traditional way of organizing and getting people together.”
She believes that this reflects how the community engages in civil politics and how they refused to form connections with their city council, allowing themselves to be misrepresented.
Alex Contreras states that she would emphasize more on the fact that Downey did have these events and groups because although it isn’t a city you’d expect it to be happening in, it does happen and people do come out to support these events.
In regards to the Black Lives Matter march, Contreras says, “People came out and celebrated and mourned and people were there together in community. To me that is the most amazing thing because it shows that people do care and want to get involved.”
Alexandria Contreras says that this [the protests] is not the last thing that will be happening, and that people should expect to see more events with more young people getting involved to make a difference in their community.
Alex’s campaign proposal is divided into four guiding axes: Community Engagement, Urban Safety, Housing and Environment.
The next Contreras events will be; Happy City Caravan on 4th of July and Coffee with your Candidate on July 11.
For more information, her social media are; Alexfordowney on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. alexfordowney.com her website.
Good luck Ms. Contreras!