Capitol Alert

Legacy of respect

Trailblazing Latina activist and lawmaker Nell Soto going strong at 80

6/18/2006

State Sen. Nell Soto, who celebrates her 80th birthday today, was campaigning for Latino politicians in California before there were any.

As a young activist in the late 1940s, she walked precincts for Edward Roybal when he became the first Latino elected in a century to the Los Angeles City Council.

In 1962, her husband, Phil, and John Moreno became the first Latinos in modern times elected to the Legislature when they won seats in the Assembly.

On his deathbed in 1997, Phil Soto told his wife -- whose personal political ambitions were once stymied by her gender -- that it was her turn to move up. Nell Soto honored his memory by winning a seat in the Assembly in 1998.

Eight years later, the Democrat from Pomona -- where she served 12 years on the City Council -- is being pushed out of the Senate by term limits.

But the great-grandmother -- and walking history exhibit -- is not fading into retirement. Having served only one two-year term in the Assembly, she is likely headed back after notching a primary victory earlier this month in a predominantly Democratic district.

Soto was around when the Legislature was part time and members made $3,600 a year. It's now a year-round job and the pay is $110,880 -- plus tax-free per diem.

She not only socialized with Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, the architect of the modern Legislature, she had the temerity to upbraid him for redistricting her husband out of his seat.

"I'm going to work against you every chance I get," she recalls warning Unruh, waving her finger with the same vehemence the legendary "Big Daddy" browbeat underlings.

When she met the current speaker, Fabian Nunez, he was a teenage college student with "torn jeans," protesting outside Pomona City Hall for immigrant rights.

"She's been around forever," said Nunez, who at 39 is younger than any of Soto's five sons (a sixth died a couple of years ago). "People love and respect her. She's an astute political person, but also very caring."

A pol before ever-cautious consultants did personality makeovers on their clients, Soto is refreshingly direct.

"We all know what the problem is," she snapped at Phil Angelides, while the state treasurer was delivering a long-winded presentation at a Democratic Latino Caucus retreat a few years back. "What are we going to do about it?"

Soto's youngest son, Tom, said his mother is carrying on the Soto legacy. He adds that she has a driving need to "not just be relevant, but effective."

"In our family, we didn't get two-week vacations in Florida or the Rockies," Tom Soto said. "We went to Delano for farmworker protests, organized marches against the Vietnam War, or walked precincts for my parents' friends."

Children of the Depression, Phil and Nell Soto met while working in a factory making crates. Together, they were at the forefront of nearly every stage in the Latino political movement.

She spearheaded the first California Democratic Club in the San Gabriel Valley.

Her husband, a World War II Army Air Corps bombardier, organized the California chapter of the American GI Forum. The campaign for equal treatment of Latino veterans inspired a generation of activists.

In today's Legislature, where Latinos make up a fourth of the membership, those political struggles are a fading memory. When her husband was elected, there was only one woman in the Legislature -- Pauline Davis, a Democrat from Plumas County.

"Do the young (members) ever ask me what it was like in those days? No," the grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of three said without bitterness. "I'm here and a vote. That's what matters."

In the Legislature, Soto has served on committees dealing with economic development, transportation, the environment and public pensions.

Pro-labor, Soto was subjected to ridicule in the Assembly for her legislation that required all California service stations to provide free air and water to customers who buy gasoline.

But she also fancies herself as pro-business and notes she ran three businesses with her husband, including a television repair shop, and a restaurant with her son. One of the first bills she introduced in the Legislature requires the South Coast Air Quality Management District to let small businesses have more input in its decisions.

Voters have responded to her folksy manner and political philosophy.

"The Assembly seat she won in 1998 was held by Republicans for 20 years," said Leo Briones, who was her consultant in that campaign. "We ran a moderate-to-liberal and very good Democrat in that race, and she won."

Soto appreciates the importance of education. In the 1970s, she ran a government-funded program in East Los Angeles that trained young women to work in offices.

She also knows how lobbyists wield influence. For 10 years, she was a government affairs liaison for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, trading in on her many contacts in the Capitol.

Assuming she beats her underfunded Republican opponent, Benjamin Lopez, in the November general election, Soto will receive a warm welcome in the Assembly.

"She's coming at a time when she's not only a friend, but a family member in the speaker's office," Nunez said, unabashedly adding, "I love her, man."

As she moves her not-so-nimble knees each week to catch flights back and forth from Southern California to Sacramento, Soto wonders, "Why I'm still here, and Phil isn't?"

"He's been gone eight years now, and I still miss him like it was yesterday," said Soto, who was diagnosed with diabetes 10 years ago. "It was me who pushed him into politics. My mom used to tell me, 'How come you don't leave him alone? He doesn't like being a politician.' I kept telling my mother, 'They're not electing women nowadays.' "

Soto's son, Tom, makes this observation: "She lived a very political life, vicariously, through my father in those early years because it was rare to get a female Mexican elected to anything. Now, it's her turn and she's been keeping my father's agenda full and progressive."