The daughter and granddaughter of leading farm labor advocates, Alegria De La Cruz is taking on the next role in her family's long campaign for social justice.
Alegria De La Cruz and her family were walking home from a Santa Rosa park when they saw the Black Lives Matter demonstrators coming up Sonoma Avenue.
It was a balmy Saturday evening in June 2020. De La Cruz, the daughter and granddaughter of labor activists, felt right at home among the marchers. But her 13-year-old son, Ome, was less at ease. Picking up on tension between the police and protesters, he turned to his mother. “We gotta go,” he said. “This isn’t going to be safe.”
There were families and children among the protesters. “Do they look dangerous?” she asked him. They did not, Ome answered.
She told him about the strikes and protests her parents and grandparents had been a part of. “Imagine that’s your grandma,” she told her son, motioning to a couple. “That’s your grandpa. That little girl in the Snugli — that’s me.
The daughter and granddaughter of leading farm labor advocates, Santa Rosa attorney and school board trustee Alegria De La Cruz is taking on the next role in her family’s long campaign for social justice: righting racial disparities within county government. As the head of its new Office of Equity, she is determined to drive meaningful change. But from within the halls of power, where does that work begin?
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