Fighting for Systematic Change
Story By: Virginia Isaad
Maria Echaveste has devoted her decades-long career to working for the people with a passion for serving the community. She’s worked as an attorney, public policy adviser, senior White House official and board of director for nonprofits. Her family moved from Mexico to California with her dad working as a bracero and it’s that humble beginning that led her to pursue careers with a mission. She recalls how her mother was the one who taught her father how to sign his name and that reading was her escape so she realized the power in education and dreamed of a life beyond what she’d always known.
“UNDERSTANDING THAT THE BOXES THAT PEOPLE PUT US IN, WE CANNOT LET THEM BE DEFINING FOR US, WE HAVE TO MAKE OUR OWN DEFINITION.”
MARIA GREW UP “In a traditional Mexican family [here] the expectation is you get married and you don’t need an education.” She’s the oldest of seven children which she attributes for teaching her to be responsible and get things done. “Soy muy mandona, I’m constantly telling people what to do and that started in my family. ”
She saw college as the only way out and though her dad was not supportive she ended up attending Stanford with a full scholarship which allowed her to not have to rely on her parents financially. He did, however, later commend her for what she did after she graduated law school at UC Berkeley and for also inspiring her siblings to go to college. Yet for her growing up, she shares there weren’t that many role models in the ‘60s of Latinos in high positions.
“I know I’m talented and smart but I also know that I was fortunate and I believe to the very core of my being that the accident of birth should not determine whether a child is able to achieve their potential.” Knowing there were children who grew up in similar situations to hers but ended up in jail or using drugs is what drives her to help her community.
Maria recalls being a corporate litigator from 1980 to 1992 as her most transformative job as it forced her to navigate spaces as the only woman of color. Maria learned how to navigate a mostly male, mostly white world and being successful. “Understanding that the boxes that people put us in, we cannot let them be defin- ing for us, we have to make our own definition.”
Maria ran the Latino desk while campaigning for Bill Clinton after the opportunity of meeting Hillary as a board member for the New World Foundation. During that time she worked part time at the law firm to make ends meet and eventually became a senior White House official for Clinton.
Today, Maria acts as CEO and President of Opportunity Institute, an organization that works to increase social and economic mobility and advance racial equity through partnership and collaboration with those seeking to promote systematic change. Some of her main focuses through the organization are math equity and whole child equity. On the side, Maria has been recently invited as a board member for Cadiz Inc., a natural resources company that established a water project to provide a new water source for Southern California. It has the potential to “address the increasingly - as we’ve seen - water shortage particularly to communities that suffer from inadequate water as we saw in the last drought.”
The Cadiz Water Project is working to create a new water supply for up to 400,000 people annually. The most intense period of drought occurred the week of July 29, 2014 where exceptional drought affected 58% of California land, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System.
“I feel a sense of duty to try to improve the lives of others because we are no different. We are ultimately, all human beings, deserving of dignity and respect and an equal opportunity to achieve our potential.”