19 Facts About Gloria Molina

Jesus Gloria Molina was an American politician who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council, the California State Assembly, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Gloria Molina had a long unbeaten streak in electoral politics, becoming the first Latina elected to the Los Angeles City Council and to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and served on the Board for 23 years.

Gloria Molina was considered a trailblazer and helped revitalize Los Angeles's Grand Park and supported the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes project, and has been said to have paved the way for future female and Latina politicians.

Gloria Molina grew up as one of ten children in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera, attending El Rancho High School before going to East Los Angeles College and California State University, Los Angeles.

Gloria Molina stated to the Los Angeles Times that she had seen that men had "kept dismissing the contributions of her and other women", which was why she ran for office in 1982.

Gloria Molina had approached the two about running in the district, but was told that she could not since Polanco was running.

Gloria Molina ran anyway, and defeated Polcano to become the first Latina woman to be elected in the California State Legislature.

Now in a largely Latino district, Gloria Molina announced her candidacy for the special election.

Gloria Molina was mainly challenged by Larry Gonzalez, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Gloria Molina was succeeded in the State Assembly by Lucille Roybal-Allard.

That year, Molina announced that she would be running for the seat, being challenged by US Representative Matthew G Martinez and Art Torres.

When Gloria Molina retired from her supervisor position in 2014 because of term limits, she stated that one of her biggest regrets was that she was not able to do more to improve the high school graduation rates amongst fostered youth.

In 2014, facing a term limit on the Board of Supervisors, Gloria Molina announced that she was challenging 14th district incumbent Jose Huizar for his seat on the City Council.

Gloria Molina had stated that she had considered retirement before being asked to run from various people, and criticized Huizar for not heeding his constituents.

In June 2010, Gloria Molina voted yes with two other Los Angeles County supervisors to boycott Arizona because of SB 1070.

Gloria Molina was married to Ron Martinez, a businessman, with the two having a daughter, Valentina Martinez.

Gloria Molina lived in the Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno.

In March 2023, Gloria Molina announced that she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer three years prior, and that she had been battling it with treatments but it had become very aggressive.

Gloria Molina died on May 14,2023, seventeen days before her 75th birthday.