Jean Quan, the daughter of an illiterate Chinese immigrant became mayor of Oakland on January 3. She shared part of her personal history that day as an example of why she calls her hometown a “city of dreams.”
“I was able to go to great colleges and universities, I was able to go to UC on a scholarship. I was able to make and to complete that journey for my family and for other families–to go those eight blocks from a Family Association in Chinatown to City Hall.”
The ceremony in which Quan assumed the post to become the first female to preside over Oakland and the first Asian American to govern a U.S. city of more than 400,000 residents, was celebrated in Oakland’s Fox Theater. While she gave her speech, she was accompanied by her husband, the doctor Floyd Huen, and her two children, William and Lailan, both of who are educators and graduates from Princeton and Columbia.
“My family came here 104 years ago with nothing but the clothes on their back after San Francisco Chinatown burned down. They were given haven in the Family Association in Chinatown [of Oakland]. Some people thought the Chinese literally should go, and if you look at the earthquake transcripts, some city fathers thought they should get rid of Chinatown, too many of them had moved there. But Oakland did the right thing. Oakland Chinatown still stands there,” continued Quan.
Throughout her speech, the mayor emphasized the necessity of holding hope for improvements. “My dream, my story, is the story of Oakland,” she said.
Quan, 61 years-old, has had a distinguished career as an education advocate and defender of the rights of minorities – like UC Berkeley students who participated in protests calling for the creation of a Department of Ethnic Studies. Years later, she was elected to three consecutive terms as a member of the Oakland School Board, which she presided over and where she was highly respected for her particular attention to African American youth.
During a recent Oakland Tribune interview with Cecily Burt, Quan identified two of her heroes: Martin Luther King and César Chávez. Her support of the grape boycott led to her being threatened with expulsion from UC Berkeley. She identifies this experience as the moment that radicalized her forever.
Another dream
Three days later, on January 6, there was talk in San Francisco of another dream. A dream that was similar to that of Jean Quan but that was waiting to be realized.
On the staircase of Mission Dolores, activists from diverse organizations – San Francisco Organizing Project, Dolores Street Community Services, Bay Area Coalition for Immigration Reform, among others – gathered to support Melissa Lee and her two children, Elizabeth and Félix, who are facing deportation.
The intervention of Dolores Street Community Services lawyers resulted in the family gaining six more months in the U.S. – their deportation had been planned for January 19.
Melissa Lee, a woman in her forties, barely speaks English and her Spanish is limited; her first language is Chinese. She explained that she left China in 1990. She brought her young children to the U.S. one decade later. Elizabeth is now 18 years old and Felix is 16 years old. They requested asylum to stay in the country but it was denied.
Elizabeth and Felix Lee could have benefited from the DREAM Act. But, as is known, the Senate ing Republicans’ prejudiced argumentation and noting the cautious opposition of Democrats who feared losing political power. The legislation would have opened the door to residency for thousands of students and graduates who were born outside the U.S.
Elizabeth Lee graduated with honors from Lowell High School, one of the best schools in the country. The school’s strict selection criteria requires students to have high grades and also demonstrate a distinguished history of extracurricular activities.
Elizabeth was accepted into UC Berkeley to study sociology. Upon being apprehended by immigration police in May, she lost the opportunity to enroll in that school; she opted to attend San Francisco City College.
Felix also studies at Lowell. The principal of the high school, Andrew Ishibashi, attended the January 6 meeting in support of Lee. He praised the intelligence of both siblings. He recalled how much the application essay written by Félix impressed him. “That boy has an extraordinary talent; he can be a great doctor, or whatever he decides upon.”
Ishabishi called attention to a button that he wore on his lapel. It was an image of Martin Luther King Jr. “This man had a dream; it’s time that we accomplish it,” he said.