Episode 6 - Lesly Munoz - Oregon State Representative, House District 22

Lesly Munoz is the State Representative for House District 22, representing Woodburn, Gervais, Brooks, and North Salem in Marion County. She won her seat by 161 votes in November 2024, the single margin that gave Oregon Democrats the super majority in the House. One woman. One neighborhood. Everything changed.

She grew up in LA County where she learned what it meant to work your hands to the bone and still not have enough. Her father landscaped for people who wouldn't pay him. Her mother cleaned houses and worked at the library. She grew up poor and bilingual and she learned early on that the system wasn't designed to protect people like her family.

She was studying to be a teacher when someone came into her social justice class talking about unions. About contracts. About workers having a say over their wages and their lives. She saw it as a dream. She applied for an internship and never looked back. For fourteen years she fought for workers. Then she fell in love with an undocumented man and learned the immigration system from the inside out. That's what made her a fighter in her bones.

Now her district is the epicenter of ICE enforcement in Oregon. And she passed the Protect Your Door Act during the recent short session, allowing Oregonians to sue federal agents for Fourth Amendment violations. Listen to what one woman can do. Listen to what she's building.

Guest: Lesly Munoz, Oregon State Representative, House District 22

Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:09

From the toast to the bathroom. We've been talking about the table line. Big tooth taking up all the time. While the red cloud and the kids that clap. The kitchen table feels like town hall. We don't fit in that shopping ball. So we built this show and we said it all set up.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome to another episode of Oregon Voices. I am Eric McGuire.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

I'm Catherine Watkins.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Today we are joined by Leslie Munoz, the state representative for House District 22, representing Woodburne, Jervis, Brooks, and North Salem in Marion County. She's a labor organizer, a daughter of immigrants, and a mother of four, and she won her seat by 161 votes in November 2024, the single margin that gave Oregon Democrats a supermajority in the House and the power to pass tax legislation without Republican support. She won that seat for a party that now has the power to act. Her district has since become the epicenter of ICE enforcement in Oregon, and she passed the Protect Your Door Act during the recent short session, which allows Oregonians to sue federal agents for Fourth Amendment violations. And in full disclosure, Leslie and I were married last November. Representative Munoz, welcome to Oregon Voices.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Thank you. Let's start at the beginning. Your parents came to the United States from a small town in Mexico. Your father landscaped and labored. Your mother cleaned houses, worked in public schools, public schools, worked at the library, and you grew up watching them work for everything. And then you spent 14 years as a labor representative and organized between OSEA, AFSCME, and most recently OEA. Tell us more about who you are, where you actually come from, and what made you the kind of person who does this work.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Yeah, so um I grew up in LA County. And so LA County, I read a statistic, is the least diverse county in the United States because we are 99% Mexican American. And so I grew up in Little Mexico. But when I was about four years old, um I entered Head Start program, and that's where I discovered a whole new world. I discovered a new language, I discovered new food, I traded Taquito for pizza, and I loved it. Um they did give me carrots with ranch, not my favorite, uh, but I discovered new music. I discovered uh a different way of being, and that's why where I found out that I have a um superpower, which is being bicultural and bilingual. Um, and I have adopted a shopping cart mentality where I get to pick the things that I like from each of the cultures and I put them in my shopping cart and I leave what I don't like on the shelf. And so it's it's been, you know, really great growing up bicultural. Um I also saw a lot of struggle. Um, and so I am really proud to bring my experience of poverty, of language barrier, of wage theft, and all that happened in my life to the state capitol to inform people about what that looks like um in real time when we're talking about policy and legislation.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

Yeah, I just I'm just enamored of you. Um, you're just such a fighter. Um, you were originally my fighter um when I was having struggles with the Beaverton School District. Um, and so you were my Unisurve through OEA. And um, you know, just this fighting spirit that you have um has just always captivated me. And um thinking of the little Leslie Munoz, you know, um the other night um at your sister's um launch party at Myrna's um launch party because she's running for um State Senate, um, you were talking about um, you know, when you guys were children and um she would be running for treasurer and other different um positions, and um you were you know watching her. And so how did you get to become this fighter? Like how were you as a child? Were you, you know, watching and defending, or is this something that you grew into, or is this just always who you've been?

SPEAKER_03 4:26

I actually had to grow into it. So having Mirna as an older sister um was just really impressive. And I really didn't have to do much to advocate for myself because I had Mirna Munoz leading the way. And Mirna has always been top 10 of her class. She was uh this ASB treasurer. Um, she learned how to navigate the university system on her own. She got herself to Berkeley and was just, she's always been a badass that way. And so when Myrna left, I had to fill in the void. I found out how hard it was to be family interpreter, family liaison, family guide. Um, she led a community tutoring kind of center at her house, and all the kids that needed help with homework would come and access Myrna. And I had to fake it to make it. And so I started, you know, uh remembering what Myrna would do in our household, and I took on that position. But what what really got me to be a social justice warrior was um I fell in love with a man who was undocumented and he was deported. And walking through that journey with him of becoming documented, spending so much money, investing time, energy, learning about immigration, law was such a difficult um thing to do. Uh, that it's probably the most difficult process that I've ever encountered. And that's what gave me my orientation as a fighter, that I had to do it because I was in love. And that was powerful.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

You know, love really does put you on a path. I mean, it's amazing the things that you start learning once you fall in love and you start learning their world and they learn your world. And look at you two now. Yes. So, um, what what were you originally thinking about going into college? Like, what was your idea for your career trajectory?

SPEAKER_03 6:18

The first time that I heard about college was for my sister. Um, I actually wanted to have some babies and get married, and my mom used to tell us that getting a degree was comparable to having a baby. I often ask her about that now, and she has changed her tune. But uh, I didn't aspire um to have a professional or university degree or career. Um, I just wanted to be a mom like my mom. Uh, I thought she did such a magnificent job with us, and I wanted to be there as a support system. Um, but my mom said that I couldn't get married, and my dad, I couldn't get married until I gave them a university degree. And that's why I started going to community college because I wanted to get married and get on with my life. And so then I learned a lot of things at university that I had never considered, never thought about. And um, it made me change, you know, who I was.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

So yeah, and I just want to give a shout out to Mama Munoz. Yes, that woman. And hello, Papa Munoz, as well. Um, but you know, I I love the mamas, and um, she's just an amazing woman who just created amazing human beings. And so I just gotta say, hey, Mama Munoz. She's wonderful. Yeah, she really is.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

She's a caretaker. That's what I wanted to be. And funny enough, as a state representative, I get to be a caretaker. Right. Yeah. That's lovely.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

Yeah, because you are definitely the people's people. Like, it's just amazing. Um, and so how did you get um up to here in Oregon?

SPEAKER_03 7:46

So um, I divorced this person that I fell in love with and got documented. I learned all about the process of documentation, and as you probably can imagine, it comes with a lot of heartache.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Um, and so we had really different views. Uh, he was Mexican uh through and through, and with that came a lot of machoism, and uh I would just giggle about it, and so it didn't work out. And so um when we divorced, he wasn't doing well. He followed me around with a gun, and I decided it was time to leave LA County, and I um ended up in Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Well, we are so lucky that we got you. Yes, yes, and Eric doesn't have a gun, so that's straight.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

I'll I'll change that for a think he should.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

I have a follow-up question to that. Um, I was wondering if you could just give us a quick um guide to how you got involved with the union movement, like how you kind of got yourself into that training and and then step by kind of step by step to where you are now. But you don't have to go through all the steps, but just like in general, for someone who's thinking about wanting to do this work, what what would they need to do?

SPEAKER_03 8:55

Sure. So um I was in school to become a teacher. Um, both of my sisters are educators, um, not anymore. They're they've gone on to other things. But my mom used to tell us that the best job for a woman would be to be a teacher because they would enter school with their children and leave school at the same time and have the same periods off. And so we all aspired to be teachers, not only because of the summer schedule and because of the alignment with children, but also because we believe in education and we believe that education changed the trajectory of our lives for my sisters and I, it was a vehicle out of poverty. Yes. And so um I I also know that I was so inspired by my teachers who believed in me that I wanted to be that person for the next student. And so I was at PSU um studying um to be an educator, and I was about to enter my educate, my master's in education program when the national AFL CIO came into one of my social justice courses talking about unions. And I was just enamored by the idea of having an organization that uh bargained contracts that made these rules for workers legally binding. And to know that, you know, people could have a say over their wages and their benefits and their working conditions just seemed like a dream to me because my father, as a landscaper, a lot of the times he would complete work, and no matter how beautiful or good of a job he did, they just wouldn't pay him and there was no recourse. And so to know that there were these contracts that could be, you know, bargained and that gave people rights was just uh earth-shattering to me. And I thought about what a wonderful idea. So I applied to an internship. I was selected from Oregon. They selected five students from PSU and then five students from Arizona, uh, New York. The 10 students from California were DACA recipients. And then there were people from Alabama and Washington, D.C. And they took us to Washington for a week, gave us intensive training and the art of organizing, and then sent us back to our respective um states to do the work of organizing. Oh, wow. Um, yes. And so I was um assigned to the Oregon School Employees Association and I worked with them for the summer, and then they hired me on when that ended, and I never went back to education.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

You know, and I I think this would be a really good moment to talk about the power of unions because I think I was really naive thinking a lot more people were in unions than they were. And when I got with my partner through um 13 years ago, um he would say a lot of bad things about unions. And I was like, what are you talking about? Um, you know, I need the union. I I get through, I get a lot of issues, especially being a teacher of color, um, you know, just the attacks that would be happening if I didn't have representation, I would just be out there all by myself. And um, you know, he would say these talking points that just didn't seem correct. And then I was like, well, what are you doing with your union? And he goes, I don't have a union. And I'm like, You're a mechanic. How do you not have a union? That seems really strange to me. And the way that mechanics are so taken advantage of, I mean, I know that there is a side that people think of mechanics in a bad way. And there are some bad mechanics as those bad teachers, there's bad everything, you know, in some spectrum. But um, they are taken advantage by the the owners of these shops and they're working, and it's like you're really an overseer kind of situation. And so I'm like, wouldn't you like to have the protections of the amount of hours that you clock in, um, the amount of money that you bring in when you're making the shop this much money? Like all of these things that could be negotiated for you, rather than all the time you worrying about your injuries, the tools that you have to buy, all of these things that unions protect workers from. And then so he was still a little uh, but then as he started seeing my experiences, he would start thinking about and saying, I wish I had union. I wish I had these protections. And so, is there anything that you want to say about, you know, the lack of union or how people are still fighting to keep union representation in Oregon?

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Sure. I know that union density has gone down immensely from the 60s and 70s. And if we think back about, like, I really I'm really interested about when people say, like, let's make America great again, like what they mean and what time period they would they would go to. And sometimes when I ask people direct questions because I'm trying to understand, they would go back to the time when union density was at its highest. And I believe it was like 60 something percent back in the 60s and 70s when the labor movement erupted. And so strong jobs and strong protections for everyone, I think is where we need to be. However, there is a lot of money pushing um to make sure that unions dissolve because unions are the only vehicle that the working families have to make gains.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

And we are in the way, unions are in the way of the rich getting richer. And so I believe in the labor movement. I know that, as you said, um there's bad actors all over the place because we're all humans and we're imperfect and we make mistakes. But anytime I'm given the choice between taking a job where I have a union and a job where I don't, I'm gonna pick the union. One of the things that I, you know, that I uh know is that I I was asked at one point to become a director of one of the unions that I worked at. And I said, no, they don't have a union. When you become an administrator, you lose all of your rights and all of the benefits that we've worked for. Why would I do that to myself? I like myself too much. And so I would never take a job without a union because I've seen what the union can do for people. I believe in unions 100%. And although they're not perfect, and depending on the leadership that you have, things can be really good and things can be really bad. I would pick the union job over the non-union job every day of the week. Same here.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah. Um, there's another thing that's interesting about the 1950s, which is that's the highest marginal tax rate that we've known. And so there's a reason why things went well in the 50s because we taxed people that made a lot of money more than we do now.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Yeah. I mean, like fiscally, uh, let's make it great again. But like we ain't going back to that gender stuff and the race stuff and all that other stuff. But if we want to go back to how it was union strong, it was taxing the rich, um, we can be there yesterday. I would love that.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

That's why um Oregon has such a uh huge revenue problem. Yes. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

So the um context for which you and I met was me running for school board, which I've mentioned on the podcast a couple of times so far, and the um exit from the Beaverton School District because you can't run in your own school district. And the occasion came up where um I had over the last few years before that um told myself that I wanted to put myself in positions in which someone who looked like me and had my status in society um needed to step in. And so I decided to run it for school board against a woman of color who was the chair of the school board. Many people thought I was crazy. Um you were not one of them. And so uh your endorsement of me uh meant a great deal to me because it said that I was a legitimate candidate um to do what I was doing. And so uh the purpose behind that was to unveil, I guess, for for Beaverton, um, the fact that, you know, as a as a teacher in Beaverton for 30 years, having seen essentially an all-white school board slash superintendent most of that time, that I was very excited in 2021 that we had elected a school board that didn't any longer look like um the ones we had had before. And my hope was that we'd had we would have lived experiences that would have shown us a different direction in Beaverton that we could go. And then on top of that, hiring our first person of color as a superintendent, I thought, okay, this is really interesting. And within weeks, the first order comes to us that we can no longer speak to our board members or they can no longer come to our schools and talk to us. Um, there were all these rules that were being placed there. So um my experience was that having all of these folks that had different lived experiences really made no difference if they were going to keep power for themselves. That power doesn't really have a color. Um you can get a hold of power and do bad things if rather you're whether you look like me or your person of color. So maybe talking a little bit about not just that experience, but also in general, you've spent the last two years um in a in a position in which you've had to also navigate that.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

So one of the things that I loved um about the work that I did the most is when I joined OEA, we started um this committee to review our contracts through an equity lens. Um and I was really excited to make sure that our contracts, instead of being subjective, were objective. Because when you have wording in contracts such as using the word may, that means that that particular rule can be applied differently at the administrator's will. And so when I think about representation and I think about people occupying positions of power, um, the purpose that I see in that is to make sure that we bring our experience to the table. And when we're working within a system, and the system is making us do things that we know are harmful to people that look like us, and there's intersectionalities. So not only me as a woman, but me as a person of color. When I see that there's rules that are being applied differently to people that I love, and I love all people, when I say I'm an anti-racist, I mean it. Um, then I have to do the work of informing people why that particular rule is problematic and why the system is kicking out things that are harmful to one group versus another. And one of the things that is my pet peeve is to see people come into a position of power and then love the power more than they love people. And I can't stand for that. And so in 2021, I actually supported your opponent, knocked on doors for her. And one of the things that she told me on one of the occasions when we were knocking doors for Tina Kotek was that we should pair up and knock on doors together because the cops were harassing her on the street as she's door knocking for the governor or for Tina Kotek, who was running for governor at the time. And so we paired up. So hearing her then say publicly in a school board meeting that she felt safer when SROs were involved than without them, when we had had this private conversation about how we had both been transparent with each other and authentic about how we felt about being in the cops' presence broke my heart. Yeah. And so I came to the conclusion, and it took a lot, right? Because a lot of the times you feel safe around those who you are familiar with, right? You share foods, you share music, you share culture, you you share things, and you think that that joins you and that that familiarity means support. But when I see somebody break my heart because they're using, you know, who they are to implement systems of oppression, I get really angry about that. And so when you approached me about endorsing you, I asked you what you were gonna do about kids of color and how you felt about SROs. And I told you my experience as a UNICERF consultant and field representative for OSEA. I've been in schools for 14 years, minus one year that I worked for ASMI. And um, hi ASMI, I love you. I had to uh learn about uh medical systems, and that was really hard. Um, so I went back to education, uh, which I could navigate easily. But so out of the 197 school districts that exist, I would say that I have participating at participated uh either in organizing or representing probably 125 of those 197 uh districts.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

So one of the things that I had observed is that the first SRO that I ever met or saw was in Woodburn High School, where my kids went. Um, and I can see how behaviors and issues that kids are having, uh, you know, teenagers growing up who are going to participate in, you know, bad behaviors, whether that be fighting or smoking, whatever it is, those behaviors were present as as teenagers uh, you know, take risks and um explore. And those behaviors were present in every district that I was in. But funny enough, the only places I saw SROs were in districts where I saw children of color. Exactly. And so they were being criminalized for teenage behaviors.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Whereas other kids are just being treated like they're taking risks, they're exploring, they're allowed to be students and children. And um, that was my beef with the SRO system and program in general.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

Um, so I, you know, you answered my two questions that I had for you about why you were rub uh running. Um, and I believe in those same things. And I could see your soul and my soul matched, even though our skin color didn't. And at the end of the day, what I um want to uphold are values, um, not color.

unknown 23:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

And this is the thing, is like we're in this moment where we're having to deal with color issues. Um, you know, it's the age-old issue, right? But we're having people who are in positions of power where they used their people, you know, or other people of color to back them up and get them into the positions of power. And then now that they're there, they're not listening to the people anymore. Um, and you know, there we have this um saying, and I say it all the time of um skin folk ain't always kin folk. And so just because we have this person of color in this position of power doesn't mean that they're looking out for people of color anymore. They might have been, but something happens. And again, this doesn't mean all. I mean, we've got some amazing people of color in positions of power that are doing it. Hello, Leslie Munoz, but others, you know, and I we're gonna be using this as a way to platform them because they need to have their flowers now. But we also have a hazardous group of people that are saying, yeah, I'm a person of color, I'm I'm doing this, I'm representing, but what are they representing? You know, and so we are now having either white candidates running against people of color and they're feeling uncomfortable about it when they shouldn't, because they're doing what the people want, which is dealing with the the housing issues, dealing with the education um issues, all of the tax issues. They're doing what people are begging them to do. And so why would we then just say, oh, well, I have allegiance to pigmentation? Right. When the pigmentation ain't doing shit. Exactly. You know, and so I'm always getting a little bit of a side eye when they're like, oh, you're not gonna back so and so. What is so and so doing? What have they done? You can be the first, you know, black, first Latino, whatever, so and so, and then what? Because if that's all your legacy is, if that if that's all we were fighting to get you there, uh that was a a false fight. And I was stupid to do that.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

And so, you know, anything that you could share on your ideas of like, how can we walk that delicate balance? You know, we definitely do vetting. It's not like we're just doing this haphazardly, but you know, it is very uncomfortable being a person of color and going, oh my gosh, they're not doing it. We've got to look for someone else to replace them.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

It's heartbreaking. It is. And one of the things that my parents taught me is that your words need to match your actions. Yes. They also taught me that you only have one reputation. Um, so my dad was very offended when a picture of me was found with my middle finger, um, talking about racism on Facebook. And they actually took that picture, put a different um, you know, set of wording on it and put it out as a flyer against me. But my dad's like, did you do this? I'm like, Daddy, that's AI. No, like you heard of AI? It's not true, you know. No, um, no, they taught me that, you know, integrity matters. And so I am very uncomfortable with saying one thing and doing another. And I often um get penalized for that. Yeah, I get consequences for not, you know, being a team player and for not going with the group. And I'm like, well, I literally came here to uplift the voices of the people that are looking like me and are getting kidnapped, they're getting taken to taken to different countries. Um, uh the other folks left behind are losing their livelihoods or they're missing half of the paycheck. And I know many, many people in that situation. So I can't abandon them to be a team player. That's not what I went to the Capitol to do. And I have to say, there's a lot of people at the Capitol that supported um and um that engage in multiracial solidarity, and that's how we passed the immigration package that I'm so proud of because it was all of us. It was Chai Chi, it was Willie Chopson, it was um Lamar Wise, it was Travis Nelson, it was all of the people that came together. Sarah Finger MacDonald um passed that that school bill about kids being safe in schools and having systems. It was just wonderful to watch all of us come together to do something so huge for the immigrant and refugee community. And I'm really proud of the work that we did.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

Yeah. Do you have any theories on what happens when a person of color gets into these positions that they lose their connection to community and don't follow through? Um, you know, personally, I'm wondering if there's like things that they're they can't do because they're worried about losing their position, um, or if they're worried that they're gonna lose clout, um, favor, something like that. But it's like, I just wonder what is the off switch that happens that they can just all of a sudden go, now that I'm in, I'm just going to have proximity to whiteness and be an agent of white supremacy, or if they're even cognizant of what they're participating in.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

So, similar to the labor movement, what I've seen is um people are really resistant to change. And so there's a system that's created and everybody adheres to the system. And one of the things that I've noticed is when I come in and I say, hey, this system is problematic. Like, how has it worked out for you? Like, how does it work for people that look like me? This is what's been happening to me. I can't uphold the system because I'm working against myself. Um, people are quick to say, like, this is the way things work, this is the way things have been, this is the way that we do things. And I'm like, you did them because I wasn't here to speak up against it. And so when you come in and people have learned bad behaviors and there's systems in place that basically tell people that if they go along with the system, then they're gonna get some kind of power. Usually in in both the labor movement um systems and in unions and also at the legislature, um, they have this idea of seniority. Like you put in your time and then you get to do things. But if you look at the people that actually get to do things, um, it it can't be the people that look like me are gonna drop out because it's such a heavy load to carry, to, you know, go against your values, to go against the people that you went there to represent. It just doesn't feel good. So instead of looking at the system and saying, like, why are we not retaining people of color? Why do they we cycle through them? Well, because it's a really hard situation to be in, to go with the system and have friends and be liked and in the legislature get a gabble, in the union get a position, you know, as a as as you know, a union leader. Um, if you don't follow the rules, then you have all of these enemies and you will never gain the power that you will if you abide by the system. However, if you have the wrong values, right? And I think that a lot of people um would assume that I have the wrong values um in basically trying to dismantle oppression, right? Because they've worked through that system and they feel like, why would this woman come in and in the first year like get her way when I've been waiting my truck? So they have too much investment. And I heard this um story at one time about how rabbits, if you are following a rabbit with your car and you start going a little bit faster and a little bit faster, that rabbit will never get out of the way because that rabbit thinks they've invested too much and they've run way too fast to give up now.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

And I always think about that analogy. This person has been running this fast for this long, and then I come in and I say, let's just change the system, and it doesn't, you know, feel good to them that they've participated. So they're like, no, no, no, no. I'm already halfway and I've done all of these things and I've abandoned my values and I've sold out and I've done all of this, and we're not gonna change the system now.

unknown 31:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

So I think people are invested in systems that produce what we have right now, but I cannot adhere to a system that allows for people that look like me to be terrorized on the street. Yeah. And for not for, you know, I can't, I can't go to the store and buy my apples, as my sister says, without my passport in my wallet. That's not the way that I want to live. Yeah. So I'm gonna have to fight against the system, even though the system is working for some, it's not working for me. Absolutely. It's not working for my children.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

So And I think that there's a through line in our last episode, and probably for future episodes, of a system, as I mentioned in our last episode with Dr. Bird, is a system is made by people that look like me. It has been for over a century or more. And those institutions are still running the systems that we live in. So there's an institutional racism that no single person has to really enact because it's just the way it is. And I think from your experience, is that not only do you have to fight to get your bills in there, you have to you and others have to fight the systemic racism that exists within that fight, and that becomes a burden. Which is one of the reasons perhaps that we've only had one kind of full-figure person of color in the state, which is Jim Hill, who has had all the positions House, Senate, Treasurer, run for governor, um, and that's it. That's since the nineties. So my full tenure as a teacher in education. There's real I mean, there's been two, but one just you know, um was just for four years, which is not to say it's not good, but I'm just saying, like in a state like Oregon that's changing as fast as it is, there should be more people of color leading our state, and there's not. And it's not because of any other reason, because of these institutional paradigms that are there that that keep people down.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

And it's really interesting, but even the way that the rules are applied, right? That there's racism in the rules and the way that they're applied. For example, um, I um on the floor gave a courtesy. It was um farm workers' um day or week, I forgot what what it is, but I got up and I said, I want to, you know, give a courtesy to farm workers for the work that they bring to Oregon. They invest their time and their energy and they're out, you know, in the sun. And um just thank you so much for putting food on the table. And um the speaker at the time is was not the speaker, but the person at the dais said, um, I want to remind everybody that courtesies um are for people that are present. So you can't give courtesies to farm workers because they're not in the state capitol right now visiting. And um, there were uh farm workers because both of the the people that do maintenance, the two of the maintenance women, are also farm workers on the side. They need two jobs to survive. So I was like, literally, there's two here that I've talked to personally. So anyway, that happened. Um, two days later, a white gentleman stands up and gives courtesies and says, like, even though they're not here at the Capitol today, I wanna, you know, give courtesies to blah, blah, blah. And he wasn't stopped, he wasn't spoken to, he wasn't reminded. And so, also like the enforcement mechanism for the rules, that's that's what the enforcement is. It's a reminder. And so they um they felt free to embarrass me and say that I'm doing courtesies the wrong way. But that gentleman has been there for many years and he was allowed to give courtesy.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

So I did send my chief of staff to ask what the rule is because I will not have a rule be applied to me and then not to the next person. And so I think that gets like really tiresome when you're the person of color and all the rules apply to you, but they don't apply to others. It seems really um unfair. And I exploded a few times. Another day I arrived at the Capitol and I was rocking out to my music. And I'm that person that finishes my song, right? Um, so I drive into the garage. In order to get into the garage as a legislator, you have to badge in. You have a badge and you put it on the little monitor and it uh raises the gate for you to go in. And so um, when I get out of my car, there's two police officers um waiting outside of my car. Unbelievable. And they wanted to see my badge to make sure that I belonged at the state capitol. When clearly my name even has an ⁇ that end with the sexy eyebrow on top of it, um, I'm clearly like Leslie Munoz. Uh, but I thought it was interesting that like they needed to see my badge. And so I'm like, are you asking all the legislators for their badges or is this just for me? And they were kind of embarrassed because I asked the question. I said, you know, instead of going on the on the floor, I'm gonna stand here and watch you badge everybody, I watch you check everyone's badge. This is so unfair. They did come later um to apologize for the misunderstanding. But you know, that happening consistently, consistently, when I can see that other people just get to be themselves, they just belong, they just get to be, they're free. It starts upsetting you. Yeah. And people then, you know, they call me angry, they're like, oh, Leslie's always mad. Well, because Leslie's being treated differently on a consistent basis, on a daily basis. And sometimes I'm in a really great mood and I'm like, oh, this poor being, oh, he's racist. Let's have some patience. Let me tell them some, let me give them some help. Hey, you know what? When you do that, this is how I receive it. But then other days, I'm a person too. Yeah, I wake up and I'm not happy and I'm I don't want to educate, I just want to be left alone. And so then that day I explode, and then Leslie's rude, Leslie's an angry person of color, Leslie, well, I'm tired of it.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

And that's the thing, is like all that whittling happens where what happens to the person that says, I'm not running for another term because I'm tired of being treated like this. If every time I go to work, I'm being treated, you know, at security, I'm on the floor and I'm I'm having my words monitored, I'm being told how to act or my tone is being policed. After a while, it's like you we have to always conserve our mental health. And so when we're always asking the question of why aren't there more people of color in positions of power, all the work that it took to get there, all the work it took to maintain it, because nobody's protecting it and going, hey, don't do that. Because how many people are standing up and saying, Why did you just present this? Like, why is it on you to stand up for yourself versus everybody going, tut, you didn't interrupt so-and-so yesterday or the day before. Why are you doing this now? And so there was uh a meeting where um Nolan was uh addressing um a man who was speaking in English, and she had said, um, and he was speaking in very good English. I'm using good vocabulary. Um, and this woman named Nolan said, I'm gonna need you to speak in English. He was speaking English. Now, maybe she has a fourth grade, you know, vocabulary and she shouldn't be in that room. Um, but I was floored that nobody said, excuse you. How dare you? And so he had to just sit there and absorb it and deal with it. And no, nobody interjected. And then the very next day when she came with a sloppy rendition rendition of a Spanish apology, it was disgusting. It was so bad. I'm like, how is she not even embarrassed for herself? But again, nobody interrupted with the first sentence of what the hell are you doing? And then if she doesn't understand what she did, to say, Do you know how offensive this is? If you truly are apologetic, I need you to explain why it was wrong, what you feel about it, what did you do to educate yourself? And how is this not going to happen again? That's a real apology. And so, again, people of color in these positions, will they keep on being in it when the emotional tax is so high? You know, and so you know, I just saw your sister last night, and I'm like, you better be regulating yourself. Are you self-caring? Because she's just now running and getting into this stuff. This stuff is thick. It is, it's really thick, it's heartbreaking. Really is.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Okay, for our last segment, we're gonna do a couple of rapid fire questions, which you don't have to answer super fast, but just kind of briefly give us your kind of what comes into your mind first. So the first one is uh the vote you have cast in your first term that you were most proud of.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

I'm in love with Eric. That's what first came into. You're such a great person.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

No, that's not on my list.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Okay, he blushed.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Oh, okay. I love this. No, the vote that I took that I'm most proud of is um when my bill came to the floor. Um and that sounds pretty selfish, but I had been working with my community for a long time on what they thought they needed in order to feel protected or to feel like they had some recourse against these ice raids. And so I introduced the Protect Your Door Act, which basically allows you to sue um agents when they violate your Fourth Amendment rights. Um and it was just so great to see it come to the floor after all of the work that I did of over eight months talking to people, uh, working with a constitutional attorney, um, shout out to Steve and the Oregon uh Law Center for the help that they gave me. All of the Latino community, uh community-based organizations came out in support. We had a lot of people testify. We got hundreds of testimonies, um, including the two of you, thank you, um, into the record. And it was just such a proud moment for me to see that all of my colleagues in the Democratic Party voted yes on on the measure, even though the Republicans walked out. And for all, they talk about constitutional rights and how much they love them. It was really shocking for me to see them not want to stand up for constitutional rights when it's about immigrants and refugees. Um, so it was a really great moment for me to see that we passed legislation with that supermajority that we had. It was great.

SPEAKER_04 42:07

And I know this is rapid fire, but I have to interject because it floored me that the Republicans would walk out on that. Because again, if you if they want to remove the idea of people of color, it also protected them because at any point someone could say that they were a house of immigrants, Ukrainian immigrants. And so their house could have been totally ransacked, damages happening, trauma happening, and they'd have no legal recourse. And this is the party that is supposed to be like, don't tread on me and stand your ground. But oh, please, Daddy, step on me in my home, violate my children, and I have no recourse except um, let's try to get some wood to get the door back up so we can maybe go to bed. I so I loved your bill and thank you so much for fighting so hard for that. Because when I heard that they could actually enter our homes with no recourse, um, I was looking for more guns and more machetes because we are a machete house. Um, and so having that bill, you know, just even though they can still do whatever they're gonna do, at least knowing that there was some recourse and that I would be able to be refunded on all of the damage because they come in ugly and violent. They're not just looking for a person, they want to ransack.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

So it's about cruelty and violence at this point. And it's it's just ugly. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Question two the vote you have cast that cost you something.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Oh, that's an interesting one. Yes, I decided I was gonna vote for um the transportation bill, which was a tax bill, and it would have totaled about twenty-eight dollars on average per person. In Oregon, so that we could cover uh the potholes that my community has many of.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Per year,$28.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

$28 per year is what it would cost an average uh family. And so I thought$28 to cover the potholes that people talk about in email all the time. My constituents let me know. I hit a pothole, it costs$600 to repair my car. And so I was like, yeah,$28 per family seems like a reasonable amount to make sure that we have good streets to drive on. And also to make sure that, you know, in places where there's a lot of snow, we have snow plowers and people can get to work and uh firefighters can get in um to, you know, help with fire and you know, emergency services need to get to those places as well. And so um that vote cost me a lot of negative ads. Also, it didn't pass it's going to the ballot anyway. So I voted yes on it. It was referred to the ballot, and voters are gonna uh vote in May whether they want to pass it or not.

SPEAKER_04 45:02

Yeah, I'd rather pay$28 than$600 for a realignment because of and other issues because of the road conditions, which have been atrocious. So let us pay our$28, please.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Uh next question. One thing you expected the supermajority to do that has not happened yet.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

Revenue. I know that in a lot of conversations we talk about um how we would love to do um these things that people need in terms of social services, in terms of programs of addiction, in terms of housing, in terms of education, um, medical expenses, all of the things that I believe in need revenue in order for them to be funded. And so I thought with the supermajority that we would pass something that meant that people, you know, had a good standard of life, that Oregonians in general would. And it was very shocking for me to know that even people in my party um are not okay with taxing the rich and with them paying their fair share in order for us to have the things that we need bare minimum. Yeah, I don't get that at all. Yeah, disappointing.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Last question. Uh finish this sentence. The people of Woodburn deserve all that is good.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

The people of Woodburn are troopers, they're hardworking, they have hearts, they support each other, um, they don't whine and complain. And what's happening in Woodburn with the ice raids, it's affecting small business. I know business owners that have been around for 25, 30 years who have had to close um their businesses because people aren't coming out to buy. And the local economy is an ecosystem. If you take away one of the businesses, then there's less money to go around because that business is now not buying from their neighbor. And it just causes this snowball effect about of uh bad things for our community. Yeah. And so um I commend the people of Woodburn uh for their willingness to continue um in this fight and for the support that they gave me in making sure that we got, you know, legislation that was much needed to try and give a little hope about what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Awesome. All right, Representative Munoz, thank you for joining us on this episode of Oregon Voices, and we look forward to our next episode with you.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

Claro que sí, mi amor. Gracias. Yes, we have so much more that I want to talk about. So you're coming back. Yes, I am. Thank you so much for today, though. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 47:44

If the world don't fire, we go take it soon. It's that time, your mama dancing your tag room.