How a California Leader Got the Toughness She Needed to Rebuild a Community-Services Group

ENTRY LEVEL

Esther Medina

Age: 66

First nonbusiness job: Investigator of sex-discrimination complaints, Commission on the Status of Women, Santa Clara County, San Jose, Calif.

Current job: Executive director, Mexican American Community Services Agency, San Jose, Calif.

When I was about 5, my family settled in San Jose, and I’ve been here ever since. I am the youngest of eight children of Mexican-American farmworkers. Although all of us kids were born in the United States, both of my parents were born in Mexico. I didn’t go to college because there wasn’t enough money, so after finishing high school, I went to beauty school. Then I opened my own hair salon, as well as a restaurant and liquor store. At one point, I had about 60 people working for me.

However, even though my businesses were very successful, I always felt that something was missing in my life. I had always wanted to do something that would really help people. Then, when I was 35, I got divorced and decided that this time I was going to do what I wanted to do. I knew I’d make a lot less money, but I was determined to do something I felt passionate about.

I’ve always been concerned about equal rights for women, so my first nonprofit position was investigating sex-discrimination complaints for the county executive in Santa Clara County, back in 1973 and 1974. There was a lot of preparation, searching through files, and just plain grunt work, but I kept going. I remember a complaint about a particular bank that would not consider child support as income for women who were trying to buy their first home. I found the statistics that showed that most women do get consistent child support and that the money should be counted. Then I met with the president of the bank and convinced him to change his position. Subsequently, 18 women had their loans approved. In another case, I represented a woman who was terminated from a dental college because she did not want to wear the required short skirt. I took that case to the appropriate state agency, and we won. The women then had a choice of wearing skirts or slacks.

What I found was that these women were very grateful that someone cared enough to go through all the trouble of researching and putting a case together, and I think a lot of them became very active in women’s issues as a result.

All my life, I’ve never given up on things I believe in. I refuse to get discouraged, and any time I run into obstacles, well, they just make me all the more determined to keep going. Furthermore, I learned from the job with the county executive how to fight with passion and logic. I learned to contain my emotions and arm myself with facts. Having a county ordinance gave me a certain amount of power in negotiating cases, and using that power wisely was another important lesson. Another effective tool was to appeal to people’s sense of fairness — and, of course, earning people’s respect is critical in any job.

I went on to other jobs in the nonprofit sector, and then, in 1983, the Mexican American Community Services Agency, or MACSA, recruited me. The agency was in dire straits and was about to be closed down by United Way. I ended up begging United Way for $27,000 to keep the doors open for myself and a staff of one-and-a-half people for the next three months. Then I spent six months just cleaning up the mess that had been left — there were unpaid bills and 13 lawsuits against the agency from creditors and disgruntled ex-employees, among other problems. During this period I was also writing grant proposals and working to get people to begin to trust MACSA once again. I remember someone on our board of directors wanted to change the name because it was so tarnished. I said, ‘No, we are going to keep the name, but we will change the reputation.’

When policy makers took a chance on MACSA by giving us funding, we made sure to deliver what was promised in an efficient and professional manner. When your word becomes as certain as a written contract, you are respected and your credibility opens many doors. We succeeded through very hard work and good decision-making skills.

From there, we started building programs — and even when things were tough, we continued to grow. Today our budget for programs is $7-million, for building projects it’s $35-million, and MACSA has a staff of 120 people.

We have an adult day health center for the elderly with mental or physical disorders, a youth center with a computer lab, tutoring, after-school homework clubs, sports leagues, and a charter-schools program. Our building project includes programs for first-time home buyers, and we’re working on our third senior-housing project, expanding our youth center and building another one in a nearby town, and purchasing and remodeling an intervention center for high-risk youths.

I’ve never once thought of quitting, and there have been some tough times. Right now, Silicon Valley is in a slump, and people are very cautious with their money. Funding is harder to come by, and the competition for it is greater. There are times when things are up and when they are down and incredible patience is needed. You just have to keep on going. I tell young people who are considering the nonprofit arena: You won’t get rich, but you will be happy. You’ll definitely make a difference, and this work is extremely worthwhile. — As told to Mary E. Medland

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