Full Biography for Moisés Montoya

Candidate for
Community College Board

My name is Moises Montoya. I am 39 years old, born in the California Central Valley town of Visalia (Tulare County). Son of Mexicano immigrants and one of a family of five siblings, I attended public schools continuously from primary grades to university. I graduated with honors from Redwood High School in 1977 and entered the University of California, Los Angeles with the assistance of merit and affirmative action scholarships. I later transferred to the University of California, Berkeley where I received a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Architecture in 1982.

My mother was educated and trained as a school teacher in Mexico before immigrating to the U.S. and worked in the Visalia Unified School District, as a teacher's aide, administrative secretary and outreach person in the Latino community for almost 20 years. Two sisters today work in California public schools. Through this experience and contact, I have an appreciation for public education and its fundamental importance to the well-being of our state and society.

I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1979 and currently reside in the Glen Park district of San Francisco. I am a voter and am registered with the Peace and Freedom Party.

I have worked in the private sector in various capacities and have been a public employee for almost 14 years as an Architectural Assistant with the City of Oakland, Public Works Agency. My union is the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), Local 21. I have been active in my union, including representing my union in contract negotiations, and in the labor movement generally. I am proud that my union, IFPTE Local 21, has officially endorsed my candidacy along with the San Francisco City College faculty union, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Local 2121 and many other unionists. I am active in the Golden Gate (San Francisco) chapter of the Labor Party and am a delegate to the National Labor Party convention in Pittsburgh, PA this fall.

I have been active as a grassroots organizer for 13 years with the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the Freedom Socialist Party (socialist feminist party of long standing) for women's, queer, labor, immigrant, and free speech rights. I am a strong proponent of equal opportunity, affirmative action, economic and political justice, public education and multi-cultural, bilingual ed. Among other projects and campaigns, I traveled to Cuba with the 1997 International Feminist Brigade (co-sponsored by Radical Women and the Federation of Cuban Women) where I witnessed the necessity and promise of prioritizing human needs over profits just in the field of education. I concluded, as many others have, that if a tiny island of 11 and a half million people, under tremendous odds due to the 40 year old U.S. embargo, can provide free, quality education for all its citizens--from pre-school to university--then why can't we who live in the richest country in the world do the same? My experience as a community activist will enhance my capacity as a sound, responsible and bold new member of the Community College Board of Trustees.