Gilroy
– Angie Aguirre knows that Latinos give, and give big. Bowls of
soup show up on hungry families’ doorsteps; neighbors quickly give
cash or clothing.
Gilroy – Angie Aguirre knows that Latinos give, and give big. Bowls of soup show up on hungry families’ doorsteps; neighbors quickly give cash or clothing. But those donations don’t always show up at the well-known nonprofits, the foundations and campaigns.
“I’ve seen it in my own family,” said John Perales, principal of South Valley Middle School, who collaborated with Aguirre. “You just make it happen. You take dinner to a family. You give a pair of shoes … But we saw that there was a void of institutional, traditional giving and we wanted to fill it.”
“Philanthropy always seemed like such an abstract term,” added Aguirre. “People open their homes – but they don’t sit on nonprofit boards. There’s a gap.”
That’s the gap that Aguirre sought to close, by co-founding the Latino Family Fund, a Gilroy project to bring Latinos into formal philanthropy. It’s only one of the projects that snagged Aguirre a singular honor – Gilroy Woman of the Year, a title granted by San Jose Sen. Elaine Alquist, (D-San Jose).
“She’s passionate, she’s bright, and she’s a strong person – a strong woman,” said Xavier Campos, chief operating officer of the Mexican American Community Services Agency. “The city of Gilroy is a better place to live, because of her.”
Aguirre grew up in Fremont, an uncertain teen with a wobbly grade point average. Her six best friends were pregnant or had given birth by high school graduation.
But two forces: a dedicated counselor, Nina Herrera, and an inspiring student group, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, steered Aguirre towards public service. Herrera prodded Aguirre toward bigger goals, insisting that if she, another Latina, could do it, so could Aguirre; M.E.Ch.A. galvanized her to get involved in the Latino community, to combat racism and fight for immigrants’ rights.
Today, Aguirre’s resume is a dizzying list of activist and civic projects, starting from her straight-A freshman year at Ohlone College and extending through her transfer to the University of California, Berkeley, her graduate studies at Princeton University, funded on a full scholarship, and her post-graduate life in California, where she brought her expertise to the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley.
There, she penned a report on Latino philanthropy that explored why Silicon Valley foundations remained lily-white – and why Latinos weren’t giving to nonprofits.
She interviewed Latino lottery winners who refused to donate until organizations diversified their leadership; she talked to the few Latino board members, who felt alienated and lost in the nonprofit world. It was a feeling she knew well, from her first days on the MACSA board, where she glanced at a budget and felt her head spin.
“Even when Latinos get there,” she said, “they’re intimidated. They feel they don’t have the skill set to succeed right away.”
Her findings made headlines in the San Jose Mercury News – and caught the Gilroy Foundation’s attention.
“It was an area that we weren’t doing a particularly great job,” said Bob Kraemer, a member of the Gilroy Foundation’s board. “The pieces all came together.”
Perales and Aguirre enlisted local Latino families to join together, pooling smaller donations to gather the $10,000 minimum to establish a Gilroy Foundation fund.
The foundation’s first target: Scholarships for Gilroy High youth headed to Gavilan College. From there, said Perales, the possibilities are endless – just like the need.
Gilroy Foundation executive director Donna Pray called Aguirre and Perales “trendsetters.”
“Young families probably don’t have the extra disposable income that older couples might have,” Pray said, “but they felt they wanted to set an example.”
Meet Aguirre in person, and you’ll be surprised to find that the dynamo is down-to-earth. She chats happily about her two small children, nearly 2-year-old Isaac Javier and 2-month-old Natalia Rosa, and her husband, school board trustee Javier Aguirre, the other half of the Aguirre power couple, who works as a political aide for longtime Santa Clara County supervisor Blanca Alvarado.
The Aguirres mentor a foster teen, lead a new couples’ Catholic Bible study, and have been involved with a laundry list of local issues, from voter registration to education reform.
“You can’t put your finger on what she does,” said Perales, “but she makes you feel special.”
Raania Mohsen, a district representative of Sen. Alquist, said Aguirre’s energy made her stand out amid the nominees for the Woman of the Year Award. Javier Aguirre said it’s the same qualities that made her stand out to him, when they met at a conference for Latino political leaders.
“Here’s a woman who went to community college, then Berkeley, then pursued a Master’s at Princeton,” Javier Aguirre said. “As a Latina woman, she was able to overcome a lot of obstacles in her life, because she’s focused. When she has an idea, when she has a goal, she does everything she can to accomplish it.”
