Les llaman 'Las Rubio' y representan a la comunidad latina en la legislatura de California. Susan y Blanca Rubio fueron deportadas junto a su familia cuando era niñas, pero las injusticias las motivaron a luchar por los derechos de los hispanos.

It was open house at Heron Elementary School, and inside a bustling auditorium, fifth-graders created a living wax museum of “Famous Americans,” decked out as pop icons, sports stars and legends from their history books.

State Senator Susan Rubio visited East Los Angeles College Tuesday for a panel discussion on the connections between domestic violence and homelessness. The panel was organized by the ELAC Foundation’s Transforming Lives Campaign.

According to Rubio, 60% of women have reported that there’s a direct link between their homelessness and domestic violence. 

State Sen. Susan Rubio, whose brother Brian serves in the U.S. Army, championed the need to take care of servicemen and women once they return home. “No veteran should ever go hungry; no veteran should ever live in the street; and no veteran should ever need medical attention,” she said.

She was also on hand to honor Korean War veteran Geronimo Centeno, who was stationed in Hanford to guard a nuclear plant that produced plutonium during the Cold War. Centeno gave a thumbs up as he received a certificate and later a hug from Rubio, a Baldwin Park resident who served nine years on the local City Council.

La senadora estatal Susan Rubio cuenta que fue víctima de agresión por parte de una pareja sentimental, por lo que ahora lucha para constituir normas que les ayuden. Algunas son extender los años para presentar cargos en una corte y poner los teléfonos de ayuda en las tarjetas de estudiantes. Si sientes que debes denunciar un caso, puedes llamar a la línea 1(800) 799-7233.

“There’s so much more respect for immigrants in general,” Ms. Rubio says in a phone interview from Mexico, where she was traveling in a delegation with California’s lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis. “And there is so much more respect” for elected Latino officials, she adds. 

Senator Rubio said her work on homelessness won’t end with securing the $5.6 million or creating the housing trust and that she hopes to inspire other regions to seek innovative solutions to help house their residents.

“I want us to be a model for the county and even all of California, and I think we can get there,” Rubio said.

“The system is broken and designed to protect the abusers. It’s outrageous,” Senator Rubio said. “Victims are punished for defending themselves and their children and punished when they don’t.”