American Notes

"This election marks an end to an era of discrimination," declared a jubilant Gloria Molina, who last week became the first woman ever voted to a post on the Los Angeles County board of supervisors -- and its first Hispanic member since 1875. Molina, 42, the outspoken daughter of a Mexican immigrant laborer, defeated state senator Art Torres, 44, with 55% of the vote in a new district created last year by a federal court to rectify discrimination against Hispanics. The five-member board, with an annual budget of more than $10 billion, presides over the nation's most populous county, one-third of which is Hispanic.

Molina, a Democrat, cast herself as a political outsider and waged a scrappy campaign against Torres, also a Democrat, who outspent her 2 to 1. Molina was previously the first Hispanic woman elected to the state legislature and the Los Angeles city council. Her latest win makes her one of the nation's most prominent Hispanic politicians.