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Brigid Bergin: Welcome back to The Takeaway. I'm Brigid Bergin in for Melissa Harris-Perry. This week, you get not one, but two interviews from our series, Women Leading Locally. Throughout Women's History Month, The Takeaway has been joining with the Center for American women in politics at Rutgers University to bring you stories of women leading and breaking barriers. Earlier this week, we were in New Jersey. Today, we're heading to the Hope State.

Mayor Maria Rivera: Hi, my name is Maria Rivera, and I am the Mayor of the City of Central Falls in Rhode Island.

Brigid Bergin: Did you know Rhode Island was the Hope State? Mayor Rivera is the first Latina to serve as mayor in the state of Rhode Island and first woman to serve as mayor in Central Falls. Melissa recently spoke with her and asked her how her mother's journey from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island inspired her own journey.

Mayor Maria Rivera: Oh, Melissa, this is the first time I'm asked these questions. You're going to make me emotional right from the beginning. My mom, she had to leave Puerto Rico when she was 14. She moved to New Jersey, and at that age, she was pregnant. She had my oldest sister when she was 14. It was a really big challenge for her, she moved to a state without speaking any English, without finishing her education. She only finished school until the sixth grade. She ended up moving to New Jersey. There, she was with my father's family. She had myself and my other sister in New Jersey.

After about two years, I was two years old, she decided to move to Chicago. In Chicago, she met my stepdad who for me was my father. That's who raised me. To this day, I don't know who my father is, and I just heard he passed away last week. My mom has had to go through many challenges just trying to lead us the right way. We lived in Chicago until I was 10 years old. I started school by the age of five, I didn't speak any English, my sister didn't speak any English, either.

We had to start with ESL classes, which I'm very grateful for because I feel like I'm in this position because I'm able to speak two languages and work for the community that I represent right now, so I'm extremely grateful that my mom never spoke to us in English. When I was about 10, 11 years old, we moved to Central Falls Rhode Island because I had an aunt who lived in Chicago and ended up moving here. For safety reasons, because there was a lot of gang-related issues in Chicago, my family decided to move here to Central Falls. We moved here in 1987, and I have been here ever since.

My mom never worked while we lived in Chicago. She started working in factories here in Rhode Island when we moved here because she wanted to make sure we were okay. She would take us to school and make sure that we were being fed and doing what we had to do when we were younger. It wasn't until we got to the state of Rhode Island where she really started putting herself out there and working to support us with my dad.

Melissa Harris-Perry: That's an extraordinary set of sacrifices made for love, made for commitment, and in some ways, as extraordinary as it is, we understand why parents do that for their children. How did you decide to make those kinds of sacrifices not only for your family but in this context, for your city?

Mayor Maria Rivera: I don't come from a family who was ever involved in politics. My family wasn't even educated. I'm a first-gen. I just got my bachelor's degree in 2019, and I'm 45 years old, so it's been lots of sacrifices. I think my biggest sacrifice and when I started getting involved, was when I got divorced. I was married, I had my two kids, I filed for divorce in 2007. After I got divorced, I started getting engaged with my children's education, became a board member for the charter school that they were attending. This is where I started putting myself out there and sacrificing the time that I had to spend with my kids because I wanted to give back to my community.

Melissa Harris-Perry: How did you decide to make those kinds of sacrifices, not only for your family but in this context, for your city?

Mayor Maria Rivera: In 2014, I took a leadership class, the Rhode Island Latina Leadership Institute. That's where I really opened myself up. I would never speak in public. I went to a community college and graduated in 2000, and my biggest fear was public speaking. Oral communication is a course that you have to take to graduate. I was so petrified and nervous of standing in front of people that I spoke to the dean and had to have the course waived in order for me to graduate. In 2014, in that leadership class, they ask you, ''What is something you want to overcome?'' What I wanted to overcome was my fear of public speaking.

Ten months into the class and the class was over, I overcame that fear. I felt like I turned into a totally different person. I wanted to be out there, I wanted to help people. I wanted to be that voice that my community did not have, but I wasn't sure if I still wanted to run for office. I had a lot of people reach out to me just to say, "You need to run for office." At that time, my response was, "I'm not ready." I was never around anybody who was an elected official, I wouldn't even know where to begin, how to run a campaign.

I wouldn't even know what it consists of sitting in a council chambers, but after six months, I'm having a conversation with my kids. I was very dedicated to my ex-husband and my kids and it was from work to home, and my whole time was dedicated to my children. My children were getting older, and I wanted them to see me as a leader. After a few months, I decided to run for City Council. I ran the campaign, I won. I was on the council for two years. After two years, I ran the second term, and I became the City Council President, becoming the first female and Latina to be the City Council President.

For these positions, you usually have to speak to your council members, your colleagues, and tell them you want to be the council president so that they can nominate you. In my position, I didn't have to have that conversation with my council members. I took the first two years on the council to really take in and understand what being a council member meant. At the same time, I was very active in the community, and I think that's what made the difference for me. I was there for the residents of the city, and the council decided to nominate me as a council president.

I still, to this day, cannot remember the day that I said, "I'm going to run to be the mayor of the city." I tell everybody that this was chosen by the residents of the city. They wanted me to be the mayor of the city, and I had a ton of people reach out to me. I still have messages where I would respond and say, "You're crazy. I'm never going to be the mayor of the city," and here I am. It happened so quick and so many great things have happened. This is the best job I've had, and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, your city, the Central Falls, it used to be known as the comeback city after it came back after bankruptcy protection in 2012, but your new tagline is, "Diversity that inspires." Tell me about that new tagline. As I hear you saying that it was the residents of your city who in part moved you, who pushed you into this role. Tell me how diversity that inspires is uniting the residents of Central Falls.

Mayor Maria Rivera: I think it's really important for the residents of the city to know that no matter where they come from, we appreciate them. That this is their community. This is a community of diverse people from different parts of the world. I have a community that's about 70% Latinos that come from everywhere. Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, we have Portuguese people, we have Cape Verdean, we still have Irish people in the city, so why not call it Diversity that Inspires? I want everybody who lives in this community to know that no matter where they come from, they matter and that being diverse is important.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Who were some of the people who were trailblazers for you, but also just very clear personal supporters in making this move?

Mayor Maria Rivera: Melissa, I ran a very different campaign, one, because I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Melissa Harris-Perry: [laughs]

Mayor Maria Rivera: I needed to figure this out, right? I was interviewed by someone in 2016, and this person said to me, "You're going to be the mayor of that city." I was in my first term on the council, and I said to this person, I said, "There's no way. It's not going to happen." He said, "You're going to be the mayor of that city." He lived in Taunton, Massachusetts, and him and his partner sold their home and moved to Central Falls so that they could run my campaign. They had worked on campaigns before in Puerto Rico. They're both Puerto Rican Latinos.

They had never worked on a campaign here. Our strategy was completely grassroots. I don't feel that we had to do a lot of door-knocking because I was so active in the community. Every time there was an emergency, if there was a fire, I hosted mental health clinics, I spent tons of times at the high-rises. I did fashion shows for them, and this is stuff that we still continue doing. I didn't want to knock on somebody's door and say to them, "I'm here. I'm Maria, I want you to support me." I wanted to knock on their doors and ask them what they wanted from me.

What changes they wanted to see in the city, and I think that made a huge difference. Miguel Alben, if I can mention their names, who were my number one supporters, I can tell you that I looked for support of previous selected officials, as much as I looked for support from the residents of the city, that was much more important for me to have that one-on-one contact with the residents of the city, that I still have. One of the first things that I did when I came into office was sign an executive order to have a constituent office at City Hall because we didn't have that space for the residents here. To me, it was really important for the residents of this city to know that they have a space here at City Hall that they can come to, that they could trust us, and that we're here to connect them with the resources that they need.

Melissa Harris-Perry: In that very personal way. So you came to office during the pandemic, and you made this decision for you and your staff to actually host the vaccine clinics, to host food distribution versus handing that over, for example, to the police or National Guard. Is that part of this hands-on approach that you were so attached to even in your campaigning?

Mayor Maria Rivera: I think back now and I'm like, ''How did we get all of this done?'' I had a pharmacist contact me before I was sworn in. I had already won the election, but I was still not sworn in. He contacted me and said, "I know that there's a huge need in Central Falls, I have 600 vaccines, do you want them?" I said to him, "Of course, I want them," so within two days we hosted our first clinic, and after that, we just continue hosting clinics. When I became mayor and I was sworn in, nothing had changed, we just continued the work that we were already doing.

It was a big challenge, but it was something that I needed to do, and there was nothing more important to me at that moment than to take care of the residents of the city, being the hardest hit-- I get emotional. Being the hardest-hit community at one point in the nation, I knew that I had to be out there and help the residents of the city. Hosting these clinics week after weeks on the weekends was really important for me. I couldn't think of anything else at the time. That was my focus. It was important for me to be part of these clinics; one, because I wanted people to feel safe.

There was a lot of questions about how safe this was and if they could trust. I have a large undocumented population here in Central Falls that trust me, that trust my team. It was important for me to be there because I wanted them to see that I truly cared about them and how important it was for me to get them vaccinated. I'm so grateful that I am the one in this position and that I don't expect other people to do this because this is my responsibility. This is a city that I'm running, I have to be the face of anything that happens in this city.

Melissa Harris-Perry: This conversation we're having is part of a series called Women Leading Locally. When I say to you Women Leading Locally, what does that mean to you?

Mayor Maria Rivera: Oh, it means so many different things. On March 8th, I brought 10 young girls into City Hall to spend the day with me, fourth graders. I had one third-grader and fourth graders that were chosen by the school district and by the charter schools here. These girls spent the day here from 12 o'clock until 4:30. To me, it was an opportunity that I never had.

I wanted to give them that opportunity to understand what it meant to be in a role like mine, and that they too can be in this position. I connected them with women who are powerful leaders. I had the Lieutenant governor come here, the secretary of EOHHS, Womazetta Jones, I had senators representatives, I had them have a panel with them so that the girls could ask questions. I said to them, "You take control of this conversation, this is your moment". I had a Zoom call with the Director of Internal Affairs for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and I had one of the young girls.

I had never met Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who's the director, and one of the young girls had a FaceTime call with her so that she could have a conversation. That was important to me because when I leave here, I need to leave a legacy for the women and for the young girls to know that they can also be here. The other thing that I'm doing is because I've had such a hard time with my mental health and just trying to navigate and accept that I can get support and help. I'm going to host next week a Mental Health Awareness Day for Women in Leadership, and I'm bringing a therapist from New York, [unintelligible 00:14:27] Salsbery, who I met in Puerto Rico at a conference.

When she started speaking about mental health, I could resonate and relate to everything that she was saying. It's such an important conversation for us women in leadership, and we hardly don't talk about it. I'm going to host a conference for 50 women next week, two sessions, so that she can come and talk to them, and that we can connect them to the resources that they need because mental health is important, and it's important for us to know that we have other women that are there to support us and that it's okay to get the help that you need.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Thank you for caring for yourself and for doing so much for your community. Mayor Maria Rivera of Central Falls, Rhode Island, thank you for joining us.

Mayor Maria Rivera: Thank you, Melissa. It's been a pleasure.

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