West teacher running for Tracy City Council

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Galilea Avina, Opinion Editor

Spanish Teacher Dr. Catalina Olvera is ambitiously starting her second year at West High. She has taught kindergarten and lower grade levels throughout her teaching career and then made the change of teaching high school. She sought to take more action in her community by running for Tracy’s City Council. “My inspiration was you guys, my students from last year. Since last year was my first year teaching high school, I saw the leadership that was taken nationally by your generation and I was inspired.” With the peaceful protest against some controversy last year and action being taken by our peers, she wanted to be a part of the change.

When asked what some of the disadvantages were to running for candidacy this year, she states that she is the “least known.” She continues, “Since I also work two jobs [night school teaching adults English] I know it will be difficult to get out to the community. But as far as the support, I know that a lot people that we reach out to want change and want a new direction for the city so I keep moving forward.”

 

Along with these disadvantages, Olvera has already had a taste of political heat and backlash. It is known that the race for candidacy can get intense. Even presidential candidates have been known to do whatever they can to win. Interestingly, the domains catalinaolvera.com  as well as amerhammudi.com, as of September 7, 2018 lead to their competitor’s website. That is, if either are searched online, instead of the corresponding candidates popping up, Vargas’s re-election campaign is displayed.

 

Olvera mentioned that her goal as candidate is to “set a path for your generation.” She continued, “I want to mentor you guys into leadership roles. And anyone who is willing to put themselves out there and I want to be able to mentor them into the right path.”

 

Dan Arriola, Juana Dement, Amer Hammudi, Dotty Nygard, Veronica Vargas and Catalina Olvera could be filling two seats on the City Council. Voters will fill the general election on November 6th.