She was a fierce opponent of Proposition 227, but the United States’ highest-ranking Salvadoran American lawmaker advised students at Belmont High School on Friday that it is time to move beyond the rancorous debate surrounding bilingual education.

“You don’t have time to be wrapped up in that issue,” Assemblywoman Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) told several dozen students gathered in the library of Belmont, a school in the Central American immigrant heartland west of downtown Los Angeles. “You’re wasting your time. And you don’t have time to waste.”

The measure, approved in the June 2 election, virtually eliminates bilingual educational programs in California schools.

Figueroa spoke a day after students from Belmont and at least two other Los Angeles high schools walked out of classes to protest Proposition 227.

Figueroa had scheduled her visit to Belmont long before Thursday’s protests. But the walkout remained a hot topic on campus.

Fresh from a bruising primary victory for a state Senate seat south of Oakland, Figueroa is one of an increasing number of Latino elected officials in California.

Most are of Mexican ancestry, often with families that have been in the United States for generations. Figueroa’s election to the Legislature has been a source of pride to Salvadorans, both in this country and in Central America.

“It feels good that a Salvadoran has made it that far,” said Melvin Rodriguez, an 18-year-old student at Belmont who arrived from San Salvador three years ago.

Figueroa’s immigrant parents settled in San Francisco in 1949, when there were few Salvadorans moving to this country. Today, with a larger Salvadoran population in the United States, Salvadoran American leaders, trying to boost community identity, point with pride to success stories like Figueroa’s.

Her success prompted a Salvadoran newspaper to dispatch a reporter to cover her Senate campaign.

Relishing her role, Figueroa has attempted to reach out to community organizations, especially in Southern California, which has the nation’s largest concentrations of Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants. It has been a process of rediscovery for Figueroa, who acknowledges not having dwelt much on her Salvadoran ancestry until she was contacted by Salvadoran American activists after her election in 1994.

“When I first started coming down to L.A., it was like coming to a foreign country,” said Figueroa, whose Assembly district has twice as many Asian Americans as Latinos and includes a swath of the upscale Silicon Valley. “I get a great deal of energy coming to L.A.”

Figueroa, the mother of a 24-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son, was born in San Francisco. Her parents became successful entrepreneurs, running delicatessens and laundries. Figueroa said she lived an upper-middle-class life–experiencing nothing like the working-class world surrounding Belmont High School.

The assemblywoman praised students’ opposition to Proposition 227.

She said it was designed to hold back and divide Latinos. Supporters, on the other hand, depicted the ballot measure as a means to help Latino students succeed.

Figueroa said the measure was part of an anti-Latino and anti-immigrant backlash that emerged four years ago with Proposition 187, which aimed to deprive illegal immigrants of social, health and educational services.

But despite her opposition to 227, she said the students should direct their energy toward getting a good education.

“Educate yourself and do it quickly,” she told them, stressing the crucial need to become fluent in English, even as they maintain their Spanish-speaking skills.

“The best way to fight back is to make sure that all of you end up in corporate America,” Figueroa told the Belmont students. “There’s absolutely no better revenge than winning.”



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