Antonio Villaraigosa - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/","20190226232856","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1551223736"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Antonio Villaraigosa - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="As Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa presided for eight years over the nation's second largest city, but his life might have turned out very differently. He grew up poor, in a tough neighborhood on the city's east side. A high school drop-out at 16, he was headed for trouble, but his mother would not give up on him. At her urging, he returned to school, attending night classes to finish his diploma. A sympathetic teacher saw his potential and paid his college entrance examination fees. At the University of California, Los Angeles, Villaraigosa distinguished himself as a student leader in the civil rights and antiwar movements. As a union organizer, labor leader and Speaker of the California State Assembly, he earned the admiration of allies and adversaries alike with his formidable gift for building consensus across party lines and ethnic divides. In 2005, he was elected Mayor in a historic landslide. The first Latino to lead the city in over 130 years, he won election with support from every community in the most diverse of American cities. Easily elected to a second term in 2009, he emerged as a dynamic national spokesman for education reform and expanded investment in America's transportation infrastructure. His administration increased the city's use of renewable energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality and saw crime drop to its lowest level in 60 years."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Antonio Villaraigosa - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">As Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa presided for eight years over the nation's second largest city, but his life might have turned out very differently. He grew up poor, in a tough neighborhood on the city's east side. A high school drop-out at 16, he was headed for trouble, but his mother would not give up on him. At her urging, he returned to school, attending night classes to finish his diploma. A sympathetic teacher saw his potential and paid his college entrance examination fees.</p> <p class="inputText">At the University of California, Los Angeles, Villaraigosa distinguished himself as a student leader in the civil rights and antiwar movements. As a union organizer, labor leader and Speaker of the California State Assembly, he earned the admiration of allies and adversaries alike with his formidable gift for building consensus across party lines and ethnic divides. In 2005, he was elected Mayor in a historic landslide. The first Latino to lead the city in over 130 years, he won election with support from every community in the most diverse of American cities.</p> <p class="inputText">Easily elected to a second term in 2009, he emerged as a dynamic national spokesman for education reform and expanded investment in America's transportation infrastructure. His administration increased the city's use of renewable energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality and saw crime drop to its lowest level in 60 years.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/villaraigosa-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">As Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa presided for eight years over the nation's second largest city, but his life might have turned out very differently. He grew up poor, in a tough neighborhood on the city's east side. A high school drop-out at 16, he was headed for trouble, but his mother would not give up on him. At her urging, he returned to school, attending night classes to finish his diploma. A sympathetic teacher saw his potential and paid his college entrance examination fees.</p> <p class="inputText">At the University of California, Los Angeles, Villaraigosa distinguished himself as a student leader in the civil rights and antiwar movements. As a union organizer, labor leader and Speaker of the California State Assembly, he earned the admiration of allies and adversaries alike with his formidable gift for building consensus across party lines and ethnic divides. In 2005, he was elected Mayor in a historic landslide. The first Latino to lead the city in over 130 years, he won election with support from every community in the most diverse of American cities.</p> <p class="inputText">Easily elected to a second term in 2009, he emerged as a dynamic national spokesman for education reform and expanded investment in America's transportation infrastructure. His administration increased the city's use of renewable energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality and saw crime drop to its lowest level in 60 years.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Antonio Villaraigosa - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/villaraigosa-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190226232856\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190226232856\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190226232856\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/villaraigosa-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/villaraigosa-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Antonio Villaraigosa</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Civic Leadership</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-3249 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-activist careers-politician"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">My mom really gave her kids this sense of the possible, this strong sense of self, a sense of community.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Former Mayor of Los Angeles</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> January 23, 1953 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8315" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8315 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8315 size-full lazyload" alt="Newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa poses for a photo on one of the city's beaches. As Mayor, Villaraigosa aggressively promoted tourism while vigorously defending the region's environment and quality of life. (漏 Gregg Segal/Corbis)" width="2280" height="2832" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611-306x380.jpg 306w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611-612x760.jpg 612w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2005: Newly-elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on one of the city’s beaches. As mayor, Villaraigosa aggressively promoted tourism while vigorously defending the region’s environment and quality of life. (Corbis)</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputTextFirst">The man who would become the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles was born Antonio Ramon Villar, Jr. A third-generation American on his mother’s side, his grandfather immigrated from Mexico early in the 20th century. Young Antonio Villar grew up in City Terrace, one of the neighborhoods making up the unincorporated area of East Los Angeles. His childhood was a difficult one. His father drank to excess and became violent when drunk. Villar, Sr. left the family when young Antonio was five years of age, leaving his mother to raise Antonio and his three siblings on her own. Although the family lacked many material comforts, Mrs. Villar instilled in all her children a respect for education and hard work, and a keen sense of justice and social responsibility. Young Antonio delivered newspapers and worked at other odd jobs to help support the family. At 15, he left his job at a Safeway grocery store to join a picket line supporting the United Farm Workers, who were leading a boycott against the growers of table grapes in California. Although he knew little of their cause at the time, he identified with the farm workers and their struggle. He later participated in the organized walkouts of Mexican-American high school students, protesting discrimination in the school system and the larger society.</p> <figure id="attachment_8306" style="width: 1907px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8306 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8306 size-full lazyload" alt="Newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa waves to supporters as a newspaper headline declares his victory during his post-election rally in 2005. (漏 Robert Galbraith/Reuters/Corbis)" width="1907" height="2200" data-sizes="(max-width: 1907px) 100vw, 1907px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592.jpg 1907w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592-329x380.jpg 329w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592-659x760.jpg 659w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Newly-elected Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa waves to supporters as a newspaper headline declares his victory.</figcaption></figure> <p>At age 16, a benign tumor in his spinal column temporarily paralyzed him. When he recovered and returned to his Catholic high school, he was no longer able to participate in organized sports and became increasingly alienated from school, his peers and society in general. By his own account, suppressed anger from his father’s abusive behavior contributed to his violent temper, and the teenage Antonio increasingly responded to frustration and difficult situations by lashing out violently. Expelled from Cathedral High School, he transferred to a public high school but quickly dropped out again when he was assigned to vocational classes rather than the college preparatory courses he had taken at Cathedral. He continued getting into fights and appeared to be caught in a downward spiral. His mother eventually persuaded him to return to school, where he caught the attention of a sympathetic English teacher, Herman Katz. With Katz’s encouragement and support, he took extra classes in the evenings and graduated on schedule. He entered East Los Angeles College, where his grades improved and he was able to transfer to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).</p> <p class="inputText">At UCLA, Tony Villar, as he was then known, was active in student politics and the movement opposing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. After graduating with a degree in history, he studied at the People’s College of Law, but failed to pass the California bar exam. With his ambitions for a legal career on hold, he became a field representative and organizer for the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). Over the next few years he won a reputation in labor circles as a gifted advocate. He became President of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, and of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1987, Antonio Villar married Corina Raigosa. The couple elected to merge their surnames, and would henceforth be known as Antonio and Corina Villaraigosa.</p> <figure id="attachment_8305" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8305 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8305 size-full lazyload" alt="Juanita Martinez leads supporters of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa on the eve of election day, 2005. Villaraigosa's election as the city's first Latino mayor in 103 years demonstrated the growing political power of America's Latino population. (漏 Robert Galbraith /Reuters/Corbis)" width="2280" height="1644" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921-380x274.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921-760x548.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Juanita Martinez leads supporters of Antonio Villaraigosa on the eve of election day, 2005. Villaraigosa’s election as the city’s first Latino mayor in 103 years demonstrated the growing political power of the Latino population.</figcaption></figure> <p>As a rising star in the labor movement, Antonio Villaraigosa became a familiar face to the city’s elected officials. In 1990, he was appointed to serve on the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, where he worked alongside the elected County Supervisors, as well as the Mayor of Los Angeles and members of the city councils of Los Angeles and neighboring cities. Villaraigosa’s friends in labor and local government had long urged him to consider running for public office, and the introduction of term limits to the California state legislature in the 1990s created just such an opportunity. In 1994 he entered the race for an open Assembly seat representing much of Northeast Los Angeles. Although he was opposed by the outgoing Assembly member and his allies in Sacramento, Villaraigosa won an upset victory in the Democratic primary and was easily elected in the general election.</p> <p class="inputText">In Sacramento, Villaraigosa quickly joined his party’s leadership team. In his first term, he was named Assistant Majority Leader (or whip) and by the end of his term was serving as Majority Leader. In 1998, he was elected Speaker of the Assembly. Term limits forced him to leave the Assembly in 2000; the following year he made his first run for Mayor of Los Angeles. He came in first in the initial round of voting, but was defeated by fellow Democrat James Hahn in a run-off. Villaraigosa won election to the Los Angeles City Council in 2003, defeating the incumbent councilman. Mayor Hahn’s firing of police chief Bernard Parks, an African American, cost the Mayor crucial support among African American voters, and Villaraigosa prepared for a rematch in 2005.</p> <figure id="attachment_8308" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8308 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8308 size-full lazyload" alt="U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York joins Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Los Angeles City Hall. Villaraigosa chaired Senator Clinton's presidential campaign in 2008. (漏 Paul Buck/epa/Corbis)" width="2280" height="1632" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648-380x272.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648-760x544.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">United States Senator Hillary Clinton of New York joins Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Los Angeles City Hall. Mayor Villaraigosa chaired Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008. (© Paul Buck/epa/Corbis)</figcaption></figure> <p>This time, Villaraigosa finished first in both the primary and the run-off elections, and on July 1, 2005, he was sworn in as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles. Although the city was founded under Spanish rule and, along with the rest of California, was part of Mexico until 1848, Villaraigosa was the first person of Latin American descent to serve as mayor since 1872. His election was widely seen as an affirmation of the growing political power of Latinos, not only in Los Angeles and California, but in the United States as a whole.</p> <p class="inputText">As he had in the State Assembly, Villaraigosa took pains to build coalitions across ethnic lines, and increasingly across ideological divides as well. After taking office, he charged head-on at the city’s most intractable challenges, including education and transportation, overcoming entrenched opposition within his own party. Almost immediately on taking office, he persuaded a number of the region’s leaders to drop their opposition to a long-delayed expansion of the city’s subway system.</p> <p class="inputText">One of his greatest challenges lay in improving the performance of the city’s schools. He angered many of his old allies in the UTLA by seeking direct mayoral control over failing schools and limitations to teacher tenure rights. Although he failed to gain complete control over the Los Angeles Unified School District, much of which lies outside of the city of Los Angeles, he created a partnership to oversee 22 underperforming schools.</p> <figure id="attachment_8309" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8309 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8309 size-full lazyload" alt="Former President Bill Clinton hosts a farewell party for outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Los Angeles City Hall on June 7, 2013. (漏 Kevan Brooks/AdMedia/AdMedia/Corbis)" width="2280" height="1506" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791-760x502.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2013: President Bill Clinton hosts a farewell party for outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Los Angeles City Hall.</figcaption></figure> <p>The Mayor faced personal challenges during his first term as well. After 20 years of marriage, Corina and Antonio Villaraigosa divorced in 2007, and some observers wondered whether personal issues would curtail his effectiveness as mayor, and prevent his re-election. The following year saw a major victory for Villaraigosa, when the voters of Los Angeles County passed Measure R, a ballot initiative the Mayor had supported vigorously, raising the sales tax by one-half cent to fund a number of badly needed public transportation projects. The measure enabled the County to invest $40 billion in new rail, road and highway projects. Despite the upheaval in the Mayor’s personal life, he was easily elected to a second term in 2009. Pundits raised the possibility of Villaraigosa running for the governorship of California in 2010, but he quickly affirmed his intention to complete his second term as mayor before seeking any other office.</p> <p class="inputText">The financial panic of 2008, and the subsequent deep recession, caused a massive drop in city revenues, requiring deep cuts to municipal services and painful concessions from the Mayor’s former allies in public employees’ unions. In spite of these constraints, Villaraigosa’s second term saw the fulfillment of many of his goals for the city.</p> <figure id="attachment_8311" style="width: 1904px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8311 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8311 size-full lazyload" alt="President Barack Obama laughs with Los Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on a 2012 visit to Los Angeles. Mayor Villaraigosa later chaired the Democratic National Convention that renominated President Obama in 2012. (AP Images/Alex Brandon)" width="1904" height="2468" data-sizes="(max-width: 1904px) 100vw, 1904px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846.jpg 1904w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846-293x380.jpg 293w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846-586x760.jpg 586w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2012: President Barack Obama laughs with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on a visit to Los Angeles. Mayor Villaraigosa later chaired the Democratic National Convention that renominated President Obama. (AP Images/Alex Brandon)</figcaption></figure> <p>The number of schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District meeting the state’s academic performance goals doubled during his time in office. Four new transit lines had opened, and four more were under construction by the end of his second term. Los Angeles became the first big city to synchronize all of its traffic lights, reducing travel time for drivers and eliminating a metric ton of carbon emissions. The Mayor also undertook billion-dollar modernizations of the city’s airport and harbor, and took 2,000 of the harbor’s diesel trucks off the road, reducing emissions by 80 percent. In a city once notorious for its poor air quality, the Villaraigosa administration met the Kyoto Protocol goal for reducing greenhouse gases four years ahead of schedule. By the end of his term, the city was getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources. The Mayor made good on a campaign pledge to increase the city’s park space, adding 650 acres of new park land, more than the previous 12 years combined. He also fulfilled his promise to put 1,000 more police officers on the streets, and saw crime drop to its lowest level in 60 years.</p> <figure id="attachment_8319" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8319 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8319 size-full lazyload" alt="Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa receives the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award from Awards Council member Ralph Nader during the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, California." width="2280" height="1864" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop-380x311.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop-760x621.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa receives the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award from Awards Council member Ralph Nader during the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, California.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputText">As President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Antonio Villaraigosa became a national spokesman for education reform and expanded investment in America’s transportation infrastructure. He received additional national exposure as Chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, which re-nominated President Barack Obama and set the stage for the President’s re-election in November. Term limits barred Antonio Villaraigosa from serving a third term as Mayor of Los Angeles, but leaving office at 60 years of age, he appeared prepared to consider further public service. Whatever his future plans, his impact on the City of Los Angeles has been unmistakable. The expansion of the city’s subway and light rail systems, and the turn away from suburban sprawl to a model of increased population density around public transit hubs, will remain an enduring hallmark of Antonio Villaraigosa’s leadership. In 2016, he married Patricia Govea at a ceremony in San Miguel Allende, Mexico.</p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2006 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.politician">Politician</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.activist">Activist</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> January 23, 1953 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">As Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa presided for eight years over the nation’s second largest city, but his life might have turned out very differently. He grew up poor, in a tough neighborhood on the city’s east side. A high school drop-out at 16, he was headed for trouble, but his mother would not give up on him. At her urging, he returned to school, attending night classes to finish his diploma. A sympathetic teacher saw his potential and paid his college entrance examination fees.</p> <p class="inputText">At the University of California, Los Angeles, Villaraigosa distinguished himself as a student leader in the civil rights and antiwar movements. As a union organizer, labor leader and Speaker of the California State Assembly, he earned the admiration of allies and adversaries alike with his formidable gift for building consensus across party lines and ethnic divides. In 2005, he was elected Mayor in a historic landslide. The first Latino to lead the city in over 130 years, he won election with support from every community in the most diverse of American cities.</p> <p class="inputText">Easily elected to a second term in 2009, he emerged as a dynamic national spokesman for education reform and expanded investment in America’s transportation infrastructure. His administration increased the city’s use of renewable energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality and saw crime drop to its lowest level in 60 years.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Olm2xBjdwPU?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=3226&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_53_39_29.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_53_39_29.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Former Mayor of Los Angeles</h2> <div class="sans-2">Washington, D.C.</div> <div class="sans-2">October 26, 2012</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When did you first know that you wanted to go into public service? What piqued your interest in that?</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/cWg5hqXSaVQ?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=0&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_45_21_21.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_45_21_21.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Antonio Villaraigosa: Let me distinguish public service from elected office.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I was 15 years old and I was working at a Safeway and there was a boycott, a picket line in front of the Safeway, and it was a picket line and a boycott against the grapes.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>United Farm Workers were participating in that boycott.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And almost from the very beginning — I have never worked in the fields, I didn’t speak any Spanish, I certainly didn’t even totally understand the plight of these workers — but I understood intuitively that I had to participate.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And ever since then, as a high school student, and college, really throughout my life, I have been committed to standing up and speaking out for people who don’t have a voice.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So I would say I was 15 years old.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I never was interested in actually running for office, but I did want to be a change agent.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I did want to be part of something bigger than me that empowered people and that made a difference.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8317" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8317 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8317 size-full lazyload" alt="Since he left office, projects that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa championed, such as the restoration of the Los Angeles River have continued his legacy. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)" width="2048" height="1360" data-sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la.jpg 2048w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Projects that Villaraigosa championed, such as the restoration of the Los Angeles River, have continued his legacy.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Why was that so important to you? What did you see that needed to be changed?</b></span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/6nB52bbeayE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=65&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_06_06_02.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_06_06_02.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I grew up in a home with a mom who really inculcated in her kids the sense of justice, right and wrong, fairness.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>This sense of responsibility to family, community, country.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I think early on — and as I said, even at 15 — I felt like where there was an injustice, a wrong, it was incumbent on me to be part of righting it, righting the wrong and searching for justice.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So I think it has a lot to do with the upbringing.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I grew up in a Catholic home. We believed in social justice, and our mom was very spiritual and very much focused on this responsibility that we all have to our families, as I said, to our communities and to our nation.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8310" style="width: 1680px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8310 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8310 size-full lazyload" alt="Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, addresses the Academy of Achievement at Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa, during the 2009 International Achievement Summit. " width="1680" height="1149" data-sizes="(max-width: 1680px) 100vw, 1680px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149.jpg 1680w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149-380x260.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149-760x520.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Golden Plate Awards Council member Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, addresses the Academy of Achievement at Singita Sabi Sand Reserve in South Africa, during the 2009 International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What person inspired you most when you were young?</b></span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/F5OwYxvJob8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=83&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_31_49_12.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_31_49_12.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I grew up in a home of domestic violence and alcoholism, and with a mom of just unconditional love and this indomitable spirit to overcome.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And she gave all of her kids — all four of her kids, but the three that I grew up with — she gave us this really sense of self, this strong character that we all have, this belief in the possible. She always emphasized education.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>She would say to us things like, “Maybe you’re poor, but nobody can take away your education.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Education is very, very important.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So my mom was, without question, the most important influence in my life and the person who I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>There are a lot of people who have come in my life that I have looked to and look up to, but nobody has had the influence on my life that my mom has.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8304" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8304 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8304 size-full lazyload" alt="Antonio Villaraigosa photographed at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Los Angeles in 2005, shortly before he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles. (漏 Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/Corbis)" width="2280" height="1759" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030-380x293.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030-760x586.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Antonio Villaraigosa photographed at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Los Angeles in 2005, shortly before he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles. Villaraigosa served as Mayor until July of 2013. (Lucy Nicholson)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You spoke of education and how important that was to your mother. Were there any teachers who inspired you, or played a big role in your life?</b></span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/rItVkuI0_tM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=0&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_29_18_04.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_29_18_04.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Antonio Villaraigosa: The other person, the stranger if you will, that I talk about all the time and particularly since I’ve first ran for office — I was asked by someone, “Who was an inspiration in your life?” just as you are asking me now — and of course I started with my mom, and they said, “Yeah, okay, but what about a stranger? Someone else?”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And that someone else is Herman Katz. <span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Herman Katz was my teacher at Roosevelt High School. Now let me backtrack for a moment.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I went to Catholic school for most of my life.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>When my mom couldn’t afford it, we went to public school.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I tell people it was a Catholic school that gave me a foundation, but I was kicked out of high school.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I led the walkouts at high school, and I got in a lot of fights and was kind of on a road, a bit lost. <span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So I got kicked out of Catholic school and I went to public school.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And even though I was getting college prep classes and scored fairly high on academic tests, back in the 1960s they put you in shop classes.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/UnJY7XTDOIE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=0&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_01_33_13.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Villaraigosa-Antonio-2012-XDCAM-Z1244004.00_01_33_13.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Going to public school, they put me in shop classes and basic reading classes and basic ed classes.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I dropped out.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And then I decided to go back, and I met a teacher who I was taking a basic reading class with, and he realized that I had a little more on the ball than that.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And he asked me to take a test, and he said, “You’re probably not going to do real well on the test, but I want you to take it anyway.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I guess I aced it or something.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And the rest was something I have chronicled over the years, and that was a guy who just pushed me to take the SAT, offered to drive me to take it because I registered late and I was going to have to take it at another school and my car was broken.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Wanted to pay for it when I made excuses about<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I didn’t have the money.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>When I got a fairly high verbal score, wanted me to go to college and just pushed me, pushed me, pushed me.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I have always told the story of Herman Katz, because this was a stranger who didn’t know me, but saw something in me and really pushed me to excel. And when I met him, finally, when I was running for office some 23 years after graduating, he didn’t remember me.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I always tell people he didn’t remember me because he helped so many people.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I was just one of many that he just set a high bar for and really pushed.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So Herman Katz is someone who is still around, and I talk to him from time to time, and he is still an inspiration.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Because — a little different than my mom, we know your mom would be your inspiration — this was a stranger, a teacher who dedicated his life to making other lives better.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And Herman Katz is his name.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8307" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8307 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8307 size-full lazyload" alt="Antonio Villaraigosa takes his oath of office as 41st Mayor of the City of Los Angeles. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, administers the oath while Villaraigosa's wife Corina holds the Bible. Dignitaries from across the United States attended the historic ceremony on July 1, 2005. (漏 Ted Soqui/Corbis)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477.jpg 2280w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190226232856im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226232856/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Antonio Villaraigosa takes his oath of office as 41st Mayor of the City of Los Angeles. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, administers the oath while Villaraigosa’s wife, Corina Raigosa, holds the Bible. Dignitaries from across the United States attended the historic ceremony on July 1, 2005. (© Ted Soqui/Corbis)</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>This teacher, Herman Katz, saw something in you. Did you feel that you were destined to be an achiever or were you uncertain what your path would be?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I just shared this story with a group of high school students that are part of my partnership schools. I have 22 schools, 18,000 kids. I have taken over the lowest performing schools in Los Angeles, middle schools, elementary schools and high schools. And I shared the story with them.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I dropped out of school. I was getting in fights all the time. I came home one night and I was full of blood because I had been in a big fight, and my mom thought I had been severely injured, and I hadn’t. And that morning I’m having breakfast and she walks in and she saw a big bandage here and she says, “What’s that?” And I said it was a tattoo, and she started to cry. I had been kicked out of one school, dropped out of another school, getting in fights, just kind of lost. And she said to me, “You don’t realize it, but you are destined…” She started to cry and she said, “You are destined for greatness and you don’t even know it.” And she started to cry and I kind of just dismissed it. But you know, interesting enough, I never ever forgot it. And I can’t tell you that I knew that I was destined for anything. It was something that I thought about, and that’s why I went back to school. And I did graduate on time. I took classes at night, I graduated on time — with a 1.4 grade point average — but I did graduate on time.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">With my kids, my own kids, I always say to them, “Do you believe in you?” And I say that to them recalling what my mom used to say to me. I always tell the story, and I told these kids the other day this story. When my kids leave the car, and I would drop them off at school, I would always say, “Do you believe in you?” And one time my son got upset. He was in high school and he said, “Dad, would you quit that? That’s so corny. I’m not going to answer that.” I said okay. So he gets out of the car. I roll down the window, and I scream, “Do you believe in you?” And of course, he covered his ears and walked on. And after that, he always said, “Yes, dad.” He is 23 years old, he still says, “Dad, I believe in me.” I ask my kids to do that, and I ask the kids that I work with in my schools to do that. Whenever I go to the schools, I say, “Do you believe in you?”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I believe that I am here today because I had a mom who made me believe in myself, and over time I internalized that. And I think she did that with all of her kids. We grew up, as I said, in a home of domestic violence and alcoholism. We were fairly poor, but we never really knew it. She made education a priority, and more importantly, she made us believe in ourselves. And in my schools that is the most important thing that I try to bring to the schools, to tell these kids that, “You can do it. You can fly to the moon. You could reach for the stars. You could do anything you want to do if you work hard, if you get an education.” So no, I never thought I was destined for anything, except that I think over time I realized that I had something to excel with, and that something was this belief that it was possible.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You talk about growing up in very tough circumstances with domestic violence, with alcohol abuse. It is something that keeps recurring in each generation. Why do you think we haven’t been able to put that to rest or stem the tide?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I’ve met many people who have grown up in alcoholic homes — or abusive homes of some sort, whether physical or psychological — and I say to people, “You gotta take responsibility,” and “You gotta stop the cycle.” You’ve got to just say, “It stops here.” And that is not always easy, because you don’t necessarily have the role model for it. But you’ve got to stop the violence. I do a lot of work around domestic violence. I feel very strongly about it. I always tell people, “You gotta break the cycle.” You’ve got to just say, “I gotta take responsibility.” And I think that’s what I finally did, probably later in life than some. Probably late teens, early 20s, in college, when I started realizing you can’t feel sorry for yourself. You’ve just got to move ahead. I think those years when I was kind of getting in trouble and getting kicked out and dropping out and fighting all the time, I think it was a lot of anger, and it was my way of coping. And then over time — and I think it was in college — where I just said, “You know, you gotta let it go. You gotta move forward. You gotta take responsibility for your life.” So I think that is how you break the cycle. And you talk about it, you can’t be afraid to talk about it. My dad has never really lived with us since we were five. He gets very upset that I talk about it. But my mother said to us, “The way out, the way to break the cycle, is to lay it out, just to say what happened, say it was wrong, and to move on.” And so I do and I have.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Do you think we are doing a good enough job of conveying that message, or reaching out to families in those circumstances?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I don’t think we invest enough in mental health, in family support, in the kind of societal investments in these issues that really can help people heal and move ahead. I was lucky. As I said, I had a great mom, and all of what she went through, she ended up being kind of a peer counselor or advisor. She learned all about rehabilitation counseling, where they really helped her heal from all of that. And while her kids didn’t necessarily do that, I think we all more or less moved on. But it would have been a lot better if there had been more support. Most healthcare plans don’t have mental health. They don’t have counseling and if they do, it’s very minimal. We really don’t provide enough in the way of that kind of support in this country.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When you started out, after college, did you feel like you had opportunities at your feet, or were you afraid of failing?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I have read different books about the fear of success. I think we all naturally have some fear of failure. Some might call it a fear of success. Not making the total effort so you could say, “I didn’t do it because I didn’t make the total effort.” I can’t tell you that that was a dominant trait in me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">My mom really gave her kids this sense of the possible, this strong sense of self, a sense of community. But none of us are shrinking violets. As an example, just to give you an example of my mom — and this is the 1950s, early 1960s, before the Civil Rights Act and a lot of discrimination. My mom was a big believer in the classics, so my mom always emphasized that we read the classics. And she told me one day, “I want you to get <i>Black Beauty</i>. You are going to love that book.” And I went to the library, and I went to check it out, and the librarian stopped me, and she says, “You can’t check this book out.” And I said, “Why not? ” And she said, “Because it’s too sophisticated, you can’t read it.” And I said, “Yes, I can.” And she says, “No, you can’t.” And I said, “Yes, I can. I’ll read it.” She said, “No, put it back.” And I put it back, went home, told my mom. My mom was apoplectic. Incensed. She marched over to the library, she got the book, she said, “My son is taking this book out.” She got in a fairly heated argument with the librarian, said, “Well, why didn’t you ask him to read it if you thought he couldn’t?” I think she saw a little bit of discrimination on some level, by the way the librarian talked to me and talked to her. But she was so adamant and so strong. She gave us examples like that all the time. She was always a very strong advocate, and so she taught her kids to be very strong, to stand up, to not let anybody kind of walk over you. We were lucky. So I can’t tell you that I really had this fear of success or failure, though I probably acted out that way, particularly early on.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How do you approach solving problems, as a public official or in any other capacity?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: Just because of the volume of things that I get, I hire really, really talented, good people. Just usually a high education level, went to some of the best schools. A number of them have made a mark in their lives, particularly at the higher levels in my administration. I trust them to really get into the weeds and the details of public policy. And then I also hire a broad cross-section of people, philosophically and politically. They are not all of the same ilk, and I like them to debate. So they come into my office, and we are working on an issue, and I like to hear from the pro-business side and the pro-labor side and the pro-environment side. I love to hear them advocate the nuances of the policy. I can’t tell you that — with my schedule and the number of things that I do — that I get down into the weeds of the public policy. I hear chief executives say that they do that all the time, and my response to that is, “How do they do their job?” In fact, I have seen some of them get so into the detail that they lose the forest through the trees, right? So I like the debate. I like them to challenge one another, and I always tell them, “Don’t get upset. Make your arguments. And if your arguments aren’t selling, then maybe you need to go back and rethink the arguments, but make your case.” And then over the years I learned to trust my gut. Very few issues are black and white. You have to go with your core, with who you are, with your sense of right and wrong. And sometimes we can’t be afraid of that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What made you choose to run for elected office as opposed to other venues? What made you feel that that was where you were going to make a contribution?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: Well, let me go back a little bit. As I said,聽</span><span class="s1">I first got involved on a picket line in the great boycott at 15, led the walkouts at my high school over issues of student governance and course offerings and our dress code, and just a number of issues like that. I’ve been involved ever since. In college, it was right after all the changes around affirmative action, and almost from the beginning they started closing the door and limiting it, and so we got involved in that. During the carpet bombing of Cambodia and Laos, was a leader in opposition. And really have stayed involved my whole life. I was involved in the labor movement, involved in voter registration efforts. Again, although I didn’t speak Spanish and didn’t grow up in that milieu — I mean, I am a third generation American of Mexican descent, so my grandpa came here a hundred years ago to Los Angeles from Mexico — I just knew intuitively I had to stand up for immigrants, so I’ve been involved with defending their civil rights as well. So the labor movement after that, I have been involved my entire life.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">So it wasn’t until I was almost 40 — 15 to 40, 25 years — that I started thinking about running for office, and it was only because people would tell me for maybe a decade, when I would ask them to support this candidate or that one, “Why don’t you run?” And I didn’t run at the time because I was kind of disillusioned with electoral politics, and I saw too many people that just didn’t have the courage of their convictions, weren’t interested in really making a real difference, just wanted to get reelected. And I wasn’t interested in that. Finally ran, ran for the State Assembly. Was kind of one of those races where most people didn’t think it was possible, it was an upset of sorts. Ran against the power structure in Sacramento, won. Almost immediately, I think I was there three weeks, they made me Majority Whip, two years later Majority Leader, and the year after that, Speaker. And I have been involved since then. I made this audacious run for mayor when I was at nine percent in the polls and the person I was going to be running against was at 72. A year later, I beat him in the primary, lost in the runoff. Went into the private sector for a bit, ran for city council for two years and then decided, coming back from the Democratic Convention, that I was going to run for mayor. And again, in an upset, won in the primary and then in the runoff. So I can’t tell you it was something that I thought a lot about until I did it. And once I did it, I went for it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Looking back over your own career, do you think that politics has gotten nastier or is it pretty much the same?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I do think that politics is nastier.聽</span><span class="s1">Even when I was taking on the war, I knew intuitively — and I was at, what, 19 or 20 when I was taking it on — I knew intuitively that we shouldn’t take on the men and women who were serving in the battlefield. I never bought into that. And that was the era when people couldn’t distinguish between a war that we shouldn’t be in and the people who were fighting that war. From the very beginning, even in the labor movement, I was always the problem solver, the conciliator, the person who brought disparate groups together. You know, at a time in the ’60s when there was a lot of ethno-centrism and nationalism, I was never that person. I was always the person that worked with whites and blacks and Latinos and Asians and with a broad cross-section of people. So I took easily to this notion of civility and statesmanship and compromise, because as I said, I was 40 when I finally got in, so I knew that if I was going to get into that world, compromise was important. I’ll tell you something, I am now in the twilight of — certainly my tenure as mayor — and I am not sure I want to stay in. I don’t like the partisanship, the vitriol, the finger pointing, the blame-gaming, the lack of statesmanship and civility and compromise that I think is essential to moving ahead, in a country that is so evenly divided and one that just calls on us to put the country before the party and before our own philosophical and ideological underpinnings.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I do think it’s gotten a lot more partisan. I’m national co-chair for President Obama, I was the national chair for Hillary, I was the co-chair for John Kerry and worked on behalf of Gore, co-chair as well. I just chaired the Democratic Party convention. But I’m a democrat with a small “d.” I believe my country is more important than my party. My own personal ideology is nice, but it’s just mine. And that you have to work with people who have other viewpoints. That’s what this is supposed to be about: problem solving, working together, taking each other on, engaging in the battle of ideas. But as I said, if it works with my staff, it should work for us too. Just ’cause it’s your idea doesn’t mean it’s right, and they got elected too and you’ve got to work with them, and you’ve got to, wherever you can, work to meld policy that is broadly reflective of a broad spectrum of ideas.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Why do you think we’ve lost the ability to compromise, to listen and to be civil in politics?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This clip should be editied differerently. He stumbles over “obscene amounts of money” Antonio Villaraigosa: I don’t think this is a permanent state, by any stretch. I’m a student of history and know that we go through ebbs and flows. I think, obviously, the obscene amount of money involved in elections create higher stakes. Obviously the obscene amount of money that is spent on elections today, special interests exacerbate the conflicts. I think the parties — the country’s so evenly divided — raise the stakes. I think primaries also sometimes lead to people getting elected who are just on the extremes, don’t feel like they need to compromise. I think redistricting and the focus on maintaining party power contributes to that. I think we are at a time where there is a lack of civility, not just in politics, but across the board. So there are a number of reasons for it, and analysts and all of that probably provide more insights. I would say, from my vantage point, I think it is essential that we — in both parties — promote a more civil discourse, recognize and value compromise and problem solving. My criticism of legislators, both state and local and particularly federal, is that they are oftentimes so focused on the debate, and on the idea, and not on results and getting things done. I think mayors and governors — but particularly mayors — have to pull up their sleeves and get things done. I like to say there is not a Democrat or Republican way to make people safe or pick up the trash. You’ve just got to do it. And working through these things, I think, should be something that we all put a higher value on.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>We were speaking to former Mayor Daley of Chicago, and he said he would like to see the federal government more dispersed, with some of the different agencies in different regions of the country, so that everything isn’t so centralized in Washington. What do you think about that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I think there’s a pervasive feeling around the country that people on the Beltway are very insular, myopic in their views, not sensitive to the breadth and diversity of the country, the regional differences and the like. I don’t know what the answer is. Some measure of devolution probably makes sense. I think we also need to — not so much devolve the agencies — but give cities and states more in the way of direct resources. Set some standards, but cut out the middleman, if you will, and some of that bureaucracy. It’s not easy to do, though. I recognize that. You’ve got to tie money to results and there have to be standards.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You’ve talked about the debates you set up with your staff. Are there other ways you’ve found to manage competing points of view?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I always look for the common ground. I always look for, “Where’s the place that most of us can land, feel comfortable about finding agreement?” I try to listen to what people are looking for. And I give people respect. A lot of times people want to be listened to, and they want to be respected. When I was Speaker (of the State Assembly), I would say, “Don’t get married to your bill.” Keep an open mind. Try to promote an open mind when it comes to trying to resolve differences, and promote this notion that, “Look, we’re here to get something done, not to stand firm and rigid in our viewpoints.” So create an atmosphere that’s focused on results.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What are the biggest challenges that you see our cities facing in the next two decades?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: There’s a big debate going on: Is it equality of opportunity or equality of results? I think most of us in this country believe it’s equality of opportunity. If that’s true, that means we have to invest in education. We can’t talk about equality of opportunity without those kinds of investments. I’m here because I got an education, because I finished high school. I graduated from college, I went to law school after that. It’s very important, particularly in this society — and in an economy, rather — predicated on intellectual capital, that we give people the skills that they need to succeed in a technological society, and one where education and intellect are at a higher premium. So I think one of the big challenges for our cities is to have world-class public schools that can compete in math and science and engineering, that develop critical thinking in our young people, that teach them the importance of citizenship and the like. I think it’s very important that our cities focus on safety. People left cities after World War II in no small part because they weren’t as safe as the suburbs and rural areas. And it’s very important that we focus on safety, that people in cities have this sense that their families are safe, their neighborhoods are places where they can enjoy a quality of life that has safety at its core.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I think it’s critical that we make investment in infrastructure. Our economy has to have good roads and bridges and highways and public transportation systems and airports and ports, and fiber optic cable and all of the things that are for the information superhighway, all of the things that are very, very important to growing our economy. And then we’ve got to be focusing on what we do to reduce our carbon footprint, to conserve our natural resources. So I like to say that we need to grow greener, we need to grow together, we need to grow more civic-minded, we need to grow safer. And we need to grow smarter. We need to make investments that really give the next generation of city dwellers at least a city, state or a nation as good as the one we’ve got. The goal should be an even better one. So that means investments. And then, finally, I think cities need to leverage their assets — their people, their institutions of higher learning, their public schools, the infrastructure — for the common good and for lifting more people up. And for creating a society where people recognize that they have a responsibility to one another, because that’s what cities are in their essence. You’ve got to have a social compact where people feel like we all have rights and responsibilities.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Early in your term as Mayor, you made a decision to take over the worst performing schools in Los Angeles. Why did you feel that the Mayor’s office could run them better?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: I was tired of the excuses of the left-and-right paradigm. The right says, “All we need is reform.” They talk about vouchers. They talk about pay-for-performance and charters. The left says, “We need more money. Many of our failing schools are in the poorest areas of our nation, and what they need and we need is more money. You don’t understand how difficult it is to teach those people.” And I just didn’t buy it. When people say, “Well, those kids are poor. They grew up in broken homes. Their parents didn’t go to college,” they are talking about me. I can read and write. I just didn’t buy it. So what I’ve said is, “We do need to make more investments, but we need to tie that money and those investments to results.” We need to understand that we can’t keep on defending a broken system. We have to create a culture of innovation, a culture of creativity, a laboratory for best practices, a metrics-driven framework that says, “We are going to target our money and tie it to results, set high standards.” I said that you’ve got to walk into those schools and say, “Every kid can learn. I believe in you. Do <i>you</i> believe in you?” So I took on these schools because I just know how important it is for our city. When I took them over we were losing 50 percent our kids dropping out. We will not be able to compete as the world-class global city that we are if we are losing 50 percent of our kids, if 80 percent of them are scoring at the bottom 20 percentile.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I’m proud this year. On the academic performance index, which the state says is at 800, this year my partnership schools, if we were a school district, over 2500 students — and we have 16,000 students, 22 schools — we were the number one school district in the state in increasing, as a system, on the academic performance index. We went up 34 points in one year. I think the school district did about 16, the state a little less than that. My high school, Jordan High School, which I took over after one year, they closed it down, reconstituted it. It’s a high school in Watts, among the lowest performing in L.A. They moved up 93 points. We’re co-located with Green Dot, a charter school. They also moved up, they moved up 23 points. That high school was the number one improving high school in the state. And that’s true even though I have a big thick union contract that focuses a lot on rights, not on responsibilities. Even though every decision is made by seniority and it makes it very difficult to hire the best and the brightest. But we did that just setting high standards.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Imagine what we could do if we were working in collaboration and we could bring in the best people and then pay them. I mean, ultimately we are 47th or 48th in per-pupil spending in California. There is a correlation between how much you are spending and what you are getting out. But it’s not a strict one-for-one correlation. I’ve said we’ve got to show people that we’re doing more with the money that we have. We’ve got to create a culture of best practices and innovation, and set high standards and get results. And then we’ve got to convince folks that if we’re going to have world-class schools — not just schools that are improving — we’ve got to do a lot more to make those investments. We’re doing things like blended learning, where we use computers and computer programs to help kids in math and English, because they’re all over the map in terms of their skill level. It allows teachers to have kids work at their own level, lift them up, and then the teacher — obviously, that’s why it’s called blended learning — augments that. We’re seeing some real important results. But we’ve had to raise money for the blended learning, and we’ve had to train teachers to use these programs. So schools in our cities are so critical. I tell people, people buy a home, they look for great public schools in the neighborhood. So if a great neighborhood is anchored by a great public school in the neighborhood, then great cities have to be anchored by great public schools in their city. That has to be our challenge.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You talked about the social compact that we need in the cities. What are three things we could do right now in an urban environment — whether it’s Los Angeles specifically or our cities in general — to strengthen and build that social compact?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: Again, I think we ought to make major investments in our schools. That is critical. That is the only way to get to equality of opportunity.聽</span><span class="s1">I think we need to fix our broken immigration system. If you look at vibrant cities around the country, just go look at them, they all have immigrants. It’s the one area that — because they are not legal — we feel that it’s okay to just treat them any way. They don’t have rights, sub-human to some. I think in our cities, solving this and fixing this broken immigration system is very, very important. The third? I think it’s really important for the social compact that we have a safety net. We can’t just leave people behind. Yes, we can and must emphasize personal responsibility. We must reward work as well, and create incentives for people to work, workforce training and giving people the wherewithal to be successful. But we also have to have a safety net. Great societies are not measured by how many rich and wealthy people we have. It’s measured by what we do for the least among us, and how open and broad that path to equality of opportunity is. We can’t just talk about it, it’s got to be real.聽</span><span class="s1">So those are the three things just off the top of my head. I hadn’t thought about the question before you asked.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What do you think about people who don’t vote? Is that a problem?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: It’s a big problem.聽</span><span class="s1">People died for the right to vote. There was a Civil Rights Act and a Voting Rights Act that gave me the opportunity to be Mayor of Los Angeles, the first for my community in 133 years, in a city that was founded by settlers from New Spain and what is today Mexico. That wouldn’t have happened without the Voting Rights Act. President Obama wouldn’t be here as the President of the United States without a Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act. Women wouldn’t have the franchise without a movement that changed our constitution to provide them that vote. Non-property owners wouldn’t have the right if we hadn’t made changes in the laws over the years. It is important to vote. It’s a sacred privilege of citizenship, and we all have a responsibility to make our voices heard. I do get frustrated that we have to work so hard to get people to vote. And I’ll be honest, I don’t buy that, “Hey, I’m turned off by the system, I won’t make a difference.” Come on! You have a responsibility, we all do. And while not everybody can run for office — or wants to rather — not everybody wants to run for office, we all have a role to play and one of them is to vote. So people do.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What advice would you give to somebody who was interested in public service and wanted to run for elected office today?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: The advice I’d give to somebody who wants to run for elected office would be, “Don’t run if you’re looking for a career.” Don’t run if you’re unwilling to make unpopular decisions. Be true to yourself. Be willing to be for what’s right, or what you think is right, regardless of whether or not it’s popular, or regardless of whether or not most people agree. Understand that they got elected too, and you’ve got to work with other people. And you’ve got to focus on getting things done, because if we’re going to get more people to believe in the process, they’ve got to see that we’re moving forward, that we’re getting things done. Seek transformation and not just nibbling around the edges. They’ll have the patience to know that the road to transformation is a long one and might not — it’s not overnight. When I finally decided to run for office at almost 40, it was after 25 years as an activist and the realization that change doesn’t come overnight; you’ve got to work on it, a little bit at a time.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What matters most in life to you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: Family.聽</span><span class="s1">These jobs are jobs where people are very solicitous of you and you sometimes drink the Kool-Aid, if you will. What’s important is family. What’s important is being true to yourself, being able to look in the mirror and feel good about what you see in the reflection. I think that’s important. I tell my kids, “Dad doesn’t have much in the wealth, in fact, very little of it. Not too much in that bank account, but I have a name, and my name stands for something.” And I think it’s important that you have integrity, that you walk away from public life and public service, and your time was worth it, and it meant something. I think that is important. I guess that is it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Is there anything we didn’t ask you that you would like to discuss.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Antonio Villaraigosa: My goodness! There’s nothing you didn’t ask me!</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Thank you for speaking with us. It’s been a pleasure.</b></span></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Antonio Villaraigosa Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>15 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la.jpg" data-image-caption="Since he left office, projects that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa championed, such as the restoration of the Los Angeles River, have continued his legacy. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/villaraigosa-la-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.77105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030.jpg" data-image-caption="Antonio Villaraigosa photographed at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Los Angeles in 2005, shortly before he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles. (漏 Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030-380x293.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15314030-760x586.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3126079447323" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Villaraigosa.jpg" data-image-caption="Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa" data-image-copyright="Villaraigosa" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Villaraigosa-289x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Villaraigosa-579x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2418300653595" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611.jpg" data-image-caption="Newly-elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa poses for a photo on one of the city's beaches. As Mayor, Villaraigosa aggressively promoted tourism while vigorously defending the region's environment and quality of life. (漏 Gregg Segal/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611-306x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OUT15801611-612x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Mayor-Antonio-Villaraigosa.jpg" data-image-caption="Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is interviewed on the empty Interstate 405 freeway on the west side of Los Angeles, September 29, 2012. (REUTERS/Dan Krauss)" data-image-copyright="Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa is interviewed on the empty Interstate 405 freeway on the west side of Los Angeles" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Mayor-Antonio-Villaraigosa-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Mayor-Antonio-Villaraigosa-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_6371.jpg" data-image-caption="L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visits the Ntshuxekani Preschool in Justicia, South Africa during the 2009 International Achievement Summit. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="IMG_6371" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_6371-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_6371-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_5142.jpg" data-image-caption="Antonio Villaraigosa participates in a one-on-one discussion of leadership and public service with broadcast journalist Sam Donaldson during the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_5142-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_5142-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2969283276451" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846.jpg" data-image-caption="President Barack Obama laughs with Los Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on a 2012 visit to Los Angeles. Mayor Villaraigosa later chaired the Democratic National Convention that renominated President Obama in 2012. (AP Images/Alex Brandon)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846-293x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AP100420117846-586x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149.jpg" data-image-caption="Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, addresses the Academy of Achievement at Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa, during the 2009 International Achievement Summit. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="5149" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149-380x260.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5149-760x520.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66052631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791.jpg" data-image-caption="Former President Bill Clinton hosts a farewell party for outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Los Angeles City Hall on June 7, 2013. (漏 Kevan Brooks/AdMedia/AdMedia/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-47913791-760x502.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648.jpg" data-image-caption="U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York joins Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Los Angeles City Hall. Villaraigosa chaired Senator Clinton's presidential campaign in 2008. (漏 Paul Buck/epa/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648-380x272.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-18006648-760x544.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477.jpg" data-image-caption="Antonio Villaraigosa takes his oath of office as 41st Mayor of the City of Los Angeles. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, administers the oath while Villaraigosa's wife, Corina, holds the Bible. Dignitaries from across the United States attended the historic ceremony on July 1, 2005. (漏 Ted Soqui/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15493477-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.1532625189681" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592.jpg" data-image-caption="Newly-elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa waves to supporters as a newspaper headline declares his victory during his post-election rally in 2005. (漏 Robert Galbraith/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592-329x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15350592-659x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.72105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921.jpg" data-image-caption="Juanita Martinez leads supporters of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa on the eve of election day, 2005. Villaraigosa's election as the city's first Latino mayor in 103 years demonstrated the growing political power of America's Latino population. (漏 Robert Galbraith/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921-380x274.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/42-15349921-760x548.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.81710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop.jpg" data-image-caption="Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa receives the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award from Awards Council member Ralph Nader during the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, California. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop-380x311.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-06Academy_1228-crop-760x621.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared 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Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Gl眉ck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190226232856/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. 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