Maria has a B.A. Degree in Community Studies from UC Santa Cruz where she graduated with triple honors and received the William H. Friedland Award. For the past 7 years Maria has worked in Marketing and Public Relations for the private sector. Maria is an animal lover and a firm supporter of our First Amendment Rights. She strongly believes in the power of democracy to bring positive change in our communities and people’s lives.
Maria has always been committed to social and economic justice issues. During her student years at De Anza College she worked at the Institute of Community and Civic Engagement, where she served as community liaison between students, faculty and staff, nonprofit and community organizations. Maria also organized events for groups and causes including LGBTQ, Environmental Sustainability, Human Rights, Immigration, and Women’s Rights.
As a student in UC Santa Cruz Maria interned with Working Partnerships where she supported social causes affecting Santa Clara County working families. She also conducted policy research on economic and social justice issues while also supporting the Interfaith Council on Economic Justice by helping organize rallies and events for the benefit of our community.
As citizen of this country and proud resident of Santa Clara County, Maria strives every day to honor our country and our people. She has contributed to social justice campaigns, given money to animal and environmental organizations and causes, signed petitions for social justice and reform, and diligently fulfilled her privilege as an American citizen by voting in every election since she became a naturalized citizen.
Maria is running because no one is addressing the roots of the problems affecting our people and our tax dollars, so it is time that Santa Clara County taxpayers have one of their own to represent them, to truly fight for their rights and interests.
As someone free from political and special interest manipulation, Maria will fight to increase government transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility; she will fight for our community, our families and the best use of our tax dollars.
Many of us downplay the importance of an open, transparent and accountable government. But the reality is that as long as the existing problems are not addressed and resolved, many of the promises made by politicians will remain just promises, election after election. The County cannot grow up and efficiently serve its citizens when it is rotting in corruption, incompetence, abuse of its people, and waste of resources, all at the expense of our tax dollars. As County Supervisor Maria’s three focus areas include:
Fiscal Responsibility - Prioritize the needs of residents so that the fiscal budget addresses the priorities and concerns of people while avoiding the current trend of frivolous and wasteful spending we have seen in our government for the past decade. Only through enforcing fiscal responsibility will we be able to free up the resources to make the critical investments in our County that our voters deserve.
Government Accountability - Address the existing County cronyism that negatively affects the quality and efficiency of services rendered by the County government in order to protect the public welfare and save taxpayers money. Implement stricter laws that protect government whistleblowers from retaliation, and implement zero tolerance for incompetence, bullying and wasteful spending of our tax dollars by executive management in County government through enforcing the merit rule system and implementing "Just Culture," in action not just words.
Government Transparency –Decisions affecting us all must be not only open to the public, but also welcome citizens’ critique and input. I will work with community leaders, stakeholders and the public to find practical solutions to our problems.As a Supervisor I will prioritize the needs of Santa Clara County residents. I will advocate and fight for taxpayers, workers, small businesses and the public welfare including our children, youth, seniors, women, working families and our planet.
Maria supports issues that matter to us such as living wages, affordable housing, education, human rights, healthcare, public safety, open spaces, transportation, and traffic relief.
So, if you are tired of politics as usual, join Maria in her effort. Together we can improve the system, force accountability and transparency in our government and produce the positive changes that people in our community wants to see.
