Friday, August 29, 2025

A Young Senator Enters History with Crisis at Her Back

By EDDIE RIVERA

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez ceremonially sworn in at PCC ceremony

Last Saturday morning, the freshly restored walls of Sexson Auditorium at Pasadena City College reverberated with applause, and cheers as hundreds of supporters and dignitaries gathered for the ceremonial swearing-in of Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, currently the youngest member of the California State Senate and already one of its most closely watched new voices.

The official oath had been administered months earlier in Sacramento, but the belated community celebration carried its own symbolism.

“Joy is what will sustain us,” said Juliana Serrano, the master of ceremonies, reminding the audience that Pérez’s first months in office coincided with catastrophe: the January Eaton Fire, which killed 19, leveled thousands of homes in Altadena and Pasadena, and displaced tens of thousands more.

“Managing a regional emergency would have been a challenge for any senior legislator,” Serrano said. “Yet as a freshman, Senator Pérez led like the professional that she is.”

As PCC President José Gómez reminded the audience, the auditorium’s very stage had survived the 1933 Long Beach earthquake when the rest of the campus crumbled. It was rebuilt as a testament to resilience, he said, and now inaugurated with Pérez’s swearing-in, signaling a new era of leadership.

“Resilience, courage, and dreams realized,” Gómez said. “That’s what this stage has always symbolized. And that’s what Senator Pérez represents.”

The audience included an array of political power: Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, herself a former U.S. Labor Secretary; Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire; Congresswoman Judy Chu, who administered the oath; and representatives from dozens of cities across the San Gabriel Valley. Their presence, along with faith leaders and local neighborhood leaders, underscored both the reach of the 25th Senate District — stretching from the San Fernando Valley to the Inland Empire — and the coalition Pérez is quickly building.

Saturday was also an intensely personal event.

Pérez’s family, stretching back to grandparents who arrived from Mexico through the Bracero program and worked the fields and railroads, sat near the front. Her paternal grandfather had been a union organizer, her father an electrician in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

“This is a leader born of strong families and mentors,” Serrano said, noting that even her name was chosen deliberately: “Sasha” means protector of mankind; “Renée” was bestowed in honor of her grandfather Raymond, meaning reborn.

That grounding in working-class history, in immigrant labor and union solidarity, shaped the trajectory that brought Pérez from student activist to Alhambra City Council member, to becoming the youngest Latina mayor in California, and now to Sacramento.

The speakers returned again and again to how her Senate tenure began in chaos. On her second day in office, wildfires roared through Altadena. By the end of that week, Pérez was on the ground, coordinating relief and pressing state agencies for help.

“She wasn’t calling with talking points,” said Victoria Knapp, chair of the Altadena Town Council, who lost her own home, and saw many colleagues displaced by the fire. “She was calling to ask, very simply, ‘Are you okay? What do you need? How can I help?”

Congresswoman Chu recounted standing beside Pérez at the first post-fire press conference, noting how the young senator moved swiftly from grief to legislation. Already, Pérez has introduced bills requiring utilities to dismantle long-abandoned lines, mandating faster statewide emergency alerts, and blocking insurance companies from hiking premiums while stalling claims.

At the same time, she has plunged into the turbulence of federal immigration policy, authoring SB 805, the “No Secret Police Act,” after masked ICE agents conducted raids across her district.

“We have the right to know who these people are,” Pérez told the crowd, her voice rising as she described constituents seized at bus stops, restaurants, even museums.

If her agenda seems ambitious, her colleagues suggested it reflects both urgency and generational change. “Young gets it done,” said Pasadena City College Trustee Alton Wang, who spoke of late-night calls and last-minute strategy sessions with the senator. Supervisor Solis described her as “a leader who has ganas” — grit and determination — and one whose presence in Sacramento reminds young Latinas and LGBTQ youth that “their voices matter.”

Senate leader McGuire, in his turn, linked Pérez’s rise to a larger milestone: for the first time in state history, California’s upper chamber has equal numbers of men and women. “When women lead,” he declared, “the Golden State succeeds.”

For her part, Pérez acknowledged the exhaustion of crisis governance. “I didn’t anticipate that so much of my tenure would be spent playing defense against the federal government,” she said, noting that she had entered politics to work on education, housing, and everyday affordability issues. But she balanced candor with resolve, recalling the young daughter of a detained immigrant who, even in anguish, asked how to organize so others would not suffer.

“How could I not pick up and join in that fight alongside her?” Pérez asked.

The response from the audience suggested that in the San Gabriel Valley, at least, her fight has already found its constituency.