SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Over his career in politics, Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra and his mother, Amparo Perez Quintero, 68, found common ground on almost every issue — education, immigrant rights, public safety and housing.
But when it comes to reproductive freedom, the two aren’t close to agreeing.
Quintero, a devout Catholic, opposes abortion, believing that unborn children have a right to life. And while Guerra was raised under the same religious beliefs, he began questioning the orthodoxy as a teenager. By the time he finished college, Guerra had completely changed his mind about abortion.
Guerra, now 44, is a staunch supporter of reproductive rights for women. Most recently, Planned Parenthood endorsed Guerra in his campaign for an Assembly seat and said “his track record of advocating for reproductive freedom speaks for itself.”
With sharply different views, Guerra and Quintero more often than not chose not to engage on abortion.
“Our conversation about reproductive freedom was not a conversation,” Guerra said.
That changed after the Supreme Court repealed nationwide abortion protections by overturning Roe vs. Wade, putting reproductive rights on the minds of voters just before the midterm election.
Democratic California legislators responded by placing Proposition 1 on the November ballot. If passed, the measure would codify in the state constitution the right to an abortion and access to contraceptives.
Political experts predict the debate will mobilize Latinos and may halt the GOP’s gains with the voting bloc.
A poll conducted by Change Research found that 64% of Latinos in battleground states are motivated to vote in November due to the Supreme Court decision. And more than 70% of Latinos said the procedure should be legal, according to an August survey from the advocacy group UnidosUs and civic engagement organization Mi Familia Vota.
But for some Latinos, including Guerra and Quintero, the abortion rights debate also strikes at the center of family dynamics. Though some families remain at odds, others are discovering unexpected common ground.
It took them 51 years to talk about abortion
For nearly all her life, Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, assumed her mother, Estela Rubio, 76, opposed abortion rights.
Rubio, 51, based that thinking on an “extremely religious” upbringing and knowing that her grandmother had always vehemently disapproved of abortion and contraceptives. As a child, she said the family avoided talk of sex or reproductive health. The few discussions of abortion usually came up as an example of sin.
But in the weeks following the Supreme Court decision, Rubio finally asked her mother directly. To Rubio’s surprise, her mother had a nuanced, more “progressive” perspective on the issue. Estela Rubio views abortion as a pecado, or sin, but believes the decision should rest with an individual woman.
“No es para nadie decirle que tiene que hacer con su cuerpo o vida. Eso le queda a cada persona a decidir a sí misma dependiendo de las circunstancias.”
“It is not for anyone to tell you what to do with your body or life,” Rubio recalled her mother saying in Spanish. “That is left to each person to decide for themselves depending on the circumstances.”
Estela elaborated to Rubio on a memory that shaped her perspective, recalling that an aunt’s baby had died of hunger in Mexico.
“She explained to me that as long as she can remember her aunt’s story stuck with her where they didn’t have a choice and lived in constant regret,” Rubio said.
Lina-Maria Murillo, assistant professor of gender, women’s and sexuality studies, history and Latinx studies at the University of Iowa, said Estela’s view isn’t uncommon among older women of color. Murillo said her research shows Latinas have a long history of being open-minded on the issue.
She also pushed back against the stereotype of Latinos opposing abortion due to their faith. Murillo said that misconception can largely be traced back to the influence of the Catholic Church.
A Voto Latino poll published in May found that 68% of Catholic Latinos support the right for women to choose.
“There’s this sort of mythology that older generations, Catholicism and religion dictate automatically how we’re going to feel about access to reproduction,” Murillo said. “And I think that’s actually quite a dangerous narrative to continue because it’s not accurate.”
More emphasis on the positive
Paula Villescaz, running for a state Senate seat representing parts of Placer and Sacramento counties, also only recently learned that her mother supports abortion rights.
Villescaz’s finding, however, did not stem from Supreme Court fallout. It came in July after Villescaz, 33, found out she was pregnant.
In a conversation about the pregnancy, her mother, Maria Ollis, 69, said she received health care at Planned Parenthood during her pregnancies and understood the need for that “safety net.”
“The support there really shaped what her beliefs are now,” Villescaz said.
Villescaz, also raised Catholic, never intentionally avoided the conversation, but assumed that Ollis’ religious beliefs would guide her stance on the issue.
“I’m much more likely to go have a conversation with a complete stranger about my choice and why that should propel them to engage electorally than with my mom,” Villescaz said, while laughing.
Former Assemblyman Roger Niello, Villescaz’s Republican opponent in the Senate race, has stated he opposes abortion with exceptions. He also opposes Proposition 1.
Belinda Campos, a professor in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine, said among Latinos, specifically Mexican Americans, there’s a cultural preference to not discuss topics that create conflict. The approach puts an emphasis on expressing emotional positivity and steers away from engaging in conversations that may not be worthwhile. Campos called it a preference for simpatía, or sympathy.
“Culturally ideal ways of managing emotion involve putting more emphasis on the positive things and less of an emphasis on the negative things,” Campos said. “That’s not good. It’s not bad. It just is.”
‘The rights of others is peace’
Both Guerra and his opponent in the Assembly race, Elk Grove City Councilwoman Stephanie Nyguen, are Democrats and both support abortion rights.
The few times Guerra and Quintero discussed abortion usually ended in an argument.
But after Planned Parenthood announced its endorsement for Guerra, they had their first “honest conversation.” The endorsement came just after a draft of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe vs. Wade leaked to Politico, signaling which way the court would rule.
The endorsement led to Quintero’s friends calling and asking if it was true that her son was supported by an organization “like Planned Parenthood.”
“The mama bear came out, not liking her son being singled out,” Guerra said.
Although, the two could not agree on the issue, Guerra believes they reached a common stance of respecting a person’s decision. The breakthrough came after Guerra recited a famous quote from 19th Century Mexican President Benito Juarez.
El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz or respect for the rights of others is peace.
“She reveres President Benito Juarez ... so when we started talking about our common values, well, it’s respect for one another,” Guerra said.
He hopes that they can continue having “fruitful conversations,” even if it ends with Quintero pulling his ear as she has throughout his life.
“It’s been heartwarming, and also fulfilling that I’m able to now have a conversation with my mom as a peer. … If there’s anything from this experience that I want to continue to do is to make the conversations more frequent,” Guerra added.
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