As mayor of Long Beach, California, Robert Garcia is trying to turn his city into a model for responding to the COVID pandemic in 2020, with lockdowns, extensive public testing and a rapid rollout of vaccines. But it’s not easy.
Garcia, 45, lost his mother and stepfather to the coronavirus in 2020, before a vaccine was available.
“It’s terrifying to be in a situation where your parents are in the hospital, intubated — and you’re being screamed at and yelled at by people in our community, people in power, about reopening the golf course,” Garcia said in December. in his farewell address.
That experience will guide him in his new job as U.S. representative for California’s 42nd Congressional District, and his new role as president of the incoming class of Democrats.
“What happened in terms of misinformation, in terms of encouragement from people in power, like [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene [R-Ga.] and others to attack the medical community to prevent vaccination, shame,” Garcia told HuffPost in a recent interview.
“I don’t know if I can forgive some of these people for what they’ve done to this country, and just trust basic medical science,” he said.
Garcia’s fledgling Democratic Party elected him “class president,” a ceremonial title intended to give new members a voice in party decision-making.
“He is an immigrant. I am an immigrant.”
– Rep.-elect Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), on Superman
As class president, Garcia is ready to become one of the most prominent members of parliament in the 34-member class – one shaped not only by the pandemic but also by the uprising of January 6, 2021.
“Many of us in the class are called to serve because of what happened a few years ago,” he said. “We are a post-Trump class. We have seen the worst in leadership, the worst in governance.
Being student class president is often an early springboard for party leadership. Garcia has hired Robert Edmonson — the one-time chief of staff to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — to be his own chief of staff, which could also be seen as preparation for his move forward. Garcia, however, refused to address this prospect.
“I thank you [Edmonson] will work for freshmen,” Garcia said.
Garcia is emblematic of the increasingly diverse face of the national Democratic Party. He is an immigrant, brought to America from Peru by his mother at the age of 5 and born at the age of 21. He is also gay.
Both aspects of his life lead to his great passion outside of work: comic books. One of the his early tweets after winning in November there was a picture of a swanky, wood-paneled Library of Congress reading room for members of Congress.
“Ok y’all I’m freaking out,” he tweeted. “I can pull a comic book from the largest public comic collection in the country and read it here. Let’s go!”
The post received more than 40,000 likes on Twitter.
Garcia said he first turned to comics as a way to learn English. The character of Superman, in particular, speaks to him. “He’s an immigrant. I’m an immigrant,” he said.
“I think the love of helping others, love of country, being different, having to hide your identity – I’ve been closeted gay for a long time – that’s what drew me to comics.”
Garcia who is not dilettante: He can talk about his knowledge of Rob Liefeld, the artist who helped start the ’90s comics publisher Image, as well as artist-turned-DC Comics exec Jim Lee and longtime “X-Men” scribe Chris Claremont.
“I love the Mark Waid Flash run. It’s one of my favorite races,” he said. “There were moments, too, that seemed to me, the Dan Jurgens Superman stuff. I loved that era.”
He has been to 20 San Diego Comic-Cons, an important pilgrimage for fans of the art sequence, and has been in Hall H, the largest hall where the splashiest events are held, about 10 to 12 times, he said.
It’s unclear when Garcia and the other fellow nominees will be sworn into office, given the problems Republicans have faced in selecting a speaker. But he’s ready to swear off his position because he can only be a comic book geek.
In a tweet, Garcia announced Tuesday that he plans to take the oath on a copy of the US Constitution with the following three items: his citizenship certificate, a photo of his parents and, from the Library of Congress, a copy of the first edition of “Superman.”