Teresa Leger Fernandez (00:00):
Sorry, it was Tom Udall called. We were talking about how to get more Navajos—there’s some people who want to really do a drive to get more Navajos registered in San Juan County, which would be wonderful because that increases their voting bloc. I’m fine up there, I mean, I’m not fine, but that’s not where I need my strength. But it’d be wonderful not just to get me reelected, but so that the local county commissioners and state representatives become more responsive to Navajos. So it really would be useful. But there you go, there are so many different things to work on.
MCD:
Well, I wanted to ask you today about New Mexico, because you’re in state, you’re in district and New Mexico is having its state legislative session. And one of the bills up for consideration is repealing an old abortion ban in case Roe V. Wade is overturned on a federal level. Do you have any sense from maybe talking to your colleagues or whatever, whether this kind of thing is happening in state legislatures all over the country?
TLF:
There have been several of them, Planned Parenthood, Naral, and even people in Emily’s List have argued that states that have a Democratic legislature have to start taking state action. There was a very interesting op-ed that was done quite awhile back, maybe at the last Senate confirmation, that said that women need to think about taking it back to the States and not relying on the constitutional protection. And that that might be a good thing anyway. Because then what you’re doing is you’re building the support in the local communities, and that needing to go back to state versus the federal control might allow you to have even greater impact. And then it stops nationalizing it and stops making it this divisive issue on a national level. And so there is a concerted effort by different groups to look at that issue and look at which states can you do something like that. The problem is that there are some states that that’s not an option. I mean, let’s face it, New Mexico is a sanctuary state in terms of providing the full panoply of reproductive health services. So we have women who will drive 1000, 2000 miles to get abortion services. And in COVID, I mean, they’re driving straight because they’re afraid to stop. I mean, it’s just horrible what we are putting women through in other states because their state legislatures are so regressive on these issues.
MCD:
So on a state level, what you’re talking about would work in states like New Mexico and maybe Colorado and so on, but not necessarily in states like Texas and Mississippi.
TLF:
Until you change those states. And I think that that’s part of the issue is when you’re looking at making the States blue, it’s not just so that you can elect a president. It’s so that you can start having policies within those states and within those communities that are more responsive to these issues that we raise at a national level. For example the raise the wage act to full services for women. So I think that that’s part of what you want to do is have really good self-determination and self-governance on your issues at every level of government. I think in some ways you use this period of darkness with regards to what our Supreme Court looks like now to say, what do we then do. This idea of be nimble on your feet of needing to not get stuck to just we’re going to preserve it in the, in the federal judiciary, but rather we need to preserve it in other places.
MCD:
I think this concept of self-governance and the fact that it’s held up as a good thing—except when it applies to people like women or whatever group you’re talking about. I think of the movement to ban women’s choice as basically the government forcing women to bring unwanted pregnancies to term against their will, which seems like the opposite of what not only Democrats, but a lot more libertarian people would or should desire: government not making choices for people against their will.
TLF:
Correct. I agree.
MCD:
So is there a national initiative in Congress to address women’s reproductive rights on a federal level legislatively?
TLF:
I haven’t seen a lot. I mean, I’ve been there eight days, so I can’t speak to that. I don’t know enough about that strategy. You know, we run into the problem of the Senate on those issues, you know, whether we could get it. I mean, we can get so much more through the house, but I don’t know where that sits on the Senate level, but that’s the same thing, right? You could do this legislatively and not rely on the constitution, as long as you don’t have the filibuster and could pass something by 51. And as long as some of those more conservative Democrat senators would be willing to go along with that. But they might. I’m not an expert on that to speak as to where the system, the Senate—
MCD:
Anything else that you want to look at today?
TLF:
What did I do today? Oh, I did some great stuff today. I was talking to some of the other Congresswomen the Latina Congresswomen. In the congressional Hispanic caucus it’s the Latinas who are the deans of the congressional Hispanic caucus, because they’re the longest-serving members, which is really kind of neat cause it’s three women: Lucille Roybal Allard, Nydia Velazquez, and Grace Napolitano. So I just had a wonderful conversation with Grace Napolitano, who was sharing with me her philosophy about representing her district and some of the things that she just clearly takes great delight in doing. 20-some years in, you know, that she served for such a long time, but getting word out on the appointments to the Naval Academy and working really hard to make sure that the appointments to the Naval Academy, that there’s a lot more brown and black, as she put it into a lot more color in those appointments, and how she does that and how she addresses veteran issues.
And it was just such a wonderful sharing of ideas and information. It was just lovely because that’s the thing is that the a congressional position—I mean, you’re asking me national positions about what’s this and what’s that, and what’s the strategy, but so much of what a Congressperson does is serve their district in lots of ways that you don’t really think about. But we recommend the appointments to the academies. There is a role at the Congress, and Congresspeople play in that. So we are already talking in my office about making sure that the public school Mora High School knew about these Academy applications. So we had already begun the discussions about how do we make sure that some of our outlying areas are very aware of these opportunities because you go to West Point, you’re not paying, it’s free and it’s an incredible education. And if you’re interested in serving in the service, this is the way to do it. Do it at the top, make sure that opportunity is there. So that was a neat thing that I was able to do this morning was just brainstorm with one of my colleagues about what she does, and that will help inform what we do, with the goal of making opportunities more accessible to our kids in the rural areas.
MCD:
And I have to say it really points out the reality that the social fabric is made of just countless tiny threads, and each board to which a new person is appointed makes a difference in somebody’s life that most of us will never even know about, but it all constitutes the big fabric.
TLF:
And you want to make sure that there are as many points of that thread and or that warp and that weave that go into those places where it’s been bare, where there haven’t been any connections, there haven’t been any threads reaching out into those districts. And that’s what we need because then that one individual from that one family goes back and there you have it. My roommate at Yale was a Sanchez, Graciela Sanchez. She came from a family of like nine, San Antonio, very working class. He was a mechanic, mother didn’t work, and they had nine kids. And one of the oldest kids ends up at Yale. And then before, you know, it, they have five kids at the Ivy Leagues. And when they graduate, they literally get a bunch of vans and bring 20 people up for the graduation. They go back, and the three that I know of, they’re doing great work in the community. So that pipeline starts, which wouldn’t have existed before. So the warp and the weave needs to reach out and include lots of different areas because then it transforms, that one point of contact multiplies, has a multiplier effect, that you don’t even know where it’s going to go. As you mentioned, you don’t know where it’s going to go, but it’s going to make some ripples, that’s for sure.
