Call to Action

by Talia Rodriguez

What can a well-pleaded skirt suit and a can-do attitude get you?
For my Grandma G (or at least that’s what I called her), the answer is a lot.

Anna Lee Kelly Gagnon was born on July 14th, 1933, in North Collins, New York, to Mom’s “Aunt Vivian”.

And if I described a childhood absent of the violence of poverty characteristic of rural life in the great depression, I wouldn’t be doing her character justice. Irish joy, rural ingenuity, front porches, and fresh air formed her well. Thirty-three years after entering the world, Anna Lee dropped the “Anna” and became one of the female trailblazers in the Buffalo City Clerk’s Office. I don’t know how to explain the enormity of being one of few, if not the only, female minds in a room full of dense thinkers and gray suits, but I’ve felt it too.

Belle of the Ball, at the 1975 Erie County Bar Association Law Day Ceremonies as Associate Court Clerk of the Criminal Records Room, Grandma G received “A Special Recognition” for outstanding service to the legal profession, after joining the Clerk’s Office in 1966. She was the first female recognized, per the theme.

Mom says, she doesn’t think Aunt Vivian (Grandma G’s mother) attended high school. What did that award mean to the farm?

One of many Irish siblings, Grandma G could see your strength and weakness in a 3 sec. bright blue-eyed country glance.

She understood the vulnerability of my Latina identity. And encouraged me to study political science and to think of myself as a critical and serious thinker, even as a child. She made me feel capable and I am not the only one. Her determination and confidence paved the way for many.

Grandma G had country values like ice-cold lemonade. A critical thinker, sitting next to a bible, with a wink.

Driving up from the south towns, right when I hit that curve, and see the cityscape, I think of her and the lives of rural women across America.

How much would Grandma G’s ascent off the farm and into the prim rows of suburban brick cost now?

How accessible is the urban and regional job market for rural women and how do we treat the women who can’t swing a suitcase over their shoulder and get up and leave? How do we connect them?

I ponder their access to information, opportunity, health and education centers, and female-affirming services. I often consider and even how rural life informs the “diversity” we are always hoping to achieve- dramatically, I think.

When I failed the bar, Grandma G didn’t mind. Without question she expected me to take it again. And again, until I passed. I guess she figured, she got to be a clerk, two generations later, I graduated Law School and that was progress, but I still owe her one.

This month’s call to action is to ask yourself: How am I approaching my challenges and opportunities compared to my sisters in the country? And is it with the same resolve? And if you want to learn more about their social realities read the 2023 USDA’s “Rural America At Glance”.

And if you are one of the sisters in the country “figuring it out”. Keep pushing, don’t let the tired touch your dreams. And if you hit the highway, the real one, or the digital one, Buffalo, and its job market, will be waiting in person and online.

Cus Grandma G did it, and so can you. Just give it some elbow grease, Why don’t ya?

#latinaherstory

Talia Rodriguez is a bi-racial, bi-cultural, and bi-lingual Latina from Buffalo. Ms. Rodriguez’s mission is to write about Latina’s, who have shaped the face of our city and our region. It is Ms. Rodriguez’s believes that our own people should inspire us and in telling our collective stories, we push our community forward. Ms. Rodriguez is a community advocate and organizer. She is a 5th generation West Sider, a graduate of SUNY Buffalo Law School, and an avid baseball fan. She lives on the West Side with her young son A.J… Ms. Rodriguez sits on the board of several organizations including the Belle Center, where she attended daycare. Ms. Rodriguez loves art, music, food, and her neighbors. You can send your comments or questions to talia.rodriguez.716@gmail.com.