Judith Valles, who was San Bernardino Mayor from 1998 until 2006, had an illustrious career in the educational field before entering politics and the daughter of what is now recognized as one of the foremost families of the county seat, has died. She was 93.
The daughter of Mexican immigrants Gonzalo and Jovita Valles, Judith Lopez Valles was born in 1933, the seventh of eight siblings. Valles was heavily influenced by both of her parents and her older brother, Amilcar Michael Valles, known as Mike.
In 1942, when she was nine years old, her brother, Hanibal Antonio Valles, known as Tony, was killed in a training accident while serving with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the opening year of the United States’ involvement in World War II.
Judith would later recall, “Tony’s body was flown home, and my father went to the cemetery to arrange his burial. After everything was arranged with the church, my mother went to select a casket, and the employee asked, ‘Are you Mexican?’ When she said she was, the employee told her Mexicans could not be buried there, that Mexicans and Negroes were to be buried in the section on the other side of the hedge.”
This made her father, Valles said, apoplectic.
Gonzalo resolved to defy the lack of respect that was being shown toward his on. He removed Tony’s body, in the casket, to the Valles family home’s living room, where it remained while her father got in contact with Congressman Harry Sheppard.
“My father contacted the congressman, who made arrangements to have Tony’s body flown to Arlington Cemetery in Washington. That upset my mother, who said, ‘I want my son buried here in San Bernardino, so I can go visit his grave.’” Valles said.
Through her father’s efforts and then the intercession of Sheppard and an attorney, Tony was buried in the San Bernardino cemetery in accordance with Jovita’s wishes.
Two years later, the landmark the Lopez V. Seccombe case in which her father and brother played parts, was adjudicated. Mike Valles, when he was 12 years old, went to the Perris Hill Plunge with a friend. Judith identified her brothers companion as another kid her brother’s age, who was Italian.
“When they got to the entrance of the plunge, Mike’s Italian friend was allowed to go through the gate, but they asked my brother, ‘Are you Mexican?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’” Valles recalled. “They wouldn’t let him in, saying he had to come back on Fridays. Fridays were the only days Mexicans were allowed into the plunge. Saturdays were the day of the week when the pool was emptied for cleaning, so on Fridays they would let Mexicans in. So, Mike had to stay outside while he watched his friend swim.”
When Mike later that night related to their father what had occurred to him that day,” Valles said, Gonzalo was “furious. He got in touch with some attorneys.”
Growing out of that incident was the lawsuit Lopez V. Seccombe, which was sponsored by the Mexican American Defense Committee and utilized the journalist Ignacio Lopez as the plaintiff. Lopez sued the city and Mayor William Seccombe over discriminatory “whites-only” policies. The court ruled that the exclusion of Mexican-Americans violated the 5th and 14th Amendments, setting a foundational precedent for later desegregation efforts in California.
Judith graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1951 and attended San Bernardino Valley College from 1952 to 1953. Thereafter, on the strength of a two-year associates {a.A.} degree and an emergency teaching credential, Valles taught elementary and high school for several years. In 1964, she graduated from the University of Redlands with a bachelor’s degree in English.
She was appointed to the San Bernardino Valley College faculty in 1965, where she taught Spanish until 1984. She headed the department of foreign languages from 1972 to 1976, chaired the division of humanities from 1976 to 1981 and was dean of Extended Day and Summer Session from 1981 to 1983.
In 1970, she earned a master’s in Spanish literature at the University of California, Riverside and began and did doctoral work at UCLA.
Valles was the administrative dean of academic affairs at San Bernardino Valley College from 1983 to 1987. Whe also held the position of chief instructional officer at the college and the position of executive vice president of academic and student affairs from 1987 to 1988.
Valles was appointed president of Golden West College in Huntington Beach in 1988, making her the first Latina to head any college or university in California. She remained as the chief executive of Golden West until retiring in 1993. Valles has also served as acting president of Coastline Community College and Oxnard College for brief tenures.
She was elected to the San Bernardino Community College District board of trustees. She produced and hosted a Spanish-speaking television show, “Impacto,” for KVCR-TV and “La Voz” at KCSB.
Valles has been the subject of three doctoral dissertations on leadership, and invited to lecture on gender and leadership issues as a visiting professor at Harvard University.
She sported something of a chip on her shoulder for much or all of her life, having once said, “As a woman and minority, you have to work twice as hard and twice as long.”
She received the Citizen of Achievement Award from the League of Women Voters in 1989 and the YWCA Outstanding Women of Orange County Award in 1990. She was inducted into the San Bernardino Valley College Alumni Hall of Fame in 1991.
Meanwhile, her brother Mike, who had graduated from UCLA, had involved himself in the world of politics, not as a candidate or officeholder himself, but first as representative for various members of the California legislature, which intimately familiarized him with local issues, constituent advocacy, the mechanics of legislation, and politics. Toward the end of his employment as a field representative for elected representatives, he became ever more active in campaigns, and eventually transitioned into a political consultant. He managed or directed scores of local races beginning in his 40s, at times working on as many as a dozen in a single election, ranging from candidates for Congress to the California Senate and Assembly, the board of supervisors, mayorships and city councils. Mike Valles was much in demand, as he had mastered the formula for running a compelling campaign that would drive voters to the polls. Most of the candidates he worked for or backed proved victorious.
In 1997 he masterminded Judith’s run for San Bernardino mayor. Following her strong showing in the November election, Judith proved victorious in the February 3, 1998 run-off, making her the first Hispanic mayor in San Bernardino history. She served two terms.
In 1998, Valles established the Valles Family Scholarship at San Bernardino Valley College.
She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Redlands in 2000 and the California Community Colleges’ Distinguished Alumni Award the same year. She received the Ohtli Medal in 2003 from the government and people of Mexico for her contributions to the Mexican-American community.
After completing her second term as mayor, she was appointed President of Los Angeles Mission College.
In 2015, she published a book As My Mother Would Say: Como Decia Mi Mama about life lessons that she received from her mother.
-Mark Gutglueck