Two Morgan Hill women, immigrants to the U.S., braved cultural
and language differences to become a part of the democratic
process
Most immigrants have their hands full in a new country learning
the language, adapting to the culture and earning a living. Morgan
Hill is now home to two who have reached the peak of acculturation
by winning elective office.
Most immigrants have their hands full in a new country learning the language, adapting to the culture and earning a living. Morgan Hill is now home to two who have reached the peak of acculturation by winning elective office.
What makes their achievements more remarkable is that the women campaigned and were elected in a region, unlike Miami or certain boroughs of New York, where they are not a part of a large ethnic support group.
City councilwoman Hedy Chang and school district trustee Amina Khemici overcame language and cultural difficulties to become a part of the American democratic process.
Born in Shanghai, Chang, 55, was taken by her mother as a 2-year-old to Taiwan to escape the reach of the communists, who had just consolidated their control of Mainland China.
Half a world away, Khemici, 40, was born in Algiers the year the country won its independence following an eight-year insurgency that ended 132 years of French rule in Algeria.
Chang, a school trustee in the mid-1990s and a council member since 1996, and Khemici, who was elected to the school board in November, share a number of traits. They hold strong opinions, possess quiet self-confidence and prefer to work behind the scenes to accomplish goals rather than lead the charge saber in hand.
“I’m not a politician or a smooth talker. I’m just plain me. But I’m convinced that if you believe in what you do, you’ll get positive response,” Khemici said.
Chang holds a similar view: “As I get older, I feel the power of people. If the Universe wants you to do something, it will give you wings to do it.”
Khemici and Chang arrived in the United States as 20-year-olds with just textbook knowledge of English. But they brought with them a tradition of education and a determination to succeed. The decision to run for public office wasn’t taken lightly, the women said in separate interviews.
The thought of stepping out was daunting, but the urge to fill a need overcame their hesitancy. Each credited her success to the support of family, belief in the value of education, hard work and the confidence in her ability to make a difference.
The accomplishment of Khemici and Chang may be all the more impressive because they campaigned in a community where there isn’t a large community of either Chinese or Algerians. It’s not the same as being a Cuban campaigning in Miami, which would be akin to stumping in Havana.
The women’s political victories haven’t gone unnoticed by Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy, who’s campaigned for local, county and state office. He said the ability of Chang and Khemici to win elective office in an adopted country is an amazing feat.
“It’s an incredible achievement for an immigrant to get elected even at the local level because there are so many things they have to learn about our political system,” Kennedy said. “It’s not just a question of reading the Constitution to determine that you qualify. Newcomers have to learn to build trust because often the public is distrustful of an unfamiliar name or an appearance. They also have to build support networks and personal relationships and learn how to raise funds.”
Kennedy said the difficulties that immigrants find when they first join the American political system – and many don’t because they don’t understand it or have learned to fear government – was driven home during his campaign last year for Santa Clara County supervisor.
“I reached out to Latinos and members of the Indo-American, Vietnamese-American and Assyrian-American communities for support and as a way to bring them into our system of government,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said it was heartening to see the response, adding that he welcomes diversity in politics.
“You don’t see very many recent immigrants following a political career,” Kennedy said.
From Taiwan to Republican stages
In spite of her mother’s professional training as an accountant, life wasn’t a bed of roses for her family during the first years in Taiwan, Chang said. In fact, she said, her mother set up a cottage industry to produce paper roses on consignment.
“Life was pretty hard because my mother had to provide for me and my brother and my grandmother. I remember helping her make the roses. I guess I was about 10 years old,” Chang said.
Although she and her brother were under the care of their grandmother, Chang said, “I learned to take care of myself. In Chinese society men are considered more important than women, so I learned that in order to get equal treatment I had to be a little bit better.”
The extra effort led Chang to a degree in forestry at National Taiwan University, and good grades opened the way for enrollment at the University of Illinois-Urbana, where she earned a master’s degree in the same field. Out of school, Chang married her Taiwan university sweetheart, C.P. Chang, now a professor of meteorology at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey.
The couple has three children: Albert, a University of California-Berkeley graduate and a trader on the San Francisco stock market; Michael, a senior at the University of California-Davis majoring in computer science; and Stephanie, a high school junior.
Upon arriving in California, Chang was hired as a clerk at the Firestone tire factory in Salinas. She became a Republican, she said, because she saw the party of Ronald Reagan as the most anti-communist. Now she’s a minority face amid a primarily white group, which makes her a popular invitee to strategic functions. She appeared with Bruce McPherson, for instance, in his failed campaign for lieutenant governor.
Chang quickly put her college training to use to move into a position requiring knowledge of chemistry. Later on-the-job training qualified her for a management position in industrial engineering.
The couple moved to Morgan Hill in 1979 to be nearer Chang’s job with International Paper Co. in San Jose. In her new hometown, Chang won an appointment to the city planning commission, earned real estate and broker licenses and served as an aide to Santa Clara County supervisor Mike Honda.
With three children in school, Chang became familiar with the educational system’s strengths and weaknesses. One of her first efforts occurred when she joined another parent to promote awareness of the need for computers in the classroom.
“Later, I became involved in the district’s strategic planning and I began to see certain needs. I told myself, ‘you can be useful,”’ Chang said as an explanation of why she ran for and was elected to the school board in 1994.
Time worked against her, however. Two and one-half years into her term, Chang was elected to the city council in 1996 and won reelection four years later.
In public at least, Chang is self-effacing and non-combative to a fault. So much so that she declines for publication to name names, point to individual faults or rehash unpleasant moments. She became a city council candidate, she said, because of what appeared to her to be less than decorous conduct at times by council members.
“Sometimes I would watch the meetings on television but would become so disgusted that I’d turn it off,” Chang said.
Chang strongly supports redevelopment, bringing medical services back to town and the creation of a center for hiring day workers. But she prefers to lead by example rather than by twisting arms.
“I don’t see myself leading so much as serving,” Chang said.
Khemici’s childhood in Algiers was a comfortable one, surrounded by supportive parents who doted on her and a younger brother, born at least 10 years after seven other siblings. Her father was a banker who also was active in politics.
The family spent vacations in France and Spain.
“We had an open society in which sexism was never an issue. In Algeria, even during the guerrilla war that led to independence, education was valued for women as well as for men,” Khemici said. “Women worked as doctors, lawyers and government officials.”
Only older women wore the háik, the large outer wrap that covers the head and body, Khemici said.
“My father was obsessed with education. I think I inherited that from him. Education and good health were his main themes,” Khemici said.
Khemici left Algeria in 1983, almost a decade before Sunni fundamentalists began a campaign of assassinations in retaliation for the cancellation of general elections that the secular, military-backed government appeared sure to lose.
Arriving in the U.S. with her husband, who had a three-year scholarship to study computer science, Khemici spent the first two years learning English.
Once she had a grip on the language, Khemici enrolled at a community college to earn an AA degree in computer science. But the birth of her children set Khemici to rethinking career choices. By the time she transferred to Jersey City State College, Khemici had decided to become a teacher. The degree from the four-year college is in special education, with a minor in psychology.
Arriving in California in June 1996, Khemici began a particularly stressful year in which she divorced and lost both her parents.
“It was a very difficult time. I had to balance home, job and the needs of my children, while at the same time confronting the pressure of my personal life,” said Khemici, a special education teacher for middle school students at Pinnacle Academy, a private school in Santa Clara.
Khemici has three children: Amine, 17, a senior at Live Oak High School; Sabrina, 13, an eighth-grader at Britton Middle School; Linda, 10, a fifth-grader at Paradise Valley School.
The idea of running for a school trustee seat wasn’t new to Khemici.
“I had toyed with the idea of running for several years, but then I’d forget it and move on,” Khemici said. “But then last summer I made the decision to do it. I think I was motivated by a desire to help the lesser achievers, children who may be labeled as slow learners or children with problems. They tend to be forgotten.”
As she takes up the duties of school trustee, Khemici knows she faces another round of acculturation. The challenge isn’t insurmountable, Khemici said, because she can fall back on the experience of becoming assimilated into American culture.
“If you decide to stay in a new country you have to blend in,” she said. “My father used to say that if you go where they’re dancing, you have to learn a few steps, too.”
