By Ana Gomez Salcido
Growing up in her family picking crops along with labor leader Cesar Chavez taught Josie Flores-Clark that if she wanted to do something with her life, she needed to work hard for it.
“Working in the fields is really hard work. My mom and dad were such hard workers and taught us that if we wanted to become someone in life we needed to work for it,” said Flores-Clark, who today serves as the Executive Assistant to National City Mayor Ron Morrison.
Since 2007, Flores-Clark has helped Mayor Morrison manage issues and concerns relating to the general public and executive staff of various organizations, including local, regional, state, national, international political entities.
Flores-Clark was born in Calexico, California, and spent her childhood working alongside her family following crops throughout Northern California.
“We had to wake up at 3 a.m. and work in whatever field we were at. I liked picking cherries, they were my favorite,” Flores-Clark remembers. “We stopped working at 6:30 a.m. and then bathed in the freezing cold canals,” she added.
And looking back, she now realizes the struggles her family endured.
“We lived in my dad’s truck. I understand now that we were homeless at the time, but at that moment, I felt happy for being together with my family,” Flores-Clark recalls. “That was from when I was eight years old until I was in junior high school,” she added.
Flores-Clark experienced difficulty growing up in her Spanish speaking home because she wasn’t allowed to speak English with her family. However, Flores-Clark says this paid off because she can speak fluent Spanish.
“Normally when you are in school, you study with your friends or ask your siblings questions in English. Our parents didn’t allow that,” said Flores-Clark.
“After high school I wanted to go to college, but it wasn’t something I thought about when I was growing up because we were in the fields. I thought the fields were our life,” she said.
But Flores-Clark had bigger dreams. “I wanted more than a life in the fields,” Flores-Clark confessed. “I didn’t want to work in the fields for the rest of my life and I didn’t want my children to go through what I went through.”
Flores-Clark got married soon after high school and had two children, but later divorced and became a single parent. In 1989, she was living in a trailer with her two children near San Francisco when an earthquake left them homeless.
“I sent my children to stay with my parents in San Diego so I could get back on my feet,” Flores-Clark recalls. “I worked as an international sales coordinator and I also managed to get by working as a waitress.”
After a few months, Flores-Clark was able to travel to San Diego to reunite with her children.
Flores-Clark said that there were a lot of resources available for her family, like food stamps and other types of benefits from the government, but that she wanted to teach her children that they could do more on their own.
“I wanted more and I wanted my children to have more,” Flores-Clark said. “There were resources like welfare, but I didn’t want my children to see those so they could also want more. It was a great accomplishment when we made the first payment to our first home in San Ysidro,” shared Flores-Clark.
Flores-Clark eventually landed a job at the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, where she worked from 1998 through 2005. She started as a court support clerk and worked her way up to legal secretary. She was commended for her outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the office during her tenure.
“I always wanted to move up, when I saw other legal secretaries, I admired them, I admired their work for amazing attorneys, and I thought it was something that I could do,” Flores-Clark said. “I went to night school, and I accomplished it.”
Flores-Clark went back to the private sector and worked as a general manager and assistant to the CEO of a major local towing company.
“I was able to get contracts that they wanted for so many years but were never able to get. After I got there, I interviewed everybody to know what everybody did there so I could be able to improve the company. I actually learned how to drive a tow truck too,” Flores-Clark said.
In 2007, Flores-Clark accepted the post as Executive Assistant to the Mayor of National City.
“I’m very fortunate. The Mayor of National City is very passionate about his community. He does so much, and does things that no other mayor I know would do, like making calls at 2 a.m. to help residents when there is something wrong,” Flores-Clark said.
“This is the best job I have ever had, and the most challenging one,” Flores-Clark added. “I’m not a politician, but I feel like one.”
Flores-Clark said that she wants to spend more time with her family, especially with her grandchildren.
“I worked very hard and accomplished a lot by being a great role model for my family,” Flores-Clark said. “Also I’m so proud of my son; he is a doctor who graduated with honors, and he did it all while being legally blind.”
Flores-Clark does not know what the future has in store for her, but she is ready for whatever comes next.