Newly elected Member of Alameda City Council
DURING the recent elections, Filipino American Robert “Rob” Bonta, won a seat in the Alameda City Council. He also holds elected public office as a Director of the City of Alameda Health Care District.
Rob has been on the Alameda Hospital Board, where he oversaw the greatest financial turnaround in the Hospital’s history, turning a deficit into a surplus, while preserving critical, high quality health care services.
He is the Chair of the City of Alameda Economic Development Commission where he has promoted economic growth in Alameda to improve Alameda’s quality of life.
He is also the Co-President of the City of Alameda Democratic Club, and President of the Asian Pacific American Democratic Caucus of Alameda County. Before the elections, Rob Bonta served as a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.
Bonta is also the President of the City of Alameda’s Social Service Human Relations Board, where he helps ensure a “safety net” for the most vulnerable members of our community.
“I grew up the son of an immigrant mother and working class father. My parents wanted a good life for their children. I benefited from a strong California public school education growing up, and, with the help of financial aid and work study, was fortunate to attend some of the world’s finest universities,” Bonta stated in his webpage. “I grew up in a home where the values of public service, activism and the common good were instilled in me from an early age. My parents dedicated their lives to social justice and the service of others. That commitment to public service has taken root with me and only grown stronger over time.”
Rob’s Filipina mom, Cynthia Bonta, said of her son, “My son was born Robert Andres Bonta -- Andres after Andres Bonifacio, a Filipino hero of the people’s revolt against Spain. Our family became involved in the farmworker movement as volunteers. Rob was only a year old when we moved into our trailer home at La Paz, the UFW Headquarters, home of Cesar Chavez. Rob and his siblings were often with us at meetings, marches or picket lines. At Yale College, my son acted on his social consciousness. He founded and coordinated a Bilingual Tutoring Program; insured the provision of social and educational services to poor Connecticut youth as program coordinator with LEAP. During the summers he served the needs of Mexican and South American sweatshop workers; interned in the San Francisco mayor’s office dealing with criminal and juvenile justice issues.”
Robert received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Yale University in 1993. He attended the University of Oxford in 1984 where he did graduate work in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. He entered Yale Law School with a clear vision of leadership in public service and received his Juris Doctorate in 1998. At graduation, Yale awarded him the prestigious Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize for dedication to public service.
Rob has been very active in the Filipino American community, like his immigrant Pinay mother, Cynthia Bonta. On the Board of Filipino Advocates for Justice for many years, Rob is proud to be following in his mother Cynthia Bonta’s footsteps advocating for social justice for the Filipino American community. Robert is also involved with Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Alternative in Action. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, which he joined in 2003. He has been in the Advisory Board since 2006.
Rob lives in Alameda with his wife Mia and three children Reina, Iliana, and Andres.
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