The first Latina ever elected to serve on Columbus City Council is still trying to absorb her election victory in November.
Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, 45, said she’s excited about working to include more of the concerns of immigrants and their families into the city's plans.
“We’re going to see a very different Columbus,” said Barroso de Padilla. “But it’s not just Columbus that’s changing it’s this country that is changing.”
She explains that her parents and siblings arrived in the U.S. more than 50 years ago as political refugees from Cuba. She grew up in the Eastmoor neighborhood where she graduated from Eastmoor High School.
She said she and her family did not see city leaders that looked like them. The city makeup though is changing. The 2020 U.S. Census shows that Columbus’ Hispanic population grew by nearly 60% in the past 10 years.
“There is no easy time to be a leader,” said Barroso de Padilla. “There’s no easy time to raise your hand and come into a legislature and especially now I think this is an extraordinarily hard time for our community. But I also think that there is amazing potential for us and for our community.”
The city of Columbus continues to add to its record-breaking number of homicides. Barroso de Padilla said it’s a trend across the country with a dozen other American cities that have broken their records. She said the issues underneath those statistics are also similar across the country, like poverty and loss of opportunity and hope for young people.
“We are seeing a system that was very delicate, that we laid a pandemic on top of and something had to give,” she said.
Barroso de Padilla said she has confidence in the new Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant and her efforts to reach out and make community connections.
She also said some policies like tax breaks to big developers may need reviewing, and that she supports elected council members serving out their terms and not appointing their successors.
Barroso de Padilla said she is excited to be part of the council and to begin "rethinking what we do and questioning the practices we’ve done."
