INTERVIEW & PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSIE MORGAN
MARTA LOACHAMIN, BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONER, DISTRICT 2
UNKNOWN MURAL IN LONGMONT, COLORADO
On her Journey to Politics: Being a student activist, being on the campus when the ethnic studies department was formed that was the beginning for me of formally understanding the importance of community voice. The importance of people of color, as a Latina, to help other people, white people, in this country, understand our contributions, the work that we put in, the history that we have in the United States and understanding as a student there was so much pushback about an ethnic studies department and so that was the beginning of my understanding of how a system can try to deny the realities of people of color in this country.
Her Take on Accessible Housing: I don’t believe we can just keep building... There's so much regulation around build and growth in Boulder and Boulder County and the housing inventory is the issue that’s why prices have gone up… so I’ve been talking to folks about a couple different ways… 45% of our county rents. So we have a need for landlords and those relationships but if we could open up, even a pocket, like, even 5% of those homes to the market, those are entry-level homes, those are accessible prices, those aren’t the $2.1 million homes or average prices in Boulder, right, but those are like condo, townhome, small single-family homes. That’s what we need access to, the inventory that actually exists.
On Male Oppression and Encouraging Women of Color to Participate: It’s not just women’s work. Even in our leadership teams: “Well how many people do you think is appropriate?” And it’s like RBG said: like, “We have 9 seats. When we have 9 women on the bench, then we’ll have enough”. Nobody questions the fact that we have a board room full of men. No one questions the fact that the majority of our companies, CEOs, etc. are men. And so even our men as counterparts need to get involved in the conversation and do the work because in most cases, in a lot of cases, they’re the ones who have the ability to make those shifts.