Growing up in an impoverished town like Calexico, just outside of San Diego, did not make it easy to succeed. Especially for someone like Edith Crystal Quezada, whose high school teachers said getting out of town would be nearly impossible.

With limited resources and no Advanced Placement courses at her school, Quezada’s sisters encouraged her to give higher education a shot.

“School counselors never told me about college,” Quezada said.

The community focuses on staying in the valley, getting married and settling down, she said. The barrier was the school system.

Quezada’s older sister, Belinda Quezada, was the one to push her to want other things.

“I knew she had a lot of potential. She just needed to challenge herself. She needed to be exposed to other cultures and other opportunities,” Belinda said.

Living in a low-income town, her parents were both farm workers and financially unable to support her dreams. In ever other aspect they pushed her to hope for more. They knew education would be the key to better opportunities in life.

Quezada attended Imperial Valley Community College for a year and a half. She was studying psychology when she realized that wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life.

“I love politics and government so I transferred to the state capitol to experience something different,” Quezada said.

She graduated from Sacramento State with a degree in government and completed two programs; Sacramento Semester and the Chief Clerk’s internship program. Quezada is now participating in the California State Assembly Fellowship Program.

“My sisters and I were first-generation college graduates,” she said.

Looking over the legislative process for Assemblywoman Anna M. Caballero can be a daunting task to say the least, but assistant clerk to the Office of the Chief Clerk Xochitl Rodriguez said Quezada has a strong will to achieve her goals.

“She’s dedicated a lot of her time to legislation. Her job requires her to do a little bit of everything. She is passionate about her job and takes it very seriously,” Rodriguez said.

Quezada’s older sister remembers a time that was particularly trying for her younger sister. It was during this time that the eldest sister urged her to pursue a career that she genuinely enjoyed.

“She was worried she would let our parents down by taking a little bit long changing schools, but I told her she just needed to go with it and make the decision,” Quezada’s sister said.

But that small setback didn’t stop her from improving her career and becoming an Assembly fellow this year. She knows it’s hard work and loves a challenge; she proudly boasts about herself for proving so many others wrong.

“People telling me I can’t make it made me want to prove them wrong, and I did,” she said.

Proving those who doubted her wrong has instilled a renewed sense of confidence in Quezada.

“It feels great to know I am self-sufficient. I wanted to prove to everyone differently, that I could do for myself. I don’t depend on others and it feels good,” she said.

Looking back, she now knows none of this would be possible without the support of her parents and her sister for showing her what so many others in Imperial Valley failed to see: opportunity.

The ambition Quezada acquired over the years certainly didn’t all come from within. Quezada’s sister attributes herself for giving her younger sister that extra “push.”

“She was a little bit like me, she just needed the push. It paid off, she was scared, but she saw me and how successful I was and figured she could do it too.”

Needless to say she has come a long way from being the scared and worried girl who was unsure of her future.

She is proud of her accomplishments, but mostly of having the privilege of working in the state Capitol. “My parents are so proud of me. They realize that this is a great opportunity coming from a low-income house,” Quezada said.

Quezada now works with powerful people who have the ability to change the lives of all Californians, even schoolteachers, from the small town of Calexico.

Amber Wertman can be reached at [email protected].