By Arturo Castañares
Publisher

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria continues to spin a misleading narrative about his background when he claims he’s "the son of a maid and a gardener" referring to jobs his parents had before he was born, giving the public the false impression he actually worked his way up from humble blue-collar beginnings to the height of political success. 

Last week, during an interview with San Diego’s ABC Channel 10, Gloria said he learned the lesson of hard work as the “son of a maid and a gardener”, a consistent claim he has made since launching his political career nearly 18 years ago.

Gloria’s current campaign website and X.com biographies both refer to him as "the son of a maid and a gardener."

And Gloria's official biography on the City's website says his lifelong career in public service was "inspired by a lesson his parents – a hotel maid and a gardener – taught him at a young age: if you care about something, then you should leave it better than you found it."

It sounds like a great success story, but the truth is that Gloria's parents had those jobs only before he was born, and his dad recently retired after a long career in the aerospace industry, having worked as a supervisor at United Technologies and, most recently, as a production controller at General Atomics.

Phil Gloria's LinkedIn profile

 

La Prensa San Diego has been the only news outlet to report on this mischaracterization after having asked Gloria during his 2020 campaign for Mayor for clarification on his parents’ often-cited backgrounds. 

“My mom and dad were a maid and a gardener in the 1970s,” Gloria wrote to La Prensa San Diego when asked when his parents worked those jobs, leaving out any specific dates.

Gloria's parents no longer worked those jobs by the time he was born in 1978.

We have seen politicians burnish their résumés, cite degrees they didn't earn, and NY Congressman George Santos even falsely claimed his grandparents fled Europe to escape the Holocaust to seem more "Jew-ish", but this may be the first time a candidate has ever diminished his parents' backgrounds to mislead the public in an apparent attempt to make himself seem more relatable to voters.

Gloria continues to portray his parents as the blue-collar workers they were before he was born even though his own life experience was shaped by the middle-class —if not under-middle-class— lifestyle he enjoyed growing up in Clairemont and attending the private University of San Diego. 

Gloria has said he doesn't come from "wealth or privilege" but says his parents were able to "buy a home, and put both their children through college" which is a level of wealth and privilege that thousands of working-class families may not ever be able to enjoy.

There are dozens of examples online where Gloria mentions his parents as a maid and a gardener but none where he refers to his dad as an aerospace executive or describes their subsequent careers.

Ironically, the only online reference to Gloria's dad being an aerospace executive is on his Wikipedia page which mentions "His father was a Production Controller at General Atomics" but the source for that line is the August 3, 2020 article in La Prensa San Diego that first broke the story.

Even in a self-written story on I'm from Driftwood where he describes his personal life journey, Gloria writes that "I was probably about four or five years old. We were living in a small duplex on Apache Street in the Claremont neighborhood of San Diego. Very, very small apartment, really, for my parents, my older brother, and I. My mom was a hotel maid. My dad was a gardener," contradicting his own admission to LPSD that his parents had those jobs in the 1970s.

It's a false narrative Gloria continues to spin not only in words, but in deeds. 

La Prensa San Diego obtained pictures of Gloria and his parents on Primary Election Day in March 2020 when they went to cast their votes in front of news cameras at the Registrar of Voters’ office and a another picture of them at a private campaign party later that same night.

Although the day was the highlight of Gloria’s political career as he was vying for the highest elected office in the City, his dad wore faded baggy jeans and denim shirt -looking how one might expect a gardener to look- yet Gloria was dressed in the expected business casual attire, with his campaign manager filming their arrival on camera.

Two people who know the elder Gloria said they had never seen him dress that way, even in casual settings.

But in another picture taken later that same day, Gloria and his parents were at private campaign celebration party dressed up for the festive occasion, and his dad looking much more like the aerospace executive he was at the time. 

Todd Gloria and his parents on Primary Election Day, March 2020.

 

In the world of politics, the image a candidate portrays of himself can be as important as the things he says, and Gloria knows that better than most.

For those of us who have friends and relatives who work blue-collar jobs, we know that none of them would show up to a wedding, a funeral, a First Communion, or to support their child on an important day dressed in anything other than the best clothes in their closet. 

Working families, especially those in immigrant communities, are some of the most humble, salt-of-the-Earth people you will ever encounter. 

They work hard to provide for their families, raising their children with the hope that they will achieve greater heights than themselves, and they always show the enormous pride they have for their families by presenting themselves in the most respectful way they can. 

Todd Gloria should be ashamed of himself for using his parents as props in his false political narrative which could have been more effective had he celebrated his parents’ successes as an example of achieving the American Dream instead of depicting himself as a breakout success. 

Gloria undersells his parents to oversell himself. 

There is no greater insult to working families —and his own parents— than to depict maids and gardeners as some caricature of poor workers forever stuck in menial jobs instead of championing their successes in building better lives for themselves and their children while cleaning our homes, hotels, and offices, and tending to our lawns, gardens, and landscaping.

Artist Criselda Vasquez's 2017 painting called The New American Gothic depicts a Hispanic maid and gardener couple as the modern symbols of unsung workers, replacing the farmer and his daughter in the well-known 1930 American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. 

The New American Gothic (2017) by Criselda Vasquez

 

Gloria's parents, like many of ours, sacrificed and stretched to improve their lives and gave their children opportunities that they could only have dreamed of for themselves. 

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and we should honor their sacrifices and struggles and successes, not use them as political props. 

Todd Gloria could have said he is the proud son of parents who started as a maid and gardener when they were younger and worked hard to achieve the American Dream and gave him the vaulted launching pad to achieve his own lifelong dream of being an elected official. 

That would be an inspiring story and it would have had the added benefit of actually being true.

But instead, Gloria chooses to wordsmith his bio to purposely give the false impression he grew up watching his blue collar mom and dad toil in menial jobs and portrays himself as fighting his way out of those humble beginnings.

The public deserves the truth about our elected leaders, not fake stories of exaggerated struggle and success. 

Voters should hold elected officials accountable when they mislead us, even about the little things, because then we can’t trust them to tell us the truth about the big things. 

Can we trust what Gloria says about homelessness, the budget, and public safety when he's willing to mislead us about his own origin story?

Todd Gloria owes our community an apology for using maids and gardeners -and his parents- as props and for trying to cloak himself with the struggles of working families he never really experienced in hopes of playing on our sympathy for a few more votes.

Castañares is the Publisher and Editor-at-Large of La Prensa San Diego and has won numerous awards for his journalism, including the prestigious Ruben Salazar Award, the 1st Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Chapter, and the San Diego County Taxpayers' Association's Media Watchdog Award. A first-generation American whose parents emigrated from Mexico, Castañares previously served as staff to the California State Legislature, Chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, and on the boards of local nonprofit organizations, including the New Americans Museum and the Tariq Khamisa Foundation. He can be reached directly at art@laprensasd.com.