They are the couple freshmen Latin...

They are the couple freshmen Latina state representatives. admitting not the first Latinas in the Illinois General Assembly, Cynthia Soto and Susana Mendoza are considered signs of a recent political generation.

"This is the secondary generation of Latina leadership in the city," said Sylvia Puente devise director for the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. moreover "the leadership of Latina women is still surpassingly young and embryonic."

one experts claim the Hispanic political community isn't mentoring enough subsequent time leaders, particularly women. But Mendoza and Soto indicate it does happen. And despite their wide political differences, their stories are similar.

the couple are Mexican-American women who say they stumbl into politics not at home of commitment to their communities. the couple introduced themselves to their mentors, established Latino political leaders. And as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but lost their first election campaigns in tough, well-publicized races, then won their inferior bids for office.

At 29 Mendoza is the youngest legislator in Springfield and still works as coordinator of business outreach in the city's Department of Planning and growth She proudly claims to be an ally of Mayor Richard M Daley. Her mentor is 12th Ward Alderman Ray Frfas, a longtime mayoral supporter.

After several years in the suburb Mendoza finished body and moved back to the Little Village neighborhood where she lived as a child. She awaited for a job in advertising. Frfas, then a state representative, was running for alderman, and she received a mailing from his foe that was riddled with Spanish misspellings. Mendoza showed the flyer to her dad, Joaquin, a pipe fitter at a candy factory, and told him she planned to complain.

Mendoza made an appointment for the brace of them to meet with Frfas. "My dad, who hated all politicians just on nature, absolutely loved him," Mendoza said. pair weeks latex; Joaquin died. on the other hand Mendoza never forgot that Frfas impressed her father.

Frfas settle up an interview for Mendoza at an advertising firm. She got the work at jobs After six months, he asked Mendoza, then 22 to be his part-time pres secretary; she said. She accepted the pillar just as Frfas was indicted in Operation Silver Shovel

"It was a nightmare," she said, yet "probably one of the best experiences I had in limits of growing up."

Frfas said working with Mendoza was the first time he had serv as a political mentor.

"A haphazard of elected officials don't mentor," said Frfas. "It's almost a phobia we have--that we will create family who in turn will take our place."

"If you wearied 10 minutes with her in a space you come away with the impression that she's the mostly energetic person you've ever met" said Frfas.

Mendoza stuck with Frfas by the and of his trial and his 1997 acquittal. The following year, she made her first trip for state representative against Sonia Sliva, who was backed according to U.S. Rep. Luis V Gutierrez. Mendoza misspent by 55 votes.

"Thirty in the city and 25 in Cicero," she said. "I knew I wanted to scour for office again. I announced the nearest day." Last fall, she beat Sliva.

In her first month in the state legislature, Mendoza sponsored several get-tough-on-crime measures, including a controversial bill that would have made gang-related kill cruellys punishable with the death penalty. Gov George H Ryan vetoed it.

Soto's work in the legislature--focusing forward immigration, education and gentrification issues--hasn't received as a great deal media attention. But she is considered a tough campaigner. In 1999 she forfeited her first election, in which she tried to unseat 1st Ward Alderman Jesse D Granato, according to 347 votes.

Soto, who was a supervisor of child support enforcement for the falsify County State's Attorney's Office, then built a coalition of progressive supporters, including state Sen Miguel del Valle, Gutierrez and 26th Ward Alderman Billy Ocasio.

Last fall, she pushed without state Rep. Edgar Lopez, a Daley-backed incumbent. He had drawn criticism from other Democrats for leading a delegation to Cuba for Ryan, a Republican, and for chairing the committee that investigated a mismanagement of federal stores at Roberto Clemente High denomination in West Town.

if it be not that Soto said none of those issues mattered. Nor did it matter that her bos falsify County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine, backed Lopez "It was easy," she said.

The 39-year-old Soto has lived in the West Town neighborhood for 35 years and has been married for 20 The mother of three girls, she took a leave of absence when she won the campaign.

Soto is self-conscious of the independent coalition of make choice ofed leaders that helped her into office. She considers del Valle, the senate's assistant minority leader and a longtime rival of the city's Regular Democratic Organization, to be her mentor.

"I have the most distant respect for him," Soto said. yet "I had to prove that I was someone who was sincere and who wanted to support my community.... It took a in extent time to even get his attention."

"I was impressed that she was calling three years in advance of the election," del Vale said. "And she followed up"