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Carmen O. Perez, a Long Beach legend who rose from humble beginnings to become an influential civil rights leader and a member of the original Chicano Six, has died. She was 85.
Perez, who had pneumonia and other health issues, died at her Long Beach home on Friday, March 21, her daughter, Cinde McCallum, said.
“She lived a great life,” McCallum said, “and made a huge difference in the lives of so many others.”
A celebration of life for Perez is being planned, McCallum said.
As word of Perez’s death spread, accolades poured in on her life and her impact on the community.
“Carmen was not just a Long Beach community leader,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, who also served two terms as Long Beach’s first Latino mayor. “She was a hero to many of us. She broke barriers in politics and paved the way for Latinos to organize in Long Beach and across the country. It’s a huge loss, but we will work to honor her legacy.”
Don Knabe, a former Los Angeles County supervisor, said he and his wife, Julie, were “saddened and devastated beyond words” by Perez’s death.
“I was her ‘token Republican’ and she was my ‘delightful Democrat,” Knabe said. “We’ve known each other and worked together for close to 50 years. We were old school. We fixed problems together. Our biggest accomplishment was our fight to save Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, as well as working on many other projects and charities too numerous to mention.”
Ron Arias, an original member of the Chicano Six and former Long Beach health director, called Perez “a champion and a warrior.”
“I am devastated and shocked by her passing,” he said. “I was just talking to her last week about getting together and having lunch.
“(Perez) loved life and lived life to the fullest,” Arias added. “Her aim was always to improve Long Beach in all of her different capacities. We are going to miss her terribly.”
Theresa Marino, another original member of the Chicano Six and who is also on the board of directors for the Archstone Foundation, called Perez a sister.
“Carmen has been like a sister friend for 53 years,” she said. “She taught so many of us how to organize and get involved in the community. We’re all blessed to have known her.”
George Pla, CEO of Cordoba Corp., president of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and a lifelong friend of Perez, called her a force of nature.
Her presence, he said, “filled the spaces she entered; (her) spirit uplifted all who knew her and whose legacy will echo through time.”
Carmen, née Ornelas, Perez was born on Oct. 23, 1939, in East Los Angeles, the ninth of 10 children. When she was 5, her father died and she was raised by a single mother.
Eventually, she moved to Long Beach, where she raised four children of her own and began her community involvement by becoming a teacher’s aide in the Long Beach Unified School District and PTA president.
Her resume includes serving as patient support services director for the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, chief deputy for the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a founding member of the Long Beach Chicano Political Caucus and a member of the California World Trade Commission.
Perez was also the first Latina on the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners; she was appointed by then Mayor Ernie Kell in 1991 and reappointed by former Mayor Beverly O’Neill. During her 12 years on the commission, trade at the port tripled.
She previously said one of her proudest achievements on the harbor commission was opening the port to the public through free harbor cruises so residents could get a close-up look at port operations.
She was also proud of opening doors to opportunities for women. In an earlier Press-Telegram story on Perez, Sandy Serrano Sewell, executive director of Centro de Ninos, Inc., a children’s support group, said Perez was “already at the table” when younger women were starting out in their careers.”
“She opened doors for so many women like myself,” Sewell said at the time, “showing us how not to be afraid and go for it.”
Between her various roles, Perez served on myriad nonprofit boards, including the Public Corporation of the Arts, Parents Against Cancer, United Way and the American Diabetes Association.
She also joined a group of civil rights activists who led the way for Latino rights in Long Beach five decades ago and became known as the Long Beach Chicano Six. The group included Ron and Phyllis Arias, Theresa Marino, Margie Rodriguez, the late Armando Vazquez-Ramos and Perez.
Last year, at a photo exhibit at the Long Beach Historical Society, the Chicano Six raised their clenched fists in an enthusiastic sign of solidarity for their years of work helping thousands of their fellow community members who were struggling with economic, educational and many other disadvantages.
“We’re still warriors,” Arias said at the time, as his fellow members nodded in agreement.
During the 1960s, Long Beach experienced the largest and fastest growth of the city’s Mexican American/Chicano population, which exploded 400% from 1960 to 1970. Spanish-speaking residents in Long Beach grew from 7,500 in 1960 to 28,500 in 1970. Today, the Latino population has grown to be Long Beach’s largest ethnic group — and will soon become a majority of the city’s residents.
It was against a backdrop of political upheaval, cultural turmoil and civil uprisings that the East Long Beach Neighborhood Center was established, later named Centro de la Raza. By this time, activists had taken on the name “Chicano,” which long had been a racial slur but was then being worn with pride. The inequities spawned the Chicano Six.
Perez’s daughter, McCallum, said one of the issues her mother was proudest of was her part in leading the fight to name a piece of park land downtown after Cesar Chavez. The park is by Chavez Elementary and the Jenny Oropeza Community Center, 401 Golden Ave.
In February, a celebration of life for Vazquez-Ramos took place at the Oropeza Center. Perez was unable to attend because of health reasons, McCallum said, adding that her mother was upset she couldn’t make it.
In one of her interviews a few years ago, Perez was asked about her philosophy in dealing with community issues.
“Nothing is easy,” she said. “If you want change, you have to make it happen. No one will do it for you.”
Years ago, she said, activists made one key decision:
“We decided that we had to sit at the same table with other decision makers in the city,” Perez said. “We did not want to be left out anymore.”
During her years of community involvement, Perez received many awards. One of her most treasured was the key to the city, which Garcia gave to her in 2018, when he was still mayor. Garcia praised Perez for her decades of community involvement.
“When Mayor Garcia called, he made my day,” Perez said at the time. “I was feeling a little down because I had just had a pacemaker put in, and I had some serious plumbing problems at home. I was feeling a little sorry for myself, but when I got that call, I told myself how fortunate I was to live in a great city like Long Beach, which gives you an opportunity to give back.”
Perez is survived by her daughters, Cinde McCallum, Laura Aoki and Elizabeth Perez; grandchildren Michael and Maria McCallum, Alyssa and Olivia Aoki, and Sean Perez-Fulmer; great-grandchild Joshua Fulmer; and two sisters, Aurora Ochoa and Alice Chaney. Her son, Buddy Perez, preceded her in death in 1993.
