Max Vargas ready to fight for economic justice in the Latino community
When advocates talk about how to improve the needs of the Latino community – from education to health equity – a common denomination or the missing component that would help solve those issues is the lack of economic justice, said Max Vargas, vice president of economic justice at the Latino Community Foundation.
In some cases poverty is there front and center. In other instances, prosperity and economic opportunity are missing in Latino communities, he said.
“So it’s such a big elephant in the room, but are issues that affect all of us,” said Vargas, who on April 8 was named to his post by the foundation, whose mission is to unleash the civic and economic power of Latinos in California.
Vargas, a nationally recognized policy, legal, and community leader, said Latinos are such a large demographic that have “tremendous power, that in many ways goes untapped and that’s part of my mission.”
Working on economic justice, Vargas, 34 is “honored, humbled, and ready to grow the economic security, mobility, and power of the Latino community.”
“Latinos, if we were our own country, we would be the seventh-largest economy in the world,” Vargas said. “This is not a sob story about how bad we’re doing. This is an optimistic story about how much better we could be doing. And what we want to see for ourselves, our families, our communities and the next generations.”
Vargas served as senior policy advisor to former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs where he advanced legislation to address housing access, executed climate justice initiatives, and led efforts for economic security and opportunity. During his tenure, Vargas also contributed to legal briefs in defense of immigrant families, an effective Census count, and health equity.
Vargas said the LCF has been looking at how “we can address the things that have stopped us from fully participating.”
While Latinos are the essential workers keeping the state afloat in the pandemic, Vargas said, at the same time “we’ve been hit hardest by some of the economic fallout and it’s not just this time around.”
Vargas said the Latino community has often been hit hardest and recovered the slowest or the lasts.
“I think part of our mission now is making sure we get our due,” Vargas said. “Because when we do, when we get our full participation in the economy, our full economic power, that’s justice and it also helps not just the Latino community but the state and the country.”
“That’s the mission. That’s the overarching goal. We know there are a lot of reasons why, historically, there’s been exclusions. There’s been distrust,” Vargas said. “There’s been so many things that lead to a gap in the participation. We need to see if we want to stay competitive. And we want to see prosperity for ourselves and the next generation.”
Vargas said so many Latinos are a big part of entrepreneurship, starting a lot of large and small businesses which are the backbone of the economy.
However, Latinos business owners are also the most under-banked community with about half of them either not banking, or only partially banking or don’t have or are not using the many different banking access tools available for business owners, Vargas said.
Some of the reasons Vargas said is that some banking institutions have never reached them or there is a distrust.
“So part of the way we see some of this being solved is, is pretty straightforward, right? What’s the fastest way between two points, a straight line? So if there was a history of distrust, how do you build that trust? If there’s not been investment, make sure there’s investment,” Vargas said. “Make sure that it’s going to the Latino community, that it’s going to Latino-led organizations, Latino-led institutions, Latino led businesses?”
“I think that’s the one way we show and the financial system institutions can show that they’re walking the walk,” Vargas said. “As a part of where we see justice happening is righting some wrongs and then helping us all go forward.”
Vargas said the foundation is especially mindful of and investing more time and attention to ensure that state and local dollars goes towards where it’s supposed to go as well as supporting local partners, who are going to pull from those dollars to go into their community.
“We’re going to ensure that can reach Latino families up and down the state,” said Vargas, who knows the importance of working with so many partners thought out the state as well as the Central Valley, to ensure geographical equity too.
“For many years, the valley’s been left behind or excluded from a lot of conversations. So that is an area that we’re also being very intentional about and have a lot of partners in the valley because of that focus,” Vargas said.
“Max is an impact-driven, people-centered leader,” said Jacqueline Martínez Garcel, the foundation’s CEO. “He has co-created, executed and informed systemic policy changes to advance equity and justice for Latino families across the nation. I am thrilled Max will bring his breadth and depth of experience to catalyze LCF’s work to build a more just and inclusive economy that works for Latino families.”
The foundation has the largest network of Latino philanthropists in the country and has invested more than $20 million to increase Latino civic leadership and political power in the state and It is the only statewide foundation solely focused on investing in Latino youth and families in California.
“LCF has demonstrated that by leading with love, trust, and community we can meet any moment and strive for lasting, systemic change, and economic justice,” Vargas said. “The mission of LCF is personal for me and I am excited to build the future every Latino family wants for their children.”
Most recently, Vargas served as deputy director of First 5 California, overseeing legislative, policy, and media initiatives to increase child care access and secure paid family leave.
Earlier in his career, Vargas worked for the California Legislature, workforce and transportation agencies, and the National Council of La Raza, which is now UnidosUS.
Vargas is a former unaccompanied minor and political asylee from Perú and holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of the Pacific and a J.D. from the McGeorge School of Law. Vargas is also an alumnus of the Rose Center’s Equitable Economic Development Fellowship and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and serves on the boards of Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte and the Stockton Public Schools Foundation.
He graduated from Beyer High School in Modesto.
