I'd like to share something my cousin wrote for my grandmother & namesake, Judge Esperanza Garcia for her 78th birthday. As a woman I aspire to become, I, too, find my strength and inspiration from my lola.

"You inspire me to become a better person. With your tireless quest for social justice and your magnanimous sense of community epitomized in what is now the biggest cooperative in the country, the CFI Community Cooperative, I, as well as countless others, look to you as a constant reminder that a life spent in the service of the public is not a job, but a calling -- one which you have heeded so brilliantly and always with a sense of humility, a sense of humor and an endless fount of tenacity.

Thank you, Lola, for being all that you are and all that I aspire to be."