Grace Napolitano: 1936—: Politician, Business Executive

In Napolitano's second run for Congress, she won reelection with 71% of the vote and added to her list of duties membership on the international relations commission. She committed herself to securing job-training funds and new business for the urban constituents of Southern California. As a result of her work, the U. S. Labor Department granted the area $2.8 million for specialized high-tech training and $4 million toward the reuse and redevelopment of the Northrop Grumman B-2 facility in Pico Rivera as a potential key to job diversity.

Napolitano showed no reticence in campaigning for a better life for Latino citizens. In August of 1999 she sparked wellness initiatives by endorsing Los Angeles health advocate Cesar Portillo for the California state legislature. A month later she echoed the protests of hundreds of community activitists and union members against racial discrimination and unfair labor practices that targeted Latino employees of the new Gigante Supermarket in Pico Rivera, California.

Napolitano's battle against Gigante involved neighbors and business advocates for consensus building. In partnership with Radio Shack and Office Depot, the retailer, Grupo Gigante, sold groceries and general merchandise through a superstore chain owned by the heirs of Angel Losada Moreno, based in Mexico City. The company had just built a store in the Los Angeles commercial district when Napolitano joined State Senator Joe Dunn, Assemblyman Tom Calderon, and Pico Rivera City Councilman Gregory Salcido in demanding dignity and a fair wage for grocery workers. She networked an alert to the public of the company's intent to break state labor laws by limiting Latino employees to substandard wages. In a crusade for fair treatment, she protested salaries that were half the norm for California grocery workers and denounced exorbitant premiums for company health care coverage.