Originally published in the San Diego Union Tribune, January 13, 2023.

January is national mentoring month. It is a month to celebrate mentors and create awareness for the value they bring in a person’s life. There are many types of mentorships. When it’s a good match, a mentor and mentee will make a positive impact on each other’s life. Mentorship, in the most basic sense, is a person willing to share their time, their experience and knowledge with someone less experienced. Mentorship is not about age. I have seen the value of peer mentorship, which many times is overlooked and undervalued.

I have been blessed with many great career mentors — people who made a huge impact in my life. I’ve also been blessed with community mentors. We don’t hear about them often, but they are essential for a community to grow its leaders.

When I was in my late 20s, I met Luis “Louie” Natividad. Louie is a legend in the San Diego Latino community. A longtime National City resident, he just turned 80. He is retired now and is the most positive dialysis patient I’ve met.

In 1969, he ran unsuccessfully for a National City Council seat. But he ran again and won in 1977, then did so again in 2002, going on to become vice mayor. He also worked for several San Diego City Council members, from Jim Bates to Myrtle Cole. For 11 years, he worked with Councilmember George Stevens. It was Stevens who encouraged him to run again, this time successfully, for a seat in the National City Council.

Louie has had a long and storied past. He grew up very poor in Tijuana. As a young boy, he shined shoes and sold gum and newspapers at the Tijuana-San Diego border. His single mother eventually brought him to National City. As a young man, he admits to being a troublemaker, always in fights and at some point in his life he used illicit drugs. He started a limousine business that eventually failed but drove some famous people around and has some hilarious stories about those times. He admits to not being a good businessman — knowing him, he probably gave lots of free rides. Many of us know him as a community leader and the former executive director at the Chicano Federation who marched alongside Cesar Chavez to support the grape strike and boycott, in solidarity with farmworkers who were fighting for better working conditions. For many years, he brought together the Latino community through the Latino/a Unity Coalition breakfast, which was a beautiful and powerful monthly gathering of people at iconic Chuey’s Cafe in Barrio Logan. Candidates running for office would always make a stop there. The community showed up for breakfast, and it was Louie who brought us together.

I’m not sure how I met him, but I quickly identified him as a community leader. Surprisingly, he paid attention to me. On day out of the blue in the early 1990s, he invited me and another fellow from the Chicano Federation Leadership Training Institute to breakfast at Chuey’s. David Valladolid, another iconic local leader, was there as well. Valladolid worked for Assemblymember Peter Chacon, the first Latino to represent San Diego in the California Assembly, and became Chacon’s chief of staff. I had no idea why two community leaders would invite two young professionals to breakfast. Unbeknownst to me, Louie did this with many other young people he identified as potential leaders. He took us under his wing and let us know we were part of the community, and with his guidance we found our place in the community. There are many local activists and leaders doing valuable work who claim Louie as a mentor.

I have held an old Latina/o Unity Coalition holiday card that Louie designed for almost three decades. It’s been a source of inspiration for my community service. It is a photo of two young parents crossing the river from Tijuana to San Diego. They are barefoot, the mother is carrying a child, and the father is carrying a plastic bag with all of their belongings. The caption says, “Never forget those who are less fortunate.”

Community mentorship is vital. I am grateful that Louie Natividad mentored so many. My breakfasts with Louie are full of memories, laughter and appreciation. Mentorship can be very gratifying for both mentor and mentee. There is no cost associated with mentorship, other than time. The return on investment is enormous: a longtime friendship and knowing you made a positive impact in someone’s life.