Her family moved from Mexico to Long Beach in search of a better life. Now she's a city prosecutor.

For Citlalli Vazquez, there was never a doubt in her mind that she wanted to be an attorney when she grew up. 

Born in Long Beach and raised in the city’s Cambodia Town neighborhood, she witnessed firsthand how people in her community became victims of the criminal justice system. 

“At a young age, I just knew lawyers have a lot of power, especially prosecutors,” the 25-year-old said in an interview with the Watchdog. “I knew I didn’t want any more prosecutors that didn’t look like me or that didn’t come from where I came from.”

On Wednesday, years of hard work and dedication to achieving her goals culminated with Vazquez being sworn in surrounded by family, friends, public officials and a mariachi band.

It was testament not only to her determination, but also that of her family’s, which has supported her every step of the way. 

“I always held close to my heart that my dad actually went to Zacatecas University; he’s an agricultural engineer in Mexico,” Citlalli said. “He gave up that degree so that I [could] get mine.”

“It was really such a privilege to have parents that supported my education," she said. 

Establishing roots

Citlalli’s family immigrated from Tepechitlán, a small town in the Central Mexican state of Zacatecas. 

Her grandfather was part of the Bracero program — a labor initiative started in the 1940s through a diplomatic agreement between the United States and Mexico that temporarily granted work permits to millions of Mexican workers. 

Having made a living through agriculture back home, her grandfather joined the program and went to work on farmlands in Central California. While her grandfather worked in the United States, her father Clemente studied back home to get his degree. 

Eventually, her grandfather convinced the rest of the family to move to the United States with him. They moved to Long Beach, where Clemente says a lot of people from his town were settling. 

That’s where he’d meet his future wife Maria Eliazar Mora, Clemente said. They went on to have three children: Evelyn, Samantha and Citlalli.  

But just as the family was growing, they had to face the loss of a cousin to the criminal justice system. 

Her cousin was arrested for allegedly aiding and abetting a murder in 1999, Citlalli said. He would later be convicted and sentenced to 80 years to life in prison. 

Though he’d be released eight years later after a witness admitting to lying in court, Citlalli experienced the impact the criminal justice system had on her cousin and family. 

“It was hard on my family, especially seeing his daughter grow up without her dad,” Citlalli said. “Ultimately, eight years later my cousin was released, but that really ... informed my decision on what job I wanted to pick.”

“I never looked back," she added. "I’ve never wanted to be anything else.”

A blessing of a struggle

Citlalli is Long Beach through and through. 

She was born at Long Beach Community Hospital, went to Whittier Elementary, Butler Middle School and Poly High. The 25-year-old grew up around Cambodia Town’s “G-block,” she said, nicknamed after Gaviota Street. 

“Yo siempre les estuve mencionado que la educación era la única manera de salir de nuestros barrios,” her father Clemente said in Spanish during an interview with the Watchdog. “I always told them that getting an education was the only way out of our neighborhood.”

Clemente worked in the laundry department at Downtown Long Beach hotels for several years and her mom worked as a housekeeper to provide for their kids. 

He would eventually open up a small convenience store in Central Long Beach, but after struggling with crime and being forced to wear a bulletproof vest to feel safe, he closed it down. He now works at a mental health facility in the city. 

That same drive and passion is evident in Citlalli. 

While at Poly, she took so many advanced placement classes that she was able graduate with a degree in Criminology, Law and Society from UC Irvine in just three years. During her time at UC Irvine, she also interned at the City Prosecutor’s Office in Long Beach. 

She then attended Loyola Law School where she became a national mock trial champion while serving as a law clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Despite sleepless and tearful nights studying, she says it was “such a blessing of a struggle to have.”

“I just knew it did not compare to any of the work that my family has ever done,” she said. 

Then, she passed the California bar exam on her first try. 

“El mundo que tenías hace unas semanas atrás era todavía de estudiante…ahora vas a tener una responsabilidad que no te imaginas,” Clemente recalled telling his daughter. “The world you were in just a few weeks ago was that of a student, now you’re going to have responsibilities that you can’t even imagine.”

“Pero yo creo que confió en que a como nosotros vemos la vida, creo que va hacer buen trabajo,” Clemente said. “But I trust that she will do a good job because of how we see life.” 

Giving back

As Citlalli finished repeating the attorney’s oath back to State Senator Lena Gonzalez inside Long Beach's city hall, the room filled with cheers and clapping from friends, family and colleagues. Then, the mariachi started. 

“Yo ya me siento culminado en mi trabajo como padre, como familia,” Clemente said. “I feel my job as a father, as a family is complete.”

“Hemos ya logrado el propósito que nos pusimos cuando nos juntamos que le íbamos a dar una mejor vida a nuestros hijos,” he added. “We’ve accomplished our purpose of giving our kids a better life.”

City Prosecutor Doug Haubert told the Watchdog he first met Citlalli when she joined an intern program in his office while she was in college. 

He said he’s proud as a Long Beach resident and city prosecutor to see young community members like Citlalli go on to become lawyers and return to their hometowns to give back. 

“To me that's a really cool feeling," Haubert said. “The intent of the internship was not necessarily to have this happen, but I’m incredibly excited — I’m elated — that she’s decided to become a lawyer and to actually become a prosecutor in our community.”

Senator Gonzalez said she resonates with Citlalli's story as her parents are also from Mexico. She said the 25-year-old's future is bright and that "it's really amazing to see [Citlalli] as a Mexican-American woman, as someone who speaks a different language, from Long Beach, representing."

“I love it,” Senator Gonzalez said. “It gives me goosebumps, literally, to hear the mariachi outside, and then to be here in city hall swearing her in was really special.”

Citlalli understands that being a prosecutor has negative connotations in her community, as people see them as being responsible for putting others in jail. But she also knows how easy it is to fall into the wrong crowd, just as her cousin did.

Having experience on both sides of the law, however, will help her be a catalyst for change and reform in her community, she said.

She believes that "if you're standing for justice, you have to stand for it, even if you're standing alone."

“I want to see changes in my own community,” she said. “I want to see what I can do, I want to see how many people I can help on this side of the bench.” 

“If I have a talent," she continued, "then I want to use it to serve as many people as possible.”