East LA Community Corporation President Maria Cabildo

For Her, the Song Never Gets Old

Maria Cabildo is president and co-founder of the East LA Community Corporation. Before participating in a panel on the high cost of living in Los Angeles, she talked about where she comes up with her best ideas, her biggest indulgences, and why she’s not good at telling jokes.

Q:

Where do you come up with your best ideas?


A:

While I’m hiking. That’s my favorite time to kind of unplug and think.


Q:

How do you pass the time when you’re stuck in traffic?


A:

If I’m listening to music, I tend to listen to the same song over and over and over again. So on the drive here, which was very long, I listened to the same three Café Tacuba songs.


Q:

What do you proselytize for?


A:

Making the city a place where low-income families can continue to live and thrive and play, even as they face great economic pressures to possibly be displaced.


Q:

Do you tell good jokes?


A:

No. I’m really lousy at telling jokes because I have terrible timing. I’ll start a story than say, “Oh wait, there’s this other detail.” I can’t tell jokes.


Q:

How do you like your steak?


A:

I haven’t had meat since I was 20 years old.


Q:

What’s your fondest childhood memory?


A:

My brother was four years older than me, and we shared a bedroom because we were in this tiny little bungalow in East L.A., and I used to keep him up at night asking him questions about everything he’d learned at school the day before.


Q:

What’s your favorite spectator sport?


A:

I don’t really enjoy sports, but I like watching my daughter play softball at the local park. But I would never by choice go to a sporting event.


Q:

What’s your biggest indulgence?


A:

Soy ice cream with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And travel.


Q:

Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Sunday morning?


A:

At my Pilates class.


Q:

What’s your favorite plant or flower?


A:

Irises.