Before a class of captivated high school seniors, Rep. Robert Garcia recounted the trajectory of his life: as a boy from humble beginnings in Peru, as a gay man raised in a conservative Catholic family, as an undocumented immigrant worried about his future and, now, as a member of Congress.
The students in an advanced placement government class at Ernest S. McBride Sr. High School in Long Beach peppered him with sharp questions, notably whether his roots and his background ever made him feel like a fraud among his peers.
Rep. Robert Garcia speaks to students at Ernest S. McBride Sr. High School in Long Beach in May.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“I’ve had impostor syndrome my whole life. I always have impostor syndrome,” Garcia told the students, many of them Latino. “And you guys are gonna have impostor syndrome, too. I have never, in any position I’ve had, felt like I was either ready…
