Robin López, who graduated from San Francisco State University, became the first mayor of Latino and indigenous ancestry in Albany, California on Dec. 9, marking a historic milestone for the East Bay city of 19,000 residents.

López, who’s originally from Richmond, California, earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from SFSU in 2015. In 2022, he was voted into Albany’s five-member city council. Members of the council rotate into the role of mayor, holding one-year terms.

“This moment of being installed as mayor might seem like a formality but it’s bigger than that,” López said. “It represents that we are taking up space as folks from these backgrounds, that’s had, for generations, been subjected to backwards policy or forms of discrimination or layers of dismissal in a society that hasn’t always treated us with the level of respect that we should have been entitled to.”

His path from Richmond to Albany’s mayorship involved being immersed in academia. After graduating from De Anza High School in 2007, López initially struggled at San Francisco State University.

“I didn’t know what time management was. I didn’t know what it meant to pick your own classes,” López said. “I went from literally being in a high school campus that looked and felt like a prison, to go into this open space in San Francisco and being exposed to a lot of different experiences and cultures and peoples.”

After withdrawing from the university, López enrolled at Contra Costa College, where he spent several years building his academic foundation before successfully returning to SFSU to complete his degree.

“Robin came across as a perceptive, resourceful and determined student when he was at SF State,” said Dr. Kwok Siong Teh, one of López’s former professors and the Director of SFSU’s School of Engineering.

After graduating, he went on to earn a master’s degree at San Jose State University.

While he was there, he attended a conference where he met Joshua Perez, a member of the Navajo Nation, who’s now a close friend.

“My first impression is that he’s a very intelligent young man,” Perez said. “I could hear in the way that he talks — he talked like I did, like he had that Bay Area kind of like swag to him.”

López continued his academic career, eventually attending the University of California, Berkeley where he’s now a doctoral candidate. He wanted to attend the University of California, Merced after interviewing at multiple universities in the country but a bone marrow donation surgery left him struggling to walk, which ruled out moving all the way to Merced.

Now, he resides in the University Village in Albany with his wife and two children, aged 14 and 2.

When López moved there in 2022, he really wanted to be civically engaged and decided to run for city council. He won and became vice mayor in 2023.

López credits the California State University system with helping him succeed academically.

“There’s a lot of commentary about ‘Oh well, if a student goes to a CSU, it’s not a Stanford, it’s not a Berkeley, it’s not an Ivy League’ — in my opinion, it really comes down to what you make of it and the relationships to the social capital you’re building, not just with your professors, but your peers,” López said. “I do think it’s unfortunate that sometimes really solid students, especially from CSUs, don’t get the same look or the same shake as students who may come from tier one research universities.”

López says strong communication and clear priorities are the keys to managing his multiple roles as an elected official, Ph.D candidate, and father.

“It definitely requires having solid communication with my life partner,” López said. “Committing and prioritizing to my children, first and foremost, that’s always going to be my priority.”

His success also stems from supportive advisors who understand the challenges of being a student-parent and from Albany’s city government structure.

“One of the major benefits of serving in a small city is having phenomenal city staff,” López said. “Being able to know city staff on a first-name basis goes a long way because it shows the level of respect that we have for them as elected leaders.”

John Anthony Miki, the previous mayor of Albany and current city council member, applauded López’s insights while serving on the council.

“He has definitely brought a fresh perspective to discussions within the community and also perspective from the University Village as a village resident and as a current Ph.D student at UC Berkeley,” Miki said. “That’s been really powerful both in our discussions about events going on in the city.”

Approximately 50 people attended the special council meeting where he became mayor, including his friends and family. He decided to wear a t-shirt with various phrases to the meeting.

“The shirt is just a reflection of what I stand for, so, for my ancestors, for all the homies, for all the chingonas, or the badasses out there that are doing the work for the dreamers, for anyone who ever felt like, maybe they’re being overlooked or dismissed that we’re here. For all of us,” López said.

The t-shirt also revealed his arm tattoos, some of which represented his roots — including Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war, “Rich City,” a nickname for Richmond, California, and 12 stars representing himself and his siblings.

Perez performed native prayers during the meeting to honor López.

“He’s a good father. He’s a family man. He’s overcome a lot of adversity,” Perez said. “I feel honored that that one of our own has found his way into this type of accomplishment, and when I say one of our own I mean growing up from a similar, socioeconomic background — another bro from the hood — even though he’s from Richmond and I’m from down past Oakland, I see myself in him.”

This story was originally published on GoldenGateXpress on December 10, 2024.