PETALING JAYA: A woman with a Malaysian heritage has made history by becoming the youngest woman of colour to become a mayor in California.
Jocelyn Yow, 25, has a Malaysian father who went to study in the US in the 1980s and a Vietnamese mother from a refugee family who moved to the US in the 1980s.
The family moved to Malaysia in 1996 when her paternal grandfather in Alor Setar, Kedah, was diagnosed with cancer.
“I ended up spending over 10 years there, allowing me to learn more about our family history, heritage and culture,” she said in an Instagram post. “I am honoured to be my parents’ daughter, and I am proud to be a Malaysian-Vietnamese-Chinese-American,” she said.
Yow is a mother to a six-month old baby and is studying for a master’s degree in government. She was elected to Eastvale City Council in 2018 and also served as pro-tem mayor. She was elected as mayor in the US elections in November.
She had also served as as an aide for the United States House of Representatives, and also became a district representative on the California Senate.
She said the first thing on her agenda after being sworn in as mayor this week is to create the city’s first library, aside from increasing representation for people of colour in the Californian city.