Salt Lake City mayoral candidate, bank executive, and immigrant, state Sen. Luz Escamilla, told us that she never imagined living in a country where her son would have the opportunity to learn how to play the violin. She also understands, as a Latina woman born in Mexico, the nervousness of being pulled over by a police officer.
The other candidate, clean air activist and City Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall, described to us losing at a young age her ingenious father to cancer. After his death, she found beauty in studying the resilience of desert plants — which form part of an elaborate tattoo on her shoulder memorializing this loss while also signifying new connections among friends.