Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s state presidential campaign director Jossie Valentin, who is also a Holyoke city councilor, called for unity in the 2020 elections on Monday night during a discussion at the University of Massachusetts about her identity and career in politics.

Valentin talked about her path to politics — from moving to Massachusetts from Puerto Rico in 1998, to being elected as city councilor in 2013, to quitting her job as a bilingual senior academic counselorat Holyoke Community College earlier this year to work on the Warren campaign.

“There’s still a lot of scars from 2016,” Valentin said, speaking to the crowd about the campaign. “That’s what we need to focus on — how to focus on unity.”

Valentin said her path hasn’t always been “nice and rose-colored,” though. Before running for city council, she worked as the program director for Arbor House, a substance abuse treatment program in Holyoke, and for the Psychiatric Evaluation and Stabilization Unit at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow. The work burnt her out quickly.

She stated, however, that the experience prepared her to run for office and to interact with constituents. In 2011, she joined the campaign of current Holyoke Mayor and then-candidate Alex Morse. The experience served as a “wake-up call to local politics.”

“I [had] no idea who this 22-year-old [was],” Valentin said about Morse, “and I said sure.”

Working on the Morse campaign also opened her eyes to the lack of representation in Holyoke’s local government. While nearly 45 percent of the city is Puerto Rican, only three members of its 13-person city council at the time were Puerto Rican, Valentin said.

“There’s a language barrier,” she said. “There’s a cultural barrier.”

So, Valentin decided to run as city councilor for Holyoke’s Ward 4. She said listening to her future constituents was key to getting elected.

“If you’re here to talk about your ideas, you’ve already lost,” Valentin said. “I lost 15 pounds door-knocking.”

“Nobody knew who I was, but I made myself known to the voters,” she added.

Sophia Ventura, a sophomore economics and social thought and political economy major, said she admires Valentin’s dedication to her constituents.

“She’s very much a constituent herself,” Ventura said about Valentin. “Anyone that understands grassroots understands that it’s hard work.”

For Ventura —a member of UMass Democrats, which co-organized the event with Latinos Unidos — representation was another topic of interest. As a Puerto Rican woman, she said she wanted to hear Valentin’s ideas on how to increase Puerto Ricans’ visibility in state leadership positions.

“I wanted to see what her thoughts [are] on how to change that,” Ventura said, “because it’s untouched.”

Valentin won her city council seat in 2013. She was elected for a second term two years later by a margin of about 80 percent, and in 2017, she ran unopposed.

In 2018, as Valentin was considering a run for state senate, she got a call from Warren’s right-hand man. She was asked to quit her job at Holyoke Community College, which she had held for 13 years, to join the campaign. She checked in with her wife, and immediately agreed. Despite having been a delegate for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016 — and having introduced Sanders at his campaign rally at UMass at the time — the choice was obvious.

“I strongly believe in the policies … she’s proposing,” Valentin told students. Having already made campaign stops in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, she said Warren’s “reception has been great.”

Valentin said Warren’s visit to Puerto Rico was particularly significant to her.

“That was a really strong message to other campaigns,” Valentin said. “It wasn’t about the photo-ops. It wasn’t about the artificial stuff. … It was to back up her work as Senator.”

Carla Montilla, a sophomore political science and history major and La Raza coordinator at Latinos Unidos, said it was important to hear from Valentin, someone who is actively involved in the 2020 elections.

“It was an opportunity to listen to someone who has an eye on local and national issues,” she said. “I hope Latinos who want to work in politics will learn from her and know that they can accomplish things like she has.”

Jackson Cote can be reached at [email protected].