Five years ago, Gloria Cardenas Cudia’s run for Rockford mayor featured signs with “GLORIA” in big red letters. An intimate approach, perhaps, unless you know her. So many people do. And it was a reflection of how Cardenas Cudia ran her campaign personally. Our 2010 Rockford Woman of the Year has built relationships in Rockford for almost four decades.

While Gloria didn’t win that race, today she’s just as visible. Whether it’s in her job as an outreach and marketing specialist with Rockford Park District, officiating weddings as an ordained minister or volunteering her time to mentor children, she connects with those she encounters.

AMY J. CORRENTI | ROCKFORDWOMAN.COM
Gloria Cardenas Cudia, the 2010 Rockford Woman of the Year, stands in downtown Rockford.

People feel like they know her even if they don’t really know her.

“She’s a friend to everybody, so her friends call her Gloria,” said longtime friend Ron Tietsort. “It’s a personal thing. Even if you don’t know her personally, you just feel you do. She gives that spirit or aura that you can just call her Gloria.”

Rockford Woman’s panel of judges felt the same way. They chose Gloria for the magazine’s 2010 award for all she has done for the community she fell in love with 47 years ago.

Coming to Rockford
Gloria Cardenas (pronounced CAR-dah-nus) was born in 1950 in Uvalde, Texas, about 80 miles southwest of San Antonio, to American-born parents, Eloisa and Agustin. She learned a strong work ethic early on: Her parents and her four older brothers were migrant workers each summer.

She lived in camps with no running water and no telephones. And while it was hard work harvesting crops, Gloria watched and admired her mother, who woke up early to prepare homemade tortillas for breakfast before the family went to work.

“My mom never stopped,” Gloria said. “And she was so positive. She passed a lot of that to me.”

Her parents also encouraged their children to be strong when people would make comments about their heritage. They said: “Seek yourself. Know who you are. There are more important things to do than argue with critics.”

In 1963, the family made their home in the Forest City. Three years later, the 16-year-old Cardenas met her future husband and Rockford native Frank Cudia (pronounced COO-dee-ah), who was of Sicilian descent.

That same year in 1966, the Cardenas family went back to living in Texas for a bit when they suffered the loss of 20-year-old Arnold in Vietnam; he’s buried in Texas. Eventually, though, they returned to Rockford, and Gloria and Frank wed Jan. 17, 1970.

“I married Frank for his money and because he was good-looking,” Gloria joked. “He made $3 an hour back then. That was a lot of money.”

The couple lived a brief time in Virginia, where Frank finished his military service. When they moved back to Rockford in December 1970, they went on to have two children, Angelica in 1973 and Frank Jr. in 1977.

And Gloria went on to make a name for herself.

Wearing many hats
You may know the Gloria who served for 25 years on the board of La Voz Latina, a Rockford advocacy agency. Or you may know her as an ordained minister who presides over weddings, funerals and baptisms.

Or you may have seen her on TV, where she substituted as the “weather girl” on WIFR-23 in 1980; today, she does a weekly show on WQRF-39 about Rockford Park District events and appears on WROK (1440 AM) with Riley O’Neil.

One thing has often led to another.

Like when former Park District leader Webbs Norman invited Cardenas Cudia to lunch after seeing her on the air because he “loved her personality and her skill.”

It was the beginning of a “wonderful, wonderful relationship we’ve had ever since. When I first saw her, I knew she would make a great addition to our Park District team,” he said.

The pair talked about the same things they talk about today: where they came from and what’s important.

“One of the things that makes Gloria so good at what she does is, she knows who she is and what her values are. Her decisions are quite clear in any given situation,” Norman said.

Soon after that meeting, Gloria was appointed to the Park District Board. In 1993, she became a Park District staffer.
While her day job has kept her busy, Cardenas Cudia has found time to help build playgrounds and paint homes, to mentor youths and teach Sunday school.

And in 2006, she started Salsa Business Network to connect multicultural business owners and provide networking opportunities. “I wanted paths to cross and people to connect,” she said.

In 40 years, she’s fallen in love with the Rock River Valley. Her husband said she would have been this way about any community.

“What makes Rockford her heart is that there’s a lot of her heart here,” Cudia said. “If you can’t love a community all your family lives in, you don’t say anything. If you like it, tell everyone, and do things to make your community better.”

The political activist
Cardenas Cudia started her political career because she believes in action behind the talk. The People Who Care desegregation lawsuit prompted her to run for the Rockford School Board in 1997.

She and husband Frank were watching a School Board meeting on TV when she shared what she would do if she were on the board.

“Ideas are a dime a dozen,” she said. “When implemented, though, they ultimately make a difference.”

She ran, won and later became board president, a seat she held until 2001 when she decided to not run for a second term. The suit ended a year later in 2002.

“That has been my calling, to be a bridge,” Cardenas Cudia said. “Not just for the Latino community, but in general.”

She also was inspired to be a community activist by her older brother, who lost his life for his country alongside whites, blacks and other Latinos.

It reminded her of what her mother used to say: “God made you. He gave you your skills. And that’s what’s important.”

Cardenas Cudia didn’t always win: She lost a 2002 race for 67th state House representative to Chuck Jefferson. And in 2005, she knew some people did not take her as a serious candidate for Rockford mayor.

Nonetheless, she thought she had something to offer. At the time, the owner of meat-processing firm Trim-Rite wanted to build a hog-processing plant and develop an industrial park in job-starved southwest Rockford.

Many opposed the plan. Cardenas Cudia looked at it with an open mind.

“We lost Chrysler way back when because of backward thinking,” she said. “We lost that tax base because of boxed thinking. Maybe we need a hog plant. Maybe we don’t need a hog plant. But we should at least look into it.”

It was close to the filing deadline, she didn’t have much money, and she didn’t have the formal backing of her Republican Party. Plus, there were two local political heavyweights on the ballot: Doug Scott, the incumbent Democrat, and Larry Morrissey, the independent.

What mattered was the support of her husband, who had just retired after 37 years at the Belvidere Chrysler plant. And who, by the way, had taken many phone messages — from concerned to ticked off to praising — during his wife’s time on the School Board.

“I thought to myself, ‘If you lose, you are no worse off,’ ” Gloria said.

Her goal was to educate herself and voters, and she got her message out.

“She loves the community, worked so hard in the community, knows so many people and volunteered and helped in so many ways,” said former opponent Scott, who came in second to Morrissey. “That’s what she brought to the campaign, the you-know-me-and-you-know-my-heart-is-in-the-right-place.”

Cardenas Cudia finished a distant third.

“I got like 5,000 votes to their millions,” she joked. “But I looked at it like the Olympics. I could either get the gold, the silver or the bronze. And, hey, the bronze isn’t that bad. I learned so much from that race. I feel like I came away with a Ph.D. ”

Faith, family, friends
Gloria said she does it all by focusing — and saying no, too. However most people interviewed for this profile couldn’t recall a time she’s done so.

She still teaches a Sunday school class at Rockford First Assembly of God, though last fall she and Frank regularly began attending Heartland Community Church.

She dabbles in creating Web sites and helps church friends and others get online.

Her friends and family say she’s religious, honest, funny, respectful and dedicated.

“She has a big heart for everybody, wants to help everybody and tries to help everybody,” said Tietsort, longtime friend and co-Sunday school teacher. “Even if it’s an impossible situation, she’ll try to help that person, situation or cause in any way she can. I know personally that it’s often been her own money, her own time, her own efforts it’s taken to try to solve that situation.”

She loves her family. And it’s a big family. She’s the fifth of six children, the oldest girl of two.

Her sister, Mary Nunez, nominated her for Rockford Woman of the Year. Nunez is five years younger and remembers that age difference played a factor in how close they were growing up.

“There were a lot of times Gloria didn’t want her little sister around,” Nunez said. “She was the baby for a long time. I came around and ruined her thing with Mom and Dad. As she got older, she taught me a lot of things.”

It wasn’t until Nunez was an older teen and thinking about marrying then-boyfriend Mike Nunez that she and Gloria became close. Mary and Mike had Thanksgiving dinner with Frank and Gloria.

Gloria was cooking and asked Mary what she wanted to bring.

“I said the vegetable. There were only four of us. One can of corn would have been enough, but I brought six cans of corn,” Nunez said. “I also offered to make the rice. I had been bragging about how I could cook. But the rice was hard and sticky. I couldn’t even get a spoon in or out.”

Instead of laughing at her sister, Gloria laughed with her — and they bonded.

“Now, I can learn something from you, I thought, because there was that closeness,” Nunez said. “I can do stupid stuff like that.

“From that point, I looked to her, asked her for advice.”

Today, Nunez looks at her sister and the mark she’s made in this community.

“She is constantly coming up with a new idea for something. She’s always gung-ho about it. She’ll be like Webbs Norman when she retires. She’ll still be the person you go to for anything you need.”

Anna Derocher is the online editor for RockfordWoman.com and a former reporter who came out of “retirement” to write this feature. She can be reached at 815-987-1431 or aderocher@rrstar.com.

Profile
Age: 59

Born in: Uvalde, Texas

City of residence: Rockford

Family: Husband, Frank; daughter, Angelica Gonzales, who is married to Jose and has a blended family of five boys, Joseph, Michael, Connor, Isaac and Jacob; son, Frank Jr., a single dad who lives in Las Vegas raising daughter Victoria, and is engaged to Alma Contreras and getting married May 15.

Education: Rockford West High School graduate; some college and certifications in security investments and insurance.
Community involvement: Previously on the YMCA, La Voz Latina and SWIFTT boards, Rockford Park District commissioner, Rockford School Board member and president, NALEO Board treasurer, Winnebago County Diversity Council, Winnebago County Crime Commission chairwoman, Northern Illinois Republican Women president, Rockford Woman Magazine Advisory Board, Fiesta Hispana co-founder, Community Foundation; and currently a member of Women in Ministry, Rockford chamber’s Minority Business Council and Community Round Table, and president and founder of Salsa Business Network.

Career highlights: Medical secretary at Rockford Clinic; employee relations director at WIFR-23; financial sales manager with Primerica; state of Illinois unemployment office; co-producer and co-host of “La Vida Buena” (the Good Life), a Spanish-language TV show at Comcast; marketing department at the Rockford Park District.

5 things you didn't know ...
It seemed fitting to ask Gloria Cardenas Cudia — the woman everyone seems to know — to share what most people don’t know:

1. I went to a segregated elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. My understanding was that there was another school for the black kids and another for the white kids. These students were then integrated at the one middle school and one high school, although I did not attend these because we moved to Rockford when I was in seventh grade in 1963.

2. My husband Frank and I wanted to have several children, but God blessed us with two. I had two miscarriages, one before Angelica was born and another before Frank Jr. was born. These are very devastating to a woman, but my faith gave me hope that I would indeed have at least one or two children.

3. Poetry is one of my favorite things. The poems tell our family history and roots.

4. I have a Federal Communications Commission-issued television engineer’s operating license, which I received working at WIFR-23 in the ‘80s. All the managers were trained to start up the station. 

5. My parents were born in the U.S. and so was I, which makes me an American citizen. You’d be surprised how many people ask me what country I was born in simply because they see that I am brown-skinned and a Latina. I receive many comments like “how good your English is” because people assume that I had to learn the language.

What the judges said
Rockford Woman switched this year from Web voting to an outside panel of judges. This is what they said:

The selection process for Rockford Woman of the Year 2010 was very difficult because each of the five finalists is so deserving of the award in her own right, but it was also easy because we couldn’t go wrong! 

Gloria Cardenas Cudia is our choice for Rockford Woman of the Year 2010 not only because of the innumerable and diverse contributions she has made to our community as a leader, elected official, media personality, ordained minister, dedicated family woman and role model to women, but also because of her positive, upbeat personality and approach to life.

Gloria is someone who has always “walked the talk” by dedicating her time and leadership skills to creating opportunities for women and girls to network, to share ideas and information, to lend support to causes and individual dreams, and to generate positive dialogue in the community.

She is not only a loving wife, mother and grandmother, but she is also the “hub” of her extended family and the primary organizer of family gatherings, where she is well-known for her enthusiastic performances of the “Chicken Dance” in full costume and karaoke contributions.  

Gloria’s giving personality and selfless service to others spring from her core belief that we are all alike and want the same things — a happy home, a beautiful environment, personal growth, respect, a great-paying job and a sense of accomplishment — and that all of this is possible if we continue to love one another and do the best we can moment by moment.

We are honored to name this outstanding, accomplished woman the 2010 Rockford Woman of the Year.

In her own words
There is a commonly accepted idea that in order to succeed in business, politics, or academia, a woman needs to “act like a man.”

While that may be true in some circles, I believe we are shifting from simply giving women, and people in general, the tools to change to inviting and providing opportunities for them to really live out their goals and dreams while at the same time, expressing themselves as leaders. It’s not just training, but acknowledging and honoring the skills and gifts they have, perhaps even their calling. It’s knowing that the person, the leader that a person wants to be is already inside all of us … and supporting that.

Many times, I receive credit for accomplishing so many things (and messing them up, too), but I have found that working together and including people of all ages and backgrounds gives us all a sense of accomplishment, belonging and contributing. I give credit to God for his guidance; my husband, Frank, for his support; and my children, Angelica and Frank Jr., for joining me over the years on many volunteer opportunities. Now that they are grown and raising their own families, I can see that the “spirit of giving” is in them. That is one of the best legacies a woman can leave her family with the hope that it continues to future generations.

By working with a diversity of voices and people, I have come to realize that we are all alike. We all want the same things … a happy home, a beautiful environment, personal growth, respect, a great paying job or career and a sense of accomplishment. I have learned that all this is possible as long as we continue to love one another and do the best we can moment by moment. The Rockford Park District’s mission is to “help people enjoy life.” I believe that’s one mission statement that we can all apply in our personal lives because the rewards are tremendous in every aspect of our lives whether social, financial, physical or spiritual.

Photo gallery
Gloria Cardenas Cudia

This year's finalists
Meet the five finalists for Rockford Woman of the Year

Finalists' profiles
Barb Berman | Gloria Cardenas Cudia | Lisa Frost | DoAnn Geiger | Melinda Hagerman

More on the awards
What's next | Full list of nominations | Read the nominations

Past winners
Janet Holmgren | Darlene Furst