City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Heart of fire, an immigrant daughter's story, Mazie K. Hirono

eng

autobiography

no index present

non fiction

Heart of fire

Mazie K. Hirono

an immigrant daughter's story

Mazie Hirono is one of the most fiercely outspoken Democrats in Congress, but her journey to the U.S. Senate was far from likely. Raised on a rice farm in rural Japan, she was seven years old when her mother, Laura, left her abusive husband and sailed with her two elder children to Hawaii in search of a better life. Though the girl then known as "Keiko" did not speak or read English when she entered first grade, she would go on to serve as a state representative and Hawaii's lieutenant governor before winning election to Congress in 2006. In this deeply personal memoir, Hirono traces her remarkable life from her earliest days in Hawaii to her emergence as a highly effective legislator whose determination to help the most vulnerable was grounded in her own experiences of economic insecurity, lack of health care access, and family separation. Finally, it chronicles Hirono's recent transformation from dogged yet soft-spoken public servant into the frank and fiery advocate we know her as today. For the vast majority of Mazie Hirono's five decades in public service, even as she fought for the causes she believed in, she strove to remain polite and reserved. Steeped in the non-confrontational cultures of Japan and Hawaii and aware of the expectations of women in politics, she had schooled herself to bite her tongue, even as her male colleagues continually underestimated her. After the 2016 election, however, she could moderate herself no longer. In the face of a dangerous administration - and amid crucial battles with lasting implications for our democracy - Senator Hirono was called to give voice to the fire that had always been inside her

adult