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Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco also announced she is running for the Board of Supervisors. She is not related to Brian Pacheco.

“I believe the families of the west side deserve strong leadership, real opportunity, and a seat at every table where decisions about our future are being made,” she said in a news release.

Pacheco is a two-term mayor, first winning the two-year office in 2022. She also works as a senior field representative for Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno.

Maria Pacheco’s story begins in the quiet neighborhoods of Kerman, California, where she was born and raised in a middle-class home on the edge of town.

The first Latina on the city council, and now the first Indigenous mayor, her rise to leadership is extraordinary, but the road was anything but easy.

When Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco graduated from Fresno State this past May with her bachelor’s degree in social work, it was more than just a special moment – it was a dream come true and a long time coming for the mother of six.

Now, she’s expanding on her dream by pursuing her Master of Social Work degree this fall as part of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Program, in which she hopes to further her policy and advocacy work around the Indian Child Welfare Act.

On the day of the crash, Fidel and Pedro Ojeda, Juvenal Talavera, Victor Hernandez, Alfredo Morales, Roberto Flores, Hector Orozco and Benito Perez were on their morning commute to work on a vineyard farm.

The California Highway Patrol suspects the driver of the pickup truck crossed the median and slammed into the workers' van. Perez was the sole survivor.

“It's devastating,” Pacheco said, “They were very young, most of them very young, with their whole lives ahead of them.”

She said the vigil was “about a celebration of life” for the men who died.

“People grieve in different ways,” Pacheco said.“We have to be able to move on as a community to collect ourselves together, bring ourselves back together, remember that life is precious.”

Pacheco is part of the organization FUERZA – a coalition of various community leaders – which helped organize the vigil. The organization helped raise more than $13,000 for families of the men. The funds were distributed evenly.

The ride is free for students and has been a labor of love for Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco.

"I worked on this for about three years. Knocking on doors, creating meetings." Pacheco said.

Pacheco says transportation to Fresno City College became a passion project for her years ago while her own daughter was attending FCC.

A previous transportation option ended, leaving multiple students without a ride, so Pacheco ended up driving them herself.

Pacheco says knowing students have a consistent, reliable form of transportation makes the hard work worth it.

It was nearly one year ago, in November 2022, that Pacheco won the City of Kerman’s mayoral election. It was a tight race, and after two counts, Pacheco won by 90 votes. 

Her win was historic. 

Pacheco became the first Latina of indigenous roots to serve as Kerman’s mayor and, with no prior experience in politics, her road has been anything but typical. In fact, she never aspired to become mayor.

It was an opportunity that was suggested to her multiple times by friends and acquaintances in the political sphere, whom she met while advocating for funds for a transportation program in the city. At first, Pacheco laughed off their lofty suggestions, but soon realized it was a real possibility that would allow her to make a significant impact on the community that raised her.