Margarita “Mary” Decker

Mary Decker was born María Margarita Rodríguez in 1944 in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Her parents were migrant workers who picked crops along the Texas-Illinois migrant circuit until eventually settling in Aurora, Illinois in 1954. Margarita became a community leader in Aurora, married welder Stanley Decker, and worked for the Aurora Urban League. Decker eventually became one of two Spanish-speaking real estate agents as Aurora’s east side Mexican immigrant population boomed in the 1960s. In this interview clip, Ms. Decker describes her advocacy on behalf of immigrants in Aurora and her successful campaign running for Kane County Board in 1972. It is likely that Ms. Decker’s victory in that election made her the first Latino or Latina elected to a county-level political office in Illinois history.