{"id":311324,"date":"2026-05-12T02:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311324\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T02:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:47:21","slug":"oakland-honors-mama-c-as-mother-of-the-year-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311324\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland honors ‘Mama C’ as ‘Mother of the Year’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

Cassandra Lopez, aka Mama C, was honored by Oakland as “Mother of the Year.”<\/p>\n

Her career included 40 years of service within the Oakland Public Schools.<\/p>\n

She co-founded one of the nation’s early welfare rights organizations and helped grow the Mosswood Recreation Center.<\/p>\n

OAKLAND, Calif. – For Mother\u2019s Day, an Oakland woman received high honors for her lifelong commitment to her community and her family.<\/p>\n

Honoring Mama C<\/p>\n

Why you should care<\/p>\n

Cassandra Lopez, affectionately known to locals as “Mama C,” was recognized by Oakland’s Parks and Recreation on Saturday with the Mother of the Year award during a ceremony at the Morcom Rose Garden.<\/p>\n

Lopez has been a fixture in Oakland for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n

Her career included 40 years of service within the Oakland Public Schools. Beyond her professional work, she has been a dedicated activist, participating in the civil rights movement and co-founding one of the nation’s early welfare rights organizations.<\/p>\n

Even in her later years, Lopez remains active in local leadership, serving as the head of the Mosswood Recreation Center Advisory Council.<\/p>\n

“I guess giving back to the community and just being… and over and beyond our family, to the larger family,” Lopez said of the honor.<\/p>\n

The event marked the 73rd annual Mother of the Year award ceremony hosted by the city.<\/p>\n

\"<div>Well-wishers<\/p>\n

Well-wishers take pictures of Cassandra Lopez, honored as “Mother of the Year.” May 9, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Cassandra Lopez, aka Mama C, was honored by Oakland as “Mother of the Year.” Her career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[130487,130488,111491,143,145,144,63810,130489],"class_list":["post-311324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-cassandra-lopez","tag-mama-c","tag-mothers-day","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-public-schools","tag-welfare-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}