![\"Cassie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cassie-Lopez-Mother-of-the-Year.jpg\")
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Cassandra Lopez, known as ‘Mama C,’ is surrounded by family, friends, and neighbors at Oakland\u2019s annual Mother of Year celebration at the Morcom Rose Garden, Saturday, May 9, 2026. | Photo by Mateenah Floyd-Okanlawon<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This article comes to us from Ken Epstein, a reporter for The Oakland Post<\/a>, covering the City of Oakland\u2019s decision to honor Cassandra Lopez as Mother of the Year. Lopez is a contributor to People\u2019s World<\/a> who has also served as a leader in the CPUSA in Northern California for many years. We congratulate Cassie on the honor and thank Ken Epstein for permission to reprint his article.<\/p>\n OAKLAND\u2014The City of Oakland recognized Cassandra, \u201cMama C,\u201d Lopez\u2014parent, teacher, community activist, and justice warrior\u2014as Oakland\u2019s Mother of the Year in a celebration at Oakland\u2019s Morcom Rose Garden on Mother\u2019s Day weekend.<\/p>\n Long recognized as a leader in her community, she was nominated by District 3 City Councilmember Carroll Fife to receive the city\u2019s 73rd annual Mother of the Year award.<\/p>\n Speaking at the crowded ceremony on Saturday, May 9, where \u00a0Lopez received roses and a proclamation from Mayor Barbara Lee, Fife said she felt honored to nominate Lopez, an \u201camazing woman\u2014a hell-raising humanitarian, for the energy, the passion,\u00a0 but most of all the love for community\u201d that makes her one of those \u201cexceptional women whose lives exemplify love, sacrifice, leadership, and unwavering commitment to the family and community they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Cassie Lopez was born in 1945 to Pauline and Calvin Weaver, a family that had left Florida and Jim Crow for the eastside of Detroit. From an early age, she was instilled with a sense of Black awareness, love, and the importance of community in the face of hardships, including poverty, freezing winters, low pay, and slum landlords.<\/p>\n Fifty-five years ago, she married Juan Lopez. The couple has three children and has lived for decades in a neighborhood on the edge of downtown Oakland near Mosswood Park.<\/p>\n Said her husband Juan, \u201cMama C has been a selfless mother of our own children, and she also became a teacher. Our home became a second home for many young people. For some, it was refuge from difficult home situations, and for others, a safe place to hang out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout the years, Mama C was sometimes a foot soldier and other times a leader, immersed in some of the biggest national and citywide struggles of the day,\u201d Juan said. \u201cBut less known to many is the role she played day in and day out where the rubber hits the road.<\/p>\n \u201cFor 35 years, she has shepherded the Mosswood Park and Recreation Center, through its good and bad times. If the Center exists (and thrives) today, it has to do with Mama C, working alongside neighbors, center directors, the community advisory council, and when necessary, community coalitions, city officials, the religious community, and the labor movement.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Mateenah Floyd-Okanlawon, \u201cI am an old friend of my sister here. We met in 1970 in the sugarcane fields of Cuba, where we were helping the Cuban government harvest their sugar. We have been friends ever since.\u00a0 She has always been someone who does not give in to despair.\u201d<\/p>\n David Johnson, an educator in Oakland, was one of the neighborhood children who grew up in the community created by Mama C and her family<\/p>\n \u201cCassandra Lopez is a beacon of light, full of compassion. She has dedicated her life to quality education, to the poor and working class,\u201d serving for 40 years as a Spanish teacher in Oakland schools, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has dedicated her life to speak truth to power, justice to the silent, and as a member of the community, she advocates for programs and resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In her remarks, Mama C recognized the influence and power of all mothers. \u201cTogether, we all stand on the backs of our mothers. Mothers play a special role in society. We give when we have almost nothing left to give.\u00a0 We hurt when some people don\u2019t see the hurt and the pain that our families endure. But we keep on moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking at what African Americans, other people of color, and working people face in the country today, she said, \u201cWe are deserving of the very best because our hands, our bodies produce the wealth of world, and yet we get the least. We see our country wholesale being stolen away from us, and we are told to grin and bear it. We\u2019re not bearing it; we\u2019re fighting against it.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuing, she said, \u201cThere\u2019s enough wealth in this world that there should be no hunger in the world. There should be nobody without a decent place to live. Nobody should be sleeping on the street. Teachers should get the freedom to be creative and tell the stories that exist in this nation that make us strong and great.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot to do. We cannot despair. We cannot run. People are learning, and together, collectively, we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n We hope you appreciated this article. At\u00a0People\u2019s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading\u00a0People\u2019s World\u00a0and the stories we bring you, please\u00a0support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCONTRIBUTOR<\/p>\n
![\"Ken](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Ken-Epstein-200x200.png\")
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