Dana Dominguez comes from a family of firsts.
Her aunt served as the first Latina Alderman in Moline, Iowa, and her dad was the first Latino police officer in West Liberty, Iowa. This year, Dominguez followed in her family’s footsteps when she was elected to the West Liberty City Council — the first Latino-majority city council in Iowa.
West Liberty became Iowa’s first Latino and Hispanic-majority town about 10 years ago. The Muscatine County city is not the first place to challenge the idea of a homogenous white rural America — the eastern Iowa town is one of thousands of majority-minority rural communities in the U.S. In 2020, 58.3 percent of the population identified as Hispanic, followed by 37.7 percent who identified as white, and 1.7 percent as Asian.
But it wasn’t until this year that West Liberty’s Latino-majority population was represented by a Latino-majority city council. Alongside Dominguez, Omar Martinez, Jose Zacarias, Cara McFerren, and Diane Beranek serve on the council, along with Mayor Katie McCullough.
Dominguez, associate director of operations and communication at the University of Iowa Pomerantz Career Center, grew up in West Liberty and comes from a family of immigrants. Her great-grandfather immigrated from Coahuila, Mexico, to Del Rio, Texas.
Years later, Dominguez’s father followed her aunts and uncles to Iowa because he needed work, and the state offered jobs at a meat-packing plant.
At first, Dominguez, a single mother, didn’t notice the lack of representation on the City Council. But as she grew up, she noticed that there was diverse representation in many areas of the town, like on school boards. But a lack of representation persisted in one key area — the city council.
Dominguez said she decided to throw her name on the ballot because she had seen communities of color hit hard because of a lack of government policy and wanted to make a difference. Over the years, social justice came to the forefront of Dominguez’s work and part of her campaign, she said. She participated in immigration rallies and sat on the UI Latinx Council.
“The Latinx culture and heritage is so different and unique and diverse, and there’s certain issues where we’re all affected,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said the diversity has a powerful impact because community members feel more trusting and comfortable coming to city council members.