A longtime tax preparer and bilingual member of Redding’s growing Latino community is stepping into the political arena, saying she wants to help rebuild trust in local government.
Joana Rebollar, who was born in McArthur, is running for Redding City Council after she began attending meetings and said she felt the community’s confidence in city leadership had eroded.
“I think our local government has lost trust from our community. And it really just turned into a big passion,” Rebollar said. “Like I said, I’m in the tax and accounting world for nine years. I’ve been helping and assisting businesses, whether they’re small businesses to multi-million dollar businesses, just review financials and evolve accordingly, as they please, because I don’t have the power to tell people what to do with their money, but I certainly do have the knowledge and experience to at least guide.”
Rebollar said her bilingual background and ties to the Latino community could help bridge cultural gaps and support local businesses, particularly by addressing language barriers.
“The Latino community is very supporting… There’s that language barrier, so if we could break [those language barriers], we could really bring it all together and get that support from Latinos,” Rebollar said.
She said communication is key to connection and growth, and that reducing language barriers could create more opportunity in Redding.
“Absolutely. I mean, it’s, once again, the barrier is the language, and communication is everything for human beings. I mean, how we communicate is how we connect and how we evolved,” Rebollar said. “And so being able to cut that barrier allows for much more growth and much more opportunity. And let’s be honest, we are an evolving city.”
The full interview is available on the KRCR News Channel 7 YouTube channel.
—
