Janet Murguia has hope for the millions of Hispanic Americans living in poverty.

Why shouldn’t she? She went from eating government-issued cheese as a child in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Kansas City, Kan., to working in the White House by the age of 33.

Two of her siblings — twin sister Mary and brother Carlos — are federal judges. Another brother, Ramon, is a prominent Kansas City attorney with a Harvard law degree.

Now that Murguia is headed to Washington, D.C., to lead the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy organization, she’s hoping her family’s story will be an inspiration for others to overcome poverty and other challenges.

“It’s important for life stories like my family’s to be told,” she said. “It tells other Hispanic families they can overcome economic obstacles and achieve a level of success. It’s the classic story of the American dream.”

Now, Murguia is preparing to share that story with a national audience.

Long-shot resume

After more than 2 1/2 years as executive vice chancellor for university relations at Kansas University, her alma mater, Murguia is returning to Washington, D.C., to be executive director and chief operating officer of the National Council on La Raza. She’s expected to take over as president and chief executive officer of the organization by the end of the year, after current leader Raul Yzaguirre retires.

This will be her last week at KU. She starts March 8 at the council.

Janet Murguia is wrapping up her work as executive vice chancellor at Kansas University. Murguia is leaving to head a national Hispanic advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

Before coming to work at KU, Murguia spent 15 years in Washington, first working for Congressman Jim Slattery and later for President Bill Clinton. She rose to the rank of deputy assistant to the president, deputy director of legislative affairs and White House liaison to Congress.

She then was deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

All of those accomplishments might have seemed like a long shot when Murguia was growing up.

Humble upbringing

Her parents, Alfred and Amalia, moved to Kansas City in the late 1940s, speaking little English and without high school diplomas. Alfred Murguia was a laborer for a steel company a few blocks from their home, and Amalia stayed at home to care for the couple’s seven children and baby-sit others in the community.

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The house was crowded to the point that when Murguia moved into a dormitory at KU as a freshman, the room seemed large to her.

Despite her humble upbringing, Murguia said her parents were set on sending their children to college. When she was 9, her father purchased a set of encyclopedias for the family.

“He could have used that money for something else,” she said. “The fact he knew those encyclopedias would be useful to us was very symbolic to us. We knew our parents hoped we had better opportunities than they did. Education was a big part of that.”

At KU, Murguia was in charge of public relations, government relations, trademark licensing, the KU Visitor Center, Kansas Public Radio and the Audio-Reader Network.

She often talked about her background while crisscrossing the state, speaking to students and civic organizations. Chancellor Robert Hemenway has said her story is a selling point of the value of a KU education.

“Janet has been beating the odds for a long time,” Hemenway said. “She is a truly exceptional person, and her story inspires all of us to reach for the stars.”

Huge demographic

But Murguia realizes that leading the council, the rough equivalent of the NAACP for Hispanics, will take more than an interesting background.

There were 37.4 million Hispanics in the United States in 2002, according to U.S. Census estimates. That was up 25 percent from five years earlier.

Hispanics are much more likely to live in poverty than whites. According to the council, 22.8 percent of Hispanics fall below the federal poverty line, compared with 7.7 percent of whites.

“Our demographics are huge,” Murguia said. “They’re off the charts. For the first time, we’re the largest minority group in the United States. We need to leverage those numbers into social advancement and economic progress.”

Murguia was hesitant to discuss her goals at La Raza, saying she wanted her agenda to be set by members of the Hispanic community. But she did say education issues would continue being important, including the reallocation of Head Start programs to areas with high concentrations of Hispanics.

American success

Brother Ramon Murguia, a former chairman of the council’s board of directors, said he was confident his sister’s skills would fit the organization well.

“She has a lot of important contacts in Washington, D.C., in the Capitol and in the (president’s) administration who are important movers in that whole scene,” he said. “She has the right personality — she’s very much an optimistic person. She knows good things happen when people work hard.”

And Ramon Murguia figures his family’s story is one more asset in his sister’s arsenal.

“This all speaks to the fact that this country is about opportunities for everyone,” he said. “To get college scholarships when you start from low-income backgrounds and humble beginnings — it’s a great American success story.”