Gonzalo Barrientos, of Austin, Texas, is a former Democratic state senator from the 14th District of Travis County, Austin. Barrientos was born in Bastrop, Texas, and attended segregated schools for Mexican-Americans where he said he experienced racism. Inspired by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he ran for office in 1974 and won. He retired from the state senate in 2004 but is politically active. “There is power in knowledge, in education. There is power in money, in making money and the things that you can buy with it. And then there is power in voting, because you can change the country and with that, sometimes you can change the world,” Barrientos said.Lizzie Chenhttp://www.publicintegrity.org/authors/lizzie-chen