When Machi Longoria was growing up in Santa Rosa, getting to school on time, or even at all, wasn’t the easiest task to accomplish.

But then there would be a knock at the door, usually followed by a tongue lashing.

The deliverer? Eugene Mijares, the hard-edged, black leather hat wearing truant officer from what Longoria describes as the old school.

“He would come knock on my door, ‘Hey Longoria, wake up! I’m taking you to school.’ And I’m like ‘Oh Eugene…’”

Today, Longoria, 30, is playing that same role with students at Montgomery High as a student advisor called on to intervene when students are struggling, not showing up, having discipline problems. It’s a position he might never have reached had Mijares not rattled his cage a time or two, he said.

Mijares, one of the last of Santa Rosa’s truant officers, died Wednesday of kidney failure at the age of 62.

“Because he looked like me, I was like him, I was kind of a low rider – you could tell he knew what was up,” Longoria said.

Assemblywoman Noreen Evans called what Mijares had “grittiness.”

“He just had a personal way about him – he looked gritty, he talked gritty,” she said. “That gave him a lot of credibility.”

Evans first met Mijares a decade ago when her son was in high school.

“He helped my son out when he was in high school,” she said. “He had such a way of being able to communicate with kids. I was just so impressed with him.”

Evans, then a Santa Rosa City Council member, named Mijares to the new Citizens Advisory Board. Mijares also became chairman of the Sonoma County Democratic Central Committee.

“He had issues as a young man, he was able to speak from experience,” Evans said. “As a Latino who had overcome challenges early in his life, he brought the experience that man of us activists, particularly in the environmental movement, hadn’t had.”

Mijares was a regular at Santa Rosa City Schools board meetings, advocating on behalf of Latino students.

He probably affected thousands of lives for the better, Longoria said.

“He never let me give up on myself, he wouldn’t allow that,” he said. “He just did that in his life.”

My colleague Chris Smith wrote a full obituary for Mijares that appeared in Friday’s paper:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090917/ARTICLES/909179868/1052/OBITS?Title=Eugene-Mijares