Gabriella Garcia immigrated to the United States 35 years ago with her 5-year-old son, Robert, to escape the danger of a domestic terrorist group called the Shining Path in her native Lima, Peru.

She and her son could not speak English when they settled 4,161 miles away in the San Gabriel Valley, where she cleaned houses to earn a living.

Gabriella said she thought of those difficult days Tuesday night when her son, who just turned 40, walked onto the stage of the Terrace Theater to deliver his fourth State of the City address as mayor of Long Beach. She was seated in the front row.

“He made me so proud,” she said in an interview this week. “When he was growing up, I always told him to study and work hard to reach his goals. I didn’t know he would become mayor of a great city like Long Beach.”

Like any proud mother, Gabriella said her son was doing “a great job” as mayor. In his speech, Garcia called Long Beach “a booming city under construction” and pointed to the more than $3 billion in construction work underway as a sign of strength for the city.

Gabriella especially liked her son’s closing remarks when he pledged to stand up for all Long Beach residents regardless of what’s happening at the federal level. The Trump Administration has taken various actions in the last year to crack down on illegal immigration, and to curb legal immigration.

On Tuesday Garcia said Long Beach valued diversity, saying the city “must lead with a strong vision, a sense of justice and kindness for all its people.” Gabriella said she taught Robert to always have “respect and kindness for all people.”

Garcia earned citizenship after President Ronald Reagan signed an amnesty bill in 1986 that fast-tracked his and his family’s path to citizenship. It still took roughly 12 years to become a citizen, which the mayor achieved at age 21.

Gabriella came to the United States in 1982 with her husband, son and mother. An uncle and aunt had already come to the United States. They all lived in the Covina and West Covina area. After two years here, she and her husband got divorced.

The mayor remembers going with his mother to the homes she was cleaning. “The homes seemed like mansions to me as a kid,” he said. “I remember them so vividly and it motivated me to work hard and be successful so I could live in places like that.”

Gabriella, who has since remarried and lives in Whittier, has worked for 26 years as a medical assistant in a satellite office for the City of Hope in West Covina. “Cleaning houses was a good job, but I wanted to do more so I went to classes to learn more about medical terminology and computers,” she said.

Garcia learned English in school, in the neighborhood and watching TV, his mother said. She said he was always outgoing and very vocal. “And he loved the stage,” she said. “I remember when he was in kindergarten he went on stage and performed in the Christmas program and did really well.”

He was a good student, too, and, after high school, he went to Cal State Long Beach, where he became student body president and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies. He later received a master’s degree in communications from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate in higher education at CSULB.

In 2014, after a tough battle with Damon Dunn, Garcia became the youngest mayor in Long Beach history, in addition to being its first gay mayor, first Latino mayor and the first mayor fluent in Spanish and English.

Gabriella said she was looking forward to her son’s impending marriage this year to his longtime partner, Matthew Mendez. “I am so excited about his marriage. I love Matthew,” she said.”

Gabriella and her son said one of the proudest days in their lives came when they became United States citizens.

“You won’t find anyone who loves the United States more than my mother and me,” Garcia said. “My mother always taught me to love the United States and to give back to it when I could.”