Is the American dream still alive? This Idaho political family thinks so
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tom Luna and Sen. Camille Blaylock frame their story as testament to American opportunity.
- Luna traces family rise from poverty to public service across generations.
- Blaylock won a 2024 legislative seat and balances politics, work and family.
A U.S. flag rippled gently in the breeze of Tom Luna’s Caldwell backyard. The flag, which slightly obscured the view of the haze-shrouded Foothills, is a visual reminder of his family’s American dream.
Luna, a former GOP and Idaho education official who said he has Mexican and Native American ancestry, sat inside on a couch with his daughter, state Sen. Camille Blaylock, R-Caldwell. The two reflected on values they say come from their heritage — family and faith, for example. Luna said his grandfather was brought from Mexico at six days old and his dad worked physically demanding jobs to help his struggling family. Now, Luna lives a life his parents could have never imagined, he said.
“My dad’s story couldn’t happen anywhere else. No other country,” said Luna, 67. “Nobody’s ever referred to a Canadian dream or the Italian dream or the French dream. There’s always been the American dream. There’s never been anything like it.”
Luna’s grandfather came to the United States as a baby, Luna said, because his father was killed for riding with Mexican revolutionary figure Pancho Villa. Luna’s father grew up in California, where Luna was born. His father took them to Las Vegas, intending not just to break the cycle of poverty but for the family to assimilate. In Vegas, they lived in a tent for some time. Luna did not learn Spanish at home.
It was in Las Vegas that Luna joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, after his father asked a friend about the faith.
When Luna was 13, he moved to Junction City, Oregon, which he considers his hometown.
As a youth, he said, he faced a few instances of people treating him differently, but his father taught him to work hard, get an education and never have a chip on his shoulder.
He recalled working mowing lawns but showed up one day to find his angry boss accusing him of stealing tools. The boss fired him and told him all Mexicans were the same. Luna went home to his father.
“He said, ‘Well, did you steal his tools?’ and I said no. He said ‘Well, then, forget about it. It’s his problem,” Luna recalled. “My dad never let us be victims.”
Luna married his wife, Cindy, two weeks before moving to Idaho. He attended what is now Brigham Young University Idaho in Rexburg, before going on a church mission to Virginia, a “foreign country,” he joked. The two had six children before Cindy turned 30.
Idaho politics and family dynamics
One of those children, now 37-year-old Camille Blaylock, has followed her fathers’ footsteps into state politics. Blaylock was elected to the Legislature in 2024. Her father, Luna, served as the superintendent of public instruction from 2006 to 2014. He was the chair of the Idaho Republican Party from 2020 to 2022.
Blaylock, who lives near her father, has an independent streak. She moved to Arizona after high school for college. The two tell the story of the time when Blaylock, then 19 or 20, posted on Facebook that she was heading to Las Vegas. Luna called her and said, “You’re not going to Vegas, you’re too young.” Luna said he pulled the “typical father thing” and told her as long as he was paying her tuition, she couldn’t go.
Blaylock went anyway and paid for her own college. She worked and took community college classes.
Blaylock said she was filling out an application for student aid one day and she called her father, asking how Hispanic they were to see if she could put that she was Hispanic.
“I just remember you being like ‘Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare put that down. You are American,’” she recalled. “You’re not going to get a handout for anything. You’ve been given more opportunities than most.”
She worked most recently at a technology startup until she and the other founders decided to close down the business. The company helped her be “financially blessed.”
She’s had more time to do things like be a mother to her two children and to go into politics. She said she also sells her artwork online that can be used as classroom lessons, and she has some clients she helps with marketing and operations. Those clients include a plumbing company in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a vacation rental company, according to Luna. Her husband, Jacob, is a software engineer, Luna said.
Her generation and the next one may have assimilated, Luna said, but the family members still know Mexican food and the family story.
“The part about being Hispanic, being Mexican, I mean, that’s a big part of our life,” Luna said. “When you consider faith and family and freedom and laughter and good music, I mean, that is a big, big part of our lives.”
This is the fourth and final article in a series of stories related to Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15-Oct. 15.
