Paul Park calls it the "fuzzy static period" of between 20 and 40 minutes - the time it takes for people to reconcile his Korean face with his title as the executive director of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. Chavez being the iconic figure of Latino descent who led the United Farm Workers movement and made "Si, se puede" ("It can be done") the universal rallying cry for human and civil rights.
But to people's credit, says Park, most everyone he's come into contact with as the leader of the organization founded in 1993 to carry on the activist's legacy are fine with it.
Indeed, the 35-year-old's turn at the Chavez Center took him by surprise, too. After working for two years as an associate at a law firm in San Francisco, Park, who grew up in Ohio after immigrating from Korea at age 5, took some time off to reassess his future. Although he enjoyed work handling corporate legal matters like mergers and acquisitions, as well as some civil and criminal litigation, he had his long-term sights set on doing work in the public interest after earning money to help pay off student loans.
Ironically, it was a former law firm colleague who had since taken over the reigns at the Chavez Foundation who tapped Park during his "time off" to help the nonprofit sort through some legal issues. As with most unexpected unions, one thing led to another, and Park ended up sticking around as the organization's legal counsel. Then, two years ago, when his friend left, the group's board of directors asked Park to step in as interim executive director.
So far it's been a beautiful relationship, attests Park. And he's gotten used to the fuzzy static periods.