As he stood on the steps of Salt Lake City Hall before a small crowd in the brisk November air Tuesday, David Ibarra couldn’t help but reflect on how unlikely it was that he should even be there.
The son of a Mexican father of indigenous Zapotec heritage and a white teenage mother, Ibarra spent most of the first 15 years of his life in poverty and foster care, living with families across Utah while facing prejudice in the state’s mostly white communities.
Seemingly against the odds, he grew up to become a successful entrepreneur and business owner.