The story behind the woman who inspired Harris to break barriers

When Shyamala Gopalan approached her father with an acceptance letter to the University of California, Berkeley and announced her dream of becoming a scientist, she was just 19 years old.

It was an unusual move by a woman whose own barrier-breaking choices would allow her daughter, Kamala Harris, to do the same. The vice president often cites her mom as an inspiration for her political career.

It was the late 1950s, and Gopalan was part of one the first waves of Indian immigrants to the United States. “Anybody with a South Asian background, you'll know that this was early, early, early,” Harris said, recounting the story in May, at an event with the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

“She arrived in the United States by herself because she had a passion and she had a goal,” Harris said.

Gopalan’s research took her around the world

Gopalan wanted to cure breast cancer. Her work took her all over the world, doing research in France and Canada. For part of her childhood, Harris lived in Wisconsin because of her mother’s job.

In Oakland, Calif., Gopalan’s long hours meant Harris and her younger sister Maya sometimes spent time after school with their downstairs neighbor, Regina Shelton, who ran a daycare center. Harris considers Shelton a second mother. When she was sworn in as vice president, Harris used Shelton’s bible.

Harris’ father Donald Harris immigrated to the United States from Jamaica, but her parents split up when she was young. Carole Porter, a childhood friend of Harris’, says that Gopalan raised her daughters with both cultures, but knew that Kamala and Maya would be seen as Black women.

“In America, we're considered Black women. And that's how our mothers raised us, because that's what