{"id":16034,"date":"2025-06-26T10:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/16034\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:28:09","slug":"why-an-l-a-county-politician-hit-up-cholos-to-fight-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/16034\/","title":{"rendered":"Why an L.A. County politician hit up ‘cholos’ to fight ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the wacky political world of Southeast Los Angeles County \u2014 where scandals<\/a> seem to bloom every year with the regularity of jacarandas<\/a> \u2014 there\u2019s never been a mess as pendejo as the one stirred up this week by Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez. <\/p>\n

How else would you describe an elected official telling gang leaders, in a video posted to social media, to \u201cf\u2014 get your members in order\u201d and take to the streets<\/a> against Donald Trump\u2019s immigration raids?<\/p>\n

Gonzalez\u2019s rant has set off a national storm at the worst possible time. Conservative media is depicting her as a politician \u2014 a Latino, of course \u2014 issuing a green light to gangs to go after la migra. On social media, the Department of Homeland Security shared her video, which it called \u201cdespicable,\u201d and insisted that \u201cthis kind of garbage\u201d has fueled \u201cassaults\u201d against its agents.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez later asked her Facebook friends to help her find a lawyer, because \u201cthe FBI just came to my house.\u201d To my colleague Ruben Vives<\/a>, the agency didn\u2019t confirm or deny Gonzalez\u2019s assertion. <\/p>\n

The first-term council member deserves all the reprimands being heaped on her \u2014 most of all because the video that set off this pathetic episode is so cringe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know where all the cholos are at in Los Angeles \u2014 18th Street, Florencia, where\u2019s the leadership at?\u201d Gonzalez said at the beginning of her video, which was quickly taken down<\/a>. \u201cYou guys tag everything up claiming \u2018hood,\u2019 and now that your hood\u2019s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain\u2019t a peep out of you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez went on to claim that 18th Street<\/a> and Florencia 13<\/a> \u2014 rivals that are among the largest and most notorious gangs in Southern California \u2014 shouldn\u2019t be \u201ctrying to claim no block, no nothing, if you\u2019re not showing up right now trying to, like, help out and organize. I don\u2019t want to hear a peep out of you once they\u2019re gone.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Cudahy council\u2019s second-in-command seems to have recorded the clip at a party, judging by her black halter top, bright red lipstick, fresh hairstyle and fancy earrings, with club music thumping in the background. She looked and sounded like an older cousin who grew up in the barrio and now lives in Downey<\/a>, trying to sound hard in front of her bemused cholo relatives. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration is looking for any reason to send in even more National Guard troops and Marines<\/a> to quell what it has characterized as an insurrection. If inviting a gang to help \u2014 let alone two gangs as notorious as 18th Street and Florencia \u2014 doesn\u2019t sound like what Trump claims he\u2019s trying to quash, I\u2019m not sure what is.<\/p>\n

Perhaps worst of all, Gonzalez brought political ignominy once again on Southeast L.A. County, better known as SELA. Its small, supermajority Latino cities have<\/a> long<\/a> been<\/a> synonymous<\/a> with political corruption and never seem to get a lucky break from their leaders, even as Gonzalez\u2019s generation has vowed not to repeat the sins of the past<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Cudahy <\/p>\n

Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez<\/p>\n

(City of Cudahy)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her post, Dr. Gonzalez issued a challenge to the Latino community: join the thousands of Angelenos already peacefully organizing in response to ongoing enforcement actions,\u201d her attorney, Damian J. Martinez, said in a written statement. \u201cImportantly, Dr. Gonzalez in no way encouraged anyone to engage in violence. Any suggestion that she advocated for violence is categorically false and without merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

For their part, Cudahy officials said<\/a> that Gonzalez\u2019s thoughts \u201creflect her personal views and do not represent the views or official position of the City of Cudahy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raised in Huntington Park and a graduate of Bell High, Gonzalez has spent 22 years as a teacher, principal and administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In 2023, after Cudahy \u2014 a suburb of about 22,000 residents that\u2019s 98% Latino \u2014 became the first city in Southern California to approve a Gaza ceasefire resolution, she told The Times\u2019 De Los section<\/a> that Latinos \u201cunderstand what it means to be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Gonzalez appeared alongside Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and elected leaders from Los Angeles and Ventura counties to decry the immigration raids that were just ramping up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to speak to Americans, especially those who have allowed our community to be the scapegoat of this administration that made you feel that your American dream hasn\u2019t happened because of us,\u201d Gonzalez said, adding that corporations \u201care using our brown bodies to avoid the conversation that this administration is a failure and they do not know how to legislate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, she announced that she will be running for the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees for a third time, urging Facebook followers to forego donating to her campaign in favor of organizations helping immigrants. \u201cOur priorities must reflect the urgency of the times,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

In those settings, Gonzalez comes off as just another wokosa politician. But the feds now see her as a wannabe Big Homie.<\/p>\n

Trying to enlist gangs to advocate for immigrants comes off as both laughable and offensive \u2014 and describing 18th Street and Florencia as \u201cthe Latino community\u201d is like describing the Manson family as \u201cfun-loving hippies.\u201d Gang members have extorted immigrant entrepreneurs and terrorized immigrant communities going back to the days of \u201cGangs of New York.\u201d Their modus operandi \u2014 expanding turf, profit and power via fear and bloodshed \u2014 will forever peg Latinos as prone to violence in the minds of too many Americans. Transnational gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 are Trump\u2019s ostensible reason for his deportation tsunami \u2014 and now a politician thinks it\u2019s wise to ask cholos to draw closer?<\/p>\n

And yet I sympathize \u2014 and even agree \u2014 with what Gonzalez was really getting at, as imperfect and bumbling as she was. Homeland Security\u2019s claim that she was riling up gangs to \u201ccommit violence against our brave ICE law enforcement\u201d doesn\u2019t hold up in the context of history. <\/p>\n

For decades, Latino activists have strained to inspire gang members to join el movimiento \u2014 not as stormtroopers but as wayward youngsters and veteranos who can leave la vida loca behind if only they become enlightened. El Plan Espiritual de Aztl\u00e1n<\/a>, a manifesto published in 1969 at the height of the Chicano movement, envisioned a world where \u201cthere will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but revolutionary acts.\u201d Its sister document, El Plan de Santa Barbara<\/a>, warned activists that they \u201cmust be able to relate to all segments of the Barrio, from the middle-class assimilationists to the vatos locos.\u201d <\/p>\n

From Homeboy Industries<\/a> to colleges that allow prison inmates to earn a degree<\/a>, people still believe in the power of forgiveness and strive to reincorporate gang members into society as productive people. They\u2019re relatives and friends and community members, the thinking goes, not irredeemable monsters.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez\u2019s video comes from that do-gooder vein. A closer listen shows she isn\u2019t lionizing 18th Street or Florencia 13. She\u2019s pushing them to be truly tough by practicing civil \u2014 not criminal \u2014 disobedience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everyone else who\u2019s not about the gang life that\u2019s out there protesting and speaking up,\u201d the vice mayor said, her voice heavy with the Eastside accent<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re out there, like, fighting for our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people, and like, where you at? Bien calladitos, bien calladitos li\u2019l cholitos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good and quiet, little cholitos, which translates as \u201cbaby gangsters\u201d but is far more dismissive in Spanish.<\/p>\n

Her delivery was terrible, but the message stands, to gang members and really to anyone else who hasn\u2019t yet shown up for immigrants: if not now, when? If not you, who?<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be a miracle if Gonzalez\u2019s political career recovers. But future chroniclers of L.A. should treat her kindly. Calling out cholos for being cholos is easy. Challenging them to make good of themselves at a key moment in history isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the wacky political world of Southeast Los Angeles County \u2014 where scandals seem to bloom every year…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,15952,15953,69,15951,15950,15954,6460,8618,2961,224,2444,5337,13141,3546,15949,625,989,8572],"class_list":{"0":"post-16034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-cholo","11":"tag-cudahy-council","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-florencia","14":"tag-gang","15":"tag-gang-leader","16":"tag-gonzalez","17":"tag-immigrant","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-member","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-politician","25":"tag-street","26":"tag-video","27":"tag-violence"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}