Monday, February 25, 2008
The Editor, WatchOurCity.com
Gay Latino Politicos Battle for
Fabian Nunez's Assembly Seat
John Noguez Checkmated
and Eclipsed
Noguez, the openly gay Huntington Park
councilman, self-proclaimed heir to
Fabian Nunez's termed-out Assembly
seat, is checkmated by two other gay
contenders with heavy Latino political
support, one of them Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa's cousin, John Perez, the
other, Ricardo Lara, Fabian Nunez's
District Director.
Huntington Park, CA - Ink on the political obituary of current
Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez has not even dried yet,
and already machinations are circling. Having lost Proposition 93,
Fabian will be termed out of public office by end of this year. His
46th Assembly District includes Huntington Park. March 7 is the
deadline for candidates to file. The primary will be on June 3, with
the general elections on November 4, 2008.
In a professional field culled mostly from political science majors,
presumably with low aptitudes for hard science and math, the
politically ambitious curiously become instant whizzes at calculus,
the political kind. So far, five known contenders have filed
candidacy papers with the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's office
with plans to replace Fabian.
A Times report ("Villaraigosa's cousin vies for Assembly seat", by
David Zahniser, February 23, 2008) introduces the players. Four
of these candidates are Democrats, but only three carry heavy
political artillery backup, with support evenly divided- with all due
respect to George W- between the three-point axis of Latino
Power: labor unions, Sacramento politicians and L.A.'s Mayor
Villaraigosa.
Most prominent is John Perez, has a portfolio with the Union as
political director, and is a first cousin of L.A.'s mayor Villaraigosa.
John is a Berkeley grad, a nice guy and well respected, sat on the
board of L.A.'s CRA, thanks to his cousin's appointment.
Nunez, in a last-ditch attempt at exercising his emaciated,
bruised and alienated political muscle, is throwing into the ring
one of his own, a local staffer, Ricardo Lara, firing off an email
late Thursday begging support for Lara, who attended San Diego
State University.
Ricardo Lara, who is semi-openly gay, is a member of the
Stonewall Young Democrats (whose motto is "You're here...You're
Queer (or an ally"). Lara is buddies with John Noguez's political
fundraiser, Conrado Terrazas, who is also gay. Ricardo Lara also
worked for Francisco Leal's lobby and advocacy group. Francisco
Leal is the city attorney for Maywood and Huntington Park, also
their lobbyist contractor. A bit more on Francisco Leal later.
State Senator Gil Cedillo throws his dubious prestige on a third
candidate, his own district director, Arturo Chavez. Cedillo is
famous for his laudable but Quixotic fixation on drivers' licenses
for illegal immigrants, and more recently known for a quixotic
defense more disturbing and puzzling, standing by the side of a
young convicted criminal Senate staffer Mario Beltran, despite all
his troubles with arrests, convictions and FBI investigations ("He's
not my first friend or ally to be investigated by the FBI, and he
won't be the first to be completely exonerated").
Oh, and, strangely, John Noguez has not filed a candidate
statement nor is mentioned anywhere by the L.A. Times.
A fourth candidate, Michael Aldapa, makes the cut. A relatively
political unknown, with self-described "no ties to any politician",
yet still makes the rounds in East L.A. circles. Aldapa is a USC
grad and has been an ex-reserve officer in the U.S. Army.
And somebody named W. "Bilal Mafundi Ali" Hendorson, listed as
a Peace and Freedom party member, also filed with the County
Recorder.
Noguez is our very own councilman in Huntington Park who
WatchOurCity.com has been keeping a close eye on since he was
first elected in March of 2003. Noguez was re-elected in 2007 and
endorsed by Fabian, Cedillo, and Calderon, even Villaraigosa.
And his legal name is not John Noguez, as L.A. Weekly
investigative reporter Jeffrey Anderson exposed in an article over
one year ago ("Name Game in Huntington Park; Records show
that rising star mayor John Noguez is really John Rodriguez",
February 7, 2007).
It is strange because Noguez has been claiming, proclaiming,
and claiming again and again in public and not-so-public
settings, that he, and no one else, is the anointed heir to Fabian
Nunez's 46th Assembly District office.
Once Noguez was elected to public office here, strange things
began to happen in city hall - some of them downright criminal.
Multi-million city contracts were curiously awarded to close friends
of Noguez. Even the city Attorney, Francisco Leal, was the
recipient of a highly unusual, yet expected award for city attorney
services, granted in close door session and without any
competing bids. It was unusual also because Leal had
contributed thousands of dollars to Noguez's 2003 campaign.
Mere months went by before this action was met with its equal
and opposite reaction. In Physics, it's Newton's third law of
motion. In local politics, it is the only Latin that Latino politicians
know, Quid Pro Quo, which Noguez mastered. Give campaign
contributions, receive rigged multi-million dollar city contracts.
To cite just one tantalizing but disturbing and egregious instance
of Noguez's eagerness to declare his right of ownership to
Fabian's seat, in May of 2006, Noguez called a meeting at the
California Club in Downtown L.A. Two parties were at the table. On
one side was the city of Huntington Park, officially represented by
Mayor Noguez and city attorney Francisco Leal. Opposite was
Pacific Charter Schools, desperately striving to get Mayor
Noguez's approval for a new charter school building.
A little background on what led to this historic meeting: Pacific
Charter may ring a bell for you. Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad
just gave millions of dollars in a much publicized donation to
three South L.A. charter schools, Kipp Academy, Aspire Charter,
and Pacific Charter.
Notably, Aspire operates several charter schools in Huntington
Park. Pacific Charter happens to be the real estate development
arm for Aspire and other charter school operators, and its
headquarters are located in a converted classroom inside Aspire's
new minimalist gleaming white converted concrete tilt-up building
on the western edge of town where Saturn street unceremoniously
dead-ends at the Alameda Corridor. Pacific had built other
charters in other cities, but nothing like what happened in
Huntington Park had they ever encountered. Inexplicably, Pacific
could not get their campus finished on time due to complications,
road-blocks, planning hurdles, zoning issues, EIR reports piled
on by city officials, the planning commission and, ahem, mayor
John Noguez himself. Pacific was frustrated, even the architect on
the job, a veteran firm with a specialty in delivering charter school
designs on time and on budget, having even been the architect
of record for the Oscar de la Hoya charter school in East L.A., had
not ever encountered the surreal, absurd and, both Pacific and
the architect concluded, corrupt practices orchestrated, evidently
by Huntington Park's mayor.
So desperate was Pacific to find a solution to their mounting
problems with getting planning commission sign-offs and building
approvals that an official from Pacific even sent a note in January
2006 to this editor at WatchOurCity.com asking for advice on how
to deal with the situation, clearly keen on the blatant political
corruption angle that this website has been documenting in
Huntington Park since March 2004, an effort reported on by L.A.
Times staff writer Sam Quinones, which media coverage resulted
in WatchOurCity.com being awarded the Beacon Award in October
2004, at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, given by
the California First Amendment Coalition.
WatchOurCity.com responded that Pacific Charter should
approach the mayor through his weak point, or rather Noguez's
control point; WatchOurCity.com brazenly suggested that the only
way to get the city off of Pacific Charter's back was through
Rosario Marin, den mother of Huntington Park politicos, and
current head of the State's Consumer Affairs Division, a political
hack appointment courtesy of the Governor. Amazingly, Pacific
did just that, and managed to get that appointment in the
California Club in May. By the way, Rosario Marin and John
Noguez are the subject of a recently published book, "Power
Mentoring" by Wiley Press, on the "50 most powerful
mentor-protege relationships in the United States". Rosario Marin
and John Noguez are one of those 50 power couples. Another bit
of trivia on Rosario Marin and her "Proteges" in this city: John
Noguez's first campaign manager, then city mayor Edward
Escareno, was Rosario Marin's first favored protege; Escareno
followed everything Marin ordered, just don't get caught. So he
gets caught. In December 2005, Escareno is convicted of "Grand
Theft" of public funds, a felony, a month later, Rosario Marin
gets appointed to the Consumer Affairs Division. The felony
conviction of her protege was kept a secret to prevent marring
Marin's momentous appointment. One more tidbit of trivia:
Noguez's second campaign manager, that same Mario Beltran
mentioned above, protected and defended by Gil Cedillo, was
Noguez campaign manager during the March 2007 elections.
Back to the California Club. So here's Pacific Charter on one side
and mayor Noguez with his city attorney side-kick Francisco Leal.
At issue: What does Pacific need to do in order to remove the
highly unusual and unexpected hurdles in order to bring charter
school seats to Huntington Park, a city in terrible need given the
over-crowded, multi-track, low-performing schools here.
Noguez and attorney Leal must have practiced for what happened
next: Noguez said, dramatizing here, that if Pacific Charter just
happened to find $50,000 in their construction line-item budget
unallocated, that they should donate it to John Noguez's
campaign for State Assembly, since Fabian was about to be
termed out, and Noguez was hand-picked to carry on in his
Assembly seat. Once the $50 K was donated, Noguez had a way
with controlling the planning commissioners, whom he appointed,
and had a way in swaying the vote of his council colleagues,
whose campaigns were comped by none other than Noguez and
Francisco Leal.
Pacific, too, practiced their pitch, but was broad-sided by what
Noguez just delivered. Pacific was expecting to convince the good
mayor with a simple but persuasive argument focusing on the
greater public benefit yield. They never expected that Rosario
Marin's sponsored meeting amounted to nothing more than a
shakedown of a non-profit. Pacific recoiled, recovering from the
initial shock of the bribe request, offered that they didn't have
$50 K just laying around. Pacific ended giving up some five to ten
thousand dollars worth in books, school equipment or whatever,
in exchange for project approval by Huntington Park's Planning
Commission, its city council and Mayor John Noguez. Good thing
the city attorney was at the meeting. What better way to convince
Pacific that Noguez meant business, besides, Leal is Fabian
Nunez's good buddy, a detail made blunt by Leal and not lost on
Pacific. Wait: isn't it against California law to ask for campaign
contributions for state-wide public office without, first, actually
filing a candidate statement, and second, registering an official
campaign committee with the State of California? Maybe I'm
missing something here. In his 2007 reelection campaign,
Noguez proclaimed that one of his accomplishments was bringing
in new schools to the city. And he said it with a straight face, no
pun intended.
Maybe that's why The Broad Foundations had to donate a few
millions to Pacific Charter and Aspire, so that some of that
money can make its way to the good hands of people like the
openly gay mayor John Noguez in Huntington Park, who, for a
price, can give you good public service.
The editor called several times to get comments, both from The
Broad Foundations and Fabian Nunez's office, regarding Pacific
Charter/Aspire's shakedown by Huntington Park's mayor, but got
no response.
John Noguez was such a rising star and up-and-comer in the
Democratic farm system. Noguez, too, had the ambition to match
the opportunity of higher political office. Maybe John Noguez
should instead focus his attention on being elected county
assessor, not as sexy as Assemblyman, but still, it offers enough
leg room to stretch his talents of dedication to public service, and
gets him the hell out of Huntington Park.
Perhaps John Noguez proved too well of an understudy to Rosario
Marin, learning and putting into action the dirty political crookery
tactics that WatchOurcity.com has been documenting for nearly
four years now. Those tactics worked well for Rosario Marin
herself since her shtick is that she is an immigrant Republican,
dirty as all hell when it comes to local politics, but given a second
pass because she's a woman. Noguez perhaps imitating the
same political trajectory as her prominent mentor, and looking
for the same edge, thought that his declaration of being openly
gay was the closest chance he had in imitating his mentor's
secret weapon. He thought perhaps, that the gay community
would come to his rescue in case he was criticised for corrupt
political practices, he could manipulate the gay community and
cast himself as a victim, they would instantly come to his rescue.
When Assemblyman Richard Katz from Sylmar was running for
the Assembly some time ago, a Times reporter was in tow; Katz
knocks on the door of an elderly Jewish voter and says "vote for
me because I'm Jewish", to which she replied, "I'll vote for you
because you're a good man, not because you're Jewish". John
Noguez is not a good man, and his public record, campaign
contributions, and multi-million dollar contracts can attest to that.
John Perez, Villaraigosa's cousin, and Ricardo Lara, Fabian's
district director, just checkmated John Noguez in the openly-gay
department. And Perez has no history of dirty political dealings,
as far as we know. And any closets full of skeletons belong to
Antonio, not Perez. The only dark spot on Perez's record is being
a blood relative to such an unsavory character as Antonio
Villaraigosa. WatchOurCity.com's suggestion to Perez: you don't
need your cousin's bad Karma rubbing off on you. You can run a
successful campaign on your own merits. I've met you a couple
of times, actually, and I like you, but I didn't know you had a
creep for a cousin. Just don't start smiling that trademark
Villaraigosa smile; first, it would make you look less genuine,
and also, it's downright creepy. And his wife isn't the only victim
of that cheating heart of his. Think about this, if your cousin
Antonio is really, genuinely passionately interested about
education, why did he leave his beautiful wife, a school teacher?
To this day, Aspire Charter school's library is still badly in need of
library books, about five or ten thousand dollars worth. The Broad
Foundations' gift must have a line item in there somewhere for
"subsidy contribution as hand greaser in Huntington Park", a
cost-of-doing-business category that is tax deductible in only one
country in the entire free world: Germany, where expenses for
suborn and corruption are considered legitimate deductible
business expenses for corporate entities.
The best thing left for Noguez to do now is to leave town in the
cover of darkness, back to Montebello, where he carpet-bagged
from, just one month prior to filing candidacy papers for public
office here, before his political career crashes and burns in broad
public daylight. Even Rosario Marin would distance herself and
disown him, if she hasn't already, like she did with her first
crash-and-burn star protege, the convicted felon Edward
Escareno. All indications are, she's already orphaned Noguez. It
shows that Rosario Marin, the Hot Latina Republican, is still firmly
in control.
The Editor, WatchOurCity.com
Gay Latino Politicos Battle for
Fabian Nunez's Assembly Seat
John Noguez Checkmated
and Eclipsed
Noguez, the openly gay Huntington Park
councilman, self-proclaimed heir to
Fabian Nunez's termed-out Assembly
seat, is checkmated by two other gay
contenders with heavy Latino political
support, one of them Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa's cousin, John Perez, the
other, Ricardo Lara, Fabian Nunez's
District Director.
Huntington Park, CA - Ink on the political obituary of current
Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez has not even dried yet,
and already machinations are circling. Having lost Proposition 93,
Fabian will be termed out of public office by end of this year. His
46th Assembly District includes Huntington Park. March 7 is the
deadline for candidates to file. The primary will be on June 3, with
the general elections on November 4, 2008.
In a professional field culled mostly from political science majors,
presumably with low aptitudes for hard science and math, the
politically ambitious curiously become instant whizzes at calculus,
the political kind. So far, five known contenders have filed
candidacy papers with the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's office
with plans to replace Fabian.
A Times report ("Villaraigosa's cousin vies for Assembly seat", by
David Zahniser, February 23, 2008) introduces the players. Four
of these candidates are Democrats, but only three carry heavy
political artillery backup, with support evenly divided- with all due
respect to George W- between the three-point axis of Latino
Power: labor unions, Sacramento politicians and L.A.'s Mayor
Villaraigosa.
Most prominent is John Perez, has a portfolio with the Union as
political director, and is a first cousin of L.A.'s mayor Villaraigosa.
John is a Berkeley grad, a nice guy and well respected, sat on the
board of L.A.'s CRA, thanks to his cousin's appointment.
Nunez, in a last-ditch attempt at exercising his emaciated,
bruised and alienated political muscle, is throwing into the ring
one of his own, a local staffer, Ricardo Lara, firing off an email
late Thursday begging support for Lara, who attended San Diego
State University.
Ricardo Lara, who is semi-openly gay, is a member of the
Stonewall Young Democrats (whose motto is "You're here...You're
Queer (or an ally"). Lara is buddies with John Noguez's political
fundraiser, Conrado Terrazas, who is also gay. Ricardo Lara also
worked for Francisco Leal's lobby and advocacy group. Francisco
Leal is the city attorney for Maywood and Huntington Park, also
their lobbyist contractor. A bit more on Francisco Leal later.
State Senator Gil Cedillo throws his dubious prestige on a third
candidate, his own district director, Arturo Chavez. Cedillo is
famous for his laudable but Quixotic fixation on drivers' licenses
for illegal immigrants, and more recently known for a quixotic
defense more disturbing and puzzling, standing by the side of a
young convicted criminal Senate staffer Mario Beltran, despite all
his troubles with arrests, convictions and FBI investigations ("He's
not my first friend or ally to be investigated by the FBI, and he
won't be the first to be completely exonerated").
Oh, and, strangely, John Noguez has not filed a candidate
statement nor is mentioned anywhere by the L.A. Times.
A fourth candidate, Michael Aldapa, makes the cut. A relatively
political unknown, with self-described "no ties to any politician",
yet still makes the rounds in East L.A. circles. Aldapa is a USC
grad and has been an ex-reserve officer in the U.S. Army.
And somebody named W. "Bilal Mafundi Ali" Hendorson, listed as
a Peace and Freedom party member, also filed with the County
Recorder.
Noguez is our very own councilman in Huntington Park who
WatchOurCity.com has been keeping a close eye on since he was
first elected in March of 2003. Noguez was re-elected in 2007 and
endorsed by Fabian, Cedillo, and Calderon, even Villaraigosa.
And his legal name is not John Noguez, as L.A. Weekly
investigative reporter Jeffrey Anderson exposed in an article over
one year ago ("Name Game in Huntington Park; Records show
that rising star mayor John Noguez is really John Rodriguez",
February 7, 2007).
It is strange because Noguez has been claiming, proclaiming,
and claiming again and again in public and not-so-public
settings, that he, and no one else, is the anointed heir to Fabian
Nunez's 46th Assembly District office.
Once Noguez was elected to public office here, strange things
began to happen in city hall - some of them downright criminal.
Multi-million city contracts were curiously awarded to close friends
of Noguez. Even the city Attorney, Francisco Leal, was the
recipient of a highly unusual, yet expected award for city attorney
services, granted in close door session and without any
competing bids. It was unusual also because Leal had
contributed thousands of dollars to Noguez's 2003 campaign.
Mere months went by before this action was met with its equal
and opposite reaction. In Physics, it's Newton's third law of
motion. In local politics, it is the only Latin that Latino politicians
know, Quid Pro Quo, which Noguez mastered. Give campaign
contributions, receive rigged multi-million dollar city contracts.
To cite just one tantalizing but disturbing and egregious instance
of Noguez's eagerness to declare his right of ownership to
Fabian's seat, in May of 2006, Noguez called a meeting at the
California Club in Downtown L.A. Two parties were at the table. On
one side was the city of Huntington Park, officially represented by
Mayor Noguez and city attorney Francisco Leal. Opposite was
Pacific Charter Schools, desperately striving to get Mayor
Noguez's approval for a new charter school building.
A little background on what led to this historic meeting: Pacific
Charter may ring a bell for you. Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad
just gave millions of dollars in a much publicized donation to
three South L.A. charter schools, Kipp Academy, Aspire Charter,
and Pacific Charter.
Notably, Aspire operates several charter schools in Huntington
Park. Pacific Charter happens to be the real estate development
arm for Aspire and other charter school operators, and its
headquarters are located in a converted classroom inside Aspire's
new minimalist gleaming white converted concrete tilt-up building
on the western edge of town where Saturn street unceremoniously
dead-ends at the Alameda Corridor. Pacific had built other
charters in other cities, but nothing like what happened in
Huntington Park had they ever encountered. Inexplicably, Pacific
could not get their campus finished on time due to complications,
road-blocks, planning hurdles, zoning issues, EIR reports piled
on by city officials, the planning commission and, ahem, mayor
John Noguez himself. Pacific was frustrated, even the architect on
the job, a veteran firm with a specialty in delivering charter school
designs on time and on budget, having even been the architect
of record for the Oscar de la Hoya charter school in East L.A., had
not ever encountered the surreal, absurd and, both Pacific and
the architect concluded, corrupt practices orchestrated, evidently
by Huntington Park's mayor.
So desperate was Pacific to find a solution to their mounting
problems with getting planning commission sign-offs and building
approvals that an official from Pacific even sent a note in January
2006 to this editor at WatchOurCity.com asking for advice on how
to deal with the situation, clearly keen on the blatant political
corruption angle that this website has been documenting in
Huntington Park since March 2004, an effort reported on by L.A.
Times staff writer Sam Quinones, which media coverage resulted
in WatchOurCity.com being awarded the Beacon Award in October
2004, at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, given by
the California First Amendment Coalition.
WatchOurCity.com responded that Pacific Charter should
approach the mayor through his weak point, or rather Noguez's
control point; WatchOurCity.com brazenly suggested that the only
way to get the city off of Pacific Charter's back was through
Rosario Marin, den mother of Huntington Park politicos, and
current head of the State's Consumer Affairs Division, a political
hack appointment courtesy of the Governor. Amazingly, Pacific
did just that, and managed to get that appointment in the
California Club in May. By the way, Rosario Marin and John
Noguez are the subject of a recently published book, "Power
Mentoring" by Wiley Press, on the "50 most powerful
mentor-protege relationships in the United States". Rosario Marin
and John Noguez are one of those 50 power couples. Another bit
of trivia on Rosario Marin and her "Proteges" in this city: John
Noguez's first campaign manager, then city mayor Edward
Escareno, was Rosario Marin's first favored protege; Escareno
followed everything Marin ordered, just don't get caught. So he
gets caught. In December 2005, Escareno is convicted of "Grand
Theft" of public funds, a felony, a month later, Rosario Marin
gets appointed to the Consumer Affairs Division. The felony
conviction of her protege was kept a secret to prevent marring
Marin's momentous appointment. One more tidbit of trivia:
Noguez's second campaign manager, that same Mario Beltran
mentioned above, protected and defended by Gil Cedillo, was
Noguez campaign manager during the March 2007 elections.
Back to the California Club. So here's Pacific Charter on one side
and mayor Noguez with his city attorney side-kick Francisco Leal.
At issue: What does Pacific need to do in order to remove the
highly unusual and unexpected hurdles in order to bring charter
school seats to Huntington Park, a city in terrible need given the
over-crowded, multi-track, low-performing schools here.
Noguez and attorney Leal must have practiced for what happened
next: Noguez said, dramatizing here, that if Pacific Charter just
happened to find $50,000 in their construction line-item budget
unallocated, that they should donate it to John Noguez's
campaign for State Assembly, since Fabian was about to be
termed out, and Noguez was hand-picked to carry on in his
Assembly seat. Once the $50 K was donated, Noguez had a way
with controlling the planning commissioners, whom he appointed,
and had a way in swaying the vote of his council colleagues,
whose campaigns were comped by none other than Noguez and
Francisco Leal.
Pacific, too, practiced their pitch, but was broad-sided by what
Noguez just delivered. Pacific was expecting to convince the good
mayor with a simple but persuasive argument focusing on the
greater public benefit yield. They never expected that Rosario
Marin's sponsored meeting amounted to nothing more than a
shakedown of a non-profit. Pacific recoiled, recovering from the
initial shock of the bribe request, offered that they didn't have
$50 K just laying around. Pacific ended giving up some five to ten
thousand dollars worth in books, school equipment or whatever,
in exchange for project approval by Huntington Park's Planning
Commission, its city council and Mayor John Noguez. Good thing
the city attorney was at the meeting. What better way to convince
Pacific that Noguez meant business, besides, Leal is Fabian
Nunez's good buddy, a detail made blunt by Leal and not lost on
Pacific. Wait: isn't it against California law to ask for campaign
contributions for state-wide public office without, first, actually
filing a candidate statement, and second, registering an official
campaign committee with the State of California? Maybe I'm
missing something here. In his 2007 reelection campaign,
Noguez proclaimed that one of his accomplishments was bringing
in new schools to the city. And he said it with a straight face, no
pun intended.
Maybe that's why The Broad Foundations had to donate a few
millions to Pacific Charter and Aspire, so that some of that
money can make its way to the good hands of people like the
openly gay mayor John Noguez in Huntington Park, who, for a
price, can give you good public service.
The editor called several times to get comments, both from The
Broad Foundations and Fabian Nunez's office, regarding Pacific
Charter/Aspire's shakedown by Huntington Park's mayor, but got
no response.
John Noguez was such a rising star and up-and-comer in the
Democratic farm system. Noguez, too, had the ambition to match
the opportunity of higher political office. Maybe John Noguez
should instead focus his attention on being elected county
assessor, not as sexy as Assemblyman, but still, it offers enough
leg room to stretch his talents of dedication to public service, and
gets him the hell out of Huntington Park.
Perhaps John Noguez proved too well of an understudy to Rosario
Marin, learning and putting into action the dirty political crookery
tactics that WatchOurcity.com has been documenting for nearly
four years now. Those tactics worked well for Rosario Marin
herself since her shtick is that she is an immigrant Republican,
dirty as all hell when it comes to local politics, but given a second
pass because she's a woman. Noguez perhaps imitating the
same political trajectory as her prominent mentor, and looking
for the same edge, thought that his declaration of being openly
gay was the closest chance he had in imitating his mentor's
secret weapon. He thought perhaps, that the gay community
would come to his rescue in case he was criticised for corrupt
political practices, he could manipulate the gay community and
cast himself as a victim, they would instantly come to his rescue.
When Assemblyman Richard Katz from Sylmar was running for
the Assembly some time ago, a Times reporter was in tow; Katz
knocks on the door of an elderly Jewish voter and says "vote for
me because I'm Jewish", to which she replied, "I'll vote for you
because you're a good man, not because you're Jewish". John
Noguez is not a good man, and his public record, campaign
contributions, and multi-million dollar contracts can attest to that.
John Perez, Villaraigosa's cousin, and Ricardo Lara, Fabian's
district director, just checkmated John Noguez in the openly-gay
department. And Perez has no history of dirty political dealings,
as far as we know. And any closets full of skeletons belong to
Antonio, not Perez. The only dark spot on Perez's record is being
a blood relative to such an unsavory character as Antonio
Villaraigosa. WatchOurCity.com's suggestion to Perez: you don't
need your cousin's bad Karma rubbing off on you. You can run a
successful campaign on your own merits. I've met you a couple
of times, actually, and I like you, but I didn't know you had a
creep for a cousin. Just don't start smiling that trademark
Villaraigosa smile; first, it would make you look less genuine,
and also, it's downright creepy. And his wife isn't the only victim
of that cheating heart of his. Think about this, if your cousin
Antonio is really, genuinely passionately interested about
education, why did he leave his beautiful wife, a school teacher?
To this day, Aspire Charter school's library is still badly in need of
library books, about five or ten thousand dollars worth. The Broad
Foundations' gift must have a line item in there somewhere for
"subsidy contribution as hand greaser in Huntington Park", a
cost-of-doing-business category that is tax deductible in only one
country in the entire free world: Germany, where expenses for
suborn and corruption are considered legitimate deductible
business expenses for corporate entities.
The best thing left for Noguez to do now is to leave town in the
cover of darkness, back to Montebello, where he carpet-bagged
from, just one month prior to filing candidacy papers for public
office here, before his political career crashes and burns in broad
public daylight. Even Rosario Marin would distance herself and
disown him, if she hasn't already, like she did with her first
crash-and-burn star protege, the convicted felon Edward
Escareno. All indications are, she's already orphaned Noguez. It
shows that Rosario Marin, the Hot Latina Republican, is still firmly
in control.
WatchOurCity.com
In The Public Interest
"Viva Obama"
Mariachi Politics
Politics, public policy and Mariachi.
Madison Avenue meets land of
Mariachi by Obama campaign;
"Viva Obama" is here translated.
By the Editor,
WatchOurCity.com
March 3, 2008
Huntington Park, CA- The Obama
campaign has unleashed a
powerfully themed Mariachi corrido,
or song, for the Texas campaign,
"Viva Obama", that is the envy of
all Mexican political consultants on
any political team. Texas holds its
primary on Tuesday, March 4.
Why didn't Villaraigosa, Fabian or
any other of Hillary's failed Latino
leaders from California think of this
before? Not even Rosario Marin, our
nation's 41st Treasurer of the
United States, ex-Huntington Park
councilwoman, could beat that.
Marin ran in 2004 against U.S.
Senator Barbara Boxer with a
loosing negative Latino themed
slogan, "Adios Boxer". Marin could
have done better simply by doing
what Obama is now doing, go
positive, go native, "Viva Marin".
Marin is the highest ranking Hot
Latina Republican in California.
This is just one more example of
Senator Obama's reason for
success, in this case, mining of rich
ethnic cultural resources. Obama's
marketing team uses a well written
mariachi arrangement to lure the
Mexican vote, not the Latino nor
Hispanic vote; the "Mexican" vote.
You see, Mariachi is not Hispanic.
Comedian George Lopez was right
when he said that there is no such
thing as "Hispanics" since there is
no "Hispania" to emigrate from.
Mariachi is also not a Latino thing.
The last time any Mariachi played a
tune in Latin, was probably
sometime in 1964 when Pope John
XXIII's 2nd Vatican Council did
away with the Tridentine Mass, or
the Latin Rite, and allowed mass to
be celebrated in the "vernacular",
that is, the local language. The
mariachi has taken over as liturgical
chorus in most Mexican attended
Roman Catholic churches. Mariachi
is the heart of the Mexican psyche,
and is as strongly vernacular as
Tequila. Here in Huntington Park,
our very own St. Mathias speaks
Spanish with Mariachi for the
church's high noon mass. One of
the mariachi "elementos", or
members is now attending Harvard
University and is a member of the
Mariachi Veritas de Harvard.
Mariachis have a long tradition both
liturgical and political. Dominant
Mexican political parties such as the
PRI and PAN always try to
appropriate this iconic regional
vernacular music born in Jalisco,
Mexico. If you ever get a chance,
go see the International Mariachi
festival in Guadalajara, Mexico. You
will be delighted with mariachis from
Japan, Brazil, Cuba, and a black
mariachi singer from Compton who
is a hit with the crowds.
Barack Obama is now using this
"vernacular" tool, the mariachi, to
hit one target audience, the very
Mexican voter. In a sense, it is sort
of poetic. Anybody that claims that
Mexicans do not vote for Obama for
being black forgets that the most
Mexican of mariachi songs, "El Son
de la Negra", is the classic folkloric
dance and song deeply embedded
in the hearts and minds of mariachi
fans rich and poor, young and old,
worldwide. The Guadalajara Mariachi
festival's grand finale is in the city's
Teatro Degollado where dozens of
mariachis play "El son de la negra"
in unison one last time.
"El Son de la Negra", or "the song
of the black girl", sometimes also
know as "Song of my beloved", is a
love song about a beautiful
dark-skinned girl, "Negrita de mis
pesares, ojos de papel volando"
(little black girl of my heavy heart,
with eyes of paper flying), "Cuando
me traes a mi negra, que la quiero
ver aqui (when will you bring me my
beloved black girl, I long to see her
right here).
If Condoleezza Rice decides to run
as McCain's running mate, she'll
have the Mexican vote in a
heartbeat if she would only play "El
son de la Negra" at her political
events, possibly even stearing
voters away from Obama, all on the
power of the mariachi (when will you
bring me my beloved black girl, I
long to see her here). Even Antonio
Banderas in "El Mariachi" sings to
"mi morena de mi corazon" (you
dark-skinned beauty of my heart).
In typical "ballad" style, this
mariachi ode to Obama is a
masterful vehicle carrying the good
senator's political platform and
public policy proposals all with a
classic seven member ensemble- a
guitarron, a vihuela, one Mexican
guitar, one horn, two violins-
including the singer, who, when
belting "Viva Obama", gives you
goose bumps just as if he was
singing "Viva Mexico, Viva America".
The singer's sonorific voice would
make Vicente Fernandez proud,
and his good looks gives Antonio
Banderas, "El Mariachi", a run for
his money.
So here's a translation of "Viva
Obama":
"To the candidate who is Barack
Obama,
This Corrido (song) I sing with all
my soul.
Humbly he was born without any
pretensions.
He started in the streets of Chicago,
working to achieve a vision,
To protect the working people,
And to bring us all together,
In this great nation.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Families united, secure, and even
with a health plan.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
A candidate fighting for our Nation.
It matters not if you are from San
Antonio,
It matters not if you are from
Corpus Christi, from Dallas, El Valle,
Houston or El Paso.
What matters is that we vote for
Obama,
Because his fight is also our fight,
And now that we have urgency for
change,
Let's all go united with our great
friend.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Families united, secure, and even
with a health plan.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
A candidate fighting for our Nation."
Tan, Tan.
Mariachi Politics
Politics, public policy and Mariachi.
Madison Avenue meets land of
Mariachi by Obama campaign;
"Viva Obama" is here translated.
By the Editor,
WatchOurCity.com
March 3, 2008
Huntington Park, CA- The Obama
campaign has unleashed a
powerfully themed Mariachi corrido,
or song, for the Texas campaign,
"Viva Obama", that is the envy of
all Mexican political consultants on
any political team. Texas holds its
primary on Tuesday, March 4.
Why didn't Villaraigosa, Fabian or
any other of Hillary's failed Latino
leaders from California think of this
before? Not even Rosario Marin, our
nation's 41st Treasurer of the
United States, ex-Huntington Park
councilwoman, could beat that.
Marin ran in 2004 against U.S.
Senator Barbara Boxer with a
loosing negative Latino themed
slogan, "Adios Boxer". Marin could
have done better simply by doing
what Obama is now doing, go
positive, go native, "Viva Marin".
Marin is the highest ranking Hot
Latina Republican in California.
This is just one more example of
Senator Obama's reason for
success, in this case, mining of rich
ethnic cultural resources. Obama's
marketing team uses a well written
mariachi arrangement to lure the
Mexican vote, not the Latino nor
Hispanic vote; the "Mexican" vote.
You see, Mariachi is not Hispanic.
Comedian George Lopez was right
when he said that there is no such
thing as "Hispanics" since there is
no "Hispania" to emigrate from.
Mariachi is also not a Latino thing.
The last time any Mariachi played a
tune in Latin, was probably
sometime in 1964 when Pope John
XXIII's 2nd Vatican Council did
away with the Tridentine Mass, or
the Latin Rite, and allowed mass to
be celebrated in the "vernacular",
that is, the local language. The
mariachi has taken over as liturgical
chorus in most Mexican attended
Roman Catholic churches. Mariachi
is the heart of the Mexican psyche,
and is as strongly vernacular as
Tequila. Here in Huntington Park,
our very own St. Mathias speaks
Spanish with Mariachi for the
church's high noon mass. One of
the mariachi "elementos", or
members is now attending Harvard
University and is a member of the
Mariachi Veritas de Harvard.
Mariachis have a long tradition both
liturgical and political. Dominant
Mexican political parties such as the
PRI and PAN always try to
appropriate this iconic regional
vernacular music born in Jalisco,
Mexico. If you ever get a chance,
go see the International Mariachi
festival in Guadalajara, Mexico. You
will be delighted with mariachis from
Japan, Brazil, Cuba, and a black
mariachi singer from Compton who
is a hit with the crowds.
Barack Obama is now using this
"vernacular" tool, the mariachi, to
hit one target audience, the very
Mexican voter. In a sense, it is sort
of poetic. Anybody that claims that
Mexicans do not vote for Obama for
being black forgets that the most
Mexican of mariachi songs, "El Son
de la Negra", is the classic folkloric
dance and song deeply embedded
in the hearts and minds of mariachi
fans rich and poor, young and old,
worldwide. The Guadalajara Mariachi
festival's grand finale is in the city's
Teatro Degollado where dozens of
mariachis play "El son de la negra"
in unison one last time.
"El Son de la Negra", or "the song
of the black girl", sometimes also
know as "Song of my beloved", is a
love song about a beautiful
dark-skinned girl, "Negrita de mis
pesares, ojos de papel volando"
(little black girl of my heavy heart,
with eyes of paper flying), "Cuando
me traes a mi negra, que la quiero
ver aqui (when will you bring me my
beloved black girl, I long to see her
right here).
If Condoleezza Rice decides to run
as McCain's running mate, she'll
have the Mexican vote in a
heartbeat if she would only play "El
son de la Negra" at her political
events, possibly even stearing
voters away from Obama, all on the
power of the mariachi (when will you
bring me my beloved black girl, I
long to see her here). Even Antonio
Banderas in "El Mariachi" sings to
"mi morena de mi corazon" (you
dark-skinned beauty of my heart).
In typical "ballad" style, this
mariachi ode to Obama is a
masterful vehicle carrying the good
senator's political platform and
public policy proposals all with a
classic seven member ensemble- a
guitarron, a vihuela, one Mexican
guitar, one horn, two violins-
including the singer, who, when
belting "Viva Obama", gives you
goose bumps just as if he was
singing "Viva Mexico, Viva America".
The singer's sonorific voice would
make Vicente Fernandez proud,
and his good looks gives Antonio
Banderas, "El Mariachi", a run for
his money.
So here's a translation of "Viva
Obama":
"To the candidate who is Barack
Obama,
This Corrido (song) I sing with all
my soul.
Humbly he was born without any
pretensions.
He started in the streets of Chicago,
working to achieve a vision,
To protect the working people,
And to bring us all together,
In this great nation.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Families united, secure, and even
with a health plan.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
A candidate fighting for our Nation.
It matters not if you are from San
Antonio,
It matters not if you are from
Corpus Christi, from Dallas, El Valle,
Houston or El Paso.
What matters is that we vote for
Obama,
Because his fight is also our fight,
And now that we have urgency for
change,
Let's all go united with our great
friend.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Families united, secure, and even
with a health plan.
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
Viva Obama (chorus: Viva!),
A candidate fighting for our Nation."
Tan, Tan.
| Video of Mariachi tune about Obama: "Viva Obama". |
| "El Son de la Negra" |
| John A. Perez, Villaraigosa's cousin. |
| Ricardo Lara, Fabian Nunez's District Director and worked for Francisco Leal in his lobby Advocacy Group. |
| Mike Aldapa. Click to see YouTube.com. |
Monday March 3, 2008
| John Noguez, Huntington Park's openly gay mayor. |
Copyright © 2008 WatchOurCity.com