Ep. 3: Thank You, Pete Wilson

This is California: The Battle of 187

Los Angeles Times

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 679 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Just one day after the 1994 election, federal and state lawsuits are filed claiming 187 is unconstitutional. And though 187 finally dies for good in 1999, Latinos in California never forget it. Prop 187 inspired more Latinos than ever before to register to vote and to run for office in California. Now, 25 years after 187 passed, the Golden State's bluer than indigo. Host Gustavo Arellano ends our series with a last lingering question: Given President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, will we experience another 187 on a national scale? Produced in collaboration with Futuro Studios. To learn more, go to latimes.com/thisiscalifornia.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So, this is my home office, a bunch of crap.
0:05.0	Here's a rock that I painted in kindergarten, a U.S. Army machete, a bunch of bourbon decanters.
0:10.0	That's like the only thing I collect.
0:12.0	Oh, of course, all the books.
0:14.0	Here's a couple of shelves about California, a bookcase full of Chicano Latino stuff.
0:19.0	Mementos of my career, too. On the floor are a bunch of awards.
0:22.6	But check this out.
0:24.6	This is the first article I ever wrote.
0:26.6	The subject?
0:28.6	Pete Wilson.
0:30.6	Back in 2000, I got a Democratic Party mailer
0:34.6	that had a fuzzy photo of him with a caption,
0:36.6	just when we thought he
0:37.8	was gone.
0:38.8	He's back.
0:44.6	When I got this mailer, I remembered Wilson's They Keep Coming TV ad, the one that used fuzzy footage
0:50.2	of Latinos crossing the U.S. Mexico border to imply we were invading California.
0:55.2	Now, a few years later, he's the scary scapego.
1:02.5	Not long after I got that mailer, I wrote an article for O.C. Weekly.
1:06.9	It came out on November 23, 2000. Here's what I wrote.
1:11.3	Like the Mexican legend of La Yorona, the ghost woman whose story is used to strike fear in the hearts of children,
1:17.1	Pete Wilson's name was invoked in mailers, radio commercials, and a popular song during the recent
	...

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