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The overdue induction of Curt Pringle in the OC Weekly’s “Scariest People in OC Hall of Fame” bears the trademark style of its “equal opportunity critic” editor. Gustavo Arellano’s criticism of the role played by Anaheim Latino leaders in Pringle’s career is rejected by many, especially by Latinos including myself, as the context and perspective of this alliance are not fully considered.
This LA Times report and the linked OCW article underlined below provide some background:
“The Republican, who 14 years ago was dogged by controversy when the local GOP stationed guards at polling places in Latino neighborhoods to block suspected illegal immigrants from voting, stood shoulder to shoulder with Latino activists who once scorned him. Together, they advocated on behalf of Mexico-based Gigante, a supermarket trying to open in Anaheim amid resistance from city planners”
The supermarket had become a rallying point for Latinos, as the city resistance was perceived as being based on ethnic grounds: that it was too Hispanic. This perception overshadowed other considerations such as having another store with a liquor license in a saturated area or the supermarket’s impact on the business done by neighboring small groceries.
Pringle’s apparent conversion, from posting guards at the polling station to embracing the establishment of a Hispanic supermarket, was indeed stunning. But at the end of the day it was clear that Pringle had gone through no transformation. It was just a cunning development into what he would become: a greedy and unscrupulous politician. His posture deceived the Latino leaders and their support facilitated his election.
But by then, he already had accumulated substantial power anyway. His time in the State Assembly had laid the basis of his empire. The prestige of having been a powerful figure in the State Assembly had made him a strong candidate for Mayor. Another angle to consider was the role played by the Democrats on the city council. Someone close to then-Councilwoman Lorri Galloway at that time has observed that they were too involved on other issues, which kept them from questioning Pringle’s maneuvers to make the city an extension of his empire.
The omission in Gustavo’s narrative, any consideration of what viable alternative Latino leaders had to an alliance with Pringle, makes his interpretation appear as a personal grudge rather than a serious analysis. His opposition to the Gigante supermarket has colored his interpretation of an entire period of Latino politics. The bottom line is that at that time the alliance made sense, as no feasible alternative existed other than becoming an even more marginalized movement. Gustavo’s obsession with presenting an incomplete picture has had practical implications in the struggle to transform our city.
Gustavo has put himself in the odd position of opposing the most substantial change needed, apparently because of who proposed it. The district-based electoral system could change the structure of power, benefiting greater sections of the community. This change was brought forward largely by the very Latino leaders deceived by Pringle and his political machine. Gustavo’s strong opposition to this change for a time made me wonder whether his trademark accusation of “vendidos” had been reversed. His obsession against the current president of Los Amigos is in the same vein. Dr Moreno may run again for the city council, and criticism based on personal grudges will once again not help.
It is time to say to Gustavo: ¡No manches! Live up to the expectations of the young Latinos from Anaheim, Santa Ana, from all over Orange County who look you up as their political mentor. It is time to move forward united. It is time to stop the Pringle curse!
Related posts here and here and here.
I think Gustavo just likes to able to be on the sideline just like Art Pedroza does so he can point to the foibles of both parties and their candidates so he can exalt how he isn’t part of it all.
Yeah a few people I know exult that way.
Paul: No, we just like to write truths, no matter how inconvenient they may be. You know this more than the Bloviator, given you’ve actually been active in OC all these years, unlike his bloviating ass.
Gustavo I know where you are coming from but as i see it, you go too far. For example the exchange we had when you unfriended me as you were trashing the members of the DPOC. You always forget that these people are volunteers and volunteer their time. I take umbrage to that.
While you were trying to paint the leadership, i.e. Frank Barbaro, you painted the whole group with the same brush which is totally unfair. You got real pissed when I painted you as the ever unsatisfiable hipster who loves to complain and besmirch then actually roll up their / your sleeves and get in the trenches with us.
I wish you would do as many of the volunteers at the DPOC do and suit up and show up after your work day as nearly a hundred of your fellow OC’ers do every month and every week and every weekend at every fair, community event etc etc instead of taking pot shots from the sidelines.
YOU were noticeably absent at the LULAC NAACP event which hosted the candidates to replace Loretta, choosing instead to send Moxley and Gilhooley. For fucks sake man this is your hometown and neighborhood and you didnt think it was important enough to show up? If this was being held in Modena, I would have been accompanied by my whole damn grade school alumn. Please excuse my typos.
I was literally active in OC politics while you were in diapers. Eventually I left of the area for a couple of dozen years so that I enjoy all of the good alt-weeklies in a dozen or so states. Then I came back here, to find the only one that’s mostly libertarian rather than left.
That said, you’ve been improving — as 90% of this article shows. Now you just have to work on not holding ancient grudges and developing a skin thick enough not to bruise when a breeze blows on it — let alone anything more dangerous, like actual criticism.
Thanks as always for stopping by!
I think I’m going to store these exchanges on the post in question here, just to make sure that they don’t get accidentally deleted like the 2005 Hall of Fame nominee.
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Greg Diamond · Oct 24, 2015 11:25am
Great takedown of Pringle on many good points:
Yet it’s slightly spoiled by Gustavo’s *once again* banging on one of his political gongs: the 2002 support for the entry of Gigante market into Anaheim. Look, there was right and wrong of both sides of that conflict. What Amin David and Nativo Lopez said there was true. I don’t ascribe these views to Gustavo, but in opposing Gigante (for what were admittedly better reasons) he did in effect align himself the “the letter” he discusses in his linked article:
And that is stinking, smoldering racism. Why didn’t Pringle’s opponents oppose it as well? Recall that the runner-up was Lucille Kring, whose expressed public sentiments since then have shown that she could have written that memo herself. It retrospect, Kring would have been a better Mayor than Pringle mostly due to her incompetence at everything — including being rotten effectively.
Did Amin David curry favor with Pringle in 2006? Maybe so, to get on the Mayor’s good side so as to better benefit his community. Pringle’s opposition for Mayor in 2006, after all, was Denis Fitzgerald. He was obviously going to remain Mayor for four more years.
Gustavo loves to keep bringing this up because it’s one of the few fights where he took a stand, at a cost and when it could have mattered, on behalf of the little guy. (Small businesses, sure, but still the little guy.) It’s been more than 14 years now since that memo; time to let it rest. Otherwise we’ll have to print the Stipkovich letter again and again and again….
James Robert Reade · Oct 24, 2015 1:43am
Eight years of wholesome leadership by Mayor Curt Pringle left a meaningful and enduring impression on Anaheim with freedom friendly policies and a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation that allows the creative genius of Walt Disney to live in all of us. Pringles’ timeless spirit of optimism is the sparkling trademark of his legacy. I appreciate his service to Anaheim.
James Robert Reade · Oct 24, 2015 3:19pm
Hi Greg, don’t forget to vote for Donald Trump!
Bloviator: That you’re “keeping” your pathetic bloviations on your shit blog says all readers need to know about your bloviated blovate. And no matter your bloviations, facts don’t change: Amin and Nativo made a deal with the Pringle devil that gained NOTHING for Latinos in Anaheim. Nothing. But, hey: keep bloviating otherwise, because bloviators gotta bloviate, right?
You really can’t hardly argue at all, can you?
Once I eliminate all of the words that misuse forms of “bloviate” in a desperate attempt to act like my criticisms of you aren’t worth responding to, we get to one response: “Amin and Nativo made a deal with the Pringle devil that gained NOTHING for Latinos in Anaheim.”
OK, I’ll answer that one: they had neither a crystal ball nor a decent alternative. BUT, they did stand tall against a truly offensive memo, which still applied even if the tactic for keeping the store from opening shifted from a frontal assault to denial of a liquor license. That may mean nothing to you, but clearly it doesn’t mean nothing to lots of others.
But hey, maybe you were right! That’s one point for you, versus how many — dozens?, hundreds? — for Amin David. But you just can’t give up the one time you got involved, went out on a limb, and took a stand!
Grow the hell up. Be the person you imagine yourself to be.
Greg Diamond · Oct. 25 (circa 6:30pm)
“Damn autocorrect always turns ‘Pringle’ into ‘pinche’! I guess this really IS a smart phone.”
That was worth reading all that.
Kind of you to say, especially if not *entirely* true.
Ricardo: The only elitists here are the Bloviator and your chileno ass, who deign tell Gabriel (get his last name right) and myself how to act in the city where we’ve spent our entire lives. Spare me your patronizing suggestions about how to write or act; unlike the two of you, Gabriel and I know what we speak, have done it far longer than the two of you and will continue to do so long after the two, and have no ulterior motives other than exposing pendejos like yourselves who think babbling makes them pundits.
I really don’t give a damn how you act “in the city” — when you are in the city — and I’m glad that you gave up your previous stated position of of not commenting on Anaheim politics so as to protect your extended family. (Such a portrait of courage!) I care what you do in the newspaper, trashing good people who are trying hard and taking risks and still getting crapped on by above-it-all peacocks like you.
You’re a public figure, slugger, and you spare no one else criticism when you think it might show yourself off. You went to college, so you probably know what “praxis” is: go buy some for yourself, Clark Kent. Come up with a political stance better than “I’m cool and they are dumb.” There’s work to do; get your pinche hands dirty once in a while.
Your right that your motive isn’t ulterior. It’s selling books, attacking critics, and using the power of the press to bestow gifts upon friends, like a rich kid doling out twenty-dollar bills like an ATM to stay popular. There, I sure hope that that wasn’t patronizing!
Hey, um, can we direct the venom at the people who are actually ripping off residents in Anaheim?
Pretty sure they’re still working on stealing taxpayer dollars while we’re all getting the yardstick out and taking a wizz.
Just sayin’.
Thanks for pointing out the typo error. Gustavo, assume the responsibility of being a public figure, an opinion maker. Your views are not helping to effectively change the power structure of the city.
Shocking, a typical OC libertarian shaking any tree he can. Gus is a reactionary
comedian, not a public figure… unless he turns out to be a Guatemalan! Then he can be president!
I took this sentence from the post, as it is distracting from its content : “Mindful of the elitist “know nothing/Johnny came late” disqualification usually employed by Gustavo and his close friend and protégé, Gabriel San Roman”.
What I meant by elitism is the attitude of discouraging the involvement of people on the civic affairs. It perpetuates apathy. It maintains the status quo.
Gustavo’s qualification of who is elitist, in his comment above, refers to the sentence I placed here.