Bedoya, Aitken, Ballinas

Big 100-year anniversary coming up in Anaheim October 11 – that day in 1926 saw the Grand Opening of the Mexican School on La Palma Avenue! The days of legal segregation. I’ve been planning to write a special piece about that here. Some of us have been researching the vanished neighborhood of La Conga. That’s a Mexican-American barrio where La Palma Park is now, and north of that – a neighborhood erased by the City in the 50’s and 60’s for this stupid reason and that.

In the 20’s as well, the swimming pool was built at Pearson Park (STILL Anaheim’s only public pool!) and, as many people know, “Mexicans” (thought by some white folks to be “dirty”) were not allowed to swim in it, except for once a week right before its cleaning. Well, what many do NOT know is it was legal and political activism from the united mothers of the La Conga neighborhood that finally put an end to that discrimination.

Donna and I read about all that in an out-of-print memoir entitled (not kidding) “Hi! My Name is Chicken” by Rosie Lopez Schelerth, the ex-wife of famed and moody muralist Emigdio Lopez. Rosie grew up in La Conga! And she tells us more. Groups of Mexican boys REALLY wanted to swim in that Pearson Park Pool, it didn’t seem fair that they couldn’t. Just as today, some “Mexicans” had lighter skin than others, and PASSED, and got in! HA! The darker-skinned boys laughed at the lifeguards as the pool closed for the day, “YOU HAD A MEXICAN IN YOUR POOL AND YOU DIDN’T KNOW! JA JA!!“

It is even whispered, or rumored, that the light-skinned Mexican boy, before leaving the pool, secretly peed in it. NOT because he was innately a pool-pee-er, or “dirty,” BUT ON PRINCIPLE!

Composite of three images, circa 1926, of Anaheim City Park, located at 400 N. Harbor Blvd., later known as Pearson Park; top image shows “plunge” swimming pool with many swimmers, diving board and diving platform in the background; middle image shows baseball diamond and spectators in stadium; lower left image shows lily pond.

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You’re probably thinking I made all that up, pero no. Fast forward a century and *I* thought people were making it up Monday night when I read that Mayor Ashleigh Aitken had, when her Mexican-American chief of staff Berenice Ballinas had to drive her home from events because Ashleigh had drunk too much, “exclaimed” to Berenice that she “didn’t want her car driven by a dirty Mexican!” At other times, Ashleigh and then-City Manager James Vanderpool gave Berenice a hard time about possibly being a lesbian, like that was any of their damn business. Sounds like this kind of stuff happened many times, and sometimes in front of witnesses.

All day yesterday I had dozens of people texting me the story, “Have you seen this?” I’m not sure if my reaction was always the correct one. To Mirvette I said, “Yeah, white people probably shouldn’t get drunk, they say stupid things.” She responded, “How about she shouldn’t believe those things or ever say those things?” Well, yeah. Does Ashleigh believe “Mexicans” are “dirty?” I’m assuming she was Trying to Be Funny While Drunk, but maybe I’m just projecting – I’ve said plenty of lame-ass things myself when I was drunk, thinking I was being funny. Probably not “Dirty Mexicans” though. Let alone multiple times. Let alone to a subordinate.

Anyway there was a Council meeting that night – last night – and I walked in with an open mind, thinking this could all be true, or maybe not. Ashleigh was there and ran the meeting as well as usual, although Donna saw her closer up and thinks she had been crying. She did seem chastened, humbled, not like someone wrongly accused. Gadflies demanded her resignation, CHISPA demanded her resignation. The Arzola family, there as always to demand justice and transparency for last December’s police killing of 19-year old Albert, wore Mexican-flag colors, sarcastically called themselves Dirty Mexicans, claimed that the reason Albert got killed and his killing covered up was because to the City he was just another “Dirty Mexican,” and they also demanded Ashleigh’s resignation. (Actually if any Mexican was dirty it was Nathan Garcia, the cop who killed Albert.)

Then, when public comments were over, the only Councilmember to address the scandal was the other blond lady from the Hills, Natalie Meeks – who called for an investigation. It was interesting like she’d been chosen to be the adult on the dais, while all the “Mexicans” on Council (of unknown cleanliness) ignored the issue. Meeks pledged that if the investigation bore out Ashleigh’s guilt, she would also demand Ashleigh’s resignation. And then Ashleigh herself spoke:

Ashleigh asks us to judge her by “the values she has demonstrated through her actions.” What values, which actions? Let’s be fair. What comes to mind:

• She did choose to hire this Mexican-American Berenice way back in ’22, putting her in a high-paying trusted position with a lot of responsibility (even if she did at some point turn out to be a terrible boss);

• As you can hear above, she took the time to learn Spanish fluently AS AN ADULT which is hard; I think that was during COVID;

• She voted for all the immigrant-helping programs her colleagues proposed; they weren’t her ideas but she supported them.

On the other hand, over these four years she and her supposed “reform” council have made only the most minimal “reforms,” and have resisted any proposals that would REALLY make life better for Anaheim’s working class (mostly Mexican AND clean) – proposals like rent control and a gate tax. The Arzola situation shows that police reform and accountability remains a distant dream, and the victims are mostly young “Mexicans.”

The Overton’s Window is very small and unshifting over this Council, from which rarely a dissenting voice is heard. My friends in business say “Isn’t it nice now that there’s no arguing on Council, everyone gets along so well?” and I say NO. Not even the two-and-a-half Mexicans on the council, of varying and undetermined hygiene, ever step out of line.

And, apparently (unless some investigation proves otherwise) when liquor loosens the Mayor’s lips she jokes (or raves angrily??) about Dirty Mexicans, and speculates on her subordinate’s proclivities.

So, WILL ASHLEIGH RESIGN?

And, what would that mean?

This is for sure an awkward time for all this to transpire. First, how long will this supposed investigation take? Second, RE-ELECTION season is just kicking off, and if Ashleigh does resign it seems like she may have to do it twice! It’s way too late to take her name off the ballot.

Say, she resigns in the next few weeks, in October. Mayor duties will temporarily go to the meek Mayor Pro-Tem, Carlos Leon. But Ashleigh will still almost certainly be elected. Because nobody’s heard of the two guys running against her, a young businessman named Alfredo Rodriguez and a Pakistani-American sleep doctor from the Hills named Dr. Imran Sharief. Some are looking at those two with new interest, and they will be coming to the next Anaheim Democrats Club meeting October 8, but it’s hard to picture either of them getting more votes than Ashleigh. And no, just because she resigns in October doesn’t mean the second place finisher gets the prize.

Ashleigh will most certainly win the election in November, and then be sworn in at the last December meeting as tradition dictates. And then either resign once more, or humbly, humbly accept this election as FORGIVENESS for her misdeeds, and an invitation back from her WEEKS of exile. She will have really learned a lot at that point!

Nah, if she resigns, it’s the December resignation that means anything. Then, ANAHEIM WILL NEED A MAYOR! This isn’t like when Sidhu resigned in 2022 and there were only five months left till election so Trevor O’Neil was allowed to be “Play Mayor” for a short time. There’ll be a choice to either APPOINT the next Mayor or… wait, NO! Council cannot be allowed to choose who will be Mayor of OC’s biggest city for the next 3 years and 11 months. No way. There will have to be an expensive special election early next year.

Natalie Meeks’ performance last night makes her a suspect for mayoral aspiration. But Anaheim Kremlinologists, of whom there are many, say NO. The powers behind the throne want a “Mexican” – hopefully a “clean” one – that they know they can manipulate. The other Natalie is too unpredictable and polarizing. Anaheim Kremlinologists predict the fix is in for Carlos Leon. I mean look at district 2 right now, his signs are all over even though he’s got nobody running against him. (I, less paranoid, think his vendor was just bugging, “Carlos, I was counting on doing your signs this year,” and Carlos is not good at saying no.)

In any case.. it’s after midnight and I wanted to get this out today… I believe that next year’s special Mayoral election will likely feature the long-awaited Second Coming of Dr. Jose Moreno.

ALSO, keep your eyes open, just in case Ashleigh or her handlers decide to hang on – Keep your eyes and ears open for the ABSOLUTION CHORUS of HOMEGROWN LATINO VENDIDOS, from Congressman Lou Correa all the way down to young Leon – swearing up and down that Ashleigh is and has always been a great friend to the Brown Masses and that it’s really not such a big deal if indeed she sometimes jokes drunkenly about Dirty Mexicans.

Ariel and Penelope get tonight’s Last Word.