Guest Editorial by Wendy Carrillo My name is Wendy Carrillo, and I’m running for Congress in the upcoming Special Election being held today, on April 4 (yes, that race with 23 candidates running—and a write-in). The people of our community have a tough choice thas they make their way to the polls. There are a number of qualified candidates in the race. Many are young, progressive women, and people of color. I’m proud to be in the field alongside so many qualified candidates. And it is my hope that the voters of U.S. District 34 will make their vote count. My story is the story of millions who are seeking the American Dream. I was born in El Salvador and I came to the US during the civil war when I was five years old. I am an unrecognized refugee, and, like many children who fled violence and continue to flee as unaccompanied minors, I was undocumented. My new life began in the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and City Terrace. I was fortunate to have a pathway to residency and ...

Left - right: Jimmy Gómez, Wendy Carrillo, María Cabildo and Arturo Carmona By Abel Salas With the appointment of former Congressman Xavier Becerra to a post as the California State Attorney General, the seat he leaves vacant has drawn a crowded field of congressional contenders. A contest in which no clear front-runner has emerged from among the 23 Washington D.C. hopefuls seeking to replace Becerra in the 34th U.S. Congressional District, the race is as much about redefining the soul of Latino leadership in Los Angeles as it is about effective fundraising and the community-building required to generate enough ground-level campaign momentum between now and the April 4th special primary election. The top two primary candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will appear on the ballot in the general election on June 6th, 2017. In what might be best described as a densely populated political fray, the 23 candidates represent a broad swath of experience, leadership styles and ...

by María Cabildo Today’s patriots make self-deprecating jokes about their height and use sports analogies to describe the depths of the foreclosure crisis and the devastation it has caused across the country. Others have floppy salt and pepper hair that rivals my fourteen-year-old son’s worst bed head.  These patriots work at the White House, 2,700 miles away from us. Their names are not household names, but the policies they fight (in less partisan times I would have said ‘work’) to implement and to block have everything to do with our future as a nation. There was no compassion deficit in evidence when I, along with housing advocates from across the country, met with and heard from the President’s economic team, I felt reassured that their hearts and our hearts were in the same place. I came away knowing that the compassion deficit in Washington, ...