Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen knows that if she is to win her campaign for the 34th State Senate District, a purple district, then she will have to somehow convince non-Republican voters to vote for her. Perhaps that is what she had in mind today when she showed up at the 2013 Fiestas Patrias Parade, in Santa Ana, with her family in tow. Her husband, Tom Bonikowski, was the driver in the car they were riding in and Nguyen spent the entire time pumping her fist and screeching “Viva Mexico.” It was embarrassing to watch!
As one might expect Nguyen’s Democratic opponent for the 34th State Senate seat, former Assemblyman Jose Solorio, was there too. But unlike Nguyen, Solorio knew the folks that were there – and he stopped to talk to them.
There were a few more politicians at the event, which celebrates Mexican and Latin American Independence:
Assemblyman Tom Daly (D-Anaheim), was there too, representing the 69th Assembly District. He previously served as the O.C. Clerk-Recorder, leaving a real mess for the current Clerk-Recorder, Hugh Nguyen, to clean up. Daly also previously served as Mayor of Anaheim, where he was notorious for being anti-Latino.
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez ran through the Parade as she usually does, stopping to greet the folks who were there to see the parade. She hollered in Spanish that it was time for to legalize everyone.
There were a few more Republicans there too including SAUSD Trustee Cecilia Iglesias and Assemblyman Don Wagner (pictured above). A banner touted State Senator Mimi Walters too but I did not see her there.
I’ll tell you what really blew my mind. A group of horse riders marched through the parade dressed as Mexican freedom fighters, complete with rifles. It is very sad. The country that gave birth to brave warriors like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata also took away most gun rights from the Mexican population. In 1971, Article 10 of the present Constitution was reformed to limit the right to keep arms within the home only (in Spanish: …derecho a poseer armas en su domicilio…) and reserved the right to bear arms outside the home only to those explicitly authorized by law (i.e. police, military, armed security officers). The following year, the Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives came into force and gave the federal government complete jurisdiction and control to the legal proliferation of firearms in the country; at the same time, heavily limiting and restricting the legal access to firearms by civilians.
You can make a decent argument that the last two Mexican elections were fixed. So yes the country remains free – but not really. When you stop to think about it there really isn’t much to celebrate except for the hope that Mexicans will one day enjoy the freedom and opportunity that we do here in the U.S. Although the current U.S. President and Congress have eroded much of our own liberty over the past dozen years or so.
Click here to see all of the pictures I took at this event.
Very ironic. You took a picture of Daly in front of the tear-down building he talked Nguyen, Bates and Moorlach into buying for $2,100,000 in 2008. And there it sits, useless, almost six years later.
Good catch! Ironic indeed…