In-Your-Face Style Works Against Hermosillo

Xavier Hermosillo is at it again. He’s making people feel uncomfortable with his in-your-face comments about the Latinization of Los Angeles and on anything else that he delivers in his catchy sound bites.

He’s been called a racist by non-Latinos and an apologist for “illegal aliens” by those who want to curb illegal immigration. At any given moment, he relishes the opportunity to skewer liberals--especially Chicanos--by saying their approach to helping the urban poor has been largely ineffectual.

And in the next moment, he brusquely dismisses anyone who questions the sincerity of his views or his outspoken style. “Walk a mile in my shoes before you criticize me,” he says to them.

His is an often-heard voice about how the city should evolve in the wake of last year’s riots. A co-founder of NEWS for America, a Chicano activist group, Hermosillo, 43, is awaiting City Council confirmation to the city Fire Commission. He was an ardent supporter of the new mayor, Richard Riordan, who nominated him to the post. He’s also a news commentator on KCOP Channel 13, bringing his Republican prospective to counterbalance the station’s main commentator, state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Press.

Many were reminded--some say uneasily so--about Hermosillo’s growing stature when he appeared last week on the CBS program “48 Hours,” which added its two cents to the debate about whether L.A. has gone to the dogs. “CBS held him up as the Latino expert in Los Angeles,” remarked one Chicano activist. “Made me want to never watch TV again.”

*

The CBS reporters used Sunset Boulevard as a starting point to talk about L.A. They talked to surfers at the beach, the kids at Hollywood High and the disillusioned about to move away. They talked to Hermosillo in downtown, where Sunset begins its journey to the ocean.

With Olvera Street in the background, Hermosillo gave his perspective on the unmistakable fact that L.A. is 41% Latino and growing. In the segment, he was played off against a group of residents shown at a meeting, where they emotionally complained that illegal immigrants are changing--and ruining--a city they love.

Hermosillo said that Latinos have a historical and cultural standing here, dating back to L.A.’s birth in 1781. “We are not all refugees,” he said on the program. “We are not all illegal immigrants.”

Then he gave it one of his trademark one-liners. The problems plaguing L.A. would still be here, he said, if spaceships came and “sucked up all the illegal immigrants.”

Asked about the growing Latino presence, he reminded viewers that L.A. once belonged to Mexico. Then came another one of his body blows. “We are taking (the city) house by house . . . block by block.” His advice: “Better wake up and smell the refried beans.”

Hermosillo, knowing that his comments infuriate black leaders as well as some Latino elected officials, says he is not a racist. “I’m a realist,” he insists.

Hermosillo talked for 4 1/2 hours in front of the “48 Hours” cameras but only a tiny portion of his remarks were aired. Nevertheless, in the minds of some Latinos around town, those comments were plenty unsettling.

They said some other Latino leader or elected official, someone like L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina or Chicano activist and businessman Joe Sanchez, would have been better suited for the program.

Roberto Lovato, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center, said Hermosillo’s conservative views don’t represent mainstream thinking among many Latino activists and officeholders in Los Angeles.

“What he says may be sexy for certain people, but his positions represent a minority view,” Lovato said.

An immigrants rights advocate in East L.A. added: “I think you get your point across without saying that you’re taking over L.A. house by house.”

*

I had the same reaction when I saw the program but I wasn’t surprised. After all, I’ve known Hermosillo since his days in the early 1970s, when he was a reporter in San Pedro, covering the cops.

When I raised the concerns that his style is more destructive than helpful, my old friend growled. He said he’s just trying to create a better city for all Latinos, including his own kids, to live in.

Fair enough, but maybe Hermosillo ought to tone down his style and rhetoric. In multiethnic L.A., his choice of words didn’t really explain Latino L.A. to the nation, much less to ourselves.