Latinos still face electoral hurdles in California

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press
The Scaramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013 – 6:00 am

ESCONDIDO, Calif. — Aging apartment buildings and small, closely spaced houses line streets near the center of town where Escondido’s Hispanic population is concentrated. Whites have long since moved to the outskirts, where upscale subdivisions and wide, well-paved streets have replaced avocado and orange groves.

These streets might be the city’s showpiece in other places, but not here. It’s called the “doughnut hole,” defined by the absence of something. For the Hispanics who live there and comprise nearly half of the city’s 148,000 residents, what’s missing is political clout.

As Latinos surpass whites as California’s largest racial or ethnic group early next year, more are getting elected to public office, including the mayors of Los Angeles and Sacramento, members of Congress, lieutenant governors and leaders of the state Legislature.

Not so in Escondido — Spanish for “Hidden.” It is among a smattering of cities with large Latino populations that have eluded their grasp.

The north San Diego suburb elected its first Hispanic to its City Council in its 125-year history in 2008, not counting a one-term member in the 1990s, Elmer Cameron, who played down his Mexican ancestry. Councilwoman Olga Diaz, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who learned English as a second language, is running for mayor next year in the first elections with district, instead of at-large, voting to the council.