Tony Castro

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<p>California’s oldest Latino political organization has likely made its last hurrah without even a celebration, having become a victim of its own success and the misfortune of its longtime state president.</p>
<p>The more than half-century-old Mexican American Political Association used to be one of the endorsements all California politicians wanted, so much so that at the height of his political power Jerry Brown — in his first incarnation as governor and with eyes on the White House — told a MAPA state convention:</p>

Commentary:
By Tony Castro

Antonio Villaraigosa’s great expectations of his political career were to become another story of the American Dream, but could it be that instead his life has collapsed into an American Tragedy of Shakespearian proportions?

For how does a rising political star so beloved just a few years ago, when Los Angeles voters made history by electing him the city’s first Latino mayor, fall so far so quickly that his last hurrah may already be behind him?

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<p>It’s a grand slam for Dia de los Muertos this year as the Day of the Dead celebration spills into the weekend with All Hallow’s Eve on Thursday, All Saints Day on Friday and All Souls Day on Saturday.</p>
<p>It is the annual Mexican holiday period, dating back thousands of years to pre-hispanic civilizations, where the living remember the dead, with Death becoming whimsical.</p>