Well, that image is now gone, and the Gaucho—a problematical South American cowboy, not an image on a Frito corn chip bag—is likely not far behind.
I've been looking through old articles, and I came upon one of the controversies that Ronald Caspers—an OC Supervisor back in the early 70s—generated in his curious career (that ended mysteriously, in 1974, along with nine others, with the sinking of a boat, wreckage of which was never found).
You'll recall that Tom Fuentes, a powerful trustee in our district from 2000 until his death in 2012, got his start in politics (c. 1969) as Caspers' campaign manager and then executive assistant.
It was all kind of hinky. Alluding to those early days. some of Tom's opponents referred to him as Caspers' "bagman."
Caspers is interesting because of his relationship to corruption (his death prevented his ever being taken to account) and to then new-fangled campaign techniques that later became routine—using computers to assemble mailing lists, lying boldly and repeatedly about one's opponent, stunning ruthlessness in general.
And he sure wasn't politically correct. He was pretty bad. As you'll see, when he did what he did, he got little support from his colleagues on the board, though they were no prizes either.
Evidently, during a dispute with a government worker organization—the members of which were Mexican-American—he was inspired to call them "banditos" or "bandidos," implying that they had taken something that was not theirs.
BANDITOS!? The shit hit the fan.
Here are some of the relevant articles from the time, late 1972 (I was in high school; you?):
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| Times editorial |
As far as the Times was concerned, that was the end of the matter.
6 comments:
Yes, the Gaucho is almost gone. Finally. This post reminded me of people's years long efforts to get Gustavo Arellano as the IVC commencement speaker and Glenn's persistent rejection of it - and Dianne Oaks' complicity. She once famously refused to forward the committee's nomination of Arellano to Glenn even though the committee reminded her that Glenn could always - as he had done - reject it himself. Very undemocratic. Diane said she wanted to save Glenn from that insult she said or something like that. She was offended at Arellano's coverage of the pedophile priest scandal at the OC diocese, especially his investigative reporting into Tom Fuentes culpability. You should have seen how she and others spoke about him! Not quite bandito but close. Not outraged by people like Fuentes who protected child abusers but by an investigative reporter who wrote about it. Arellano has a great column in today's LA Times about Trump. He also wrote about the Guacho when he was at the OC Weekly.
Good riddance to the Gaucho! Heres' the webpage:
https://retirethegaucho.weebly.com/
The Saddleback image was and is offensive. Some of my students commented to me about it as an insensitive affront to the notion of democracy. Why did some whites want this country to themselves? And do remember that, at one of the Senate hearing after the Indian wars of the 1880s, a Senator asked a Chief "what did you call this country before the Europeans came?"The chief said--"Ours."
It's hard for people to let go of old ideas and ideals. It's hard for them to admit they were wrong or that something once acceptable is no longer. Instead they get mad at the people asking them to be better, the ones given them an opportunity to grow. Plus they never look in your eyes and apologize. I don't know how they live with themselves except perhaps by not thinking too much. Glenn used to assign people to read this blog and report to him. They are still with us.
They don't apologize because they don't care. They don't think they've done anything wrong. They will serve good people as well as bad. They are amoral survivors.
Good points. Thanks for everyone weighing in.
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