The Binge Cases: U R NEXT - The Sellout | 2. Gentrification is Warfare

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

A militant organization called Defend Boyle Heights protests encroaching gentrification, by any means necessary. We dig into two origin stories: how Huizar emigrated at the age of 4 and ended up at Berkeley and Princeton, and how Boyle Heights has had a history of resistance and displacement. A Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment production. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, I want to tell you a story, all right? A couple years ago I was with my friend on my way home, and we were driving through Bow Heights. We tried to cut across the small street to avoid traffic, but then we saw the street was blocked off by a group of people, so we parked and got out. I walked up, and I saw this crowd forming a semicircle in front of this art gallery.

This building looked totally out of place on the street. It's boxy and bright white, and it's got these little mini cacti growing up. front. And that part of the neighborhood is super industrial. The street is cracked with potholes, but this art gallery looks like something you'd see in Santa Monica, which is the richer part of LA that's right by the beach. Anyways, that night, the group of working class folks are outside this fancy gallery. They have a bullhorn and they're confronting the gallery owners and customers. Sometimes it feels like a

neighborhood changes around you before anyone has a chance to speak up. But not in in Bull Hypes. No one is an innocent actor in the fine art of gentrification. This is actually Nancy Messa again, the organizer from this neighborhood. Speaking at this protest, she's saying no one is an innocent actor in the fine art of gentrification. I didn't know her at the time. I didn't even realize she'd spoken at this protest until we found this video. But when I watched it, I got chills.

Other people were stepping up to speak too, sharing how gentrification was directly affecting them and how the gallery owners and patrons were complicit. I remember there was a young father there talking about how he couldn't afford to buy food for his kids and pay rent. There was another woman talking about how she was struggling to afford groceries. It's not easy to admit you can't afford to live where you're from anymore. I thought it was really moving, but it didn't seem like the patrons or the gallery owner did. A few people whispered to each other as they passed by, calling the protest performance art.

Nancy Mesa called them out. This is not performance. This is our neighborhood. This is our reality. Our survival. You said, oh my God, but I've worked so hard for my gallery. We've worked so hard for our community.

And right now, your white privilege is showing. We are smart, motherfuckin' people in here. And we are angry. And we have all the skills and knowledge to fucking bring up this gallery. Okay?

We're not going anywhere. And what's the... If y'all want to listen to the community, respect this. This isn't a spectacle. This is a reality. And your gallery coming here is part of a larger vision of gentrification. So no one is an innocent actor. So Nancy's an organizer in Bull Heights. Fast talker who's brilliant and incisive and would often apologize for some reason after making an especially mind's blowing point. I don't know what's going to edit this. I'm sorry. I apologize in events.

She came to our Zoom interview wearing a T-shirt, black shirt, white lettering that said, gentrification is warfare. It's literal war against poor people. It's literal war against working class people, against immigrants. Okay, so remember Hollenbeck Park? There's a reason Nancy wanted to tell that story. And it really was kind of like, I like to tell everyone, it really was kind of like the birth story of Defend Bowl Heights. In the months after the Hollenbeck Park Showdown, Tensions over Gentrification,

in Bowell Heights reached a bowling point. Organizers started taking militant, targeted stands against any sign of gentrification in the neighborhood. A coalition formed between a bunch of different neighborhood groups. And Defend Bull Heights was born. A group known as Defend Boyle Heights. Defend Boil Heights. The local activists and community groups are protesting the gentrification.

Carrying signs saying, keep Beverly Hills out of Boyle Heights, and gentrification is violence. The end result is a racist process of displacement. Folks in Boyle Heights have had to have had to be. Boyle Heights have had enough. There are economic consequences to your presence, so you need to get the f*** out of here. Stories that are popping up in the news, a real estate bike tour of Bull Heights's promising

artisanal treats is canceled after an uproar from the community. A hip new cafe's front window is shattered by a slingshot. The militancy of Defend Bull Heights was controversial, even within the neighborhood. Some people thought it went too far, that it wasn't the right way to protest gentrification. But Nancy and other organizers had a very specific plan, and they followed it. They zeroed in on one thing in particular, art, specifically white art, like that mobile opera hopscotch, or any of the dozen of galleries that were suddenly popping up in the neighborhood. Here's Nancy again.

When Nicodine Gallery was tagged by a local hero, we don't know who they are, but we support their actions, where, you know, fuck white art was tagged on the front. And that actually resulted in the gallery owners working with LAPD. So they reported it as a hate crime and defend Boll Heights. I think until this day is being investigated as a hate group because of that action. The organizers saw the specter of white art creeping across the river from the rapidly gentrifying arts district. And they shut it down. I would say like it is no coincidence that Boll Heights has led one of the biggest fights against gentrification, right?

It really is kind of in the air. resistance is in the air and we kind of have this legacy to maintain in the hood, right, of like a place that is extremely political and that takes a stand. So this was 2016, a year before Arturo gets that letter on his door telling him his rent was going to almost double. At this point, a lot of people in Bull Heights still trusted Wiesad. They felt like he was a politician who wouldn't let them get displaced. But Nancy was skeptical, even then. So we had homies, you know, friends. who were displaced from Echo Park specifically,

and Highland Park specifically, just tell us with such urgency, like, hey, y'all, like these gentrifiers, these politicians, they're going to make it seem like, you know, things are going to benefit you, like they're on your side, but they're basically just trying to do anything they can to just buy the property and kick you out. One of the biggest regrets we have here in our neighborhood is that we didn't fight back strong enough, early enough.

But what we're able to get from them is just, like, the analysis of how fast this thing happened. So when we saw a brewery, it's like, whoa, okay, we need to stop it now. The movement against gentrification in Bull Heights was born from years of folks having to stand up for themselves and take care of one another. We're a very politicized community. We come from struggle and resistance, and it's not just a metaphor. Bull Heights, East L.A., southeast L.A., they've got this long history of resistance and activism. We said and knew that.

He grew up steeped in it. But ultimately, we sad sided with the gallery owners. He came out publicly against Defend Boyle Heights. And behind closed doors, he was already siding with developers, too. People just didn't know that yet. From Neonham Media and LA Taco, this is smokescreen. The Sellout. A podcast about a politician dogged by allegations of corruption, harassment, and pathological, pettiness.

It's about the residents who fought gentrification, even as in neighborhoods were auctioned off to highest bidder. I'm Mara Cassiniella. This time we're going to dig into two origin stories, Jose Wiesad, and the neighborhood that raised him. Episode two, gentrification is warfare. Want more true crime? Subscribe to the binge to get all episodes of My Mother's Lies, add free today, and get instant access to over 50 other jaw-dropping true crime stories. Plus, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series on the first of every month, every month. Search for TheBinge channel on Apple Podcasts or head to getthebinge.com to subscribe today. The Binge, feed your true crime obsession.

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From Binge All Episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Let's start at the beginning. I'm just our local neighborhood historian. So this is Schmole Gonzalez. Schmole's the founder of the Bull Heights History Studios and tours. He's an encyclopedia of knowledge about Boyle Heights, and he's so passionate about it. Sometimes he shimmies his shoulders when he's talking about some specific piece of the neighborhood's history. My family has been members of this community for six generations, and moving into this neighborhood in 1896.

And so my family's always been storytellers of the area. So, Boyle Heights is one of L.A.'s oldest neighborhoods outside downtown. And it actually started out as this kind of ritzy white neighborhood in the early 1900s. But then, over the years, it changes. First, it's a working-class Jewish community. And then, like in cities all over the United States in the early 20th century, red lining and housing segregation pushes all people of color out into the margins, like Boyle Heights. People who are not white Anglo-Saxon Protestant are designated to basically two places, south of Adams, creating South central Los Angeles and east of the Los Angeles River, creating East Los Angeles as we know it.

In this community we had at one time over 132 languages spoken within this community because everyone who did not fit into the average white Anglo-Saxon Protestant's, you know, kind of norm was just kind of designated that you could only rent by and reside in these areas. The Boyle Heights story is one of an immigrant story generationally to this day. A lot of Mexican workers who had industrial jobs in Vernon end up moving into the residential neighborhood right on the other side of the tracks, Boyle Heights. And so they have, from the very beginning, the Mexican families that are working class and live in the southern parts of Boyle Heights

have always been directly affected by some of the pollution that's been going on. So, Foyle Heights diversifies. And Schmole says that's what made it into this kind of incubator for political resistance movements. A lot of organizing happened there, organizing that went on to become famous and influential. The United Strike could be a spark that has set up a movement among farm workers to organize and to park. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Weltza, who also were presidents of this organization right here. just a couple doors down from me. So it's very interesting that, believe it or not,

the very foundations of things like United Farm Workers, which is considered still the gold standard, of radical kind of organizing for working class people in the field, was started out of, you know, this community service organization, which is like the Mexican NAACP, and of course funded by the Jewish community. So the history of Bull Heights is resistance. But Schmull says it's also displacement, like a lot of working class black and brown neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

So all of our families have the stories of generationally being displaced. My own family, Hempstead, okay, from way back in the day and everything, it was demolished to make way for the five freeway. If you live in Paul Heights, you literally can't live more than a mile and a half from a freeway. East Los Angeles is carved up by them, sectioned off like pieces of a puzzle. There are four different freeways forming a kind of square around Bull Heights. When they were built back in the 50s and 60s,

they were built straight through people's homes, like Schmole's family. Then the next family house was lost to the 60 freeway. So what happens is that my story growing up, and you would only imagine living here in the east side, when I first had to go to downtown another place, when we would go pass through here, right before we would get to the 6th Street Bridge,

what happens is that right after we'd get over coming back, my mom would point to the area where our neighborhood used to be, and she would point to it. That's where grandma's house used to be. That's where our house used to be. And just we're jettisoned into a freeway. So fast forward to the early 70s. More than 20,000 Chicano anti-war activists

marched the East L.A. mass protest, the Chicano moratorium. Watergate is happening. The Lakers won a big championship. And little four-year-old Jose Wiesad moves from Zaka Thakas to Boyle Heights. His father is a baracero. He works in the fields. And his mother is a meat packing plant worker. Here's a speech Weissad gave at Princeton, one of his alma maters. I moved from Mexico, where I just say my parents brought me from Mexico in the early 1970s. and we settled in Boa Heights. My father actually came to America as a migrant farm worker

under the Bracetto program. A federal program started in World War II to import temporary contract labor from Mexico. My father decided he wanted to stay. So when he had the opportunity, he did. He wanted the American dream. The work I do, I try not to forget what it meant to struggle. And here, he's talking about growing up in Bull Heights

in the 70s and 80s, It's from an interview with WeSAD posted online. I try not to forget what it meant, not having much money for basic life necessities, for education. I try not to forget how easily it was to join gangs when I was growing up, how easy it was to get into a life of crime, how easy it would have been to get involved in things

that would have had a native long-lasting effect on our lives. There's this thing you can't help thinking about, when you learn about young Wiesad, before he became a public figure. When did Wiesad become the kind of person who could do what he did? Was it all an act? Was he ever genuine? And if he was, when did he stop? So Wiesad ends up going to a Catholic school in the neighborhood, Bishop Mora Silesian High School. Silesian is known for being a good school. On its website, they say their mission is love with abundance, teach with passion, and inspire with imagination. And Wiesad does well as Silesian. He seems well liked. Other kids mention him in the memory section of their senior yearbook

dedication. There's a very 80s picture of him, a red bow tie, tuxedo, full head of hair. In a section where they all write something about their time at the school, Wissad says, I, Jose Wissad, leave Silesian, realizing that I've spent the last. four years here thanking the teachers who pushed me when I needed it. Thanks mom for being there. He's on the school newspaper and student government, which seems like a bit of a conflict of interest, but you know, high school. And to thank you for allowing me to mentor you as a Salesian. This is from a speech one of the Salesian priests gave about Wiesad, a couple years after he was first elected to city council. Warning, he's as stern as you might expect. And for all the

times that, yes, I brought you your favorite meal from Jack in the Box. Well, this isn't Jack in the Box tonight. This is something better. Enjoy yourself. We Sad graduates, and he goes to UC Berkeley for undergrad, which is a great school. And he does well there too. He's in student government. He's acting just like he might expect an ambitious kid from Bull Heights to act. Driven, progressive, outspoken. One article from the Daily Californian, Berkeley's student has Weissad saying, quote, The government knows that students are the springboard for any social movement. There are stories about Weissad opposing development at People's Park,

which is the focal point of Berkeley student movement in the 60s. He's opposing tuition increases. He's calling out Berkeley faculty for being too white and two male. He seems to be fighting for progressive causes, and it seems like he really believes in them. The newspaper's endorsement of Weissad calls. calls him a quote, strong, relentless advocate. We think Jose Wiesad will remain true to his convictions. Weissad ends up going to Princeton for grad school,

which for an immigrant kid from Boyle Heights just felt like a huge deal. It's very inspiring, especially coming from the neighborhood. This is Raquel Samora, who's lived in Boyle Heights since she was a kid. She's an educator whose family owns this iconic takaria called Samora Brothers. It's so, so hard to overcome so many barriers and make it to college. And so his story of his educational journey was very inspiring. I just was like, wow, someone from the neighborhood was able to attend all these amazing schools. After Princeton, we sad just keeps rising.

He goes to UCLA for law school, where he meets his wife, Rochelle Rios. We Saad marries Rochelle in 1999. Two years later, We Saad is elected to Los Angeles Unified School Board. Here's Raquel again. While he was on the school board, it was just like all these ribbon cuttings, like I said, for new schools and new developments. And I think that that's what set him up very well for a council seat because he had done such a good job in the school. board. So spoiler, Wysad is about to run for city council.

After the break, he steps into a long and storied history of politicians who do some questionable things while they're representing CD-14. I used to live in Weezard's District, and I have seen that district change so much, even just over the course of the last 10 years. This is Scott Frazier. Scott's kind of like an encyclopedia for LA politics. past and present. When you ask him a question, you can almost hear the Rolodex flipping in his head as he tracks down the exact right piece of information. He's a co-host of L.A. podcast, this really popular show about Los Angeles politics. CD-14 has had, yes, I would say that is right. It has had an above-average share of council members leaving under, you know, clouds or suspicion of wrongdoing.

Okay, first on our list, Richard Aladore. Elected in 1985, he's this well-respected guy, a former state assemblyman. But some personal issues come up while he's in office. I'm just going to read you in LA Times headline from September 1998. Judge says test shows Aladora is using cocaine. It's a whole thing. Aladora ends up going to rehab. So Aladora's out.

doesn't run for a final term. And that's when Nick Pacheco gets elected. Here's Pacheco. I don't want to say anything negative about Richard at Torre today, but at the time, because he was distracted with the issues in his life, the district fell apart. And so my first priority was to get the district back in order.

OK, there are a couple scandals that come up while Pacheco was in office. I'm just going to tell you about one. So Antonio Villarraigosa was this very charismatic politician who lived in CD-14. Pacheco's district. Villarigosa had run for mayor, lost, and it seemed like he might be eyeing Pacheco's seat.

And then the strange thing happened. The boundaries of the city council districts were redrawn, and all of a sudden, Villarigosa said he found out that he didn't live in CD14. Most of his neighborhood was still in the district, but not the block he lived on. By the way, you have to live in a district to run to represent it. For the record, Pacheco said this was a coincidence. For some reason, he kept telling people that I did that. I didn't do that.

District writers did that. And so he got a lot of sympathy for that. But if Pacheco was worried about Villarigosa running to take a seat, he'd be right. That's exactly what happened. Villarigosa moved into CD14 and ran. Scott Frazier again. Pacheco lost to Antonio Villargoza, who was just a political force in the early 2000s. And then, just two years into his term, Via Rigosa did what a lot of people suspected he would.

And Villarigosa didn't finish his term because he ended up getting swept into the mayor's office shortly thereafter. So CD14 is once again up for grabs. Pacheco's like, I want my seat back. But there's a young, new hotshot who's also running. We sad. Here's Pacheco. So he made himself available. You know, school board president, very, you know, very, you know, very, you know, very, you know,

viable candidate. So that's what ended up giving him into the race. Now, when we're walking that day door to the door to get votes on the day of election, the primary election, I bumped into Jose in the projects in the straw courts. And we were talking briefly, you know, because we're both working. And we both for sure thought we were going to be a runoff. But no, man, he kicked my butt. Besad wins. And again, it feels huge. It feels like CD14 is finally going to be represented by someone who really cares about its residents, someone they can trust, like it's finally gonna emerge from decades of questionable local politicians. City Councilman Jose Wiesar's supporters were dancing in their seats as the early election return numbers were rolling in.

The councilman arrived at his election-like party in a high school gymnasium, cheering what appears to be his victory tonight in the city council race. To be given the opportunity growing up here in Bowen Heights, to now be able to serve in city council, that's what drives me, that's what motivates me. When he ran for office, he actually had a lot of community support, right? The narrative that was being spent around him was kind of as this, like, our new Latino senior, right? I was so happy to hear that we were getting our first Mexican city council member. And I thought that was huge.

It's still 10 years before the birth to defend Bull Heights, when everything set up blowing up. When the fight over the future of Boyle Heights became this real concrete battle happening in the streets of the neighborhood. But by the time the fight came to the streets, some developers had actually been eyeing Bull Heights for a decade or more. They were looking at one historic apartment complex in particular, home to thousands of residents in Bull Heights, Wyvernwood. Boyle Heights will be made or Boyle Heights will be broken on the fate of Weinvernwood, I believe. That's next time on the sellout. The sellout is produced by Nihonha Media and L.A. Taco. I'm your host, Mariah Castaneda.

My co-reportors are Lexus, Olivier Ray, and Carla Green. Carla Green is our lead producer, and she wrote the episodes. Our editor is Catherine St. Louis. Rickram Patel is our consulting editor. Associate editor is Stephanie Serrano. Associate producer is Liz Sanchez. Our executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. Samantha Allison is our production manager.

Fact checker is Sarah Ivory. Our sound designer is Hans Dale Sue. Eduardo Arenas made our theme music. Other original music by Moni Mendoza. Special thanks to Eric Alindo, Javier Cabral, Tanner Robbins, Haley Fager, Natalie Rinn, Adrian Riskin, Sharra Morris, Navani Otero, Janet Villafana, Vanessa and Jorge Cassignada, and Ivan Fernandez.

If you want to know more about what you've heard on the show so far, head over to laitaco.com to see a beautiful map of some of the places we talk about made by Tommy Gallegos, as well as new reporting and interviews. Thanks for listening. See you next week.