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Inside a packed Women’s March Action hub in Boyle Heights, civil rights and labor activist Dolores Huerta summoned Eastside residents from their seats, and in unison, chanted – “Whose got the power? We’ve got the power!” – a rallying call in support of Ysabel Jurado, the tenant rights attorney seeking to unseat L.A. City Councilman Kevin de León.
In turn, Jurado declared, “Isang Bagsak!,” a phrase in Tagalog, meaning ‘one down, one fall,’ that united Filipino and Latinos in the farmworker movement during the ‘60s.
It was mid-August and Jurado – the daughter of Filipino immigrants – was in the neighborhood to launch volunteer canvassing for her bid to represent the 14th District, which encompasses downtown, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Eagle Rock and El Sereno. L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis and L.A. Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez were also by her side, along with tenant rights organizer Eva Garcia who decried the corruption and scandals that have plagued the Eastside district in recent years.
“We have a group of chingonas here,” said Garcia, of Community Power Collective, from the stage. “Ysabel will win because women are in power! We have a woman as mayor [Karen Bass] who I hope doesn’t fail us. Mexico has a woman as president. Now, the 14th District needs a female council member, and that will be Ysabel Jurado.”
With Election Day just weeks away, Boyle Heights has played a central role in Jurado’s campaign as she makes a case for change in a district that struggles with housing affordability and homelessness, amid continued calls for accountability after De León was caught in an audio leak featuring racist and insensitive remarks.
READ MORE: Get to know the candidates for L.A. City Council District 14
Jurado – who has secured endorsements from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – has earned the support of prominent leaders like Carlos Montes, a fixture of the 1968 Walkouts, who co-founded the Brown Berets in East L.A. She boasts the support of First Street businesses like Distrito Catorce and Street Tacos and Grill, highlighting the need to preserve small businesses catering to the community. She has jogged with Boyle Heights Bridge runners, calling attention to the lack of street lighting during their weekly night runs.
And, in late September, Jurado shared the stage with East L.A. Chicano band Las Cafeteras at Eastside Luv Wine Bar for a night celebrating her campaign.
Photo by Andrew Lopez.
“We’re coming out tonight to make sure that we elect the first Filipina on the City Council,” Las Cafeteras vocalist Hector Flores told the crowd. “That we elect somebody right here from the hood for the hood ‘cuz it’s been a long time coming.”
If elected, Jurado – who is queer and was raised in Highland Park – will be the first person of Filipino descent on the council, as well as the first woman to represent the Eastside district.
Her presence would mark a shift in a district represented by male Latino leadership since Richard Alatorre won the seat in 1985.
A single mom, Jurado has publicly spoken about moving back home with her dad after law school and seeing neighbors and businesses pushed out of Highland Park due to skyrocketing rents. Jurado overcame an initial sense of shame of living in her childhood home with her daughter, realizing, “I really love this place. I don’t want it to change in ways that would hurt my community.”
So, she decided to run for City Council.
In Boyle Heights, Jurado hears stories of people struggling to pay rent and of multigenerational families living in single households. Average rent for a house or studio in Boyle Heights ranges from $1,610 to $4,300 a month, according to Zillow. That’s in a neighborhood where the average median household income is $45,894 as of 2020, according to a report commissioned by the city.
Addressing housing affordability would require approaching development differently, Jurado told Boyle Heights Beat. Jurado supports decommodified housing – meaning housing no longer sold for profit on the private market – and advocates for community and tenant-owned models to ensure affordability. She envisions pushing for opportunities that would allow residents or community organizations, “the right of first offer for the building,” Jurado said, “so that we can keep the community at the forefront of these development conversations.”
Photo by Andrew Lopez.
Jurado lauds residents and activists who have fought against gentrification in Boyle Heights. “We know the history of resilience and we’re not just trying to parachute in here,” she said of her campaign.
She may not speak fluent Spanish, but Jurado said cultural similarities between Filipinos and Latinos, “the strong women, collectivism, and our love of food, dancing and singing,” have helped foster connection. Jurado showcased her Spanish in her closing remarks at the recent debate at Dolores Mission Catholic Church, where De León mostly responded to questions in Spanish. “The community here in Boyle Heights, especially the women, have welcomed me with open arms and have fought this battle with me,” she said in Spanish.
While a woman has never been elected to L.A. City Council’s 14th District, Boyle Heights has seen female representation through other state, congressional and county elected positions.
Currently, Solis represents a majority of the Eastside at the county level as supervisor, a role previously held by Gloria Molina. At the state level, Sen. Maria Elena Durazo oversees Boyle Heights among other L.A. neighborhoods and Lucille Roybal-Allard and Grace Napolitano previously held the congressional role of Rep. Jimmy Gomez.
In fact, women are more likely to be elected in Latino-dominant districts when looking at the totality of elected officials in L.A. County and California, said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, adding that 10 of the 12 Latinos in the California senate are women.
More Latino districts have elected non-Latinos than other ethnic districts, Guerra said, noting how Latinos in 2000 helped elect Jackie Goldberg – a white LGBTQ woman – to represent them in the state Assembly immediately after Antonio Villaraigosa held that seat. And, along with Black and Asian Angelenos, Latinos – with an estimated 51% of the vote – helped elect Bass, who is Black, as the city’s first female mayor, according to a UCLA analysis.
“Latino voters are the most inclusive voters in the city of Los Angeles,” said Guerra, who sees support for Jurado as “almost post-racial.” It’s about public policy, he said.
Guerra said Boyle Heights residents are willing to support somebody based on policy and not race or gender. “It’s the Latino community that’s leading that effort. Instead of always pigeonholing Latinos as being ethnic-based voters, they have shown over and over that they are the most inclusive, willing to vote for anybody, and most policy-driven individuals willing to vote for Ysabel because of a position on rent control.”
Ana Zarceno, 66, has lived in Boyle Heights since immigrating from Mexico City nearly 40 years ago. The mother of three grown children who lives in public housing said she hears of residents facing unjust rents and evictions.
“There are so many people who need accessible housing to continue living as people, as we should be, instead of having to live in the streets with their children,” Zarceno said.
Zarceno voted for the first time in 2020, soon after becoming a U.S. citizen. This election, she plans to vote for Jurado.
“Ysabel is a woman who has fought because she is a single mother. A lot of women who live here are single mothers who need a lot of strength to keep fighting for their families,” said Zarceno.
For Jose Vidrio, 33, gentrification on the Eastside is a top concern. Vidrio, who recently moved to Boyle Heights, thinks of the evolution of ice cream shops in Highland Park, where he grew up. Afters Ice Cream, an “Instagrammable second-wave shop,” held its Highland Park grand opening in 2019. Now, there’s the higher-end Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, where one scoop will cost you more than $7.
He fears this will happen in Boyle Heights if Latino-owned businesses aren’t valued and protected.
“Gentrification is a ladder,” he said. “The old gentrifiers are getting eaten up, and people don’t realize that.”
Vidrio finds Jurado more accessible than De León, seeing her or campaign members at neighborhood council meetings and other events.
He said De León comes off as pandering and insincere in how he engages with residents and brings up the councilman showing up in a charro outfit at the East L.A. Mexican Independence Day Parade or riding a lowrider bike at the opening of the 6th Street Bridge as examples. To Vidrio, De León represents “an old era of L.A. politicians,” along with former councilmen Gil Cedillo and Jose Huizar, the latter who just began a 13-year prison sentence for tax evasion and accepting bribes from downtown developers.
Jurado “is like one of us,” Vidrio said. “She’s a woman. She’s brown. She’s a tenant lawyer [and understands] what’s actually happening here in Boyle Heights,” said Vidrio, after finishing a run with Boyle Heights Bridge runners on a recent Wednesday night.
