Commentary: What Becerra's historic win says about Latino political power in California

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Set us as preferred Mike Madrid was prepping to interview Xavier Becerra on Olvera Street last month when the immensity of the moment hit him.That morning, Becerra held a rally for his gubernatorial campaign in the birthplace of Los Angeles alongside California assembly speaker Robert Rivas and the leader of the state senate, Monique Limón, that doubled as a referendum on where Latinos stood politically.Never before have Latinos occupied the top spots in both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion simultaneously, Rivas told the cheering crowd.

Becerra reminded the audience that the moment was fraught for Latinos, though.Federal agents were still detaining undocumented immigrants across the state, and Latino residents — the state’s largest ethnic group at 41% — were suffering under the crushing cost of food, gas and housing.

“[Latinos] are here, we are present and we will fight,” Becerra said.“But right now, our fight is to get the vote out, to make sure everyone understands that our power lies in our vote.”Madrid, a longtime political commentator and strategist, had set up his recording equipment at the Pico House, formerly a historic hotel named after the last Mexican governor of California.

He recalled how Pio Pico, who helped found the California Republican Party but ended up dying destitute, opened the structure in 1870 as a testament to what Latinos had contributed to their state.But they would eventually be seen as a relic of the bygone days when Mexicans ruled — days that gringos imagined would never return.The symbolism of a Becerra victory would be “kind of a big deal,” Madrid said, representing a back to the future opportunity for an ethnic group that ruled California until the United States won the Mexican-American War, then was relegated to political irrelevance for over a ...