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Speaker 1: Hey, Latino USA listener, here's a show from our archives. Also,

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Speaker 1: you might hear a little stronger language than usual here,

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Speaker 1: so just giving you fair warning from Futuro Media and PRX.

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Speaker 1: It's Latino USA. I'm Mariao Rosa. Today we go back

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Speaker 1: to what might be the first shot in our modern

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Speaker 1: day political battles over immigration. We have something special for

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Speaker 1: you today, a reporting collaboration between Latino USA and the

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles Times. This episode is called the Battle of

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Speaker 1: one eighty seven, and without saying anymore, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: turn it over now for the entire episode to La

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Speaker 1: Times columnist and longtime friend of Latino USA, Gustavo Ariano.

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Speaker 1: All right, Gustavo, take it away.

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Speaker 2: Some people call them illegal immigrants. Others use the words

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Speaker 2: undocumented aliens. Americans have all sorts of names, nice and not.

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Speaker 2: For the eleven million or so people in the United

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Speaker 2: States who are not legal residents, I have a different

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Speaker 2: name for them. Friends, family, people I grew up with,

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Speaker 2: and my dad mevine eduna, cacuela, una camionetta, venianus, tres persolas.

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Speaker 2: That's him, Lorenzo Ariano. He's telling me about the first

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Speaker 2: time he crossed the border in nineteen sixty eight to

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Speaker 2: come to the US jammed in the trunk of a Chevy.

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Speaker 2: So being a so called illegal immigrant was never a

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Speaker 2: big deal to me. In fact, I didn't even know

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Speaker 2: people hated them until I was sophomore in high school

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Speaker 2: when something happened that I'll never forget. It's October nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety four. I'm fifteen years old outside Anaheim High School.

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Speaker 2: Go Colonists and the school days done. So I'm walking

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Speaker 2: home and out of nowhere, some white boys yell at

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Speaker 2: me from a truck. At first, I don't know what

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Speaker 2: they're saying. Then I make it out they're shouting one

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Speaker 2: eighty seven, one eighty seven, And I looked at them

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, huh, Like I just didn't understand what

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Speaker 2: they meant. So I walk home. I turn on the

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Speaker 2: news and there I see protesters against some thing called

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Speaker 2: Proposition one eighty seven.

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Speaker 3: A group in Santana has collected six hundred thousand signatures

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Speaker 3: in favor of an initiative that would bar undocumented children

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Speaker 3: from public schools.

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Speaker 2: And it turns out that this thing targets people like

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Speaker 2: my dad. Its authors say illegal immigration is destroying California.

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Speaker 4: About The only thing both sides agree on is that

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Speaker 4: if the initiative, called Prop One eighty seven passes, it

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Speaker 4: would have far reaching effects in California and could influence

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Speaker 4: the national debate over immigration.

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Speaker 2: I think about those white boys, the one to eighty

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Speaker 2: seven yellers at Anaheim High. They don't know if I

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Speaker 2: have papers or not, but they don't care. They're obviously

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Speaker 2: yelling at me because I'm a Mexican, and for them,

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Speaker 2: that's no different than being a quote unquote illegal. To

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Speaker 2: understand why this story matters, you have to take a

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Speaker 2: look around the California if today. The state is a

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Speaker 2: beacon for progressive politics in the US, a land of

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Speaker 2: environmentalism and multiculturalism, where vegans and priuses, rome and taco

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Speaker 2: trucks stand on every corner, and it's the center of

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Speaker 2: the hashtag resistance to President Trump and his policies.

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Speaker 5: The Trump administration in California are swearing off again.

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Speaker 2: California is vowing to take the administration to court.

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Speaker 6: After the Trump administration announced that the twenty twenty census

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Speaker 6: will include a question about citizenship, the state of California

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Speaker 6: announced that it would sue to challenge that decision.

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Speaker 2: Democrats controlled both chambers of the state Capitol with super majorities.

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Speaker 2: They hold all offices of California's executive branch. But it

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Speaker 2: wasn't always this way. California has won something of a

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Speaker 2: red state, or at least a purple one. It gave

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Speaker 2: the US Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 2: California also gave us Proposition one eighty seven. It was

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Speaker 2: one of the harshest laws targeting immigrants in modern US history,

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Speaker 2: and that same year the state gave us this ad.

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Speaker 7: They keep coming two million illegals in California. The federal

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Speaker 7: government won't stop them at the border, yet requires us

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Speaker 7: to pay billions to take care of them.

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Speaker 2: It was a campaign spot for Governor Pete Wilson, a

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Speaker 2: Republican running for reelection. That wanna be scary voice plays

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Speaker 2: over grainy footage of people spreading across a US Mexico

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Speaker 2: border like it was some five k run, and then

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Speaker 2: the ad ends with this really hope full angelic music

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Speaker 2: as Pete Wilson promises to crack down on quote unquote them.

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Speaker 8: I'm suing to force the federal government to control the borders.

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Speaker 2: Enough is enough yet twenty five years later Proposition one

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Speaker 2: eighty seven and Pete Wilson made the Golden State bluer

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Speaker 2: than Indigo. You're probably saying, wait, what how, But that's

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Speaker 2: what this episode is all about, about the time in

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four that California Republicans went to war against

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Speaker 2: the legal immigration and lost bad and how the legacy

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Speaker 2: of those battles from twenty five years ago influences America

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Speaker 2: even today because before President Trump there was Proposition one

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Speaker 2: eighty seven.

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Speaker 9: Illegal immigration is gonna stop. It's dangerous, it's terrible if

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Speaker 9: we either have a border or we don't. And if

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Speaker 9: we don't have a border, we don't have a country.

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Speaker 2: Remember that. Now, let's begin our story. We're in fall

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three. Doctor Dray and Ice Cube are bumping

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Speaker 2: on the radio in southern California. The whole state is

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Speaker 2: still reeling from Rodney King and the La riots. National

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Speaker 2: pundits say the California dream is over. And in the

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Speaker 2: pretty suburban town of your Belinda, Orange County, proposition whenity

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Speaker 2: seven is about to be born, your Belinda is Nixon Country. Literally,

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Speaker 2: he was born here big suburban tracked homes that owners

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Speaker 2: try to pass off as if they're in Old Mexico

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Speaker 2: with the tiled roof and street names in Spanish. Not

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Speaker 2: many Mexicans around here, though, just saying hi, Barbara. Barbara

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Speaker 2: and Bob Kylie live here in a two story home

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Speaker 2: with nineteen eighties era tan carpet and fluffy couches. They're

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Speaker 2: out of the game now, but for years they managed

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Speaker 2: local Republican campaigns as political consultants. I'm visiting Barbara and

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Speaker 2: Bob because they ran the one eighty seven campaign. You

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Speaker 2: could say they're one eighty seven's unlikely godparents.

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Speaker 10: Unlikely because we actually did not see illegal immigration as

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Speaker 10: a big problem for us. We loved in a nice community.

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Speaker 10: We didn't see it. But we did have a friend

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Speaker 10: by the name of Ron Prince, and Ron was really

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Speaker 10: looking to get involved.

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Speaker 2: Ron Prince plays a big part in our story. Lanky,

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Speaker 2: with bushy eyebrows and a combover. He was a gadfly

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Speaker 2: in local Republican politics.

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Speaker 10: He wanted to do a statewide proposition on anything.

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Speaker 2: In California, anyone who gets enough ballid signatures around four

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand of them at that time, can place a

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Speaker 2: proposition on the ballot about anything. So Ron Prince, according

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Speaker 2: to Barbara, wanted to think of an idea that might

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Speaker 2: actually have a chance of passing. And they'd tell him

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Speaker 2: go find an issue people really care about, and then gone.

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Speaker 10: And I'm the doorbell on Saturday morning. He said, I

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Speaker 10: think I have one. I just got ripped off by

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Speaker 10: an illegal alien and he was supposed to be a

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Speaker 10: contractor and he ripped me off.

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Speaker 2: So here's what happened. Ron said, a contractor he was

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Speaker 2: working with ripped him off for half a million dollars.

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Speaker 2: According to Ron, the guy was an illegal Canadian. Later

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Speaker 2: on reporters would track down the contractor and it would

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Speaker 2: turn out he was a legal resident. But anyways, Ron

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Speaker 2: thinks illegal immigration, that's a winner, and he goes out

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Speaker 2: with his legal pad to a grocery store up the

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Speaker 2: block from the Kyli's home and ask people a simple question,

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Speaker 2: do you believe illegal immigration is a problem in California.

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Speaker 10: He comes back with pages of signatures on that first time,

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Speaker 10: On that first time, you know, Ron, I think you

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Speaker 10: got something here.

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Speaker 2: We're going to come back to Ron Prince and the

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Speaker 2: Kilies in a second, but first, a little history. It's

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Speaker 2: easy to forget, but fear of newcomers is as California

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Speaker 2: at trade, as earthquakes and in and out double double cheeseburgers.

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Speaker 2: Politicians have passed laws against nearly every new group to

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Speaker 2: arrive here, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, African Americans, Chileans. I mean,

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Speaker 2: who doesn't like Chileans? Even Okie's. But in the late

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Speaker 2: twentieth century, California's demographics were changing fast. By nineteen ninety,

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Speaker 2: the number of white residents did to less than sixty

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Speaker 2: percent of the state's population, while the number of Latinos

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Speaker 2: grew to twenty five percent. More immigrants legal and not

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Speaker 2: were in California than ever before.

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Speaker 11: There was this madness.

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Speaker 2: That's Peter Nunez, who used to be the US attorney

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Speaker 2: for the San Diego area. There he got a close

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Speaker 2: up of the California Mexico border.

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Speaker 11: You had what they called Benzi Chargers were before sunset,

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Speaker 11: literally thousands of people would line up on the south

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Speaker 11: side of the border.

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Speaker 2: If you will today, nun Yez is a chairman of

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Speaker 2: the board for the Center for Immigration Studies, a controversial

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Speaker 2: think tank that wants to reduce immigration to the US.

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Speaker 11: And as soon as the sun would go down, Basically

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Speaker 11: they all started north and you had you know, maybe

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Speaker 11: fifty border patrol men, who knows one hundred. Let's say

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Speaker 11: he had one hundred people selling tacos and bottle.

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Speaker 2: Water and be like a big party.

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Speaker 11: Like a big party waiting for the sun to go down.

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Speaker 2: While immigration is increasing in California, economic anxiety is also

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Speaker 2: on the rise. The Cold War is ending, causing the

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Speaker 2: state to lose tens of thousands of middle class jobs

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Speaker 2: in the defense industry, a big part of the Golden

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Speaker 2: State economy. The state suffers from an epic drought, a

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Speaker 2: nationwide recession compounds everything. By nineteen ninety one, in just

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Speaker 2: his second year in office, Governor Pete Wilson faces a

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Speaker 2: twelve and a half billion dollar budget shortfall, and he

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Speaker 2: quickly puts some of the blame and undocumented immigrants. California

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Speaker 2: legislators start proposing bills against them. And here comes Ron

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Speaker 2: Prince with his cowboy boots and his clipboard, a guy

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Speaker 2: from boring Tustin, California, with payback on his mind. So

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Speaker 2: Ron goes to his friends, the Kylis, they're the Eurbalinda

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Speaker 2: political consultants, with this big idea to try to pass

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Speaker 2: something against immigrants.

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Speaker 10: First of all, we didn't even know there were anti

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Speaker 10: illegal immigration groups out there. We never gone to a meeting,

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Speaker 10: we never got a letter in the We didn't even

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Speaker 10: know they existed.

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Speaker 2: But the Kylie say what the hell, and they sign

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Speaker 2: on to help Ron with his cause. They see it

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Speaker 2: as a game, a puzzle to figure out.

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Speaker 10: So the experiment was, could you collect enough signatures for

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Speaker 10: and pass a grassroots proposition with no big money behind it,

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Speaker 10: just simply enough, are there enough people involved and angry

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Speaker 10: about a situation?

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Speaker 2: First things first, they need to assemble a committee of

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Speaker 2: people to write it.

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Speaker 10: You know, we just went okay, Well, who do you know?

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Speaker 2: They look around and begin to put together a kind

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Speaker 2: of ragtag avengers or thanos, depending on who you're rooting

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Speaker 2: for of California anti immigration hawks. They start with Harold Azel,

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Speaker 2: who used to work for the Ions, the Immigration and

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Speaker 2: Naturalization Service.

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Speaker 12: What we're saying is anybody that isn't here legally should

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Speaker 12: not be rewarded for coming illegally.

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Speaker 2: Before working for the Ions, Harold or how for short,

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Speaker 2: was an executive at Wiener Schnitzel, a hot dog fast

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Speaker 2: food chain. He has a reputation as a loudmouth with

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Speaker 2: a singular obsession to stop the legal immigration in reference

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Speaker 2: to indocumented immigrants. He once told Time magazine, if you

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Speaker 2: catch them, you ought to clean them and frime yourself.

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Speaker 10: How actually knew everybody who was involved an anti illegal

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Speaker 10: immigration movement.

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Speaker 2: Through how the Kylies hooked up with Alan Nelson. Allen

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Speaker 2: was How's former boss at the ions.

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Speaker 11: The illegal alien comes without any checking and they often

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Speaker 11: bring the diseases. For most of the age, diseases are

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Speaker 11: being brought in by the illegal.

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Speaker 2: They also connect with a woman named Barbara Coe. She's

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Speaker 2: a former crime analyst for the Anaheim Police Department and

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Speaker 2: a petite chainsmoker who wears brandy glasses. More people eventually join,

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Speaker 2: but this is the core of the pro one eighty

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Speaker 2: seven crew. They're an odd mix of former immigration officials

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Speaker 2: and middle aged suburbanites.

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Speaker 10: So we started to have meetings.

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Speaker 2: With their avengers. Assembled at a private members only club

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Speaker 2: in Costa Mesa. They start to work on writing the

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Speaker 2: actual proposition. It's October fifth, nineteen ninety three. What they

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Speaker 2: put together is an all out assault on undocumented immigrants.

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Speaker 2: There's eight sections of one eighty seven, so I'll just

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Speaker 2: sum up the low lights block and documented immigrants from

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Speaker 2: social services and public health care force workers in those

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Speaker 2: sectors to report anyone they suspected of having no papers

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Speaker 2: to the ins. But the group saves the worst for last.

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Speaker 2: Kids without papers would no longer be able to attend

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Speaker 2: public schools from kindergarten to college. The Kyli's and their

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Speaker 2: crew know that this last provision is extreme and probably

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Speaker 2: in constitutional, but they put it in any way.

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Speaker 10: So it would gather the media attention, so it would

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Speaker 10: send up the red flags that everybody wanted to talk

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Speaker 10: about it, and everybody would have an opinion about it,

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Speaker 10: and that's when it really took off.

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Speaker 2: Once on eighty seven is written, the Kylie send it

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Speaker 2: to the Republican mailing lists to see if they can

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Speaker 2: get enough signatures for it to qualify for the November

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four ballot. Every day their po box is

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Speaker 2: full full of signatures pledging support for their proposition. One

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Speaker 2: eight seven says nothing about any ethnic groups. It didn't

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Speaker 2: have to. Why do you think they shod resonated so

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Speaker 2: much with people.

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Speaker 10: Because all of a sudden, I think in certain areas

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Speaker 10: of Santa Ana in La In there there was a

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Speaker 10: huge influx of Latino people, and I think a lot

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Speaker 10: of white people like I am, were felt threatened.

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Speaker 2: Anyways. On June twenty third, nineteen ninety four, Ron Prince's

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Speaker 2: crusade qualifies for the November Ballet, where It'll go by

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Speaker 2: proposition one eighty seven, by coincidence, the same number that

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Speaker 2: California's penal code assigns to murder. The group decides to

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Speaker 2: try to get support for their anti immigrant measure by

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Speaker 2: using a new tagline, Save our State. Who thought of

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Speaker 2: the idea to call this a save our State initiative?

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Speaker 10: About four Margarita's at El Toto.

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Speaker 2: I am El to Edo is a Mexican restaurant chain

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Speaker 2: in Orange County. Now, I'm not sure that the Kylies

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Speaker 2: and their crew purposefully ate Mexican food on the day

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Speaker 2: they raise their margarita glasses and toast did to an

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Speaker 2: attack an undocumented people, but they probably imagined they were

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Speaker 2: on the right side of history when they named their

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Speaker 2: campaign Save our State SOS for short. The logo of

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Speaker 2: their campaign was an inner tube they imagined they were

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Speaker 2: throwing out to a drowning California. What the group didn't

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Speaker 2: know in that moment was that Latinos weren't going to

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Speaker 2: take one to eighty seven. Quietly, that's coming up on

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Speaker 2: Latino USA. Stay with us, No Savaiah.

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Speaker 1: Hey, we're back here again. Is Gustavo Arellano.

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Speaker 13: The issue of immigration is setting the tone for political

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Speaker 13: debate in California. A voter initiative is likely to be

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Speaker 13: on the November ballot that would deny public education and

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Speaker 13: public health benefits to illegal immigrants.

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Speaker 2: It's June of nineteen ninety four and Prop seven has

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Speaker 2: qualified for the November ballot. Perrado Correa is sixteen years old,

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Speaker 2: a student a La Puente High School. He arrived to

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Speaker 2: Southern California from Mexico without papers when he was just

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Speaker 2: two years old, and he'd always tried his best to

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Speaker 2: fit in.

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Speaker 14: Growing up, being Mexican was a bad thing. So we

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Speaker 14: didn't want to identify with being any kind of Mexican,

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Speaker 14: and so we wanted to be as American as we

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Speaker 14: could be. We didn't want to bring beans in and

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Speaker 14: rice to school. We wanted to bring boloney sandwiches because

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Speaker 14: all the messaging from our teachers was being Mexican was bad.

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Speaker 2: Heronovo was more interested in just being a teen than

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Speaker 2: in politics or activism. But In the summer of ninety four,

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Speaker 2: at age sixteen, he goes to a summer leadership camp

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Speaker 2: for Latino students and one eighty seven is on the agenda.

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Speaker 14: They talked to us about this initiative, this save our

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Speaker 14: State initiative. Save our state from what? For me, I'm

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Speaker 14: a threat to you, like I'm a lhile buying citizen.

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Speaker 14: I'm going trying to go to school. I'm trying to

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Speaker 14: better myself, Like how am I the threat?

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Speaker 2: Henadvo comes home from the leadership conference feeling like he

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Speaker 2: has found a calling. Just a few weeks later, he

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Speaker 2: drives to Fresno State with friends to join hundreds of

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Speaker 2: students in a crash course on how to fight one

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Speaker 2: eighty seven.

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Speaker 14: Here's material, Here's how you talk about it when people

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Speaker 14: ask you about it. Here's what you need to say. Literally,

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Speaker 14: we had a blueprint.

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Speaker 2: Well, herodov is new squad brainstorming ways to stop save

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Speaker 2: our state the one to eighty seven committee, Orange County

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Speaker 2: is finding its little experiment has made front page news.

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Speaker 2: Political consultant Barbara Kylie remembers coming up with talking points.

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Speaker 10: We all had what we were supposed to say. We

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Speaker 10: stuck to script.

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Speaker 2: What was that script.

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Speaker 10: Do not get into a race war with anybody you're debating.

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Speaker 10: This is not about race. This is about laws.

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Speaker 2: But as much as they try to stay away from race,

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Speaker 2: the general public was clearly getting riled up about California's

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Speaker 2: changing demographics. Check out this guy in NPR's Morning edition

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety four, San Mateo resident named John Richardson.

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Speaker 15: My neighborhood has gone from a pretty nice place to

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Speaker 15: live where you wouldn't want to drive down it in

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Speaker 15: the morning. I mean if you even drive down and

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Speaker 15: with a vehicle, you have twenty to thirty guys that

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Speaker 15: will literally bum rush your car if you stop or not.

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Speaker 15: They sit out there and drink most of the time

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Speaker 15: if they don't get picked up. They've caused criminal elements

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Speaker 15: to come in, such as hookers, drug dealers. Right now,

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Speaker 15: if I was to move to my neighborhood today, I

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Speaker 15: wouldn't buy the place.

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Speaker 13: I turn around and walk out.

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Speaker 2: That's why for many Latinos it soon became obvious that

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Speaker 2: one eighty seven was not about citizenship. It was about them.

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Speaker 10: So thank you for meeting me here.

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Speaker 2: This is great. In nineteen ninety four, Gloria Molina is

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Speaker 2: an La County supervisor, one of the most powerful Latinas

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Speaker 2: in the state, and a daughter of a Mexican American

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Speaker 2: father and a Mexican immigrant mother.

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Speaker 5: Many people said, Bible, Gloria a citizen, you shouldn't worry

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Speaker 5: about this at all. It was about me, It was

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Speaker 5: about people like me. I was the one that was

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Speaker 5: going to be asked just because of who I was.

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Speaker 2: Gloria feels a personal and civic responsibility to oppose one

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Speaker 2: eighty seven and thinks it'll be easy to stop, so

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Speaker 2: she forms a no on one eighty seven committee in

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Speaker 2: Los Angeles.

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Speaker 5: There weren't many of us, and very frankly, the first

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Speaker 5: thing we needed to do is to raise money.

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Speaker 10: It was a very, very difficult task.

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Speaker 2: Gloria starts to reach out to the usual suspects she

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Speaker 2: contacts when fundraising for a campaign, and she's surprised to

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Speaker 2: learn normally reliable democratic donors and politicians are skittish when

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Speaker 2: it comes to one eighty seven.

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Speaker 5: People were embarrassed that they weren't giving. They knew the

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Speaker 5: social justice issue of it, but at the same time

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Speaker 5: they didn't want their name associated.

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Speaker 10: People were intimidated.

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Speaker 2: That's how popular one eighty seven was any Democrat who

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Speaker 2: went against it was drinking political poison. One of them

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Speaker 2: was Diane Feinstein. She's in her first term as Senator

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety four, one of the most powerful people

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Speaker 2: in California. In October nineteen ninety four, Feinstein is locked

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Speaker 2: in a tight re election race. Despite the pleas of activists,

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Speaker 2: she doesn't publicly oppose one eighty seven until three weeks

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Speaker 2: before the election. By the way, Feinstein declined to be

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Speaker 2: interviewed for this episode, though her staffer sent me a

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Speaker 2: statement saying she remains at the forefront of immigrant rights today.

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Speaker 2: Gloria Molina was upset at Feinstein for waiting until the

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Speaker 2: last minute to oppose one eighty seven.

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Speaker 5: I have not forgiven her to this day because she

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Speaker 5: was in a leadership role, but when she was a

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Speaker 5: bit intimidated, she took a position against us.

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Speaker 2: What would you tell her or did you meet with

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Speaker 2: her or talk to her out all during.

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Speaker 5: Ninety four have decided never to meet with her.

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Speaker 2: Meanwhile, a certain Republican governor is realizing one eighty seven

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Speaker 2: could be his ticket to reelection. For most of his career,

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Speaker 2: Pete Wilson was actually not stereotyped at all for being

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Speaker 2: a hard right, immigrant bashing type of guy. Here's journalist

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Speaker 2: Bilad Marrero.

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Speaker 10: He was just a normal, middle of the road Republican.

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Speaker 5: But then when he started running his second term, that's

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Speaker 5: when things changed.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety one, Wilson releases a report that claims

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Speaker 2: immigrants and their American born children will help push California

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Speaker 2: into a twenty billion dollar deficit in the next decade.

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Speaker 2: Illegal immigration suddenly becomes his begata.

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Speaker 7: California's governor Pete Wilson called the state's immigrant and poor

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Speaker 7: population tax receivers who take more than they give.

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Speaker 13: Pete Wilson recommended denying education and health care to illegal immigrants.

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Speaker 8: The problem is real, the public knows it, and they

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Speaker 8: don't give a damn whether it's an election year.

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Speaker 16: They want relief.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety four, Wilson's Democratic challenger is Kathleen Brown.

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Speaker 2: Early polls have Wilson trailing Brown badly by more than

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Speaker 2: twenty points. He needs a boost, so a month before

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Speaker 2: one eighty seven qualifies for the ballot, he runs this commercial.

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Speaker 7: They keep coming two million illegals in California. The federal

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Speaker 7: government won't stop them at the border.

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Speaker 2: Let me hit pause here, so while that voice is

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Speaker 2: saying they keep coming, the image is lots of people,

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Speaker 2: presumably Mexican immigrants, running across a border in the middle

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Speaker 2: of a freeway. Okay, let's hit play again.

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Speaker 7: The federal government won't stop them at the border, yet

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Speaker 7: requires us to pay billions to take care of them.

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Speaker 7: Wilson sent the National Guard to help the motor patrol,

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Speaker 7: but that's not all.

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Speaker 8: I'm suing to force the federal government to control the border.

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Speaker 2: I personally have never forgotten this ad, and a lot

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Speaker 2: of Californians haven't either. It's just ugly, both the production

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Speaker 2: and the message. Shadowy hordes swarming the US Mexico border

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Speaker 2: like their orcs or something trying to storm a castle,

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Speaker 2: and Lord of the Rings. The ad draws national attention, criticism,

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Speaker 2: and disgust, including from two people you might not expect,

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Speaker 2: Barbara and Bob Kylie from the one eighty seven campaign.

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Speaker 10: I don't think it did our group any good or

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Speaker 10: our cause.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because now all of a sudden it's tied specifically

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Speaker 2: to this idea of an invasion, right, noting.

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Speaker 17: That, but it's racist.

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Speaker 10: It was racist.

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Speaker 2: But that message they Keep Coming saves Pete Wilson, although

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Speaker 2: he wouldn't officially endure one eighty seven until September, Wilson

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Speaker 2: becomes inseparable from it. Wilson is one eighty seven for

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Speaker 2: better or worse. Fast forward to October nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 2: Election day is right around the corner. Things are looking

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Speaker 2: good for one eighty seven. Pete Wilson now has a

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Speaker 2: slight edge over Kathleen Brown, and Latino activists are getting nervous.

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Speaker 2: They feel Democrats aren't doing enough. In Los Angeles, Kevin

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Speaker 2: de Leone is teaching English as a second language. He's

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Speaker 2: the son of Guatemalan immigrants and takes one eighty seven personally.

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Speaker 2: He another Latino activist, decided to strike back with the

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Speaker 2: only weapon they have.

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Speaker 18: We decided that we wanted to organize a march.

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Speaker 2: YEP, they're taking it to the streets. Their protest is

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Speaker 2: set for Sunday, October sixteenth. The plan is to get

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Speaker 2: those affected by one eighty seven, undocumented immigrants and their

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Speaker 2: friends and family out in force. The march starts in

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Speaker 2: the morning near Evergreen Cemetery in the Boyle Heights neighborhood

438
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,400
Speaker 2: of LA It's sunny, not too hot.

439
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 18: I remember feeling both excited and incredibly nervous.

440
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 2: There's about a thousand people here, much less than they

441
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 2: hope would come out. Everyone begins to march down what's

442
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 2: now says out of Chavis Avenue, which connects East LA

443
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 2: to the rest of Los Angeles. But as a group

444
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:27,680
Speaker 2: approaches the ten Freeway.

445
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 18: We could see the sea of people. Our mouths dropped

446
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,679
Speaker 18: to the ground. Because the people came out, they responded.

447
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 2: In the end, roughly seventy thousand people come out, marching

448
00:26:49,520 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 2: from East LA to City Hall.

449
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 3: The protest was a cross section of Angelina's from fifth

450
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 3: generation Chicano students today laborers who recently crossed the border.

451
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 3: They joined with Asians and African Americans and what's being

452
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 3: called the largest demonstration in LA's history.

453
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 2: Herava Correa, the high school student we heard from earlier,

454
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 2: is here with his mom. It's the first protest they've

455
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 2: ever been to.

456
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 14: And I remember after that, we went to King Tacko

457
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 14: and we're talking about it and she's like, meikho, like

458
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,680
Speaker 14: I had no idea, Like I had no idea what

459
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,119
Speaker 14: this was about and how many people were going to

460
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 14: be affected. She's like, but today was really something, and

461
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:38,679
Speaker 14: I remember that. She's like, you know, this was something.

462
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 2: But in press clippings and news footage from that day,

463
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 2: something stands out to me. The sign saying this used

464
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 2: to be Mexico. The red, white and green banners and

465
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 2: all the Mexican flags.

466
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:51,959
Speaker 10: We were horrified.

467
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,400
Speaker 2: Here's Gloria Molina, then an La County supervisor.

468
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 5: I mean, it was a huge turnout and they carried

469
00:27:57,640 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 5: Mexican flags.

470
00:27:58,960 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 10: It killed us.

471
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 2: It was a horrible visual. It really was a horrible

472
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 2: visual because, according to Gloria on the fence, voters would

473
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,440
Speaker 2: interpret the flags as a Mexican invasion come to life.

474
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 2: Here's hera of the Correa.

475
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 14: I think it was a recognition that, look, this is us,

476
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,160
Speaker 14: despite whoever we want to identify is however we want

477
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 14: to see ourselves. We're a Mexican. You know, that's how

478
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,680
Speaker 14: the world sees us. And you know we can put

479
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 14: on an Elli Dodger hat and try to, you know,

480
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 14: sing the spangle banner, but the realities were Mexican and

481
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 14: they're going to come after us.

482
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,919
Speaker 2: Oh that Mexican flag. I've defended young people waving it

483
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 2: during protests many times over the years, and yeah, they

484
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 2: still do it, and both conservatives and older liberals still

485
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 2: get enraged, but I get it. It's like, you're not

486
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,120
Speaker 2: going to accept me as an American, I might as

487
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 2: well take you off as a Mexican. Anyway, back to

488
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 2: October sixteenth, nineteen ninety four, in hours drive south of

489
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 2: downtown LA in Orange County, the one to eighty seven

490
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 2: committee loves all those Mexican flags again. Here are the Kylis.

491
00:28:58,960 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 12: Boy?

492
00:28:59,240 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 10: Are they dumb?

493
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 16: Boy?

494
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 17: Have they just just the opposite of what they should

495
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 17: be doing. I mean, I've been in campaigns for twenty years,

496
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 17: and I mean that was just a godsend for them

497
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 17: start doing that. We knew exactly what was going to

498
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 17: happen after that, because the press is going to pick

499
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,239
Speaker 17: up on that. As soon as the press picks up

500
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 17: on that, it's going to be in every newspaper, it's

501
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 17: going to be on every radio station, it's going to

502
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 17: be every TV station. And it's what it happened is

503
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 17: like it was a gift. Thank you very much. I

504
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 17: don't have to do anymore.

505
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 19: It's over.

506
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 2: Here's Ron Prince from a news report from the time.

507
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 2: The guy who started the one to eighty seven campaign

508
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 2: with the Kylis.

509
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 12: La Times poll is showing that the vast majority of

510
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,920
Speaker 12: the people in California and also in Los Angeles are

511
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 12: supporting Proposition win eighty seven, and so, as far as

512
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 12: we're concerned, we don't need to get out in the

513
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,719
Speaker 12: street to march for anything, even if we were inclined

514
00:29:57,760 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 12: to do that.

515
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:01,959
Speaker 2: On election night nineteen ninety four, the Kylies are at

516
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:04,720
Speaker 2: the Orange County GOP Party. They have the largest suite

517
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 2: in the hotel. Total Bawlers one eighty seven still leads

518
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 2: in the polls. Here's Bob Kylie.

519
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 17: Never take anything for granted. Everything could be a slam

520
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,080
Speaker 17: dunk till the day election. It only counts when that ballot.

521
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 13: Is cast.

522
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 2: County by county the results come in.

523
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 19: In California, the anti immigrant measure known as Proposition one

524
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 19: eighty seven was approved by over two thirds of that

525
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 19: state's voters. Despite overwhelming opposition by Latinos.

526
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 2: Proposition one eighty sevens the law of the land.

527
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 13: Californians easily approved the initiative known as Proposition one eighty seven.

528
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 2: Diane Feinstein barely wins her Senate race. Pete Wilson e

529
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 2: wins his re election campaign, but one eighty seven wins

530
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 2: even bigger, even though almost eighty percent of Latino's vote

531
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 2: against it. The wind stuns Latinos. Here's Herato Correra.

532
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 14: You know, after I read it and I'm like, no,

533
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 14: there's no way, this is crazy, like why would this pass?

534
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 14: And no, man like they wouldn't do this stuff.

535
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,959
Speaker 2: Here, Gloria Molina can't believe one eighty seven passes by

536
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 2: as much as it did, fifty nine to forty one percent.

537
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 10: That was the.

538
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 5: Worst part for me. It's always saying, you know, it's

539
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 5: barely going to squeak through. It may squeak through, but

540
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 5: it's barely. No, it was a huge margin.

541
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: What did that tell you that the margin was so.

542
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 5: Big, Well, it told me about how people felt about us.

543
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 2: In Orange County. The one eighty seven committee feels something else,

544
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:55,720
Speaker 2: vindication that despite being vilified as racists and nativists, they won.

545
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 2: That's Bob Kylie and you.

546
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 17: I said, well, we have to do is make sure

547
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 17: we all walk in together because we're a team. This

548
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 17: is the team.

549
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 2: They walk into the victory party like the New England Patriots,

550
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 2: Ron Prince Alan Nelson, Barbara Covee, Harold is Zell, Bob

551
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 2: and Barbara Kylie and the rest of the committee.

552
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 10: We were overwhelmed, you know, newsweek okay, okay, time anosing okay.

553
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 2: And because Governor Wilson attached his campaign so firmly to

554
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 2: twe eighty seven, it's now his to own. There's even

555
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,520
Speaker 2: talk about Pete Wilson for presidents.

556
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 8: There is in this room, on this stage, in this audience,

557
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 8: Californians of every race, every color, every creed, and what

558
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 8: they have in common is an understanding that it is

559
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 8: not fair to shortchange the education of our own children

560
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 8: or the healthcare of legal residents.

561
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 2: In that moment of it, on the stage, Wilson is

562
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 2: probably feeling good. But if he could see into the future,

563
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 2: he might have felt differently, because years later, one eighty

564
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 2: seven and Wilson would be synonymous not with victory, but

565
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 2: with defeat. That's coming up on Latino USA. Stay with us,

566
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 2: No savan.

567
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 1: All right, here's the rest of the Battle of one

568
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:19,880
Speaker 1: point eighty seven.

569
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 20: Barbara Coe, one of the leaders of the Prop one

570
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 20: eighty seven move says her phone has been ringing off

571
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 20: the hook since last Tuesday as individuals and organizations seek

572
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 20: help in setting up similar campaigns in New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois,

573
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 20: even Iowa.

574
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 2: Remember Latino voters overwhelmingly reject one eighty seven. Many see

575
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 2: it as an existential threat and are terrified that their

576
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 2: lives are going to get difficult fast, that La Migra

577
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 2: is going to come knocking on their doors or show

578
00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 2: up in school and ask for papers. So just a

579
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 2: day after the election, before any parts of one eighty

580
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 2: seven can go into effect, federal and state lawsuits are filed,

581
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 2: eight in total claiming that the proposition is unconstitutional.

582
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 4: Portions of Prop One eighty seven were to go into

583
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 4: effect immediately, but court orders were issued today holding off

584
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,280
Speaker 4: the new law until its constitutionality can be examined.

585
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,440
Speaker 2: The move works, the court freezes Onen eighty seven. Most

586
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 2: of it won't go into effect until the lawsuit is heard,

587
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 2: which is a big relief for immigrants. Among the plaintiffs

588
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:34,920
Speaker 2: the ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational

589
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 2: Fund or MALDIF. Gloria Molina serves on the La County

590
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,440
Speaker 2: Board of Supervisors. We heard from her earlier, and she

591
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 2: tries to convince the county to join the suit. After that,

592
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:45,600
Speaker 2: you start getting a lot of hate.

593
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,880
Speaker 5: Mail again, Yes I did, and I just had to

594
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 5: put up with it. People came to the board attack

595
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,240
Speaker 5: me letters that I would get.

596
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 2: When Gloria says people attacked her, she's not kidding. She

597
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 2: becomes a target of pure venom. Here's a letter she

598
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 2: gets from someone in law Beach. If you and your

599
00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 2: protesting mechs are so great, why don't you go to

600
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 2: Mexico and build your own country. You mechs are the

601
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 2: divisive ones. You don't assimilate into US society. You want

602
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 2: your divisive language or divisive holidays, and on and on

603
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:16,919
Speaker 2: and on and on the place for what you want

604
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 2: is Mexico. One eight seven hits a national nerve from

605
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 2: coast to coast. People want to rail against immigration. Period.

606
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 2: Take these callers on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

607
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:31,840
Speaker 7: It's an invasion.

608
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 18: It's it's it's it's it's like it's a passive, but

609
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 18: it is an invasion.

610
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 2: There's there's really nothing else that you can call it.

611
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 12: I mean, it's just incredible. The thing about discriminating against

612
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 12: illegals or whatever, to me is just a bunch of

613
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,359
Speaker 12: bull and I don't believe it one bit. I am

614
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,440
Speaker 12: for that proposition.

615
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 2: In California one eight seven is the first and a

616
00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 2: string of propositions that target people of color through the nineties.

617
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,279
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety four, voters also passed an infamous three

618
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,879
Speaker 2: strikes initiative, which lands hard on blacks and Latinos. Two

619
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 2: years later, voter's ban affirmative action in nineteen ninety eight.

620
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 2: It's bi lingual education. But while all this is going on,

621
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:19,400
Speaker 2: one eighty seven itself stays tied up in the courts

622
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:23,600
Speaker 2: for years. In nineteen ninety seven, a federal judge finds

623
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:29,360
Speaker 2: it unconstitutional aka goodbye one eighty seven, but then Attorney

624
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 2: General Dan Lungren, a Republican, he appeals the decision to

625
00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 2: try to keep it alive. Peternuniez is one of the

626
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 2: architects of one eighty seven that we heard from earlier.

627
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,800
Speaker 2: He thinks Lungerin isn't fighting hard enough for one eighty seven,

628
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 2: and just a warning here, he describes Lungerin with pretty

629
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 2: sexist language.

630
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:51,200
Speaker 11: I am convinced that Lungren didn't like it and let

631
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 11: it die.

632
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:53,840
Speaker 2: Why do you think Lungren held back?

633
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 11: I think he was a pussy. Maybe he had a

634
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,359
Speaker 11: political ambitions and he didn't want to piss off the

635
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:04,640
Speaker 11: Hispanic population, the Latino population.

636
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 2: Shameful Lungren has denied those accusations. One eighty seven finally

637
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 2: dies for good in nineteen ninety nine when Pete Wilson's successor,

638
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 2: Gray Davis, drops the appeal in the end, the big

639
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 2: parts of it never go into effect. Started with a bang,

640
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,520
Speaker 2: ended with a whimper, but Latinos from California like me

641
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:39,880
Speaker 2: never forgot it. For many Latinos living in California today,

642
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 2: Pete Wilson is a weird mix of a monster and

643
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 2: a joke, the guy who declared war on us. I've

644
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,640
Speaker 2: seen murals that depict Wilson as a snake or chupacabra,

645
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 2: My friends photobomb him and laugh about it on Facebook,

646
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,800
Speaker 2: and a lot of activists still call him Peto Wilson,

647
00:38:55,160 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 2: Little Penis Wilson. Even Tubac Shakur got into the Wilson

648
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,680
Speaker 2: hate game in his song to Live and Die.

649
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:12,759
Speaker 21: In La Without Mexicans. Black Cloud Brown Bride in the

650
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 21: sets again, Pete Wilson trying to see Usaul Procoo for everything.

651
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:24,320
Speaker 2: He remember weekend email. So this is the part of

652
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:26,760
Speaker 2: the episode where I'm supposed to share my Pete Wilson

653
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,439
Speaker 2: interview with you where I was going to pepper him

654
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 2: with questions that have bugged me forever, like who created

655
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:36,879
Speaker 2: that crazy? They keep coming at Well. After two months

656
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:40,400
Speaker 2: of Wilson's people saying the former California governor wanted to

657
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 2: do an interview with me, it didn't happen. His people

658
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 2: did finally give me a date, but it wasn't in

659
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:49,840
Speaker 2: time for this broadcast. If the interview happens, we'll release

660
00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:53,439
Speaker 2: it later. On one question I wasn't going to ask,

661
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:57,360
Speaker 2: does Pete regret supporting one to eighty seven an interview

662
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 2: after interview he's done over the years, Wilson One's answer

663
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,319
Speaker 2: is nope. Here he is on case here a w

664
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen. Do you think Prop one eighty seven

665
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 2: was a mistake.

666
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 16: No, I don't think it was a mistake. I think

667
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 16: what it was is an understandable reaction of sixty percent

668
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 16: of the California voters who voted for it.

669
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 2: Whether or not Pete Wilson regrets one eighty seven, A

670
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 2: lot of people will tell you that I had profound

671
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 2: effects on California, especially in Latinos in California. In nineteen

672
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 2: ninety four, he Rado Correa was a high school student

673
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,360
Speaker 2: who had a political awakening when one eighty seven landed

674
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:42,360
Speaker 2: on the ballot. His entire life, he had assumed that

675
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 2: he was just like anyone else in California, as American

676
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 2: as a bald eagle. The night one eighty seven passed,

677
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 2: head out of though realized in the eyes of his

678
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:55,120
Speaker 2: white neighbors he'd never be American enough, so he vowed

679
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 2: to do something about it.

680
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:57,959
Speaker 14: And for me, it really was about going to school,

681
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 14: like I'm gonna go to college.

682
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 2: The California of twenty nineteen had out of those. An

683
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 2: assistant principal at Saddleback High School in Santana during our interview,

684
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 2: I asked him a question. I've been thinking about a lot.

685
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 2: Do you think ultimately one eighty seven to one?

686
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 14: Well, I think it initially won, obviously because it passed,

687
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 14: But no, it didn't. It lost, and it lost in

688
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:20,279
Speaker 14: so many different.

689
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,719
Speaker 22: Aspects, like which ones We look at the health of

690
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 22: the Republican Party in California today.

691
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 2: Every year head Audible visits the state Capitol in Sacramento

692
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 2: with the latest class of the Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project.

693
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,439
Speaker 2: It's the group he belonged to when he first heard

694
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 2: about one eighty seven head out of those now president

695
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 2: of the nonprofit.

696
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:47,120
Speaker 14: When I went to the conference in ninety four, I

697
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,359
Speaker 14: sat in the assembly four and I remember seeing two

698
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 14: maybe three Spanish surnames. But now I went back and

699
00:41:55,080 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 14: I counted thirty six names. So you talk about impact,

700
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,200
Speaker 14: you talk about a change. I mean, I'm looking at

701
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:04,239
Speaker 14: this board of legislators and I'm like, there it is,

702
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:04,919
Speaker 14: It's right there.

703
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:11,799
Speaker 2: Lauria Molina has a similar take on one eighty seven.

704
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:15,120
Speaker 5: We became voters, we started changing things. People like my

705
00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,879
Speaker 5: mother stood there and filled out her application for citizenship

706
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 5: and she became a citizen. So it changed people's minds immediately,

707
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 5: and everybody woke up and said it passed.

708
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:27,320
Speaker 10: What happened, It shouldn't have passed.

709
00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 2: One eighty seven changed Kevin Leone too. He's one of

710
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,920
Speaker 2: the activists who organized a big LA march in October

711
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:34,879
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four.

712
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:39,800
Speaker 18: The thought that politicians could actually tear at the fabric

713
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 18: of who we are as a great country got me

714
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 18: to thinking, along with my colleagues, maybe one of us

715
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 18: should run for office.

716
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,479
Speaker 2: In twenty fourteen, Kevin becomes the first Latino California Senate

717
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 2: president in one hundred and thirty years.

718
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 18: My political awakening was Prop one eighty seven. There's no

719
00:42:58,480 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 18: question about it.

720
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:03,840
Speaker 2: The prevailing narrative is that Wilson's embrace of one to

721
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,960
Speaker 2: eighty seven doomed the Republican Party in California forever after.

722
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:09,920
Speaker 2: But if Pete Wilson and the state GOP met their

723
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 2: waterloo with one eighty seven, the proposition didn't suffer the

724
00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:17,320
Speaker 2: same fate. Nationally, it inspired dozens of states and cities

725
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 2: to craft similar measures.

726
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 10: On its first hearing in early December, the Coast of

727
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 10: Masa City Council voted three to two to become the

728
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:27,960
Speaker 10: first city to have its cops and force immigration law.

729
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 3: Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Legislature passed what many consider

730
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 3: one of the toughest bills in the country aimed at

731
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 3: discouraging illegal immigration.

732
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:38,560
Speaker 2: One eighty seven has also manifested itself in the White House,

733
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 2: and President Donald Trump's anti immigrant rhetoric sounds a lot

734
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 2: like Pete Wilson's up twenty five years ago.

735
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 23: As we speak, the Democrat Party is openly encouraging millions

736
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:53,920
Speaker 23: of illegal alliance to break our laws, violate our borders,

737
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:55,879
Speaker 23: and overwhelm our nation.

738
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 2: That's what's up. They beat us at the border.

739
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:01,440
Speaker 23: People are flowing through, drugs across, pouring across.

740
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 2: They giving us they're worse people. What do one eighty

741
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:11,440
Speaker 2: seven's architects think about all this? We don't know what

742
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 2: Ron Prince thinks. He has no listed address or phone numbers.

743
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 2: Barbara KYLEI said she'd forward my request to Ron for

744
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,359
Speaker 2: an interview, but I never heard back from either of them.

745
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,280
Speaker 2: In any case, Barbara and her husband they'll take Trump.

746
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 10: I don't have to like Trump, but I like what

747
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,799
Speaker 10: he does, and we elected him, and Bob and I

748
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,800
Speaker 10: voted for him. We needed a junkyard dog. We needed

749
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 10: somebody who could repoe your car and not even think

750
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 10: about it the next day.

751
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 2: Peternuniez is also a fan, at least when it comes

752
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 2: to the president and immigration. He sees Trump's election as

753
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:50,480
Speaker 2: proof that most Americans want tougher immigration policies, policies like

754
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:51,239
Speaker 2: one eighty seven.

755
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 11: Mixed news talk about the silent majority. I think that

756
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 11: silent majority still exists, and that's why Trump got elected,

757
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 11: and immigration was a big part of it.

758
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 2: For Californians who fought one eighty seven, it's deja vous

759
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:09,320
Speaker 2: all over again, or maybe it's even worse. Just like Wilson,

760
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:13,120
Speaker 2: Trump pashed immigrants, and one I asked it out of

761
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:15,920
Speaker 2: the correll, Well, he thought about that. It seems, at

762
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 2: least right now in the national scale, that's a playbook

763
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 2: that will win just like it did in ninety four.

764
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 14: Yeah, and I think it will have some momentum, and

765
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:25,360
Speaker 14: I think he's going to get a lot of support

766
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 14: by it. But I think time is what's going to

767
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 14: hurt them, because demographics are changing.

768
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:33,479
Speaker 2: In the end, those of us shaped by one eighty

769
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 2: seven believe that Trump, just like Wilson, shall pass. When

770
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:40,240
Speaker 2: I covered a twenty sixteen Donald Trump rally in Orange County,

771
00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 2: I saw and heard a lot of the hostility from

772
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:46,279
Speaker 2: his supporters that I remember from the one eighty seven days. Hell,

773
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,279
Speaker 2: I was half expecting those white boys from Mannheim High

774
00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:51,799
Speaker 2: to start yelling at me again. But I also saw

775
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:57,040
Speaker 2: young Latinos protesting Trump while waving Mexican flags. This awakening

776
00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 2: isn't just in California either. Anthony Rendawn, the state's current

777
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:03,759
Speaker 2: Speaker of the Assembly, he sees other states going through

778
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 2: the same kind of demographic changes that California went through

779
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 2: back in the nineties.

780
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 6: I remember I was in North Carolina like four or

781
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:15,799
Speaker 6: five years ago, driving around eating barbecue, and the only

782
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:19,560
Speaker 6: things in the radio were Spanish language radio stations and

783
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 6: Rush Limbaugh, and I remember thinking, like, Wow, this is

784
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:28,000
Speaker 6: something's gotta pop, Something's got to happen here, right.

785
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 2: Something has happened. Latinos have organized in many of the

786
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:35,919
Speaker 2: places that have attempted to pass laws like one eighty

787
00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 2: seven in Arizona, the so called show me Your Paper's

788
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,759
Speaker 2: Law SB ten seventy that drew national attention earlier this

789
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 2: decade seems to have backfired. Now Arizona is looking more

790
00:46:53,080 --> 00:47:08,040
Speaker 2: and more like a purple state. Anthony Rendon, the Assembly speaker,

791
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,239
Speaker 2: thinks a lot about all these demographic changes and what

792
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:12,360
Speaker 2: they mean for the country.

793
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 6: I have a chief of staff who's white, and she

794
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 6: kind of talks a lot about being a Californian, and

795
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:21,239
Speaker 6: she says, you know, the white people and the rest

796
00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 6: of the country are going through what we went through

797
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 6: in the nineties. And she said, from the perspective of

798
00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:27,920
Speaker 6: a white person, I can tell you that things are

799
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:29,680
Speaker 6: better now, and the food tastes better too.

800
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 2: Rendon says immigration does change things, and having gone through

801
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 2: those changes. California has some lessons for the rest of

802
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 2: the country.

803
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:44,959
Speaker 6: That, on the other end, we don't have mass socialism,

804
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:49,120
Speaker 6: we don't have this incredible drain on public resources. And

805
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 6: I'm not trying to be funny. The food is better.

806
00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:01,320
Speaker 2: Better than the food at Altto, Orange County, that's for sure. Yep.

807
00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 2: I'm back to where it all started, the Mexican restaurant

808
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 2: where the Proposition one eighty seven crew toasted to their

809
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:09,799
Speaker 2: cause back in nineteen ninety three with four rounds of

810
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:17,319
Speaker 2: margaritas before setting off the battle that changed California. Al

811
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 2: Torito is okay. Really, it's kind of dated, fest atmosphere,

812
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,360
Speaker 2: big booths, gargantuan conboplates, you know this type of restaurant.

813
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,520
Speaker 2: It's missing a plaque on the wall, though, I want

814
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 2: to put one up that reads on this spot modern

815
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:35,600
Speaker 2: day California was born.

816
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: The Battle of one eighty seven was reported and written

817
00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:04,399
Speaker 1: by Gustavo Riano and Marlon Bishop. It was mixed by

818
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:09,640
Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebou. The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Grusado,

819
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:15,800
Speaker 1: Marta Martinez, Deisi Contreras, Mike Sargent, Julieta Martinelli, Victori Estrada,

820
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:21,360
Speaker 1: Renaldo Leanos, Junior Alejandra Salasad, Patricia Sulvaran and Julia Rocha,

821
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 1: with help from Raoul Prees. Our editorial director is Julio

822
00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:29,800
Speaker 1: Ricardo Varela. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate

823
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 1: engineers are gabriel A Bias and jj Carubin. Our marketing

824
00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:36,600
Speaker 1: manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by

825
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:41,719
Speaker 1: Sanger Rubinos. Special thanks to NPR, CACRW, Loyola Marrimount and

826
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:45,600
Speaker 1: the Huntington Library for access to their archives. I'm your

827
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:48,799
Speaker 1: host and executive producer marieo Rosa join us again on

828
00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:50,840
Speaker 1: our next episode. In the meantime, look for us on

829
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:53,959
Speaker 1: all of your social media and remember not tea yes

830
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:55,799
Speaker 1: Astell Approxima ai

831
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 2: Al Tino Usa is made possible in part by California Endowment,

832
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:08,160
Speaker 2: building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians,

833
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:15,319
Speaker 2: the Heising Simons Foundation unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more

834
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:19,720
Speaker 2: at hsfoundation dot org and the Windcoat Foundation