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Speaker 1: Hey, dear, let you know USA listener, it's Maria. So

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Speaker 1: today we're featuring a new podcast from our friends over

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Speaker 1: at LAist Studios. It's called Imperfect Paradise The Forgotten Revolutionary

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Speaker 1: and it tells the story of activist Oscar Gomez. So

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Speaker 1: in this series, you're going to learn more about the

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Speaker 1: Chicano student rights movement of the nineteen nineties and about

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Speaker 1: the investigative reporting behind the death of Oscar Gomez, who

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Speaker 1: was a leader of that movement. And so now I'm

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Speaker 1: going to turn it over to host Adolfo Guzman Lopez,

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Speaker 1: and remember to subscribe to Imperfect Paradise wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts. And also a little warning there are descriptions

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Speaker 1: of violent death in this episode. And for now, here's

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Speaker 1: episode one of Imperfect Paradise The Forgotten Revolutionary from LAist Studios.

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Speaker 2: There's just one photograph I've been able to find of

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Speaker 2: me and Oscar Gomez. It's from the day we met

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Speaker 2: at a Chicano's student protest in downtown Santa Barbara, February one,

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two. There's Oscar in the center of the picture,

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Speaker 2: tall and determined in his black beanie eyes, focused holding

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Speaker 2: his large cassette recorder. It's silver microphone raised like a hammer,

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Speaker 2: and I almost missed it. But I'm there too. On

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Speaker 2: the photo's left edge, I make out the sleeve of

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Speaker 2: my white Sabata T shirt that indigenous best I bought

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Speaker 2: in Mexico City, and my Levi's fiber Once I'm barely

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Speaker 2: in the picture, it's so telling of that day that

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Speaker 2: it's Oscar.

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Speaker 3: Who's fully within the frame.

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Speaker 2: Oscar was on his way to being a popular college

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Speaker 2: radio DJ and an incredibly influential student activist. He certainly

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Speaker 2: changed my life, but that would come much later. That day,

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Speaker 2: he and I barely said more than a few words

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Speaker 2: to each other. Now I wish I'd said more. I

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Speaker 2: just remember him as intimidating. The clothes said Cholo, the

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Speaker 2: body said Jock, and me in my carefully considered, warned

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Speaker 2: rim glasses and embroidered vest I.

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Speaker 3: Was neither of those.

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Speaker 2: I was holding on to so many secrets, so much insecurity,

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Speaker 2: and there was Oscar, with his confidence, the golden boy

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Speaker 2: energy of the high school football star.

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Speaker 3: I was put off.

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Speaker 2: I didn't grow up knowing any Mexican American kids like that.

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Speaker 4: Down of Islam.

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Speaker 5: This is like one that.

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Speaker 2: Oscar hosted La Onda Chicana, a college radio show out

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Speaker 2: of UC Davis.

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Speaker 3: The early nineteen nineties were in.

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Speaker 2: A specially xenophobic time in California politics. Oscar focused the

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Speaker 2: show on Mexican American empowerment. Oscar was on the airwaves

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Speaker 2: talking education, culture, and Chicano's self determination. The challenge will

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Speaker 2: goes on rasa little Chesquela, make sure and question the

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Speaker 2: history that you've been taught, because a lot of times

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Speaker 2: you know that George Washington is not your father.

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Speaker 3: What are these people scared.

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Speaker 6: Of that Terrasa is going to get educated, They're going to.

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Speaker 7: Be able to go back and empower the communities.

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Speaker 5: It's something that we got to ask ourselves, Rassa, and

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Speaker 5: something that we must inntinue to ask ourselves.

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Speaker 3: Because La Lucha Quante.

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Speaker 2: Oscar traveled to protests and conferences up and down California

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Speaker 2: and outside the state. He recorded what he saw the

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Speaker 2: people he met to broadcast to his audience. He gave

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Speaker 2: a radio platform to young Chicano rappers, connected listeners to

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Speaker 2: indigenous thought, and tutored public school kids. He made being

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Speaker 2: Chicano sound fun and exciting. In nineteen ninety three, the

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Speaker 2: Mexican American labor leader Caesar Chives died, and without him

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Speaker 2: there was a leadership void. And here came a long Oscar,

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Speaker 2: a young, handsome, charismatic, politically engaged college student, uninspiring radio

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Speaker 2: host and activist at just twenty one years old.

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Speaker 5: And I just remember tuning in to the campus radio

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Speaker 5: station and having that connection without physically being there.

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Speaker 6: He was fire.

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Speaker 3: He is Arma incarnate. All the girls, married with a

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Speaker 3: boyfriend or.

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Speaker 8: Single, everyone had a crush on him.

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Speaker 2: He knew that this government is not for us and

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Speaker 2: that we needed to take action.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he would have.

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Speaker 8: Been someone that people should follow, someone if I could

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Speaker 8: walk alongside just a jobs, you know.

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Speaker 2: Two and a half years after that Santa Barbara rally,

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Speaker 2: two and a half years after that photo of the

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Speaker 2: two of us was taken, I would be out of

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Speaker 2: college and freelancing for weekly newspapers, on my way to

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Speaker 2: a public radio career, and Oscar Oscar was dead. I'm

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Speaker 2: at four, Gusmanlopez, and this is in perfect paradise this season.

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Speaker 2: Oscar Gomez, the forgotten Revolutionary.

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Speaker 7: The body of twenty one year old Oscar Gomez was

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Speaker 7: discovered at the bottom of a cliff near the UCSB

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Speaker 7: campus last November. The Sheriff's Department says Gomez was drunk

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Speaker 7: and hit his head on the rock after falling off

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Speaker 7: the cliff.

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Speaker 2: Oscar had been at a protest in Santa Barbara on

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Speaker 2: November sixteenth, nineteen ninety four. He was last seen at

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Speaker 2: a college party that evening around nine. Early the next afternoon,

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Speaker 2: a passerby spotted Oscar at the edge of the surf,

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Speaker 2: covered in seaweed, with the upper part of a skull

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Speaker 2: smashed in. The coroner would find sand in Oscar's upper

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Speaker 2: and lower airwaves, no broken bones. He died from cranio

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Speaker 2: cerebral trauma. It would take law enforcement fourteen hours to

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Speaker 2: break the news to Oscar's family. The Santa Barbara Sheriff's

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Speaker 2: Office initially investigated Oscar's death as a homicide. Deputies walked

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Speaker 2: along the shore next to the fifty foot cliffs where

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Speaker 2: Oscar was last seen and interviewed people nearby, but after

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Speaker 2: just twelve days, the Sheriff's department closed the case, listing

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Speaker 2: the manner of death as undetermined. According to the sheriff

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Speaker 2: coroner's report, they never found a single witness to his

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Speaker 2: final hours never found where he fell, if he fell

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Speaker 2: at all. Their theory that the death was an accident.

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Speaker 2: Their report references Oscar's blood alcohol level when he died

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Speaker 2: zero point one point eight percent, but Oscar's father did

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Speaker 2: not believe it.

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Speaker 4: We think somebody killed my son.

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Speaker 7: Gome has died of massive head wounds, but his family

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Speaker 7: doesn't believe he got them from falling off a cliff. Today,

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Speaker 7: his friends and family urged the sheriff's department to reopen

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Speaker 7: the investigation into his death, but the sheriff's department says

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Speaker 7: the case will stay closed unless it significantly develops.

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Speaker 2: It's been twenty eight years and the case has stayed

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Speaker 2: closed twenty eight years, and many of Oscar's family and

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Speaker 2: friends still believe he was murdered. They rallied around the

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Speaker 2: phrase houstisia padou oscat Justice for Oscar. Oscar's father sued

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Speaker 2: the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office, the county, and the University

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Speaker 2: of California Santa Barbara. Friends and family revisited rerecs, protested,

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Speaker 2: tried to find the last people to have seen Oscar alive.

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Speaker 2: They still honor Oscar every year with a college scholarship

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Speaker 2: for students in his hometown.

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Speaker 3: And me, to be fully honest.

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Speaker 2: I packed away that whole chapter of my life, the

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Speaker 2: part associated with being a Chicano activist. I stopped marching

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Speaker 2: and I stopped protesting. I became a reporter in California's

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Speaker 2: largest public radio newsroom and found mainstream success. But one

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Speaker 2: person would not let me go of Oscar completely. Oscar's

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Speaker 2: best friend, Juan Gonzalez.

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Speaker 3: What's a date today, Kuan? And why is it important? Well?

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Speaker 8: Today is in marks, you know, the twenty seventh year

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Speaker 8: exactly that we were notified that Oscar had passed into

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Speaker 8: the other world. And today's November seventeenth, twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 8: And like I said, it's about no after four thirty

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Speaker 8: and we're here. Just remember Oscar. I come by probably

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Speaker 8: about four to six times a year.

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Speaker 2: I meet Juan at Oscar's grave at Resurrection Cemetery. It's

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Speaker 2: a Catholic cemetery about half an hour east of downtown LA.

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Speaker 2: I saw Juan a lot in the early nineteen nineties.

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Speaker 2: We both went to college in San Diego, and we

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Speaker 2: ran into each other at Chicano activist meetings where we

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Speaker 2: greet each other with a Chicano handshake, you know the

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Speaker 2: four parts regular handshake, to diagonal handshake, to fingers curling

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Speaker 2: into each other, and a fifth bump to close it off.

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Speaker 2: Juan calls me cardinal brother from another mother. Juan did

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Speaker 2: and I catch up every few years, and every time

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Speaker 2: he asked me to use my public radio platform to

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Speaker 2: investigate Oscar's death.

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Speaker 8: There's probably like tenth aories out there that could have happened.

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Speaker 8: And I look at the questions that someone has to ask.

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Speaker 2: The thing you have to understand is I was the

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Speaker 2: first Latino reporter at Southern California Public Radio. I had

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Speaker 2: face complaints about signing off with the Spanish pronunciation of

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Speaker 2: my name. I wasn't about to undermine myself as a

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Speaker 2: reporter by revealing my activist past. I had enough of

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Speaker 2: a target on my back. But Juan kept coming back

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Speaker 2: to me. He told me I had a lot in

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Speaker 2: common with Oscar.

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Speaker 8: I always remember you as a Chicano with a notebook,

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Speaker 8: pad and a pencil.

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Speaker 2: I tell Juan about the photograph I found of Oscar

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Speaker 2: and me at the nineteen ninety two Santa Barbara rally.

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Speaker 8: That's the first time I introduced to you guys. Actually

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Speaker 8: and a lot of times. You're just so busy. I

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Speaker 8: introduced you guys at least a half a dozen times,

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Speaker 8: because you guys are like doing news about chicanos mean

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Speaker 8: and I told osher, this is Adolpho. He's one of

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Speaker 8: my He's one of my you know, uh see your Michistas,

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Speaker 8: you know, teaching me the ropes out there. And yeah,

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Speaker 8: of course you guys don't know who each other were.

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Speaker 8: But I want you guys in the years to know

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Speaker 8: and maybe work together someday.

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Speaker 3: I never got to work with Oscar. Back then.

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Speaker 2: I barely said hello, mainly because of my own insecurities.

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Speaker 2: I was still unsure of my place in the movement,

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Speaker 2: and for decades after his death, I was reluctant to

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Speaker 2: go anywhere near his story.

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Speaker 3: But then something happened.

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Speaker 2: That rattled me free of those reservations and brought me

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Speaker 2: back to Oscar. That's after the break. My road back

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Speaker 2: to Oscar was a two step process. First, in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: I did finally give in to Juan Gonzalez's suggestions that

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Speaker 2: I report on Oscar Gomez a little bit. I was

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Speaker 2: covering higher education for KPCC when Juan called me to

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Speaker 2: tell me that UC Davis would be awarding Oscar a

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Speaker 2: posthumous degree. Uh huh, I thought that was something that.

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Speaker 3: Fit in my beat.

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Speaker 2: Here's my report from that time, Sepe that made the

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Speaker 2: case that Gomez helped students graduate. When she petitioned that

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Speaker 2: UC Davis grant him a posthumous bachelor's degree. The university

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Speaker 2: reviewed the request and approved it. In March, Gomis's father,

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Speaker 2: Oscar Senior, says he imagines holding the degree, which represents

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Speaker 2: his son's hard work.

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Speaker 3: I'm Adolf Gusmannopez.

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Speaker 2: But what I still didn't say in the story is

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Speaker 2: that I had also been a Chicano student activist. I

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Speaker 2: believe that journalists are supposed to be out of the

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Speaker 2: frame observed from the sidelines. The story got a lot

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Speaker 2: of traction, and my editor encouraged me to pitch it

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Speaker 2: as a longer project. Still, the idea of revisiting that

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Speaker 2: time in my life made me nervous. And then a

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Speaker 2: year later, the newsroom assigned me to cover the George

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Speaker 2: Floyd protest happening in Long Beach. I've covered plenty of marches.

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Speaker 2: I knew to pack granola bars and wear hard clothed

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Speaker 2: toed shoes in case I got stepped on. I grabbed

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Speaker 2: my recorder, put my press pass around my neck and

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Speaker 2: drove over to Third and Pine in Long Beach. I

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Speaker 2: followed protesters their chance, their anger into the thick of

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Speaker 2: the crowd. There was a line of police officers, protesters

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Speaker 2: yelling into their faces.

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Speaker 3: Away from that.

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Speaker 2: Yards from the intersection, I saw a black man who

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Speaker 2: was kneeling, and I crouched with him.

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Speaker 3: What are you doing?

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Speaker 7: Ah, just people protesting.

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Speaker 2: It's gotten tense here, right, it might not end up peaceful, yeah, but.

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Speaker 3: I mean that's how it is.

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Speaker 7: But I mean I'm doing I'm having a piece of

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Speaker 7: thirstests on my ends. Whoever was acting crazy, man, that's

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Speaker 7: on them.

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Speaker 8: But again, we're trying to having people protests out here.

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Speaker 3: Done crazy, But until your timepiate. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: We stood up and I turned the recorder off and

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Speaker 2: started writing down the man's knee and then I heard

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Speaker 2: a pot and I felt a sudden impact at the

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Speaker 2: bottom of my neck. I brought my hand to my throat.

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Speaker 2: My fingers came back covered in blood.

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Speaker 6: Adolpho Guzman Lopez, KPCC reporter was at the protest in

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Speaker 6: Long Beach. First of all, Adolpho, how are you doing

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Speaker 6: after getting hit in the neck with the projectile.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, I got hit by a rubber bullet at third

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Speaker 9: and Pine. I had been there and I'm okay, I'm breathing.

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Speaker 9: So here's a sequence of events, Filarry Good.

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Speaker 2: I went on air with kpcc's Larry Mantle a couple

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Speaker 2: of hours after it happened. It had been a foam

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Speaker 2: round fired by a Long Beach police officer. I count

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Speaker 2: my blessings that the injury wasn't worse. Police would later

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Speaker 2: say the round that hit me was intended for someone else,

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Speaker 2: but at the time I was just overwhelmed.

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Speaker 9: But you know, it hit me.

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Speaker 6: Boy Udolpho, I'm just so sorry that this happened.

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Speaker 9: What upsets me is I was trying to take care

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Speaker 9: of myself. I've been I've been in these kinds of situations.

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Speaker 9: I've covered protests with, you know, with police officers in

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Speaker 9: Riota Gear. I was trying to be very aware and

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Speaker 9: not being close to the police line. And like I

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Speaker 9: told you, it upsets me. The sequence of events. It

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Speaker 9: was only after I was obviously interviewing somebody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, May twenty twenty changed me. I'd like to say

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Speaker 2: that it was being injured while reporting that did it,

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Speaker 2: or that I suddenly saw how I was inherently part

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Speaker 2: of a larger political struggle. But really it was the

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Speaker 2: physical impact that rattled me. It dislodged fillings in my teeth.

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Speaker 2: For a week, I wore a gaze bandage the size

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Speaker 2: of a credit card over my neck. I stayed home

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Speaker 2: for two months. I had to put myself back together again,

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Speaker 2: and I realized that some of the things I'd been

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Speaker 2: holding on to I didn't need anymore, like the impulse

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Speaker 2: to hold back to hide parts of myself.

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Speaker 6: Dolph, I know this is very fresh and you're probably

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Speaker 6: still in pain from this, but I assume you're going

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Speaker 6: to be following up with this, and your news organization

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Speaker 6: will too.

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Speaker 9: I appreciate that, Larry, and I appreciate you having me on.

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Speaker 9: And you know, I don't like to be the center

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Speaker 9: of the story. I don't like to be the story.

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Speaker 9: But I didn't make me the I didn't make me

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Speaker 9: the story.

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Speaker 2: Growing up Mexican in California at the end of the

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Speaker 2: twentieth century, I'd spent most of my life feeling targeted

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Speaker 2: by anti immigrant politicians and policies, by campaigns to label

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Speaker 2: people like me as less than human. The badge of

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Speaker 2: public radio reporter put a distance between me and all

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Speaker 2: of that. I could report on Mexican American topics, but

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Speaker 2: I always had a sense of remove. I had kept

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Speaker 2: the Mexican and immigrant compartments of me firmly closed to

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Speaker 2: most people, but that Foam round shook something in me.

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Speaker 2: I didn't want to close parts of myself off anymore.

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Speaker 2: Why should I care if people complain about how I

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Speaker 2: pronounced my name, And why should I care if people

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Speaker 2: know that I was a Chicano activist, not just a

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Speaker 2: Mexican American, but a politicized Mexican American. I think it

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Speaker 2: was something a lot of reporters of color were going

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Speaker 2: through after May twenty twenty for their own reasons. But

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Speaker 2: suddenly I didn't have a reason to say no to

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Speaker 2: my friend Juan anymore. I could try to find out

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Speaker 2: what happened to Oscar Gomez.

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Speaker 3: So that's what I'm going to do.

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Speaker 2: I'm taking on Oscar's story, and this time it's not

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Speaker 2: going to be a three minute newscast feature, but a

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Speaker 2: full fledged project, which means diving straight back into the

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Speaker 2: early nineteen nineties Chicano student movement and my own part

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Speaker 2: in it. I'm moving my history into the frame. If

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Speaker 2: I'm going to find out what happened to Oscar, I

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Speaker 2: need to talk to the one person who's spent the

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Speaker 2: most time trying to get answers, Oscar's dad, Oscar Gomes.

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Speaker 2: When I reach him on his cell he says he's

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Speaker 2: excited about my investigation, but he's also hesitant.

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Speaker 3: He doesn't want our phone call recorded.

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Speaker 2: He tells me that there's still a lot of pain

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Speaker 2: and that he's been burned before by people who said

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Speaker 2: they wanted to help. I can't do this investigation without

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Speaker 2: the Gomez family. For one, families have rights to certain

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Speaker 2: documents that the public doesn't. But also, it just wouldn't

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Speaker 2: feel right to me to pursue this story if they

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Speaker 2: didn't want me to. Finally, mister Gomez agrees to let

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Speaker 2: me record an interview.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's just the beginning. This feels like a beginning.

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Speaker 2: Producer Natalie Chanowsky and I meet him at his house.

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Speaker 2: It's a cream colored one story on a corner lot

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Speaker 2: in Baldwin Park in La County. Mister Gomez greets me

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Speaker 2: at the door. He's fully decked out in Dodger blue

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Speaker 2: and so am I I don't wear that. Mister Gomez

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Speaker 2: is a tall man, though you can tell he used

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Speaker 2: to be even taller. He has a deeply lined face

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Speaker 2: and a white bottle brush mustache. He used to be

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Speaker 2: a firefighter, so his family and friends sometimes call him Chief.

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Speaker 2: Juan Gonzalez is already at the house, and Missus Gomez

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Speaker 2: is around two. She's short and wears her dark brown

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Speaker 2: hair and a bob. I feel her wariness, but she's

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Speaker 2: polite and says hello, even though she doesn't want to

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Speaker 2: be recorded. We all sit unfolding chairs in the front yard.

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Speaker 2: Mister Gomez says they've lived in this house since nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy three. He points out six Italian cypress trees that

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Speaker 2: he planted almost fifty years ago, one for each member

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Speaker 2: of his family.

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Speaker 4: With me, my wife, Askar, and Annie and.

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Speaker 3: Eddie.

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Speaker 2: Oscar's younger brother joins us a.

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Speaker 3: Little, how's it going, Eddie?

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Speaker 2: Seeing Eddie is a jolt, because he looks a lot

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Speaker 2: like the photos of young Oscar, except Eddie got to

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Speaker 2: grow to middle age. He says he loved growing up here.

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Speaker 2: Their house was a magnet for the neighborhood kids.

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Speaker 5: We all knew each other. We all played together like

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Speaker 5: they were combothers with a couple of you know, my parents,

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Speaker 5: and it was a safe you know, that street light

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Speaker 5: would come on and would be like time to go home.

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Speaker 2: Missus Gomez chimes in that the grass in the front

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Speaker 2: lawn was always dead because the neighborhood kids used it

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Speaker 2: as a baseball diamond. She once counted as many as

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Speaker 2: seventeen kids buzzing around the front.

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Speaker 5: But a lot of these kids growing up, they didn't

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Speaker 5: have like what we had. I think that's why they

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Speaker 5: enjoyed coming over here so much, because they saw like

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Speaker 5: the love that my mom would give. And I think

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Speaker 5: that's why because we kind of gave him that that love,

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Speaker 5: that kind of what they were missing in their home.

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Speaker 2: I asked mister Gomez to tell me a story about Oscar.

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Speaker 4: As a teenager, he started working real young. I work

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Speaker 4: at Burger King, and his friends would go They knew

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Speaker 4: that he was working there, so they would go in

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Speaker 4: and he gave him all free hamburgers. Everybody showed up. Well,

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Speaker 4: he didn't last long. He got fired, you know.

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Speaker 2: So Missus Gomez gets up and heads into the house.

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Speaker 2: A few minutes later, she comes back with a wooden plaque.

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Speaker 2: Teenage Oscar is smiling at us in a sports coat

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Speaker 2: and skinny tie.

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Speaker 3: Put Oscar over there.

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Speaker 2: Above his picture, I read Baldwin Park High School Scholar

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Speaker 2: Athlete of the Year, and underneath Oscar is a list

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Speaker 2: of his accomplishments Junior class president.

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Speaker 3: Football, baseball.

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Speaker 2: He was a wrestler too in high school. Oh my,

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Speaker 2: they put the plaque on an empty chair next to me.

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Speaker 2: It feels like Oscar's watching.

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Speaker 4: Us, you know, at school. At school, he was always

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Speaker 4: like like admired and and the teachers always liked him,

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Speaker 4: especially if he was sick. They would come here and

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Speaker 4: bring him his home work and and and they never

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Speaker 4: did that for my other kids.

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Speaker 2: Eventually, our conversation turns to why I'm here. The Gomez

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Speaker 2: family already spent years, really painful years, trying to figure

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Speaker 2: out what happened to Oscar, and they've tried to move on.

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Speaker 2: Now I'm asking their permission to let me resume that investigation.

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Speaker 2: Mister Gomez is honest about the toll those years of

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Speaker 2: searching took on the family.

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Speaker 4: It was very it was it was a nightmare for us,

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Speaker 4: our full family. It was a nightmare.

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Speaker 3: It was terrible.

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Speaker 4: So anytime you can redo it again. And like you said,

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Speaker 4: it's not not something that you're looking forward to doing.

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Speaker 4: But like I said in the beginning, I'll do what

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Speaker 4: I can.

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Speaker 3: What is who's tis about? What's got to mean to

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Speaker 3: you mister?

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Speaker 4: For me, it means like number one is, he didn't

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Speaker 4: get justice. He never has gotten a justice after this date.

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Speaker 4: There isn't the same kind of f are done to

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Speaker 4: investigate kids that are unfortunately Chicano kids as other white

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Speaker 4: kids that have money.

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Speaker 2: We've got plans to go up to Sacramento, we got

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Speaker 2: plans to talk to people in Santa Barbara. We want

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Speaker 2: to talk to the Sheriff's department. We're going to talk to,

398
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Speaker 2: you know, people here in La County. But I don't

399
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Speaker 2: know what would you want us to ask look for.

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Speaker 4: They changed They said that he died from blunt force trauma,

401
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 4: and then later the days went by, and then they

402
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:39,400
Speaker 4: started changing the story, you know, and then the desertificate.

403
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Speaker 4: Finally they said that it was well, now we don't

404
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Speaker 4: know what happened to him. So but see, I'm sure

405
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Speaker 4: that something happened because he died in the university's property.

406
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Speaker 4: So they tried to hide everything. They tried to hide.

407
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Speaker 4: They make it quick like nothing happened. I mean, he

408
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 4: was right the state capitol, he was talking the radio

409
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Speaker 4: and all that. He was not afraid to say things

410
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Speaker 4: about the governor. He was not afraid to talk.

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Speaker 2: I don't dismiss this because things like what mister Gomez

412
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:21,080
Speaker 2: is suggesting have happened in this country. I think about

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00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 2: Cointo pro when the US government illegally monitored and infiltrated

414
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 2: the Black Panthers after nine to eleven, the FBI used

415
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Speaker 2: an informant to infiltrate a southern California mosque, and in

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Speaker 2: December twenty twenty one, a news report revealed the LAPD

417
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Speaker 2: hired a marketing firm to track Black Lives Matter protesters' tweets.

418
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Speaker 2: At this point, I'm taking all suspicions seriously.

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Speaker 4: They told me at the time that they were closing

420
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Speaker 4: the case and that if I found evidence, to show

421
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Speaker 4: it to them and they will reopen it. I said,

422
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,120
Speaker 4: that doesn't make sense to me. I'm not a sheriff.

423
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Speaker 4: I'm an investigator. You do that's your job to do.

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Speaker 4: Oh am, I going to do that.

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Speaker 2: As I said, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office initially investigated

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Speaker 2: Oscar's death as a possible homicide. They said his cause

427
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Speaker 2: of death is blunt force trauma, but then they conclude

428
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 2: the manner of death is undetermined. There's a news release

429
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Speaker 2: issued by the Sheriff's office stating that the death is

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00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 2: believed to be accidental to mister Gomez. All of these

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00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:41,200
Speaker 2: different labels don't add up, he says. The year after

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Speaker 2: Oscar's death, he filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff's office

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Speaker 2: for violation of the Gomez family civil rights to a

434
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Speaker 2: proper investigation.

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Speaker 4: So I tried to sue them. I sue them. I

436
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 4: kind of knew that I was going against powerful people, obviously,

437
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 4: the university and the streff altogether, the courts.

438
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 2: My head feels like it's going to burst with mister

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Speaker 2: Gomez's suspicions. He thinks the sheriff's office didn't do their

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Speaker 2: due diligence because Oscar was a Chicano. He thinks UC

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Speaker 2: Santa Barbara and the Sheriff's office covered up Oscar's death

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00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,359
Speaker 2: because they didn't want trouble, and he thinks Oscar may

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00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,679
Speaker 2: have made important people at the state capitol angry for

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Speaker 2: calling out racist laws. I'm feeling the heaviness of the

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Speaker 2: Gomez family's grief, the heaviness of so many unanswered questions

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00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 2: twenty eight years later. But it's late and everyone has

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Speaker 2: to go.

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Speaker 4: Home, and I hope you get to see the game man.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well it.

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Speaker 2: In this season of Imperfect Paradise Forgotten Revolutionary, I go

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Speaker 2: back in time to Oscar and to my own history,

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Speaker 2: to peel back the layers of what happened to both

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Speaker 2: of us.

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Speaker 10: Oscar was a complex person. You know, he had a

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Speaker 10: lot of drive and animal but he also had of

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Speaker 10: There was I think a little bit of a chaotic

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Speaker 10: part to him.

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Speaker 3: Then I know who killed him.

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Speaker 11: Then I know who killed as prepare yourself because it's

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00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,959
Speaker 11: an intense ride. And just when you think you've a

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00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,720
Speaker 11: notion of where this story may be going, bam, you'll

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Speaker 11: jump tracks.

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Speaker 2: That's coming up on Imperfect Paradise the Forgotten Revolutionary. Imperfect

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Speaker 2: Paradise the Forgotten Revolutionary is written, reported, and hosted by

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Speaker 2: me Ambez. The show is a production of Elias Studios.

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00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 2: Antonia se Lehido and Leo g are the executive producers

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00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 2: for Elias Studios. Natalie Chrudnowski is The lead producer and

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00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 2: our associate produce are James Chow and Francisco Avilispino. Editing

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00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 2: by Audrey Quinn, fact checking by Audrey Reagan, Mixing by

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00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 2: our engineer is Scott Kelly. Our music supervisor is Doris

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Speaker 2: Anahi Munos. The music is written, performed, and recorded by

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Speaker 2: Joseph Guinonez at Secondhand Sounds in rialto California. Our website,

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Speaker 2: Lais dot com, is designed by Andy Cheatwood and the

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Speaker 2: digital and marketing teams at Elias Studios. The marketing team

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00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 2: of LaaS Studios created our branding thanks to the team

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00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 2: at Elias Studios, including Taylor Kaufman, Severe, Brara Kristin Hayford,

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00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 2: Kristin Mueller and Rosco, Michael Cosentino, Emily Garren, and Leo

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Speaker 2: g Imperfect Paradise the Forgotten Revolutionary is.

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Speaker 3: A production of Elias Studios.

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00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 2: Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and

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00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 2: Donna Crawford, who believed that quality journalism makes Los Angeles

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Speaker 2: a better place to live. This program is made possible

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Speaker 2: in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private

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Speaker 2: corporation funded by the American people