Villaraigosa y Fox

What a weird scene at the kick off of the Los angeles Speaker Series. There was so much racial tension in the room. Without going into my own take on the night, i wanted to commend the mayor who during his welcoming of the ex president encountered a heckler. Well not really. He was in the middle of his welcome speech. He would repeat some of his key words in spanish like friend - amigo, extraordinary -extraordinario and so on. An older anglo man yelled out "In English" to which the mayor replied "i did. Hey I'm bilingual. This is Los Angeles." He was received by all the latinos in the house applauding...my mother and myself included. What was so weird was that a lot of the white folks in the room acted offended and whispered a bunch of crap. Hello, he was introducing the ex-Mexican President. Instead of being viewed as cultured and respectful some lame-o had the nerve to criticize his billingual address. What a shame. There were also mexican protesters in the audience who voiced there dissatisfaction with the ex presidents work or lack of work. it was a heavy scene but I was glad to be there and hear about the progress of our neighbors to the south as well as the story of an immigrant who became president of Mexico. Last year the two speakers i enjoyed the most were ex president Clinton who spoke of his recent work for AIDS foundations and the Queen of Jordan. I'm really looking forward to seeing Maya Angelou next month. I know why the caged bird sings had a profound effect on me as a teenager. She's bad ass.

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