Xavier Becerra

WASHINGTON —  In presidential politics, on Capitol Hill and in the voting booths of Los Angeles, the Latino age seems to be dawning--at long last. In 1996, newly mobilized Latino voters, enraged by Republican nativism, ended the GOP’s lock on the Sunbelt by tilting both California and Florida into the Democratic column. In 1997, Latino voters outnumbered African Americans in an L.A. mayoral election for the first time in a century. And in the House of Representatives, the Hispanic Caucus, energized by the addition of Dornan-slayer Rep. Loretta Sanchez, is currently leading the battle to restore benefits to legal immigrants.

Taking center stage in all these arenas is Los Angeles Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra--new chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the first-ever Latino member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Only 39, Becerra projects an earnest boyishness that makes him seem a decade younger. But then, Becerra is the Golden Boy of Latino politics: a graduate of Stanford Law School, married to a graduate of Harvard Medical School, Carolina Reyes, who teaches at George Washington University Medical School. A deputy to California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, Becerra was elected in 1990 to the California Assembly, where he compiled a notably liberal record on issues ranging from environment protections to the availability of AIDS medication. When 15-term L.A. Rep. Edward R. Roybal chose not to run for reelection in 1992, the one-term assemblyman upset veteran L.A. school board member Leticia Quezada in the contest for Roybal’s old seat.

Becerra’s district, which runs from Hollywood to Highland Park to Boyle Heights, is a classic L.A. caldo--heavily Latino, heavily diverse and heavily immigrant. Coming to the Capitol just as the anti-immigrant campaign was heating up, Becerra soon became one of the most voluble and constant defenders of immigrant rights in the House.

Blessed with the safest of districts, Becerra could settle in at Ways and Means as a long-term advocate for inner-city and minority interests, in the mode of Harlem’s Charles B. Rangel, the committee’s ranking Democrat. But with the Latino share of the L.A. electorate finally taking off, Becerra’s political horizons may not be confined to one congressional district, though his political agenda may prove to be a stumbling block in a city where political power requires the construction of a multiracial coalition.

For Becerra has emerged, particularly since passage of Prop. 187 in 1994, as one of L.A.’s, and the nation’s, most tenacious apostles of Latino causes and Latino-ism. “He’s one of the brightest members of the House,” a Democratic congressional colleague avers, “and one of the more rigid.” Other colleagues respond that Latino-ism--even rigid Latino-ism--is precisely what’s needed from the chair of the Hispanic Caucus at a moment when the basic rights of immigrants--a majority of them Latino--are under attack.

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Question: How do you assess the president’s performance in the battle to reinstate benefits to legal immigrants?

Answer: You have to be critical of the president to the degree that we’re in this mess because the president signed the [welfare] bill. The president did not have to sign; he could have vetoed and asked [to remove] some of the provisions that we are now trying to correct. And that’s not just legal immigrants: There is the issue of having provided no money for welfare-to-work; the problem of cutting off food stamps to families too quickly. So there are reasons to criticize. But, at the same time, he did stand up [in negotiating the budget deal]; he did say, “Let’s put some of that money back where it belongs.”

Q: Is restoring benefits to legal immigrants priority one for the Hispanic Caucus? Are there other priorities?

A: It’s among the top three. There’s also the issue of another presidential pledge--to have an administration that reflects America. We’re trying to do what we can to help the president achieve that goal. For the first time in the White House, there are two very qualified, capable Latinos serving at senior-level posi- tions--the director of the office of intergovernmental affairs and the director of public liaison.

And then, there’s making the caucus as cohesive as possible. Quite honestly, it’s the first priority for the caucus, because if we don’t have a cohesive caucus, we won’t be able to push for greater consideration when it comes to appointments, or correcting the cuts to legal immigrants.

Q: Republicans argue that Latinos lean right on cultural questions; Democrats argue that Latinos lean left on economic issues and civil rights. Then there’s a third factor, which is that Pete Wilson has driven Latinos into the Democrats’ arms.

A: I think it’s [factor] No. 3. Latinos are very family-oriented. A family that works close to minimum wage is very concerned about getting decent wages. A family that is working for under $25,000, with a couple of kids, is certainly interested in health insurance. A family that is low-income is certainly concerned about passing on values to a child, whether it’s religious values or otherwise. Family is a strong bond, and whether that favors the Republicans or the Democrats, it depends.

But what drives [them] is something like a Pete Wilson, because that gives [them] a reason to go from one camp to the other.

John F. Kennedy drove people to the Democratic Party. It would not be uncommon in my generation to walk into a home where, above the fireplace mantle, you’d see the crucifix of Jesus Christ, the portrait of the Virgin Mary and a portrait of John F. Kennedy. The first time I had a chance to sit down and chat with President Clinton, I told him, “Mr. President, there’s a generation now that still has the crucifix of Jesus Christ, the portrait of the Virgin Mary. But this newer generation may not have been raised on John F. Kennedy, so that portrait is empty. And right now, [in response to] Pete Wilson, there is a longing to be able to put something, a photo, in that frame.”

That’s still the case. I don’t think the Democrats have said, “We’ve got the photo, the candidates, you will wish to place in that frame.”

Q: Los Angeles just went through an election where, for the first time, the Latino share of the electorate was larger than the African American share. If there were a Latino candidate for mayor in the year 2001, though, it might be difficult to build a coalition like the one that brought Tom Bradley to power--that kind of coalition-building isn’t happening. How would you construct a coalition that might have the Latino community at the core but could reach across town?

A: I think it will happen, because we have no choice in L.A. but to see it happen.

The Asian community and Latino community will find they have so much in common. Look at the geography of L.A. County. See where you find the large pockets of Latino and Asian residents: Monterey Park, Alhambra, Rosemead, Chinatown, the Echo Park area. There’s a great deal of contact there. This whole anti-immigrant fever has really brought the two groups together on many occasions. And that will continue to bind us, because once a lot of these immigrants become mainstream and part of American citizenry, they’ll still experience much of the same.

Q: But in testimony on the L.A. living-wage ordinance, small businessmen who spoke against it were disproportionately Asian. And workers who spoke for it were predominantly Latino.

A: How old were most the people who spoke against it from the business community?

Q: They weren’t kids.

A: Talk to the younger generation. This won’t be forged overnight.

The Latino-black issue, that’s where I see it can easily be colliding or coalescing. It’s going to take a great deal of frank discussion. We’ve got numbers. They’ve got history. They’ve got experience. We’ve got numbers. They have established institutions. We’ve got numbers. And we’re beginning to also have a lot of the same institutions, some of that fabric.

One of the things the African American community has that has enriched it so and allowed it to move forward with a single voice, to the degree that a people can have a single voice, is the black church. The black church is so important.

We have a Catholic church. It’s not ours, but still, the vast majority of Latinos are Catholic. And I think Cardinal Mahony and others within the church are beginning to understand this: The Catholic church lives and dies by Latinos. Forget, for now, the issue of abortion, and some of these other issues: We are talking just about how to work together and move forward.

The Catholic church will never be the same as the black church. But what it can be is that vehicle, a safe house, where we can turn to try to come together. I don’t see any other institution or vehicle that can take us there as quickly.

[Thanks to AFL-CIO president] John Sweeney, I think labor is interested in establishing a coalition with Latinos. They still haven’t quite understood they have to reflect their membership [in their leadership and positions]. So that will take a little time. The church is set in its precepts. Labor is dug into its politics. But just as we’re Catholics, we’re also laborers.

And the other communities--the Jewish community, the progressive white community--I think you’re going to find, for many of the reasons that Latinos would be able to coalesce with Asians or blacks, that we will be able to develop a coalition [with them]--like Rep. [Edward] Roybal had, way back when Bradley’s and all those coalitions were building. The immigration issue is very important to lot of these communities. [For] the Russian Jews who have come here, it’s important, though many are refugees, so it’s a little different. Immigrant issues, civil-rights issues, in many Jewish communities, there is still power [in those issues].

Q: Are you interested in the mayor’s job?

A: I’d love to see the day, and I think it will come soon, when we have candidates who have a chance of winning and who reflect Los Angeles. Latinos in Los Angeles are fully 40% of the population. I’d love to see us speak more as one voice, as Angelenos but of Latino descent.

It used to be you could go months and not see us in the corporate boardrooms, in positions of influence, in city government. That’s changing, [but] even now, if you walk out of City Hall or the large corporations downtown, what’s inside those rooms is much different from what’s outside the doors. I don’t want to sound like the only thing that concerns me is Latinos. [But just] as it’s so important that the caucus become a cohesive bunch, Latinos must become a cohesive bunch--to the degree that we can get 30 million Americans to be cohesive.

Q: Let’s talk about L.A. in a non-ethnically compartmentalized way. What do you see as the main challenge facing this city?

A: How do we accept the responsibility of being the new gateway to America? New York had that title for ages, and I think we’ve taken it--not taken, it’s gravitated our way. We’re not just the gateway for people. We’re the gateway for commerce. It’s coming through our gates a lot faster than it is through New York’s. Trade is what is driving this economy and allowing us to have the longest expansion in our history. And if you take a look, California is the heartbeat of export-import in America and will continue to be.

Q: How do you feel about extending NAFTA?

A: I’m not interested in a race to the bottom. If I were to write a trade deal, I’d try to incentivize my trading partner to reach me, not reach a deal that says, I need to go down to where you are.

I don’t want to sound like I’m saying we’re better than these other countries--[just that] in most cases, we have some of the best environmental and labor laws and protections on the books. Actually, there are a lot of European countries that have better laws than we do. But we are chiefly thinking of trading with developing countries that have not yet reached our level of protection for the environment and for the rights of working men and women. I’m hoping we can lift them.

Q: Is there much back-and-forth between the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus? Is that caucus a kind of a model for what you’d like the Hispanic Caucus to become?

A: We are working together on some issues, for example, [authorizing sampling for undercounted populations in] the census. We did a lot of work on welfare issues. We’ve had discussions, a lot with Patsy Mink [D-Ha.], who is the chair of the Asian Pacific caucus, to try to bring in a greater number of people behind the caucuses.

For me, what’s important is that the Hispanic Caucus have a cohesion about it. When [House Minority Leader] Dick Gephardt and [House Speaker} Newt Gingrich look at the Hispanic Caucus, and they’re looking at a bill that is going to come down to the wire, with just a few votes making the difference, I want them to fret about where the Hispanic Caucus is. Because then our 15 to 20 votes can make a difference.