Eunisses Hernandez unseated Gil Cedillo. Can she help solve L.A.’s political crisis?
Javier Chacon is the new mayor of the City of Pomona. City Councilman Gil Cedillo is the city’s mayor emeritus, but the city is embroiled in a tense political war. (Photo courtesy of City of Pomona)
Javier Chacon is the new mayor of the City of Pomona. City Councilman Gil Cedillo is the city’s mayor emeritus, but the city is embroiled in a tense political war. (Photo courtesy of City of Pomona)
The two are separated by a century and a half.
When the City Council voted in June to oust Councilman Gil Cedillo, a fellow Hispanic, from his post as mayor, it didn’t have to do with his race.
The city is embroiled in a tense political battle over the future of Pomona, a city more than 100 years old, and the future of its next mayor. Councilman Cedillo is running to be the city’s next mayor and the community is fighting for him to keep his office. Councilman Cedillo, who is running for president, sees himself as a champion of the city. He’s promised to keep the city’s neighborhoods safe and is in favor of building housing for low and middle-income families. Some residents don’t like his politics. And, in his city, being a leader is more than just being a black man.
But the political clash is more than just a conflict between two men with conflicting policies and two different races. It’s also a battle for control of Pomona; a battle just as important as any one fought in U.S. history on that scale.
“There is a lot at stake here because Pomona is such a unique thing. It’s the oldest city in California and it is the only one on the West Coast that is still growing. And this is a city that is trying to deal with the fact that its population is growing. And these are things we haven’t dealt with in 20 years,”
