  Art Torres (left, 2019) and Gloria Molina (right, 2007) |
Torristas and Molinistas is a term used to describe a political feud in Los Angeles, California, in the last part of the 20th century. The term was akin to the Montagues and Capulets or the Hatfields and McCoys, a highly localized internecine feud. The term gets its name from the antipathy between Art Torres, Gloria Molina, and their respective allies.
The "Eastside" of Los Angeles is a general reference to those neighborhoods, east of the Los Angeles River, that are predominantly Mexican American like Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Lincoln Heights. [1] The Eastside is distinct from the unincorporated East Los Angeles. Ed Roybal had represented the area in the Los Angeles City Council, and as a Member of Congress, but Mexican Americans had little elected representation. In 1972 Richard Alatorre was elected to the Assembly, and in 1974 Art Torres was also elected. This gave the two men a power base in "Eastside" (and Latino) politics in Los Angeles. [2]
The roots of the conflict came from decisions made by the eastside Torres–Alatorre political machine after the redistricting due to the 1981 apportionment. [3] Torres and Alatorre decided that Torres would run for the 24th State Senate district against Alex P. Garcia. Richard Polanco would in turn run for the 56th Assembly District being vacated by Torres. Assemblyman Matthew Martinez would challenge John Rousselot in the 30th Congressional District and Esteban Torres would run in the 34th Congressional District. [4] Molina was a former aide to Art Torres, Willie Brown, and had also worked for Jimmy Carter. Molina approached Torres and Alatorre about running in the 56th Assembly District, but was told that Polanco was the chosen candidate. [4] Molina ran anyway, [5] defeating Polanco, and a rift grew in Eastside politics. [3] In doing so, she established her own power base and a path for other Chicanas to follow her. [4]
The 1985 resignation of Los Angeles District 14 councilman Art Snyder made way for the first Latino, Alatorre, to represent the district – the first Latino since Roybal. [6] In 1987, Molina defeated Alatorre ally, Larry Gonzalez, in the race for the District 1 city council race. [7] There was an open feud between Alatorre and Molina on the city council. [8] In February 1991, Molina was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the First Supervisorial District, and defeating her former mentor, Art Torres. [3] [9]
Some of the people who found themselves in one camp or another include Lucille Roybal-Allard, Xavier Becerra, [2] Richard Polanco [10] and Hilda Solis. The internecine character of this feud came out in the 2001 race for mayor of Los Angeles, which pitted Becerra against Antonio Villaraigosa. [11] [12]
The supporters of Torres and Alatorre were the Torristas, and Molina's supporters are known as Molinistas. [8]
Boyle Heights, historically known as Paredón Blanco, is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located east of the Los Angeles River. It is one of the city's most notable and historic Chicano/Mexican-American communities and is known as a bastion of Chicano culture, hosting cultural landmarks like Mariachi Plaza and events like the annual Día de los Muertos celebrations.
Lucille Elsa Roybal-Allard is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1993 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she first entered Congress in 1993. Her district, numbered as the 33rd until 2003, the 34th from 2003 to 2013, and the 40th from 2013 to 2023, included much of southern Los Angeles, as well as several eastern suburbs, such as Downey, Bell and Bell Gardens. On December 20, 2021, Roybal-Allard announced her retirement at the end of the 117th Congress.
East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communities comprising its primary service area and an enrollment of 35,403 students, ELAC had the largest student body campus by enrollment in the state of California as of 2018. It was situated in northeastern East Los Angeles before that part of unincorporated East Los Angeles was annexed by Monterey Park in the early 1970s. ELAC offers associate degrees and certificates.
The Los Angeles City Council is the lawmaking body of Los Angeles, California, United States. It has 15 members from 15 council districts that are spread throughout the city.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States.
Jesús Gloria Molina was an American politician who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council, the California State Assembly, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Edward Ross Roybal was a Mexican-American politician. A Democrat, he was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1949 to 1962 and of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1993.
Richard G. Polanco is a former California State Senate Majority leader and member of the California State Assembly. He is known for his significant efforts in increasing Latino representation in the California Legislature.
Richard Alatorre is an American politician who was a member of the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1985 and the Los Angeles City Council from 1985 to 1999, the second Latino to serve on the council in the 20th century. Now a lobbyist, he has been called "one of the most influential Latino politicians in the state".
Lloyd Monserratt, was an American political activist and Director of Constituent Services for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, where he trained a number of future Latino politicians. While studying at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1988, he was elected student council president. When he was subsequently ruled ineligible to hold office, the resulting campus unrest and demonstrations made national headlines and led to charges of endemic racial discrimination at the California public university. At the time of his death, Monserratt was chief-of-staff for Los Angeles City Councilmember Nick Pacheco.
The 2001 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on April 10, 2001, with a run-off election on June 5, 2001. Incumbent mayor Richard Riordan was prevented from running for a third term because of term limits. In the election to replace him, then-City Attorney James Hahn defeated Antonio Villaraigosa, the former speaker of the California State Assembly.
James A. Garfield High School is a year-round public high school founded in 1925 in East Los Angeles, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, California. At Garfield, 38% of students participate in advanced placement programs. Approximately 93% of the student population comes from disadvantaged backgrounds with limited financial or social opportunities. The school maintains a comprehensive minority admission policy with a 100% minority population.
Mike Hernandez is an American politician and activist, who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council for the 1st district from 1991 to 2001, despite an arrest for cocaine possession in 1997 that led to a guilty plea. A member of the Democratic Party, Hernandez became known for his work in the Latino community. He organized students to participate in the Chicano Moratorium, helped register over 25,000 new Latino voters in one year, and was the Founding Chair of Plaza de la Raza Head Start Inc.
Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement, theory, and praxis that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicanas and the Chicana/o community in the United States. Chicana feminism empowers women to challenge institutionalized social norms and regards anyone a feminist who fights for the end of women's oppression in the community.
Los Angeles's 1st City Council district is one of the fifteen districts in the Los Angeles City Council. It is currently represented by Democrat Eunisses Hernandez since 2022, after she beat previous councilmember Gil Cedillo that year.
Peter Frank Schabarum was an American football player and politician who was a member of the California State Assembly and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The 2016 United States Senate election in California was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2018 California gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the Governor of California, concurrently with elections for the rest of California's executive branch, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Governor Jerry Brown was ineligible to run for re-election for a third consecutive term due to term limits from the Constitution of California. The race was between the incumbent Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and businessman John H. Cox, a Republican, who qualified for the general election after placing first and second in the June 5, 2018, primary election.
A special election was held on June 6, 2017, to elect the member of the United States House of Representatives for California's 34th congressional district. A special open primary election was held on April 4, 2017.
The 2022 Los Angeles elections were held on June 7, 2022. Voters elected candidates in a nonpartisan primary, with runoff elections scheduled for November 8, 2022. Eight of the fifteen seats in the City Council were up for election while three of the seven seats in the LAUSD Board of Education were up for election. The seat of Mayor of Los Angeles was up for election due to incumbent Eric Garcetti's term limit. The seats of the Los Angeles City Controller and the Los Angeles City Attorney were also up for election, as their incumbents, Mike Feuer and Ron Galperin, were running for mayor and California State Controller respectively.