Tag Archives: gustavo arellano

Gustavo Arellano wrote a great post over at the O.C. Weekly’s Navel Gazing blog wondering what Republican Santa Ana mayoral candidate Charles Hart meant when he stated in his press release that “I am running for Mayor to help restore Santa Ana to its greatness.”

Here are a few excerpts from Arellano’s post.  Be sure to click here to read the whole post!  In the post Arellano cites numerous instances of old-time Usual Suspects decrying the condition of Santa Ana – back in the same time Hart is referring to!

​”I was born and raised in Santa Ana,” Hart writes on his campaign website, “and I remember what Santa Ana was like when the streets were safe enough for kids to play on, our downtown was a fun place for families to visit and shop on the weekend, and the schools were considered a great place to get a good education.”

Hmm…no families shop anymore in downtown SanTana, Charles? Go to Calacas on Fourth Street right now, and betcha it’ll be filled with families. And the city’s streets emptied of kiddies running around? When?

What Hart really means is that he remembers whenMexicans weren’t around in the numbers that they are today, and thinks those days were the ones when his hometown was “great.” He can deny my analysis all he wants, but the fact is Hart is merely repeating the mantra others have maintained for decades, a mantra that upon close study reveals that the eternal aching of city leaders and others for SanTana’s supposedly glorious past is actually a yearning for a white-man’s town.

Is SanTana perfect? No. Can it improve? Of course. But I’d argue the city is already great,Register commentators (and even some pendejos here) notwithstanding, and can only get better. For Hart and others to cling to a revanchist agenda shows that either they don’t know their SanTana history and thus have no idea what they wish for, or just don’t like living in a city with too many Mexicans, just like the city’s bigoted residents of yore.