Insights on Villaraigosa

19 November 2006 |permalink | email article

A must-read article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Daily News describes Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s rise from poverty to political power.

By Tony Castro, a former Herald-Examiner columnist and now a Daily News feature writer, the well researched piece offers a compelling portrait of the charismatic Latino politician, his abusive family childhood, passionate defense of his mother and a subsequent attempt to reinvent his identity.

As chroniclers of the mayor have invariably come to discover, Castro writes, “sometimes what comes out of the Los Angeles mayor’s mouth – particularly when it’s about his past – and what ultimately turns out to be true are not always entirely the same.”

Villaraigosa, now in his second year in office, “is catching himself in some of these inconsistencies - those embellishments of the past or his tendency to exaggerate or bolster his importance – flaws that can often simply be attributed to a faulty memory or political hyperbole.”

“In such a rocky upbringing, some experts say, lies the seed for the drive, ambition and yes, even the indulgent bravado behind the self-invented Villaraigosa. as well as many others in public life.” Castro cites two psychologists and a psychiatrist. The latter notes there are strong similarities between Villaraigosa’s early childhood experiences and those of President Clinton.

On a recent trade mission to China, where, after climbing the Great Wall of China, Villaraigosa is quoted in the article as saying:

“I’ve done my cardio, baby. When I get back to the hotel, I’m doing to lift some weights.” And then adding, “I’ve been climbing mountains all my life. I can climb the Great Wall.”

Kevin Roderick editor of LA Observed has an article about Villaraigosa in the new issue of Los Angeles magazine, which includes an account of how he was affected during his formative years.

These two pieces offer fresh insight on Villaraigosa’s troubled past, enigmatic city leadership and well noted ambition to vault to a higher level in American politics, either in Sacramento or Washington – and sooner than later.

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