Over the phone, Lena Gonzalez’s voice had the patient but proud tone of a lawyer charged with defending the damned.
Her metaphorical client: The California Latino Legislative Caucus, which the Long Beach-area state senator heads.
At 38 members strong, it’s one of the largest groups of its kind in the United States and has long served as the tip of California’s progressive spear. Members helped transform the state within a generation from a place that birthed the notorious anti-immigrant Proposition 187 into one where undocumented people can apply for driver’s licenses, health insurance, get in-state college tuition and more.
Then the 2024 elections happened.
Latinos shifted toward Donald Trump nationwide in numbers that continue to make headlines and confound Democratic leaders. It happened in deep-blue California too. In the blue-collar, overwhelming Mexican Anaheim precinct where my father lives, support from Joe Biden to…
