{"id":28834,"date":"2022-10-11T22:41:35","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T02:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=28834"},"modified":"2022-10-12T12:44:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T16:44:01","slug":"we-all-deserve-better-city-officials-caught-on-recording-making-anti-indigenous-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/10\/11\/we-all-deserve-better-city-officials-caught-on-recording-making-anti-indigenous-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We all deserve better’: City officials caught on recording making anti-Indigenous comments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\u2018We all deserve better\u2019: City officials caught on recording making anti-Indigenous comments\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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The first and only Native council member in California\u2019s largest city is calling on three colleagues to step down for making racist and offensive statements …<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Indianz.Com Video: \u2018We all deserve better\u2019: City officials caught on recording making anti-Indigenous comments<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
‘We all deserve better’<\/div>\r\n
City officials caught on recording making anti-Indigenous comments<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, October 11, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe first and only Native council member in California’s largest city is calling on his colleagues to step down for making racist and offensive statements about Indigenous people, African Americans and members of the LGBTQ community.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMitch O’Farrell<\/a>, a citizen of the Wyandotte Nation<\/a>, said the resignations of council members Nury Martinez<\/a>, Gil Cedillo<\/a> and Kevin de Le\u00f3n<\/a> were the only way for the city of Los Angeles to move forward from the “horrific” comments the politicians made about numerous people and groups in the community.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“I don’t see any way past this,” O’Farrell, who represents District 13 on the council, said on Monday<\/a> as the city was observing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday he helped designate<\/a>.\r\n

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Dancers at the inaugural Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration in Los Angeles, California, on October 8, 2018.\r\nAs the first and only Native member of the city council in Los Angeles, Mitch O’Farrell helped designate the holiday. Photo: Luke Harold<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nMartinez has stepped down from her role as president of the city council<\/a> after The Los Angeles Times reported on the derogatory statements<\/a> she made in the presence of fellow elected leaders and a political figure in the city. She has announced she is taking a leave of absence but O’Farrell said that wasn’t enough.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“I don’t see how that presence, continuing in city leadership, is going to allow the city to move forward to heal, to move past this, to reconcile,” O’Farrell said on Monday.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“I just think that that presence will continue to be an obstacle if it is still there, in the halls of power at Los Angeles City Hall,” O’Farrell continued.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“Angelenos deserve better,” he said. “We all deserve better.”\r\n

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The turmoil comes at a moment of imminent change, with voters set to usher in a new mayor, city attorney and city controller and several new members of the L.A. City Council in the Nov. 8 election. https:\/\/t.co\/KfQqcgTZf6<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nThe Los Angeles Times obtained a recording of a discussion in which Martinez and Cedillo spoke derisively of Indigenous people who come to the city from Mexico. According to the recording shared by the paper<\/a> and by other sources<\/a> a day before Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the two council members made negative comments about their physical appearance.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“I see a lot of little short dark people,” Martinez said of the Indigenous residents in a certain part of Los Angeles.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n Cedillo then chimed in with a remark using the Spanish language. He confirmed that the comments were in reference to people from Oaxaca<\/a>, a region in Mexico well known for its large population of Mixtecs, Mazatecos, Mixe and other Indigenous peoples.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“Puro<\/em> Oaxacans,” said Cedillo, who represents District One on the council.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nCedillo further spoke negatively in regard to Kevin de Le\u00f3n<\/a>, another council member whose mother was born in Guatemala, a Central American country known for its large Maya and Indigenous representation. She later migrated to California from Mexico. \r\n

<\/p>\r\n“Not even like Kevin — little ones,” Cedillo said, comparing his colleague to other Indigenous people, based on their physical appearances.\r\n

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