Los Angeles Elects First Latino Mayor in 130 Years

The city of Los Angeles has elected its first Latino mayor in over a century. Antonio Villaraigosa, a son of a Mexican immigrant, defeated incumbent Mayor Jim Hahn.

Villaraigosa took about 59 percent of votes against 41 percent for Hahn, who beat Villaraigosa in a bitter 2001 election. Turnout was low across the city at about 30 percent. Hahn conceded shortly after midnight in a call to his opponent.

Villaraigosa said his victory was a moment of unity for a city where Latinos make up 46 percent of the population. At a victory party, he told supporters "I will never forget where I came from, and I will always believe in the people of Los Angeles."

Villaraigosa dropped out of high school in East LA before paying his way through law school and rising to become the speaker of the state assembly. Hahn, on the other hand, comes from a powerful political dynasty and has been mayor since 2001. With last night's defeat, Hahn became the first Los Angeles mayor to lose a reelection bid in over three decades and the first to be denied a second term since 1933.

Villaraigosa's victory will make him Los Angeles' first Latino mayor since Cristobel Aguilar in 1872 when the city was a frontier town emerging from its days as a Mexican settlement. Los Angeles is now the nation's second largest city.

* Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. Guerra is also an associate professor at LMU in the departments of Chicano studies and political science.

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