By Gustavo Arellano, December 10, 2022
In front of a row of mannequins, newly elected Los Angeles Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez pondered the city’s radical past, present and future.
They looked over photocopies of the secret codes of the Magonistas — activists whose writings and organizing helped spark the Mexican Revolution and forever changed the course of Mexican and U.S. history, especially in Southern California.
Hounded by authorities from the two countries, the Magonistas landed in L.A. in the 1900s. They lived and worked and rallied across the city, from skid row to Silver Lake to here in the Fashion District, where Soto-Martinez and Hernandez met me on a chilly Friday morning.