Welcome to Maywood , Mexico
by Roger Hedgecock
06/25/2010
Boasting a population that is 97% Hispanic, more than half foreign
born, and 40% illegal, the Los Angeles County, Calif., incorporated
city of Maywood has achieved the Reconquista goal. It is now as lawless
and chaotic as any place in Mexico . Maywood is a warning to every city
and town in America .
The Maywood City Council announced this week that after years of
radical policies, corruption and scandal, the city was broke and all
city employees would be laid off and essential city services contracted
out to neighboring cities or to L.A. County government.
How did this happen? Until recently, Maywood was the model for "brown power" politics.
Maywood was the first California city with an elected Hispanic City
Council, one of the first "sanctuary" cities for illegal aliens, the
first city to pass a resolution calling for a boycott of Arizona after
that state passed a law to enforce federal immigration laws, the first
California city to order its police department not to enforce state
laws requiring drivers to have licenses to drive, the first American
city to call on Congress to grant amnesty to all illegals.
Council meetings were conducted in Spanish. Maywood was the leader in
the peaceful, democratic achievement of the La Raza goal to take power
in the U.S.
The City of Maywood started out quite differently. Back after World War
II, Maywood was a booming blue-collar town with good jobs, a
multi-ethnic suburb of Los Angeles.
On the 25th anniversary in 1949 of Maywood’s incorporation as a city,
the town celebrated with a beard-growing contest, a rodeo, and
wrestling matches in City Park. Chrysler operated an assembly plant
there until 1971.
But the early 1970s saw these industrial jobs in aerospace, auto and
furniture manufacturing, and food processing evaporate under the
pressure of higher taxes, increased local and state regulation, and the
attraction of cheaper land and cheaper labor elsewhere.
The multi-ethnic Maywood of the post-war years was transformed in the
’80s and ’90s by wave after wave of Hispanic immigrants, many of them
illegal.
In August 2006, a "Save Our State" anti-illegal immigration rally in
Maywood drew hundreds of protesters—but a larger number of defenders of
illegal immigration. The pro-illegal protesters carried signs which
read "We are Indigenous! The ONLY owners of this Continent!" and
"Racist Pilgrims Go Home" and "All Europeans are Illegal Here."
According to newspaper reports at the time, objectors to illegal aliens
were subject to physical attacks. A 70-year-old man was "slashed," a
woman attacked, and cars vandalized. Pro-illegal demonstrators raised
the Mexican flag at the U.S. Post Office.
The illegal population and their sympathizers became increasingly
radicalized. Elections to the City Council saw "assimilationist"
incumbent Hispanic council members ousted by La Raza supporting radical
challengers.
For years, the Maywood City Council authorized police checkpoints to
stop drunk driving. Drivers without licenses had their cars impounded.
Illegals in California cannot get drivers licenses. By 2005, the number
of such impounds were in the hundreds.
A community campaign was launched forcing the City Council to suspend the checkpoints.
Cars were still being impounded whenever a police traffic-violation
stop resulted in a driver without a license. Felipe Aguirre, a
community activist with Comite Pro-Uno, an "immigration service
center," coordinated a new campaign against any impounds. He was
elected in 2005 to the City Council. He is the mayor of Maywood today.
Aguirre and a new majority of the council dismantled the Traffic
Department. Illegals were given overnight-parking permits and impounds
stopped. You didn't need a license to drive in Maywood. The Los Angeles
Times wrote glowingly of this "progress" in a story