Pasadena mayor’s keepsake, a coffee can, is a reminder of when his family was undocumented

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo took a break on a warm day, wiped his brow and pointed out the Folgers coffee can in the corner of his office.

He’s told the story many times, but felt it was worth repeating, given recent events.

For years, Gordo’s parents were undocumented. They crossed the border from Zacatecas, Mexico, when he was a young child, settled in Pasadena and raised their family. Gordo’s father was a dishwasher and cook; his mother was a seamstress in a factory that used to be across from City Hall. The family lived in a converted garage.

“Under my parents’ bed was a Folgers coffee can, and in that can was cash, a list of names and phone numbers, copies of birth certificates and identification cards,” said Gordo, who was the oldest child and describes himself as a latchkey kid.

“If my parents didn’t come home, I was to take that can and go knock on the neighbor’s house” and get help, Gordo said.

The can in his office isn’t the original. It’s a replica, and a reminder.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo is the son of immigrant parents.

With federal raids across Southern California, families and neighborhoods have been reeling. People have been afraid to leave the house following arrests at car washes, building supply centers, restaurants, the Garment District and street vending locations.

Gordo knows how they feel.

“We lived in fear, and that’s what’s so offensive about this, and painful, frankly,” he said.

In Pasadena, Gordo said, it hasn’t been clear whether the sweeps are being conducted by legit federal agents or vigilantes. Their cars are unmarked. Their faces are shielded. Their uniforms don’t answer any questions.

In recent days, a man exited a vehicle in Pasadena and pointed a gun at pedestrians before speeding away, emergency lights flashing. At a bus stop, several men were detained, some of whom were on their way to work on construction sites in the post-fire rebuilding of Altadena, according to Gordo.

And the city canceled some swimming and other recreational programs Saturday amid fears of increased federal enforcement activity. Gordo told The Times that masked men with guns and vests had chased several men at Villa Parke.

“They’re creating volatile, dangerous situations,” Gordo told me, saying he fears that bullets will fly through neighborhoods, or that police will arrive on scene and not know what’s what or who’s who.

Even people with legal status are wary, Gordo said, because some of the raids appear to be arbitrary and indiscriminate. As my colleague Rachel Uranga reported, the majority of those arrested in the first 10 days of June in Southern California had no criminal records, despite Trump’s vow to reel in “the worst of the worst.”

“I’m carrying my passport with me,” Gordo said.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo outside City Hall in Pasadena.

“The overreach is stigmatizing an entire swath of our society. Whether you look or sound like an immigrant, in the eyes of others, you are automatically considered an outsider, and that’s morally and legally wrong.”

Gordo’s positions on immigration enforcement haven’t always gotten straight As from immigrant rights advocates. In 2017, L.A. Progressive said Gordo’s coffee can story was compelling, but accused the then-councilman of waffling on a proposed city ordinance prohibiting police contacts with immigration authorities.

The article said Gordo was opposed to local police “having contacts with ICE,” but said on one occasion that he “favored an exception for bad guys.”

Gordo ultimately voted in favor of that ordinance, which passed unanimously, and told me he feels now as he did then. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are here to work hard and create opportunities for their families, he said. Same as his family. But there have to be consequences for “bad actors,” he added, and that’s a criminal justice matter, not an immigration issue.

“If the federal government or our own police believe there is someone who has violated the law, they should address that issue,” Gordo said. “But they should do it respecting the Constitution of the United States, and what the federal government is doing now is missing due process.”

Also missing, says Gordo, is any conversation about immigration reform that would serve the needs of employers and give immigrants a pathway to making even greater contributions.

He recalled that when he was about 10, his family moved back to Mexico temporarily as part of the process of establishing legal status in the U.S., which was made possible under the Carter administration. His father is a U.S. citizen, as was his late mother. Gordo and a sibling became attorneys; another is a doctor and yet another is an educator.

Now, said Gordo, there’s no path to legalization. There’s just this hypocritical system in which there is demand for immigrant labor in many industries, along with demonization of these very contributors.

Pablo Alvarado, a Pasadena resident and executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told me he’s had differences with Gordo over the years. But he thinks the events of the last month have prompted the mayor to more fully embrace his immigrant identity.

“He’s stepping up to the moment and I’m very proud of what he’s doing,” said Alvarado, who has joined Gordo at vigils and demonstrations. “It’s one thing to tell the story of where you came from, and another thing to … confront the powers … behind these unlawful ICE operations. … I think he’s been fearless.”

Gordo told me he visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 18, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra), to check on arrestees. They were denied entry, but Gordo met a distraught woman from Pomona who was not being allowed to deliver heart medication to her husband.

Gordo offered his services as an attorney and was allowed entry along with the woman. He said he later learned that the husband had been arrested during his lunch break on a landscaping job, had been in the country 22 years with no arrest record and was in the process of obtaining a green card.

Gordo said that when he and the woman entered the detention center, the husband and wife were separated by a glass partition.

“She was crying and shaking,” Gordo said. “He was telling her it was all going to be okay. He was comforting her, and trying to smile.”

The partition had a small opening. They couldn’t fit their hands through it, but Gordo watched as the pair hooked their pinky fingers.

“All she could muster was, ‘I told you,’” Gordo said. “‘I told you not to go to work.’”

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Source link