Two tales from a passionate L.A. storyteller

A memorial service was held this week in East Los Angeles for veteran L.A. Times reporter and columnist George Ramos, who died last month. At the service, journalists, elected officials and others praised Ramos for his pioneering coverage of the Latino community, which included being among the recipients of a Pulitzer Prize for a series on how Latinos were changing L.A. Below are two Ramos columns cited during the memorial.

This is one in a series of L.A. Now posts highlighting examples of memorable storytelling from the archives of the Los Angeles Times. More examples of such journalism can be found at Twitter by searching #longreads and #lalongreads. Do you have a suggestion for a story from The Times' archives that we should feature? Send us a note at metrodesk@latimes.com

Bashing Illegal Immigrants Is on Today's Menu

Dec. 14, 1992

There's a lot of immigrant-bashing going on these days. L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich blames them for the county's budget woes. Mayoral hopeful Julian Nava gets booed for suggesting that resident immigrants be allowed to vote in city elections. Leticia Quezada got much the same reaction when she proposed the same for L.A. school elections.

Many Latinos also are jumping on the bandwagon. In a recent front page Times story, a majority of 2,800 Latinos surveyed in the United States by the Latino National Political Survey think there are too many immigrants -- illegal and otherwise -- coming to this country.

While I am outraged by this point of view, I'm not surprised by it.

My mother, the daughter of an illegal immigrant, has been saying much the same thing for several years.

At family gatherings over holidays like Thanksgiving, Mom likes to occasionally gauge the state of the world by asking me questions that she knows will provoke. Like, "Well, what do you think about 'Slick Willie?' "

Naturally, I take the bait and the debate is on. This time, no matter how much I talked about the President-elect, Mom wouldn't give up. She took special delight in repeating the derisive nickname given to Bill Clinton by his detractors.

I pointed out that she was fighting a losing cause: Mom was outvoted on Election Day by her two sons, who thought Slick Willie deserved a chance to run the country.

"Well, let me tell you one thing," Mom retorted, not giving an inch.

The discussions are fun because Mom is my version of grass-roots America. She is of a generation that struggled in the Depression, grew up during World War II and shaped the ideals and aspirations instilled in baby boomers like me. When I wonder about the Silent Majority, I think of Mom.