"Nativo Lopez, The Ethno-Grifter"

Nativo Lopez is one of the organizers of the May 1 illegal immigration marches. He's also with Hermandad Mexicana Nacional and he's the president of the Mexican-American Political Association (MAPA). And, he was kicked off the Santa Ana School Board for his views on bilingual education; one parent even said he wanted to make Spanish the official language of California.

And:

Apparently trying to get on camera was not Nativo's only motive to be in Los Angeles that day. Turns out he was also having people collect money from the poor immigrants, many of them being told this was to help those who may lose their jobs. In all, over $5,000 was raised from the people giving all they had out of their pockets. Of course Nativo was then given the money... After intense grilling, he finally broke down and admitted the money was going to be used to "reimburse" the costs of promoting the May 1st events. So basically he was trying to recoup the costs of promoting the event by raking money from the working poor.

One wonders what his supporters - such as Ezra Klein, the AP, and Think Progress or the Los Angeles Times - will do about this. Will they jettison "Larry" (his real name), or will they just let it blow over and then continue helping him with his work?

Immigration · Sat, 05/06/2006 - 10:13 · · Importance: 1