Written by Peter Jamison for the L.A. Times
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti introduces himself to nation at DNC: ‘I’m just your average Mexican American Jewish Italian’
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti held up his city as a model of progressive policy-making at the Democratic National Convention Thursday in a speech that was as much a forthright self-introduction to a national audience as it was an argument on behalf of his party’s presidential nominee.
Consigned to an unglamorous, early-evening speaking slot just before a performance from singer-songwriter Carole King, Garcetti used his five minutes on stage to speak at length about his family history, describing his Italian-Mexican grandfather’s journey across the U.S. border as an infant and the persecution faced by his maternal ancestors, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia.
“I’m just your average Mexican-American Jewish Italian,” Garcetti said. A Rhodes scholar who speaks fluent Spanish, he liberally sprinkled his address with Spanish phrases.
Garcetti advocated briefly for Hillary Clinton, saying the Democratic presidential nominee would direct federal resources to American cities and make “the biggest investment in infrastructure since World War II.”
