End of Latino-labor era?

In last week's Dissonance column in LA Weekly, Marc Cooper lambasted the County Federation of Labor's endorsement of Jim Hahn over longtime labor activist Antonio Villaraigosa in the mayor's race. It was "cold, hard lack of principle and guts" that effectively ended "the fairy tale of an ascendant Latino-labor alliance," he says:

While Jimmy Hahn was building his political career off the name of his father, Villaraigosa spent his younger years working as an organizer for three different unions. As a California Assemblyman, Villaraigosa got a 100 percent pro-labor rating. Indeed, his run at the mayor’s chair four years ago was torpedoed in part by a $200,000 smear campaign financed by the Morongo tribe precisely because Villaraigosa had sided with the union trying to organize the Indian casinos. Now that same union has turned its back on Villaraigosa and joined in the endorsement of Hahn. Thanks for taking it in the shorts for us, Tony. Now, don’t wiggle as we step over your body.

On his personal blog, Cooper also recaps and gives some background behind Celeste Fremon's year-long series on the Aguilar family of East Los Angeles, which wrapped up in last week's LA Weekly. He writes: "Not only does the series make an enthralling read, it also tells us two compelling stories at once. The story of the Aguilars. And the story of what some intrepid reporting can accomplish."