Thousands of people voted to elect Raul Urena to the Calexico council, hoping the young politician would bring a fresh approach to the California border city’s long-standing problems with unemployment, crime and deprivation.
But when Urena began promoting ideas popular among progressives in the United States, some voters changed their minds.
The fact that Urena also started wearing dresses and high heels to council meetings made some of them feel cheated.
Urena, who uses she/her pronouns, sees transphobia in an effort to unseat her in a referendum on Tuesday.
But its opponents say it’s about ideas and what they say is progressivism’s tendency to promote the wrong issues.
“I voted for him because he is a young man who seems to have good ideas for my city. It would be a good change,” says Angela Moreno, a 62-year-old retiree.
“But when I started paying attention to what he was doing, his ideas, his beliefs, what was important to him… I wasn’t on that plane.”
His city doesn’t need electric car chargers or greater tolerance for drug users, says Moreno.
“I didn’t vote for it.”
– Culture wars –
Calexico is a divided city.
Call it the generation gap; call it the culture wars; or call it two populations screaming for each other, it’s a story that echoes across an entire nation preparing for the November showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
On one side are those who yearn for an America that they see disappearing; on the other are those who want something different and don’t mourn a place they feel never worked for them.
Like other rural towns, Calexico’s economy has faltered in recent years.
Unemployment is high in a place where border closures during the pandemic have impeded commerce. Its population is overwhelmingly Latino, Catholic and older, voting mostly Democratic but largely for the conservative wing of the party.
Young people see few opportunities and tend to leave when they have the opportunity. Few return.
Urena did.
After studying economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Urena, now 26, moved home in 2020.
She was thrust directly into municipal politics, running for a vacancy created when a councilor was removed amid allegations of corruption.
In 2022, she was re-elected for a full four-year term.
Although she insists her gender fluidity was never a secret, it was only after her re-election that she began wearing dresses and high heels on public business.
“People have made fun of my gender identity since 2020,” said the politician.
Then, last year, after assuming the role of speaker of the Chamber – the role rotates annually between the five council members – she became aware of a campaign for a recall referendum, a plan that, according to her, is being hatched by defeated opponents.
“They are essentially leading a recall effort in response to the defeat in the last election,” Urena told AFP.
“They are trying to bring down the progressive movement in Calexico.”
– ‘Deceived people’ –
Former Calexico Mayor Alex Perrone says people are mostly opposed to Urena’s lack of experience and division.
“I sincerely defend our constitutional rights… and he is taking that away from us,” he says.
“If you go to a board meeting and say something contrary to his beliefs, his agenda, you are his enemy.”
But, he adds, some also feel cheated by Urena’s public transition.
“When he campaigned, he wore nice pants and a button-down shirt. After being elected, he started wearing dresses,” Perrone told AFP.
“He misled people. They thought they were voting for one person, but they were voting for someone else.”
Still, the campaign insists that Urena’s gender identity is not the real point.
“This recall will not focus on anyone’s life due to personal and sexual choices,” the Facebook post reads.
“While all comments are welcome, please avoid this thread.”
Still, there’s a very personalized tension in the air, with dueling yard signs urging residents to vote for or against the recall, and nasty comments at public meetings.
Gilberto Manzanarez, a fellow progressive member of the Urena council who is also the target of a recall, worries that the divisions are paralyzing the city, affecting even uncontroversial acts like filling a vacancy for police chief.
“It wasn’t even a unanimous vote,” he says.
“That tells me that this council is as divided and fractured as the community is right now.”
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