Photo by Jessica CalkinsGigante USA president Justo Frias was all smiles at the May 7 opening ceremonies for the multibillion-dollar, multinational Mexican supermarket conglomerate's new store in Anaheim. It was a stark contrast to his performance less than a year ago when he said during a press conference that city officials essentially possessed a Jaime Crow mentality.
Back then, the city's Planning Commission had just rejected Gigante's liquor-license application for a proposed supermarket at 650 N. Euclid Ave. Commissioners determined that the neighborhood was already over its state-mandated alcohol-permit limit.
That decision prompted Frias and his all-star team of local Latino activists, lawyers and public-relations experts to allege the all-white Anaheim government was discriminating against the city's almost-majority Latino citizenry.
After the issue received national attention—not to mention the threat of a NAFTA lawsuit brought by Mexico-based Gigante—the City Council reversed the Planning Commission's recommendation and gave Gigante permission to sell booze.
But even that was not enough to appease Gigante's hired gun, Nativo López, who continued to maintain that the city practiced "market ethnic cleansing."
However, there was no talk of market ethnic cleansing on May 7 as Frias and his junta mixed politely with city officials and other local dignitaries. More than 500 people of all ethnicities stood in line waiting to enter the new store, lured by the promise of a free 10-pound sack of potatoes.
"Buenos días," Frias announced over a public-address system at the 8 a.m. opening ceremonies, a wrinkled woman wearing a sash proclaiming, "Mrs. Anaheim" by his side.
No one responded.
"Buenos días!" he barked again, prodding the crowd into glumly replying in kind. "Welcome to the opening of our fifth store in the United States," the portly Frias proudly announced in inglés and espanol. "We started out here with a little bit of differences with the city, but ever since, it has been a super-wonderful relationship."
Vouching for Frias' understatement of the Gigante mess was Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. "It's a great opportunity for a city to bring in a business like Gigante, one that is so well-respected," Pringle said. "I hope this location won't be their last."
No one else spoke, but no one else needed to. It was Pringle, after all, who made this debut possible. He was the then-mayoral candidate who used his considerable connections to assist the Gigante cause, smelling the political implications of what supporting a Latin-American business would do to his badly tattered reputation among Latinos. It worked. Now as mayor, Pringle welcomed the crucial factor in his mayoral victory.
Frias and Pringle jointly cut a red ribbon with giant wooden scissors to inaugurate the store. An accompanying mariachi band burst into the classic song "La Negra," and Gigante was open for business.
Then the anarchy began. A crush of people congregated near the door while Frias and Pringle mouthed their homilies, disregarding the long line of individuals that had by then snaked around the building. Security allowed the squatters in first when Gigante's doors finally opened, greatly upsetting those in the legitimate line. Some had waited since 4:30 in the chilly morn for their taters.
"Don't let them cut!" people shouted. "Make them go to the back of the line!"
But security ignored their pleas. Instead, the rent-a-cops continued to let the cutters in, even allowing them to create a more formal row to expedite the process.
The goon squad didn't care much for the original waiters, either: at one point, a withered woman who had stood in the legitimate line loudly berated one gruff security guard. It seems she had stepped out of the line briefly to get two shopping carts, and now the security guard wouldn't let her enter the store. After pleading for a while, the had-to-be-a-great-grandmother turned nasty. "I've been in this line for hours!" she rasped as she left the parking lot. "¡Pinche baboso!"
For you local gabachos who jumped on the Gigante bandwagon to further your own political aspirations, that's "Fucking asshole!"
Let the grocery goodwill begin.
