I've known Cynthia Ward, president of the Anaheim Historical Society, for a couple of years now, and have always found her to be someone with an open mind and a passion for what's ultimately right. Ever an Anaheim booster, she's the lady who escorted Huell Howser 'round our hometown for his Anaheim special this weekend. All the places Ward took ol' Huell to--the last remaining working orange grove in Anaheim, the Anaheim History Room, old homes and the like--are all deserving of love. In the spi
I had the pleasure of meeting former Anaheim mayor Bill Thom a couple of times at meetings of Los Amigos, the longtime Latino civil rights group he helped found in 1978. He always occupied a table near the front, a seat of honor unconsciously granted by other Los Amigos members for the gabacho politician who cared all along. Thom passed away last month during surgery, and the Orange County Register has a remembrance of him in today's issue. It's a nice gesture for one of the unsung heroes of civ
The fight against Orange County's historic Chicano murals has opened up a new front against the man who virtually invented the genre: historic muralist Emigdio Vasquez.On Feb. 25, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed another of his wonderful gang injunctions, this time against the Orange Varrio Cypress (OVC) gang based out of Orange's historic Cypress Street barrio (it hasn't been publicized yet, for some bizarre reason). In the more than 500 pages of evidence included to make t
Easter Sunday. A kid from the Cypress neighborhood in Orange lounges just outside his apartment building where a huge, sprawling mural by influential Chicano artist Emigdio Vasquez is painted on the exterior walls. Bring in the sirens and the Orange PD. Minutes later, you have an arrest. The crime? The teen was standing in front of artwork that the Orange PD and DA's office claim promotes, glamorizes and inspires gang violence. And because the teen was recently added to a preliminary gang injunc
