Cover Image: Protesters issue demands outside Jose Huizar’s home

By Felipe Vera

On Tuesday evening, activists from local anti-gentrification organization Defend Boyle Heights (DBH) held a demonstration in front of Los Angeles Councilman Jose Huizar’s home, covering it with propaganda. Despite the state’s call for “social distancing,” activists and community members including local mariachis agitated in front of his home, taping up their demands, leaving flyers on cars and spilling them across his driveway.

A spokesperson for DBH gave a fiery speech, putting forward demands that had also been declared the previous week in a smaller demonstration in front of City Hall. The activists of Los Angeles made their demands clear: work or wages regardless of immigrant status, immediate rent stoppage, a stop on all utility bills, and an end to bans on protest and resistance.

Huizar is known as key player in the gentrification of working class chicano neighborhoods like Boyle Heights. In November 2018, his home and office were raided by the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into political corruption.