Elections

Co-Founder Of Group Judge Curiel Is Affiliated With: California Will Become A Hispanic State

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Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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The co-founder of the La Raza Lawyers of California, of which Judge Gonzalo Curiel is a member by affiliation, said that California will become a Hispanic state and that those upset about it “ought to go back to Europe.”

“We’re going to take over all the political institutions of California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state,” Mario Obledo said on California radio in 1998, according Snopes. Snopes provides two links to audio of the radio interviews, but neither links currently works.

Obledo is listed as one of three co-founders of the La Raza Lawyers of California. Judge Curiel is a member of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, which is an affiliate of the larger state group. The Donald Trump campaign has said that he has been a member since 2007.

He is presiding over a civil suit regarding Trump University.

Obledo in a later radio appearance acknowledged his earlier comments. “I did. They ought to go back to Europe,” he said. (RELATED: Meet The Pro Illegal Alien Groups The La Raza Lawyers Of San Diego Consider Part Of Their Community)

A 2010 New York Times obituary of Obledo, pointed out by Breitbart, also points to his political activism. “His approach was as unsubtle as it was impassioned. He created a national commotion in the 1990s by protesting the stereotypical Mexican accent of the Chihuahua in Taco Bell commercials. When someone put up a sign at the California border saying, ‘Illegal Immigration State,’ he threatened to burn it down personally,” the obituary says.

It goes on to mention that Obledo, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President Bill Clinton, was chairman of Jesse Jackson’s National Rainbow Coalition. The obituary says Obledo “was called the ‘Godfather of the Latino Movement’ in the U.S.”

The San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association has repudiated Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on Judge Curiel in a statement. It states it is “a local diversity bar association whose reputation among the San Diego legal community is highly regarded. Our focus is ‘to advance the cause of equality, empowerment and justice for Latino attorneys and the Latino community in San Diego County through service and advocacy.””

“[Judge Curiel] is an exemplar of public service who risked his life in prosecuting members of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel. A task he courageously and successfully undertook took to protect all Americans–his own Mexican heritage notwithstanding,” the statement continues to say.