Tony and Mirthala

LA has a Hispanic mayor; the first one in that town since 1872. His name is Antonio Villaraigosa. His girlfriend is a reporter for the Spanish TV Network Telemundo. And they’ve been seeing each other for about a year now.

The trouble is that the mayor is married to someone else and has two children from his wife and two adult children from other “relationships”. (My, he’s been busy!)

This has nothing to do with the blog, but he was also the LA Chapter President of the ACLU. And as a college student he was active in MECha, the Chicano movement to take back the Southwest for Mexico. Don’t you just love this guy?

On July 3rd, Villaraigosa came clean about the affair in a news conference. Maybe “came clean” isn’t the right term after you read what he said.

“I take full responsibility for my actions.” (That’s good. To me that would mean severing his relationship with the reporter, attempting to reconcile with his wife, and getting some counseling.)

Then he said: “I don’t believe that the details of my personal life are relement …(did he mean “relevant” or “are element”? Or did he have a Bush moment?)… to my job as mayor.”

He goes on to explain that most of us base our trust on “whether or not you keep your promises.” (Well, there was that promise he made at the altar to the woman in white. Is that one of the promises he’s talking about? I suppose not. Promises he makes to politicians are much more important.)

As for the reporter, Mirthala Salinas, she said: “I am confident that when all the facts are analyzed, it will be clear that I conducted myself in an appropriate way.” (The only way that is true is if she was also married to him before the relationship began and didn’t know he was still married.)

One last tidbit from this circus; Tony has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President and is the national co-chairman for her campaign committee. It will be interesting to see if his brownness trumps his infidelity. We know Hillary is a veteran victim of marital affairs; we’re just not sure what her position is on adultery. My guess is that he stays because politics always came first for her and Bill. They stayed together for the good of the country (gag).

Tony’s not the first adulterer from either party, nor will he be the last. It always surprises me just how matter-of-fact they are about such things. More surprising is our tolerance for such scoundrels.

I suppose culturally I’m looking through the WASP lens. Maybe we ought cut him some slack for his machismo because he is of Mexican descent. (Is that a lib answer?)

There is another wrinkle to the divorce. You see, Tony’s last name used to be Villar. He changed it in 1988 after he married Corina Raigosa. (How progressive of him. Now, do the feminists praise him for helping Salinas explore and liberate her sexuality or condemn him for cheating on his wife? Ah, the dilemmas of liberalism.)

So, does he change his name after the divorce? What do you think? Any suggestions?