{"id":248335,"date":"2026-04-02T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248335\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:18:08","slug":"what-a-silly-latinos-por-pratt-salsa-video-says-about-l-a-s-mayor-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248335\/","title":{"rendered":"What a silly ‘Latinos Por Pratt’ salsa video says about L.A.’s mayor race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You know the political silly season is upon us when campaigns start to make fools of themselves trying to court Latino voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Los Angeles mayoral race, that moment kicked off last weekend.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a social media account called Latinos Por Pratt released an AI-animated music video<\/a> praising the mayoral candidate and former reality television star Spencer Pratt. It starts with a fit, sunglasses-wearing Pratt rolling a trash bin brimming with detritus and Mayor Karen Bass past a crowd of cheering Angelenos. The Hollywood sign looms in the background as the title \u201cSpencer, Saca La Bassura\u201d flashes on the screen \u2014 Spencer, Take Out Trashy Karen, with \u201cBassura\u201d a play on the mayor\u2019s last name and the Spanish word for \u201ctrash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cut to scenes of Bass playing tourist on her infamous trip to Ghana while the Palisades burn. Splice in Pratt dancing with his wife, Heidi Montag, onstage at a street party where onlookers wave a Mexico and U.S. flag. And because L.A.\u2019s Latino majority is overwhelmingly of Mexican descent, the thing was anchored by a peppy accordion, dramatic guitar plucks and a bold tuba, right? Right?<\/p>\n

Uh, no.<\/p>\n

Lyrics like \u201cLatinos for Pratt we\u2019re singing\/Because we\u2019re tired of this dirty beat\u201d play over brassy salsa rhythms that are more Miami and Cuban than L.A., where Latinos are mostly of Mexican and Central America heritage and the soundtrack of the city \u2014 corridos tumbados<\/a>, cumbias, Latin rock and pop \u2014 reflect that. <\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t stop clueless, mostly non-Latino Pratt fanboys and fangirls from going gaga over it online. Nor did it stop Bass from joining in the we-need-Latino-voters fiesta. <\/p>\n

Soon after the video was released, a group called Latinos Con Bass brought out big-name speakers<\/a> to Plaza de la Raza in Lincoln Heights\u2014 state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights head Ang\u00e9lica Salas, Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta \u2014 so they could pledge support for the incumbent with all the enthusiasm of doctors reminding people to take their flu shot. Bass greeted the crowd with an peppy \u201c\u00a1S\u00ed se puede!\u201d \u2014 the standard Latino politico rallying cry for decades but one that\u2019s not so kosher right now given its association with C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez, the legendary labor leader whom a New York Times investigation recently revealed to have sexually assaulted teenage girls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Latinos Con Bass came off as a bunch of establishment types sticking up for one of their own instead of anything organic. But at least we know the track record of those involved. Latinos Por Pratt seems to be just one guy: Adrian E. Alvarez, a Cuban American who his online profile says splits his time between the Miami area and L.A. If the lawyer by trade \u2014 who didn\u2019t respond to numerous requests for comment \u2014 was really serious about winning Latino vote for his guy, he would\u2019ve commissioned a corrido instead of a salsa tune. The Mexican ballad form has been trotted out by Angelenos for decades for everything from the tragic deaths of Robert F. Kennedy and Kobe Bryant<\/a> and his daughter to the capture of sundry narco lords<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Those songwriters got it. Alvarez\u2019s diss track doesn\u2019t. And his use of Cuban Spanish on social media to promote it \u2014 carajo, fajame, mi gente \u2014 in favor of Mexican Spanish equivalents like g\u00fcey, \u00e9ntrale, and raza sounds like a guy who doesn\u2019t know South L.A. from South Beach.<\/p>\n

But to dismiss \u201cSpencer, Saca La Bassura\u201d as an inauthentic joke is to miss what it says about this political moment. In a year when Latinos nationwide will make or break<\/a> the Democrats\u2019 effort to win back Congress, they\u2019ll play an even more crucial role in L.A.\u2019s mayoral race. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s the Bass campaign that needs Latinos more than any of her opponents \u2014 because there\u2019s no guarantee she\u2019ll get them.<\/p>\n

\"Five <\/p>\n

Then-L.A. mayoral candidate Karen Bass, center, is flanked by pioneering farm labor leader Dolores Huerta, left, and former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, right, during a 2022 campaign event in Mariachi Plaza.<\/p>\n

(Luis Sinco\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released last month and co-sponsored by The Times<\/a> revealed 56% of likely voters view the mayor unfavorably, the only candidate to have a majority of those surveyed look negatively on her. She\u2019s the top choice among Latinos \u2014 29%, compared with Pratt\u2019s 16%. But 27% of Latinos remain undecided about whom they want as mayor, the highest percentage of any ethnic group.<\/p>\n

Pratt has some name recognition among Latinos as a C-list celebrity, but he\u2019s also a registered Republican who thinks L.A. should coordinate<\/a> with the Trump administration\u2019s deportation leviathan, a position that\u2019s as popular among Angelenos as rooting for the San Diego Padres. That obviously presents an opportunity for Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who\u2019s running for mayor to the left<\/a> of Bass \u2014 if she can smartly seize it. But Raman represents a district with one of the lowest Latino populations in the city and has yet to make a name for herself across town \u2014 no wonder the Berkeley poll found just 9% of Latinos favored her, trailing even Presbyterian pastor Rae Huang.<\/p>\n

Those shortcomings should give Bass \u2014 whose children are Mexican American<\/a> and who has worked alongside Latino L.A.\u2019s political establishment for nearly her entire political career \u2014 an advantage among Latinos. But all that star wattage didn\u2019t win her the Latino vote four years ago against Rick Caruso. And L.A.\u2019s biggest problems during the mayor\u2019s first term \u2014 homelessness, beat-up streets, busted streetlights, Trump\u2019s immigration deluge \u2014 unduly affected the Latino areas of L.A. Even the inferno that engulfed the Palisades led to the loss of thousands of jobs<\/a> for the nannies, housecleaners and gardeners that kept the neighborhood as pristine as it was.<\/p>\n

Her campaign will trumpet all of Bass\u2019 supposed accomplishments and trot out endorsements like they did at the Plaza de la Raza event, but she lost the narrative of a healthy L.A. a long time ago. <\/p>\n

Pratt \u2014 who doesn\u2019t seem to know Los Angeles besides the Westside and television studios \u2014 will have to do far more than Bass and Raman to attract Latinos. But by repeatedly referring to the mayor as \u201cKaren Basura\u201d \u2014 a juvenile, obvious insult but that nevertheless sticks once you hear it \u2014 he\u2019s at least making Spanish a far more constant part of his campaign than his rivals. And Alvarez\u2019s music video, as silly and un-L.A. as it is, speaks to an enthusiasm among at least one Latino Pratt supporter that will most likely remain catchier and more inspired than anything the Bass and Raman campaigns will come up with.<\/p>\n

That reality seems to have already made Bass blink. She responded to \u201cSpencer, Saca La Bassura\u201d on social media a few days later with a photo of people at her Plaza de la Raza rally holding \u201cLatinos Con Bass\u201d signs with the caption \u201cLatinos Con Bass > Ai Latinos.\u201d It was meant as a political flex but came off as insecure posturing. Meanwhile, Latinos Por Pratt just released a teaser for another video, this time featuring Pratt as Batman carting out a clown-faced Bass and Raman as the villainous Two-Face.<\/p>\n

Playing, again, to salsa. That\u2019s weak sauce. Can someone try to really get Latino L.A.?<\/p>\n

I promise: S\u00ed se puede.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know the political silly season is upon us when campaigns start to make fools of themselves trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12858,7,9,8,3705,2303,110833,11703,110830,110832,110829,15439,32081,110831,68850,43125,315],"class_list":["post-248335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bass","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-campaign","tag-l-a","tag-la-raza","tag-latinos","tag-latinos-con-bass","tag-latinos-por-pratt","tag-mayor-race","tag-plaza","tag-raman","tag-saca-la-bassura","tag-social-medium-account","tag-spencer-pratt","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}