![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785239077_459_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nEstuardo Mazariegos and Jose Ugarte, running against each other for a city council seat representing part of South Los Angeles, are immigrants from Latin America who arrived undocumented as children.<\/p>\n
Both 40 years old, they grew up in the area and established themselves as community organizers.<\/p>\n
And no matter which of them wins election on Nov. 3, it will be a historic change for Council District 9, which has been represented by a Black council member since 1963, even as its demographics shifted to a Latino majority. <\/p>\n
Mazariegos and Ugarte both said they are committed to representing all their constituents equally, including Black residents who have expressed concerns about the change. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jose Ugarte is the front-runner for City Council District 9 after getting 39% of the vote in the June primary.<\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Ugarte, who was until recently a deputy chief of staff to the current council member, Curren Price, got about 39% of the vote<\/a> in the June primary to 26% for Mazariegos, in a six-candidate field.<\/p>\n Ugarte was born in Oaxaca and is Mazateco \u2014 an Indigenous group native to the Mexican state. He has spent most of his life in South L.A., where he was embraced by his Black neighbors and schoolmates. He wants to model himself after Price, who he said is known in the community as the most \u201cpro-Latino Black councilman.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI want to be a voice for Black residents in my district,\u201d Ugarte said at his campaign headquarters on Avalon Boulevard. \u201cI want to be called the most pro-Black Latino council member that the city really has.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Ugarte agreed to pay a $17,500 fine<\/a> to the city\u2019s Ethics Commission, later increased to $25,000<\/a>, for repeatedly failing to disclose outside income he made from his lobbying and consulting firm while also working as a council staffer. He said the issue stemmed from \u201can unintentional clerical reporting error on my part.\u201d <\/p>\n Mazariegos is the L.A. co-director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a statewide nonprofit that organizes lower-income Black and brown communities for progressive change. Born in Guatemala and brought to the U.S. by his parents, he also was shaped by growing up in racially diverse parts of South L.A. He said he\u2019s reaching out to different sectors of the community, including Black organizations and churches. <\/p>\n Organizing is about \u201calways having open ears to the community,\u201d Mazariegos said while sitting outside Mercado La Paloma, a food hall in the district. \u201cIt\u2019s fighting for, honoring the Black legacy and fighting for a Black future, and you do that by building together.\u201d <\/p>\n In his early 20s, Mazariegos pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle. He said he was holding on to the gun for a friend and that the conviction makes him a better candidate<\/a> because he can relate to people in the district who have had run-ins with law enforcement.<\/p>\n Council District 9<\/a> encompasses the Convention Center, USC and neighborhoods along the Harbor Freeway, including Vermont Square, South Park and Florence-Graham. In a district with the highest poverty rate in the city, residents are concerned about issues including illegal dumping, public safety, a dearth of grocery stores and a sense of being neglected by City Hall. <\/p>\n Price, who has represented the district<\/a> since 2013, is terming out. He has been fighting corruption charges, with a judge deciding in January that there was enough evidence to move to trial<\/a> on four counts of voting on matters in which Price had a conflict of interest, five counts of embezzlement and three counts of perjury.<\/p>\n Price said he never intended to do anything wrong and questioned the fairness of a prosecution over what he said was essentially a paperwork error.<\/p>\n The growth of the Latino population in a district that is now nearly 80% Latino has created political tensions for decades, said Manuel Pastor, a USC professor and author of \u201cSouth Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A.\u201d <\/p>\n Four years ago, those tensions resurfaced after a recording emerged of a conversation<\/a> among three Latino city council members and a labor leader that featured racist and disparaging remarks about Black people, Oaxacans and others. The revelations tested a fragile alliance of Black and Latino coalitions that organizers have sought to maintain. <\/p>\n
![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785239077_752_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Estuardo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785239078_591_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n