ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- Many Mexican Americans who grew up amid the subtle racism of California probably never thought they'd see the day that one of our own would be elected governor of the nation's most populous state.

Now Democratic frontrunner Xavier Becerra -- former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, former California Attorney General, and former 12-term member of Congress -- could break the tortilla ceiling.

The fact that this son of Mexican immigrant parents who graduated from Stanford University and Stanford Law School has a good shot at being elected governor has many in my tribe feeling proud, hopeful and excited.

Me, not so much. The best reaction I can muster is ambivalence.

On the one hand, I'd love to see California elect its first Mexican American governor since native son Romualdo Pacheco stepped down in 1875 after less than a year in office.

On the other hand, as someone who has covered and written about this Democratic establishment figure for more than 25 years, I can tell you that -- to borrow a phrase -- Becerra is not the one.

Even if, I'll admit, he is the best choice. The other contenders for governor run the gamut from unqualified to unhinged. Becerra is the pick of the litter. It's just that the litter is lousy.

I have high standards. My yardstick for leadership goes back 60 years. In 1966, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr., D-NY, delivered the speech of his life at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In it, he observed:

"Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world which yields most painfully to change."

That's not Becerra. The 68-year-old California native is no change agent.

The good news is that Becerra is calm, well-spoken, and buttoned down. He's no radical. In 2007, then-Sen. Joe Biden famously described then-Sen. Barack Obama as "articulate, bright and clean." It's like that.

The bad news is that Becerra is also housebroken, risk-averse and non-confrontational. He doesn't like to fight. He's no revolutionary. He's more of a shopkeeper who is good at making sure the shelves are stocked.

Then there's the race thing. Becerra has been cashing government payroll checks for 40 years, dating back to his first job in government in 1986 as a young legislative aide in the California Senate. And that entire time, he has done his best to not to upset, call out or scare off white folks.

Then there's the party thing. If you're looking for someone to challenge the Democratic Party when it goes astray, look elsewhere. Becerra is a company man, a team player and a full-throated apologist for fellow Democrats who do evil things.

Like former President Barack Obama, who deported more than 3 million people, separated Central American families at the U.S.-Mexico border, put refugee kids in cages, and dumped into Foster Care thousands of unaccompanied minors -- including U.S. citizens whose parents he deported.

Speaking of the Kennedys, Bobby Kennedy liked to say that his brother, Jack, believed that the hottest places in hell were reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserve their neutrality.

The biggest strike against Becerra is that, while he was in Congress, he didn't speak out against the moral crisis of Obama-geddon. An immigration advocate in Southern California described Becerra to me as the "palace guard" who protected Obama for his immigration sins.

In 2013, Phoenix-based immigrant activist Erika Andiola -- whose mother is undocumented and was threatened with deportation by Obama -- had a chance encounter with Becerra in the halls of Congress. The then-Congressman told Andiola and her mother that the answer to the Democratic-run reign of terror against immigrants was to simply elect more Democrats. As Andiola wrote in a March 2014 op-ed for Huffington Post, Becerra then turned to her and gave her a scolding.

"You need to leave the President alone on deportations," he said.

Really? At moments like this, I feel really Mexican because my blood is boiling. This is the guy that Latinos are supposed to believe is our savior, our defender and our champion? He had his chance to be all that, and he took a pass because he didn't have the guts to bite the hand that feeds him.

If Latinos want to vote for Becerra, they should have at it. But let's not get carried away. He isn't the solution. He's part of the problem.

========

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Copyright 2026 Creators Syndicate, Inc.