viva villaraigosa!

i spent my entire morning (and some parts of the afternoon) covering the inauguration of the new mayor of los angeles.

the latter part of the afternoon was spent on writing and re-writing my article about the festivities. lots of personality-sighting! i haven't been to a presidential inauguration in washington but i think this was quite close.


mayor villaraigosa and his wife corina led the thousands of angelenos in a procession to the city hall from the cathedral


arnold schwarzenegger and wife maria, antonio and wife corina, al gore, jesse james, natalie cole were all onstage to witness the historic oath-taking

former vp al gore was there, and he was greeted warmly by angelenos. [that's how residents of los angeles are called. angelenos.] so were former mayors james hahn and richard riordan. so were former california governors jerry brown, pete wilson and gray davis.


enough said. anti-abortion activists chanted while the procession was ongoing

there was one person that was not greeted warmly by the audience. on the contrary, they even booed and jeered when his name was mentioned. that happened twice. i pity him but people perceive him as an anti-immigrant, especially with his policies on reform. governor arnold schwarzenegger was booed. loudly.

i looked at the poor man onstage as the audience booed him. i somehow felt shy embarrassed that my fellow angelenos did that but then again, they had all the right to do so. in the philippines, it was (still is) rude to boo someone. specially someone who has the stature of the governator.


what's an inauguration (specially of a mexican mayor) be without a mariachi?


wow. day 1 as mayor and he already has a banner that says: Mayor Villaraigosa: Hard at Work in the Community


enterprising individuals were selling inauguration shirts for ten bucks. yes, ten freaking bucks! all photos by me, thank you very much. hehehe.