I followed that story very closely. I was born in South Gate, CA, a few (ahem) decades ago. Despite the Latin drift of the screen name "elbucko", I'm a "Gringo". The people of South Gate had help from the State regarding city corporation laws, but never-the-less, they cleaned up their town.
On of my business partners, for a while, was a Mexican. he came here illegally in the 60's, became a US citizen in the 70's and believes that Mexico should become a state of the US, rather than the US return the Southwest. There are many like him and many are Mexican women that see the old political culture of Mexico as bad for their kids.
In my experiences, in California, I fear the White, Gringo, Democrats from New York, more than I fear MEChA.