The ground shakes periodically in Southern California, but Los Angeles has rarely experienced a political earthquake as sudden and severe as the one that rocked City Hall this week. The release of a secret recording of top Latino officials making racially disparaging remarks has claimed the careers of at least two of the city’s most powerful public figures and turned a spotlight on the surprisingly tribal nature of political power in the Democrat-dominated City of Angels.

The leaked October 2021 recording, published first on Reddit and then by the Los Angeles Times, captures a shockingly candid conversation among City Council President Nury Martinez and Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León. Ron Herrera, Los Angeles County’s top union leader, was also present. The four met to discuss how they might carve up the city’s voting districts to maintain Latino political power. Few of the hyperdiverse city’s racial and ethnic groups went uninsulted.