The new season of the LAist Studios podcast Imperfect Paradise debuts Wednesday with Nury & The Secret Tapes, the story of how a secretly recorded conversation, leaked to journalists online, exploded into the largest political scandal in recent Los Angeles history and exposed deep-seated issues over race and politics.
The four-part podcast includes an exclusive interview with former L.A. City Council president Nury Martinez, who resigned in disgrace after she was heard making racist and derogatory remarks. “I've thought about that particular day, God, a thousand times, if not more,” Martinez told host Antonia Cereijido.
Cereijido takes us behind the scenes of the L.A. City Council tape scandal. She speaks with the people who were most affected by the tapes, including former L.A. City Councilmember Mike Bonin.
He recounts how he first heard about the recording in which four prominent Latino leaders use racist and demeaning terms to describe his son, who was then a toddler. “That's kind of when I lost it,” he said. “I was livid that she talked about beating him down.”
The tapes exposed problems that have long plagued L.A. politics. A year after the scandal, issues persist over anti-Black racism and colorism within the Latino/Latinx community, Democratic Party divisions, and the struggle to define Latino political power.
The tapes include Martinez making derogatory comments about Indigenous people from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. “It shows why we've always known as Indigenous people,” said Odilia Romero, the co-founder and executive director at CIELO, an organization that advocates for Indigenous people's human rights, “that the other Mexicans have always discriminated against us.”
It's now available from LAist Studios. Check it out wherever you get your get podcasts and subscribe to Imperfect Paradise. Or listen to the this episode here:
Cereijido reflects on her motivation for hosting Nury & The Secret Tapes.
Our How To LA podcast talked to Cereijido about the making of this season of Imperfect Paradise .
