There are several paths to fame or notoriety, but few are as unusual as the path unwittingly chosen by Raul Macias, 55. “Don Raul,” as he is known, has become a major player in Los Angeles politics after building a reputation for lobbying for soccer fields in the city’s northeast, writes Hector Becerra.
In the 1990s, while the co-owner of a textile factory with his wife, he sponsored a kids’ team that morphed into a whole league, and with every field he fought for, his ranks grew. He soon discovered that the best way to attract crowds of Latinos was to lure them with soccer, then urge them to act and protest about other local issues too.
“There’s nothing like bringing 300 uniformed kids and their parents to make politicians salivate,” said Lewis McAdams, a poet and environmental advocate for the Los Angeles River. Although Macias has his critics, he learned through lobbying for soccer field permits how the L.A. political system works and how to work for Hispanic interests “in a broader context.” This included rallying his soccer families to lobby the city to turn an abandoned railroad site at Cypress Park into a 40-acre park that is now half wetlands and half recreational space. Including, of course, four soccer fields.