Richard Alatorre

Richard Alatorre
Born	1943 (age 73–74) Compton, California, U.S.
Alma mater	California State University, Los Angeles, University of Southern California
Occupation	Lobbyist

Richard Alatorre (born 1943) was a member of the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1985—"one of the most influential Latino politicians in the state"— and a Los Angeles, California, City Council member from 1985 to 1999, the second Latino to serve on the council in the 20th century. He is now a lobbyist.

Alatorre was born in 1943, the son of Joe Alatorre of El Paso, Texas, a repairman at a stove factory, and Mary Alatorre of Arizona, a beautician. He and his sister, Cecelia, were brought up in East Los Angeles.

He began politics early, as he put it, "a student body officer or class officer every semester from junior high school through high school." He attended and graduatedGarfield High School (Los Angeles), where he was student body president. In 1960 he heard John F. Kennedy speak at East Los Angeles College and began handing out Kennedy fliers and became involved in the campaign of Leopoldo Sanchez, a Latino candidate for judge.

Alatorre earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from California State University, Los Angeles, and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California.

Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Boyarsky noted in 1985 that "Alatorre is a player. He likes the game. He knows how to push in public and private. He knows how to deal." As an Assembly member in Sacramento, wrote Times reporter Denise Hamilton, Alatorre earned a reputation as a "hard-nosed deal maker."

Boyarsky described him in 1989:

A slender man of 46, he favors expensive-looking, well-cut Italian suits. . . . But his combination of the crude and the pleasant, of bluntness and courtliness, casts an aura that puts off people used to more conventional, or polite, politicians. At City Council meetings, Alatorre slumps in his chair looking bored as his colleagues drone on. He reads the newspapers, sneaks a cigarette at the side of the chambers. And smoking, swearing, always saying, "Hey, man," Alatorre acts as if he never left Garfield High.

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