congratulations...

...to Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A.'s first Latino mayor since 1872.

Cristobal Aguilar
1866-1868, 1870-1872

Aguilar, a former county supervisor and city councilman, was born in Los Angeles in the early 1820s and watched the construction of the city's first municipal water system, which included a 40-foot waterwheel that lifted water from the main ditch to a storage tank in the plaza.

Elaborate improvements, including wooden and iron pipes, were made. But after a flood in 1868 wiped out most of those improvements, a frustrated City Council offered the rights to the water system to the highest bidder. Aguilar defied the council and vetoed the sale. His move would eventually lead to creation of the city's Department of Water and Power.

His action made him a hero to voters. But he knew that the most important public office in Los Angeles was not the mayor. He wanted the prestige of being the zanjero, the water czar, who had power and a salary 50% higher than the mayor's. So, for several months after his second one-year term ended, he was hired as zanjero, watching for water thieves who would cut into the ditch at night and seal it up before dawn.

He was again elected mayor in 1870, this time for a two-year term, at a time when Latino voter registration was about 22%.