ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- In politics, biography is destiny. It can also be deceiving.

Just look at the California gubernatorial race. During the primary, I described the whole affair as "cursed." In May, New York Magazine called the race "an unholy mess."

From that mess emerged two imperfect candidates.

In one corner, we have Xavier Becerra -- the 68-year-old former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, California Attorney General and 12-term member of Congress. A Mexican American graduate of both Stanford University and Stanford Law School, Becerra was born and raised in Sacramento, Calif. He was raised in a working-class home by his mother, Maria Teresa Becerra -- who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico -- and his father, Manuel Guerrero Becerra, a day laborer and construction worker who was born in the United States but grew up in Tijuana, Mexico. If elected, Becerra would be the first Latino governor of California since Romualdo Pacheco, who, born in Santa Barbara, stepped down in 1875 after serving less than a year in office.

Fun fact: Take it from this Mexican American, Becerra is no radical. In fact, he has a decent shot at being named the whitest Latino in California. But, on the bright side, he is a loyal team player. When the leader of his party, former President Barack Obama, was laying the foundation for Trump-ageddon by deporting more than 3 million people, putting Central American kids in cages, dropping thousands of unaccompanied minors into foster care so they could be raised by strangers, Becerra didn't say a critical word about any of it. In fact, he went out of his way to try to silence Obama's critics.

Technically, Becerra may be Latino. But he is not the guy you hire to lead a revolution. He's the guy you hire to do your taxes.

So, all you white folks with guilty consciences can chill. This guy is not going to take California and give it back to Mexico. Instead, he's going to take good care of you and people like you.

But if his record is any indication, Becerra is probably not going to take care of people who look like me -- or him. He'll probably sell us out. That's how a brown person gets to be president one day, which is where Becerra might be headed if he gets elected governor.

Meanwhile, in the other corner, there's Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, top-notch communicator and one-time strategic advisor to former Prime Minister David Cameron. Hilton is a foreign import from Great Britain who is comfortable around wealth and power.

Fun fact: Hilton fancies himself an immigrant. Although he is probably not what the poet Emma Lazarus had in mind when she penned the words on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Hilton is not "your tired, your poor." He's not part of the "huddled masses" or "wretched refuse."

Rather, it's likely that Hilton traveled to America, first class. In 2012 made his way to California, where his wife, Rachel Whetstone -- a prominent British public relations executive who earned tens of millions of dollars helping technology companies shape their messaging -- was running communications and public policy at Google. According to a 2017 profile in The Guardian, the Hilton family lives in Atherton, Calif. -- the second most expensive zip code in the United States -- in a house that is worth more than $20 million. Not exactly a typical immigrant story.

Hilton's story is defined by white male privilege and the sense of entitlement that comes from belonging to two groups that society was built for. Imagine moving to Canada and having the gall to run for governor of the province of Ontario.

But if you go back a generation in the Hilton family tree, the story gets more interesting. The Republican was born in London, but his heritage is Hungarian. His family name is Hircsak. His refugee parents came to Britain from Hungary to get away from Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe.

And now their son, Steve, lives in California -- the most heavily immigrant state in the United States -- and he's running for governor. In the process, he has espoused support for a fellow Republican who also happens to be the most anti-immigrant president in U.S. history. President Donald Trump wants to not just seal the borders but also keep out legal immigrants like Hilton and refugees like his parents.

To sum up, Becerra is pretending to be Latino. Hilton is pretending to be an immigrant. As for California voters, all they can do is pretend this nightmare isn't happening.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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