The former president of the Los Angeles City Council who was caught on tape comparing the Black son of a colleague to a monkey and saying Indigenous Mexicans were ugly said in an exclusive interview that she is not racist and paid a "huge, huge, huge price" for her comments.
Nury Martinez, who stepped down a year ago amid an uproar over the comments, told Telemundo52 and NBC4 in Los Angeles, that she has had a long, painful year since the comments recorded in a 2021 closed-door meeting were leaked.
She said she is "absolutely not" racist and pointed out that her work shows the contrary, because she has worked on empowering women and women of color.
As a result of the comments, "I let go of my position as the first Latina president of the City Council. I paid a huge, huge, huge price for the insensitive comments I made," she said.
She maintained that her use of the phrase "parece changuito," which roughly means "looks like a little monkey," was not intended to be a commentary on the skin color of the Black son of council member Mike Bonin.
Instead, she said she was using a descriptive phrase that was often used in her home growing up when a child was being mischievous or acting up. Nonetheless, she said she should not have aimed her comments at the young boy.
“I live with so much shame every day and so much guilt, especially around the little boy. But I think my political differences with his father on the council and the friction over the last two years that I was council president and guiding the city through Covid, I walked into that council meeting so frustrated and so angry that I took it out on an innocent little boy and I should have known better,” she said.
She said her comments about Indigenous Oaxacans in the city — whom she said were short, dark and ugly — was a “horrible joke and something I should never have said and I own it. I have to live with this,” she said.
Martinez made other remarks about Bonin's popularity with Los Angeles' Black community. Another council member, Kevin De Leon, also was criticized for his comments at the meeting, but has not resigned and has announced a re-election bid. All members at the meeting issued apologies after protests and backlash.
