Maria “Lou” Calanche, a longtime Boyle Heights resident and founder of the youth development non-profit Legacy LA, has officially entered one of the city’s most fiercely contested election races.
Calanche is running for the Council District 1 seat against incumbent Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who replaced fellow Democrat Gil Cedillo in 2022. CD 1 comprises several heavily Latino neighborhoods including Pico Union, MacArthur Park, Elysian Park, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, Cypress Park and Chinatown.
Calanche, who announced her candidacy on July 10, will face off against five other CD 1 candidates, including Hernandez, who announced her reelection campaign in May.
In an interview with Boyle Heights Beat, Calanche, 56, said that her experience serving Eastside communities as an educator and political advocate makes her fit to lead a district of nearly 250,000 people.
“I care a lot about the community, and I care a lot about L.A., and I feel that my experience, track record, and vision for the community, for CD 1 and for L.A. is what L.A. needs,” Calanche said.
The city’s primary election for odd-numbered Council Districts will be on June 2, 2026, followed by the general election on November 3.
Rooted in the Eastside
Growing up in the Ramona Gardens neighborhood, in a house she shared with her grandmother and other relatives, Calanche developed a deep connection to her community and its challenges, she said in a 2013 interview with Boyle Heights Beat. After attaining a B.A. in Political Science and Government at Loyola Marymount University in 1992, she went on to earn a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.
Calanche said her interest in working in city government was reaffirmed while serving as a senior field deputy for former CD 14 Councilmember Richard Alatorre in the late 1990s.
In that role, she learned how the city’s political system worked, but noticed obvious gaps in services across the Eastside.
“I always felt like, ‘Why does my community not have clean streets or why is there graffiti? Why don’t we have the things that other neighborhoods have?’” Calanche said.
After successfully advocating to have the Benjamin Franklin Library in Boyle Heights stay open later on weekdays, she realized the impact of her community service and the necessity for strong political leadership.
“You can really make a difference in this position,” Calanche said, referring to city council members.
From educator to nonprofit builder
In 2008, Calanche said she made the difficult decision to leave her full-time position teaching political science at East Los Angeles College to build Legacy LA, a nonprofit to support local youth in her old neighborhood.
“Everybody told me that I was crazy for leaving a tenured position at ELAC, but I believe that I needed to go back to my community to build this organization,” Calanche said.
At Legacy LA, Calanche wanted her team to give young people opportunities to develop their abilities and keep from falling into a life of gang involvement. Too often, Calanche believes, city residents settle for a “Band-Aid” response from local officials.
“People want to see a fast action or decision or solution. But [to get] real change, you need to invest in the root cause of issues,” Calanche said. “Parts of this district are very, very poor and need the resources and the structural and systemic changes to be able to improve their quality of life.”
Calanche also comes to the world of city politics with experience as an LAPD Police Commissioner. During her time on the civilian board that oversees the department, she led a mental health working group and advocated for increased collaboration between officers and mental health clinicians who would intervene during police calls to provide aid to those suffering from mental illnesses.
Calanche believes that increasing funding for mental health services would free up the police to focus more on patrolling neighborhoods.
Currently, Calanche serves as the executive director of Expand LA, a youth development program that works to provide youth with quality after-school services countywide.
Prioritizing youth, housing, and working families
If elected, her top priorities for the district would be to better address the homelessness crisis by boosting the number of clinicians to help those living on the street and increasing funding for the Department of Mental Health Services. She would also like to prioritize providing free childcare and after-school care through her professional network of more than 500 providers of youth services that each have the financial resources to fund programs and need only to partner with the city of L.A. to become established, she said.
“There’s a lot of funding already out there, but we need to bring these programs into our communities,” Calanche said, citing the $2 billion L.A. County receives from state initiatives like the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program. Calanche envisions after-school youth programming at libraries, parks and other public facilities to support young people around L.A.
Leveraging existing funding and working with LAUSD, the county and other philanthropic groups will be key in establishing increased accessibility to youth services, especially considering the financial deficit the city is facing, Calanche said.
Fundraising and seeking union endorsements are Calanche’s next goals ahead of the primary election.
Facing off against the CD1 incumbent
The CD 1 incumbent, Hernandez, already has amassed a slew of endorsements from former and current councilmembers, county supervisors and state politicians. During her first campaign, she was endorsed by labor leader Dolores Huerta, the L.A. Times and Democratic Socialists of America, among others.
Lucy Herrera, a longtime colleague and friend who succeeded Calanche as executive director of Legacy LA, said her mentor has an “ability to dream big,” and will carry her community-focused ethos with her to City Hall.
“I believe that Lou’s commitment is to ensure that everyone within CD 1 will have a voice to be able to make change within their district,” Herrera said. “And I believe that Lou has the capability of finding resources and using her connections to be able to make those changes.”
“Everyone wants communities where children can thrive, walk to school, ride their bikes or go to the park,” she said. “I will make all that happen. I know how to make it happen, and it won’t take a long time for me to make that happen, because I’ve done it.”