Julio Gonzales
"There was another legendary cop in Palo Verde, but in a different way. His name was Julio Gonzales... Julio Gonzales joined the small pantheon of outsiders who earned the trust of Palo Verde."
— Eric Nusbaum, Stealing Home
Honored by Mayor Richard Riordan and LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks as the department's "Latino ambassador of goodwill" and "pioneer and mentor" for his work from 1953 to 1967.
— Los Angeles Times, Dec. 14, 2003
Julio Gonzales was a pioneering Latino leader in the Los Angeles Police Department and one of the earliest champions of the values LALEY would be built upon. A native of Clifton, Arizona, reared in East Los Angeles, Gonzales joined the LAPD in 1947 and was assigned to the Training Division at the Police Academy in Chavez Ravine — before Dodger Stadium displaced the neighborhood of Palo Verde.
He became the first LAPD officer charged with reaching out to the Latino community, conducting programs on Spanish-language television (KMEX-TV Channel 34) and radio, and speaking to Latino organizations across the city. But his most lasting impact was in Palo Verde, where he went door-to-door, built a youth club, organized baseball and football teams, took boys on overnight trips to the mountains, and found corporate sponsors to pay for school buses and snacks. Because of Gonzales, the LAPD academy — previously off-limits — slowly opened its doors to the kids of Palo Verde.
In 1967, Governor Ronald Reagan appointed Gonzales to the board of the California Youth Authority, where he served two four-year terms. In 1982, President Reagan named him U.S. Marshal for the Los Angeles-based Central District, overseeing a staff of 50 for the area's federal courts. He retired in 1988.
Throughout his life, Gonzales raised thousands of dollars for the Armando Castro Scholarship Fund to support East Los Angeles youth in higher education. He died on December 5, 2003, at age 86. The youths he mentored — now in their 60s — still gather and revere him for the attention and training he gave them.