Second in a series
Re “Trutanich, the Friendly Incumbent, Is Mr. Personality”
[img]1697|left|Mr. Carmen Trutanich||no_popup[/img]Incumbent Carmen Trutanich wants voters to know the personal side of him when they vote for a Los Angeles City Attorney on March 5. When he sits down with a visitor, he starts his family story with his parents. His mother’s family is from the Italian island of Ischia. His father arrived in the States as an infant from Bratz in the former Yugoslavia.
Nothing is former, though, about Mr. Trutanich.
He proudly wears his ethnicity on both lapels, not uncommon in San Pedro, around the docks and the canneries where he happily has spent his culturally rich life.
Even though this day’s setting is miles away in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant, as Mr. Trutanich pedals his memories backward, the scent of tuna and the docks waft pungently over the lunch table.
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“I grew up in the 1950s in the cannery, literally,” he says. “My dad was a cannery worker. His friends were cannery workers. To this day, I see my dad’s friends around town, the ones still alive. They were like my family. When I see Pete and John, their families, it’s like seeing an uncle or an aunt. We were so close. They all worked at the plant together, 40, 50 years.
“I grew up with every ethnicity. Latinos. I can remember Nacho over at my house. I couldn’t tell you Nacho’s last name. He was just Nacho.
“Every nationality was in every neighborhood. It wasn’t like there was a white neighborhood, a black neighborhood, a Hispanic neighborhood.
“It was just ’Pedro (as if there were a double-E).”
San Pedro has changed, not for the better, from his boyhood days, Mr. Trutanich says.
“Changed because it had been a hidden secret. As it became more popular, it became more of a bedroom community.
“You know, if you grew up in ’Pedro, you either worked on the waterfront, in the cannery, in one of the shops on 6th Street. It was very colloquial.”
Forty-four years removed from high school graduation, what sparked Mr. Trutanich’s affinity for the law?
“I didn’t choose the law,” he says.
“When I got my undergraduate degree, I went on to get my master’s. I always wanted to do business. I wanted to run a company. That was my goal in life, to be a CEO.”
Because of what talent?
“Always saw myself as a leader. With my group of friends, I was one of the guys that led the group. I always felt like I wanted to make the decisions. I thought I had a good sense of judgment. I think I did. And I do.”
When addressing an audience, the booming Mr. Trutanich exudes almost outsized confidence.
Privately, though, the take sharply differs.
If you need to be almost borderline intimidating to be a leader, this sense never comes close to emerging from behind Mr. Trutanich’s craggy face.
Not the smallest patch of cockiness.
Humility is not his style, either.
Certainty about his ability comes closer to capturing him. Never, though, does it spill over the brim.
(To be continued)
