The American Alcalde series chronicles over 175 years of Los Angeles mayoral election history , detailing the municipality’s transformation from a once small Spanish and Mexican pueblo into the preeminent global city it is today. This volume includes stories about Sam Yorty , who even as a boy said he never wanted to be a statesman, but rather a politician. James Roosevelt , the son of a president whose candidacy for mayor was surreptitiously backed by party officials in Sacramento. Tom Bradley , the son of a sharecropper and five time mayor who was the face of Los Angeles for two decades. And “Big Daddy” Jesse Unruh , the political godfather of California who dispensed large amounts of campaign money to allies, but was unable to use it to buy the Los Angeles mayor’s office for himself.