By Harold Pierce For The Californian – Bakersfield.com – Photo: Henry A. Barrios/The Californian.
Photo: Ray Gonzales, former Assemblyman and beloved elder statesman among Kern County Latinos.
Raymond Gonzales built his legacy on dissent. A Bakersfield College professor who won an underdog campaign against a strong Republican incumbent in 1972 to become Kern County’s first Chicano state assemblyman, Gonzales was best known as a political maverick who refused to go along with the status quo, always voted his conscience and never bowed to special interests.
