I want to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Meara McLaughlin on her outstanding leadership of MusicPortland and on the City’s declaration of July 10th as Meara McLaughlin Day. It’s a richly deserved honor. Her tireless advocacy has left a lasting legacy on Portland’s music scene, and I’m truly ecstatic to see her recognized for it.
That said, I also want to take a moment to publicly apologize. My recent posts and aggressive tactics in calling out Live Nation and its developer allies—though rooted in documented truths—have cast unintended shadows over friends and allies like Meara McLaughlin, Councilor Dunphy, and the Music Policy Council. I fully understand and accept their condemnation of my actions, and I take complete responsibility for how my anger and satire caused stress and unintended harm to people who never deserved it.
I’m not here to make excuses. But I do want to offer context.
I’m a working-class Indigenous person. My Yaqui family fled genocide in Sonora. So when I saw wealthy developers in Portland—many of them already in positions of power—using language about racial equity to sell themselves public land on behalf of a corporate monopoly, it hit me on a deep ancestral level. Land theft is not an abstract concept to me. I’ve lived it.
To me, this wasn't just shady politics. It was a modern echo of what Porfirio Díaz did to the Yaqui: use public institutions and racial politics to displace marginalized people in the service of corporate interests.
When I learned that this group had quietly been spreading a false narrative to discredit Councilor Dunphy and others who challenged them, I lost it. In a heated moment, I posted a satirical cartoon of two of these individuals—Andrew Colas and Stephen Green—wearing dunce hats, accompanied by a pointed message calling out what I saw as their role in upholding systemic racism under the guise of progress.
It was aggressive. It was crude. And it was meant to be.
But it wasn’t meant to drag others into the fire with me.
When I saw that people I cared about were taking heat for it—people who had nothing to do with it—I took the post down. Not because I regretted standing up to powerful people, but because I had failed to consider how my words would reflect on those around me.
If you’ve seen my work—my music videos, my book, my film, my political art—you know that satire, irony, and offense are part of the toolkit I’ve used for years. But I now see that my usual approach doesn’t always translate when others are caught in the crossfire. And for that, I truly am sorry.
I’ve helped elect good people to office in this city. I’ve done that as myself and on behalf of Gorky—not for any one candidate or organization. But I recognize now that my fire, while effective in exposing corruption, can burn the wrong people too.
So here’s where I stand.
I’m laying down my rhetorical arms. I’m not going to keep targeting individuals in the Portland Metro Chamber, Prosper Portland, or elsewhere. I’ll let the press and public do their jobs holding people accountable.
And I’m going to refocus on the thing that drives me most: my art.
I’m a musician. A writer. A filmmaker. I’m not a politician or policymaker. I’ve done what I can for this city, and I’m proud of that. But now it’s time to finish my film—and to center my energy where it can do the most good.
To everyone who has stood by me: thank you.
To everyone who was hurt or burdened by my actions: I’m sorry.
And to the people still profiting off injustice: the cameras are rolling.
-JMGV