New York City Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Gustavo Gordillo is facing new scrutiny after public records and other evidence contradicted several claims he has made about his family background, his housing and his employment.
Gordillo, 38, has often described his parents’ journey to the United States as central to his political beliefs. In a New York Times profile published earlier this month, he said, “My parents came here, they had nothing. Their first jobs were in fast food and cleaning houses. They built success in this country. And they’re absolutely the exception.” He has said he supports socialism because he wants to “build a world” where that kind of success story is “not exceptional.”
But a 2021 obituary for Gordillo’s paternal grandfather, first reported by the New York Post, tells a different story about the family’s history. According to the obituary, Manuel Gordillo emigrated from Peru to the United States in 1958 to practice medicine, later met his wife in St. Louis, and went on to have Gustavo’s father. Manuel Gordillo built a career as a psychiatrist in Ohio, at one point serving as president of the Ohio Psychiatric Association, and raised his children in Lakewood, Ohio, in Cuyahoga County. The obituary describes him as cherishing his role as “a husband, father, grandfather, and uncle/tio.”
That account appears to be at odds with Gordillo’s description of his parents’ upbringing. In July, he told Fox News, “My dad, his first job in the United States was working at Wendy’s, my mom’s first job was a house cleaner, and they did make a living for themselves, and they had success.”
After the discrepancy was reported, a spokesperson for the New York City Democratic Socialists of America told Fox News Digital, “Gustavo and his parents were born in Peru and immigrated to the US. Gustavo’s father grew up in Peru, not in the United States, and the family had limited contact with Gustavo’s grandfather, who is the subject of the Post’s recent reporting.” The organization later added that Gordillo’s father was a product of the elder Gordillo’s first marriage.
Housing claims questioned
Separately, Gordillo told the New York Times he was renting a modest apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Records instead show he has been living in a $1.4 million townhouse in a more upscale part of the borough that is owned by his father.
New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino criticized the arrangement on social media platform X, writing, “Not only did DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo’s parents buy him this rowhouse, they converted it from a two family and renovated it into a luxury single-family home for him. Exactly the kind of ‘greed’ the DSA rails against on a daily basis, and reducing valuable housing inventory by one more unit, which is supposedly something the DSA cares very deeply about.”
Union status disputed
Gordillo has also continued to describe himself as a “union electrician” on social media, despite having been removed from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers apprenticeship program in March for failing to attend required work and classes.
The IBEW said in a statement, “After learning of Mr. Gordillo’s prolonged absence from and failure to participate in required work and classes, the trustees of the Joint Apprentice Training Committee terminated Mr. Gordillo from the program.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been asked whether he still stands by Gordillo amid the mounting scrutiny of his housing situation and work history.
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