The Inzunza family has always been a part of the South Bay.
Ralph Inzunza Sr. was once a school board member in San Ysidro and was a three-term National City councilman from 1988 to 2000.
Nick Inzunza, Ralph Sr.’s middle son, served one-term as National City’s mayor from 2002 to 2006.
Michael Inzunza helped start a short-lived newspaper in the Sweetwater Union High School District.
Ralph Inzunza Jr. served as chief of staff for former District 8 San Diego Councilman Juan Vargas for six years before getting elected to the same seat in 2001.
But then the young politician found himself caught up in what would become known as Strippergate, a federal bribery case that saw Inzunza. sentenced in 2005 to 21 months in federal custody.
Since then Inzunza Jr.,48, moved back to Chula Vista about 10-months ago leaving a life of politics and entering the world of writing.
The author of the recently released novel “The Camp,” is half fiction, half fact about Inzunza’s time at Atwater Federal Prison Camp.
Inzunza leaves it to the reader to decide how much of the novel is based off his own experiences and how much of it is fiction.
He said the experience in the camp made him realize that the criminal justice system was broken. Many first-time offenders, 19 and 20 year-olds, were serving decade’s long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
“To have a 15- or 20-year sentence for your first-time nonviolent offense is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “These kids had these ridiculous mandatory sentences and that’s when
I had my epiphany about two months into prison where I said ‘I have to write their story. I have to write a story that talk about these kids.’ ”
Since he has been out of prison, the former politician has been spending time with his wife of 20 years and their two children.
He credits his marriage to his wife Ana, a teacher in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, with getting him through his political successes and prison stint.
“When you’re married it is for better or for worse, and I definitely did the worse,” he said.
“The challenge was there in the ‘for better or worse’ part and we have hung in there so it’s worked out nice.”
His days now are pretty routine.
He spends most mornings writing while his afternoons are filled with lunches, taking his 15-year-old daughter to volleyball practice and helping his high school freshman son with school work.
Inzunza said he said he has no interest in returning to political life, saying he’s “been there, done that” and wants to dedicate the remainder of his time writing books.
The transition from politics to author has been pretty easy for Inzunza Jr.
“The one thing you do have as a politician that you have to do from time to time especially when you are in groups of people is that you have to tell stories,” he said. “Tell stories about what you’re doing or why you’re going to fix this park, or where you come from, or what issues out there in the community that needs to be addressed. So at one point I just thought to myself, I can tell a story. Maybe I can put it in writing.”
Inzunza is currently writing his second book “Border Citizen,” a coming of age story based in 1984 about a Latino teenager growing up along the border as he watches his father and uncle struggle through the Chicano Civil Rights movement.
Inzunza said he hopes his writing can change any negative perceptions about him.
“I think my name is being repaired through my literature,” he said.
In April, Inzunza will be celebrating five years of freedom.
