"It is *also* the case then, that with a good gerry mander, that Sanchez district could go away."
The problem is that (i) the GOP does not control redistricting in CA, and probably will not do so again for the foreseeable future, and (ii) the Voting Rights Act requires that CA have a certain number of Hispanic-minority districts, and any reduction in the number of such districts would be seen as a violation of the Act. But if the GOP controlled redistricting, I think that we could draw two GOP-leaning Hispanic-majority districts in the OC, although neither could be as heavily Hispanic as Sanchez's CD. That's under the current rules, of course; if illegal aliens were not counted as inhabitants for apportionment purposes, there would probably not be any Hispanic-majority CDs in the OC and the most Hispanic district in the county would lean Republican.