Hispanics gear up for Election Day

POLITICS: New strands of activism are weaving through the community; many target Prop. 227.

Hundreds of Orange County Hispanics, long known as a “sleeping giant” by political observers, are quietly revolutionizing their community by becoming politically active for the first time in many of their lives.

It is a new phenomenon, visible in a patchwork of small efforts such as selling tamales at a school fair, or large ones such as raising thousands of dollars through corporate donors.

And it is significant: Hispanics, long believed to be inactive and uninterested in politics, are among the state’s largest voting blocs. A new activism could mean huge changes for California politics, if not this year, then long-term.

Southern California Hispanics, through hundreds of grass-roots fund-raisers the past four months, have contributed about $ 1 million of $ 3 million for anti-Proposition 227 commercials scheduled to run across the state this week, said David Gould, treasurer of Citizens for an Educated America political action committee, which opposes the bilingual education measure.

In Santa Ana, voter registration groups such as the Latin American Voters of America are seeing almost double the number of volunteers this year compared with the last two election cycles of 1996 and 1994. The organization has jumped from 150 to 250 members this year.

The Orange County Democratic Party has doubled its number of volunteers this year from 1994, up from 25 to 50 workers, many of whom are Hispanics. The Republican Lincoln Club of Orange County drew about 350 people at its first Hispanic outreach breakfast last month.

The new, or newly awakened, political activists are a diverse bunch: recent immigrants, third-generation professionals, single mothers.

They are increasingly united on many issues this election year, motivated by their lack of voice in California politics and inspired to change what they see as bitter rhetoric against Hispanics.

Some say their turning point was Robert Dornan’s announcement that he would run against Rep. Loretta Sanchez to again represent the 46th District in Congress. For others, such as Carmen Hernandez, a 49-year-old Santa Ana mother, Prop. 227 was the last straw.

But all say the cumulative effects on their community of Propositions 187 (the 1994 anti-illegal immigration measure) and 209 (the 1996 measure limiting affirmative action programs), the investigations into Sanchez’s win and now Prop. 227 have spurred them to get involved.

“Even if we lose (Prop. 227), we’ve arrived at a better level,” says Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in Santa Ana for 22 years and is now politically active for the first

COOKING FOR A CAUSE

Lourdes Mirando’s kitchen is hot, so hot the sweat drips down your face within minutes of entering the food-laden space.

Three women in salsa-splattered T-shirts and Reeboks crowd around an old white stove. They take turns dipping five tacos at a time into roiling corn oil.

The women are fighting Prop. 227 the way they know how. Today, they’re cooking for a fund-raiser they’ll soon be serving in Yorba Linda. Tomorrow, they’ll spend the day selling old clothes at a yard sale.

Their work today: 350 tacos, 200 tamales, 150 cheese-filled chilies and 50 pounds of rice.

Their cost: $ 100 each _ more than any of them has spent on clothes for herself in a year.

All are immigrants awaiting U.S. citizenship. They’re learning the American political process, fund-raising for anti-Prop. 227 commercials.

Tonight, they hope to raise at least $ 800 from people who will pay $ 25 to eat their food and watch Aztec dancers who also are donating their time.

Such fund-raisers go on almost daily this month, as the June 2 vote draws near.

Will their efforts make a difference? Graciela Ortiz and Elisa Peralta think not. They’ve seen the polls in favor of the initiative; they remember Prop. 187.

If Prop. 227 wins, Mirando will protest. She’ll vote, just as soon as she can. She says she’ll work for other political causes, too.

“We are going to work more,” she says. “More and more. “

Adds Ortiz: “Until the government hears us. “

TAPPING GOP DOLLARS

Over dinner at the Ciao Mein restaurant in the Hyatt Hotel in Irvine, not far from his sky-rise attorney office, John Cruz makes his pitch.

“About half of Orange County Hispanics vote Republican,” he tells an acquaintance who works at a large oil company.

Cruz is lobbying to loosen purse strings typically tapped only by Republican candidates and causes. His cause: the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a name he says many of his fellow Republicans associate with liberal Hispanics.

Cruz knows his colleagues’ hesitation: Why help a group that, they think, will only register Democrats to vote? Just four months ago, he wondered the same himself.

That’s when Cruz, a University of Michigan-educated business lawyer, was approached by Southwest Voter Registration to sponsor a dinner to unite Orange County Hispanics _ split in recent years over the Sanchez and Dornan debate _ and raise money for the organization’s voter outreach efforts. The group is targeting the county for a record number of new Hispanic voters this year.

Cruz was skeptical at first. The staunch Republican wanted proof that Southwest is truly nonpartisan.

Southwest Voter Registration then provided records showing that since 1994, about 35 percent of county Hispanics registered to vote by Latino outreach programs have signed on as Republicans. Cruz was sold.

He’s used his Republican connections to access new money for Southwest Voter Registration. When the Lincoln Club saw Cruz’s name on a fund-raising letter, its president called and offered $ 1,000.

Twelve other Lincoln Club members soon called for tickets.

Friday night, about 350 people attended the Santa Ana dinner. It was the first time Southwest Voter Registration has gained such Republican support in Orange County.

Cruz’s connections helped the organization raise $ 48,000. Its goal was $ 15,000.

Cruz realizes he may have lost credibility among his fellow Republicans for his sponsorship but says he may be gaining the confidence of others, especially Hispanics and Democrats who have believed Republicans aren’t interested in the Hispanic vote.

“I feel I’m doing the right thing,” he said.

GETTING ACTIVE AGAIN

On a rainy Tuesday night, Andrea Del Pozo pulled out her umbrella, put on her thickest socks and slogged through her Anaheim neighborhood to a community meeting to volunteer for Sanchez’s campaign.

She didn’t want to go, not in a storm. And a week before, she probably wouldn’t have. That was before Dornan announced he would run again. Del Pozo thought about it all weekend.

It made her think of Props. 187 and 209 and the “Loretta inquisition,” as she calls the investigation into whether illegal votes by noncitizens won Sanchez’s last election against Dornan.

Dornan insisted throughout his challenge to Sanchez that he was interested only in the sanctity of the vote. And during his years in Congress, Dornan says he could count on significant Hispanic support.

To Del Pozo, the initiatives and Dornan’s efforts to unseat Sanchez all were oriented toward blaming California’s problems on Hispanics.

She kept to herself her thoughts about Props. 187 and 209.

She didn’t protest Dornan’s charges against Sanchez. She’s kept her mouth shut about politics for most of her 67 years.

There was one time, when Cesar Chavez was organizing farm workers, when she spoke up. She quit buying grapes for a while.

But that was more than 30 years ago.

So that chilly March night, Del Pozo marched to a community meeting where 40 other political newcomers _ almost all Hispanic-Americans like her _ met to volunteer to work for Sanchez’s re-election campaign.

Now, Del Pozo works at Sanchez’s Garden Grove campaign office about four hours a week. She answers phones and stuffs fliers into envelopes. She’ll do it through the November election.

She’s looking for other Hispanic candidates to support but says Sanchez will remain No. 1. She’s a woman and Hispanic _ a rare combination Del Pozo had always hoped she’d see in a leader.

“We Latinas have woken up, and are finally taking our place in society,” Del Pozo says. “I’m going to die happy. “

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HISPANIC PARTICIPATION

Hispanics’ rise in political activism is expected to continue to increase as more immigrants become citizens, register to vote and take a stake in their new homeland.

About 50,000 immigrants are becoming citizens every three months in Orange and Los Angeles counties, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS expects that number to increase this year.

The number of people applying for citizenship has grown through the 1990s by about 400 percent annually in the INS’ Los Angeles district, said spokesman Bill Strassberger. The district, which includes Orange County, serves a heavily Hispanic clientele.

More than 700,000 people now await citizenship approval in the INS’ Los Angeles district.

In Orange County, Hispanic voter registration has more than doubled annually since 1994, compared with outreach efforts in 1988-1994. During that period, such programs registered 2,864 Hispanics annually. In 1994-97, that number jumped to 5,986.

Nonpartisan Hispanic outreach

Santa Ana-based Latin American Voters of America registers voters in Orange County. Information: (714) 835-6990

Southwest Voter Registration Education Project runs voter registration and participation programs in Orange County and elsewhere. Information: (213) 728-2706; Web site: www.svrep.com

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials provides leadership and community activism training in Orange County and elsewhere. Information: (213) 720-1932; Web site: www.naleo.org

Compiled by Amber Arellano



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