Officer’s Charm Arrests Sister City Delegates in Visit From Mexico

OXNARD —  A bit groggy after two days of gambling and partying in Laughlin, Nev., dignitaries from Oxnard’s Mexican sister city shuffled into a gray conference room Friday to meet with their Oxnard counterparts.

Downing coffee, bagels and doughnuts, the delegates from Ocotlan fortified themselves for the long morning of speeches and presentations to come. But just as eyelids started drooping from the usual sister city formalities and officialese, in walked 32-year-old Alex Rangel.

An Oxnard cop with an easy manner and aw-shucks charm, Rangel spoke in Spanish about why he loved policing in La Colonia. He discussed the need for officers to build trust with community youth. And he popped in a videotape with a clip of the segment he anchors in Spanish for Oxnard’s cop show “Street Beat.”

What ensued can only be called a love fest.

“This is an officer who is concerned about his Mexican brothers,” said Jaime Rivera, Ocotlan’s sister city committee president, as he handed Rangel a fistful of I Mexico pins.

Others were more forward.

“How much do you make?” 40-year-old Rosalia Garcia asked Rangel. “If we pay you double, will you come back with us to Ocotlan?”

As the more than 40 officials from both Oxnard and Ocotlan rose to give Rangel a standing ovation, a woman blurted out yet another proposal.

“You can stay with us,” she said.

Why all the fuss? Several members of the Mexican delegation explained to Rangel that Mexican police officers have a notorious reputation for being useless and corrupt.

Rangel said that American officers undergo extensive training and background checks before they get to wear their badges. But despite the screening process, some American cops can still be trouble, he said.

“Not all officers are little angels,” Rangel said.

The Ocotlan delegation breezed into Oxnard on Monday before taking off on the six-hour bus ride to the Golden Nugget hotel in Nevada the next morning. They will spend this weekend touring the harbor on a dinner cruise, attending the Ventura County Fair parade and sampling American eats at a western barbecue.

“Sister cities promote good relations,” said Doug McLaughlin, vice president of Oxnard’s sister city committee. “The purpose is to be in a better understanding of the two cultures and to have a good time.”

A formal dinner dance at the Oxnard Hilton on Sunday night will cap the week’s festivities. There, Oxnard officials will donate to Ocotlan a 1977 fire engine the city can no longer use because of U.S. safety requirements.

The 30,000-pound Van Pelt truck will be the third engine Oxnard has donated to Ocotlan over the years, which means that the city, located about 50 miles east of Guadalajara, will have a total of four engines.

That’s not much for a city with more than 150,000 residents. But with this engine, Ocotlan Fire Chief Osvaldo Romero said, the city will be able to open its second station.

“We are going to be able to give the community better service,” he said.

Oxnard has offered to send a few of its own firefighters to Ocotlan in September to show their Mexican counterparts how to keep the aging engine running.

During the nearly three-hour meeting, Rivera announced that Miss Ocotlan sent her regrets, but could not attend as she was busy competing in the Miss Jalisco State pageant. And Enrique Garcia, a member of Ocotlan’s sister committee, drew loud applause when he announced that Ocotlan had managed to get the University of Guadalajara to open a branch in town.

“Before, many from Ocotlan could not get a college education,” Garcia said.

When the meeting between the two cities ended shortly after noon, officials pumped each other’s hands and slapped each other’s backs.

“The hospitality has been tremendous,” said Ocotlan Mayor Francisco Lagunas as he headed for the sunny Oxnard summer day beyond the door.