Stronger Latino outreach urged

Elise Gee

WEST SIDE -- The city’s most well-connected and active Latino

leaders and advocates were called upon Wednesday to help increase Latino

participation in the West Side revitalization process. But, they

acknowledged, past mistreatment will make their job difficult.

The 7:30 a.m. meeting at Avila’s El Ranchito restaurant was attended

by nearly 50 representatives of schools, businesses and social service

agencies.

Hoping to multiply the effect achieved at El Ranchito, each attendee

was urged by restaurant owner and meeting coordinator Maria Elena Avila

to act as mentors and bring four to six members of the Latino community

to a West Side public input meeting planned for October. They were also

asked to help distribute fliers.

“I really believe we are a bridge and each one of us is a link in that

bridge,” said Avila, who has been troubled by the lack of participation

by Latinos at West Side public input meetings.

The city is rounding out a year of effort to gather community input

for the creation of a West Side specific plan, which will provide the

blueprint for revitalizing the area roughly west of Harbor Boulevard and

south of Wilson Street.

City efforts to ensure feedback from the Latino community during this

process has included bilingual newsletters, the use of interpreters and a

number of outreach meetings. Still, attendance by the Latino community at

the larger public workshops has been disappointing with only a handful of

members showing up.

Avila began talking to Councilwoman Libby Cowan about forming a Latino

Advisory Committee, which would not only help increase participation in

the West Side meetings but also operate on a continuing basis.

Community leaders in attendance also offered insight into what was

needed to reach the Latino community.

“If you give a business card or a flier, it will be trash, said Paty

Madueno. “You need to make that one-on-one contact.”

Madueno is a member of the Orange County Congregation Community

Organization, St. Joaquim’s church and a resident manager at Costa Mesa

Family Village.

Other community activists, such as El Chinaco owner Mirna Burciaga,

spoke frankly about what needed to change in the community.

Burciaga is also the membership coordinator for TeWinkle Middle

School’s PTA. She spoke about the icy treatment she receives as one of

the sole Latino members of the PTA. Burciaga also said that despite the

fact that TeWinkle is 68% Latino, she still faces barriers when she

attempts to raise issues important to Latino parents.

“Probably that’s why it’s been hard to reach (Latino) people on the

West Side -- because of their past experiences,” she said.

Avila said she hopes to change that by bringing the meeting to the

people, instead of the people to the meeting. Plans include holding the

October workshop at St. Joaquim’s church or Rea Elementary School, where

Latino residents already feel comfortable. Organizers are also

considering holding the meeting in Spanish with English interpreters.

It is Avila’s fear that if changes are proposed or made to the West

Side without the input of a good portion of the residents who live there,

the city’s efforts could backfire by creating fear and suspicion.

“We want to begin to really empower the people and show them how they

can be part of the process,” Avila said. “We want to give them the

feeling and message that they do belong in the community.”