Rebecca Zapanta opens the door to the Mediterranean mansion high on a hill in Whittier. To the left, just past a staircase, a terra cotta font glistens with blessed water from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

"This is the Purple Room," the 54-year-old says, waving toward an eggplant-colored room featuring paintings by Mexican masters -- Siqueiros, Orozco, Tamayo and Diego Rivera -- all purchased by Zapanta and her husband, Richard, an orthopedic surgeon.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Whittier: An article in Saturday's Section A about Whittier becoming a magnet for upscale Latinos said that Whittier College has a student body that is nearly one-third Latino, the highest proportion of Latino students at any private liberal arts college in the United States. At Mount St. Mary's College, with campuses in downtown Los Angeles and Brentwood, about 44% of the student body is Latino, according to 2006 numbers. —

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Decades before the couple bought the 12,500-square-foot home, back when it was still the old Reilly estate, Whittier's most famous resident, Richard Nixon, attended social events in some of these rooms. When it was built in 1927, the mansion represented everything Whittier aspired to. John B. Reilly was a powerful local Republican, an oilman who years later helped Nixon make his first run for political office. When he became president, Nixon provided one of Reilly's daughters with a Cabinet position.

Now the Reilly estate has become the Zapanta estate, and it stands as a monument to a new set of aspirations.

The Zapantas are fourth-generation Mexican Americans from East Los Angeles, part of a wave of doctors and lawyers, small-business owners and school administrators who are remaking Whittier into a center of upper-middle- class and upper-class Latino life in Southern California.

Like Reilly years before, the Zapantas host political events at the spacious mansion. But their preferred candidates are Latino Democrats. They have held two fundraisers for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and one for former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico. Once a year, they offer tours of their vast collection of Mexican art.

The last U.S. census counted Whittier's population at 83,838. Latinos constituted 23% of Whittier residents in 1980; they were 56% as of 2000 and that number is presumed to be more than 60% by now.

The city's neighborhoods reflect a range of economic levels, with working-class and middle-class residents tending to live in the flatlands and the affluent higher in the hills.

And parts of Whittier have their social problems, including gangs and homelessness. But unlike nearby Huntington Park, Maywood and South Gate, which became much poorer as illegal immigrants surged in, Whittier "is where the heart of the Latino bourgeoisie wants to be," said Daniel Duran, an associate professor of business at Whittier College.

The college, where Nixon got his bachelor's degree, now has a student body that is nearly one-third Latino, the highest proportion of Latino students at any private liberal arts college in the United States.

On a recent day, Rebecca Zapanta drove her silver Mercedes along Whittier's leafy streets, pointing out the signs of a changing town.

"The people who live in this house are Hispanics. . . . These are white. . . . These are old Quakers. . . . These are Mexicans here. . . ."

Pretty homes.

A smile broke under her prescription Versace shades.

"What did you expect?" she said. "Did you think it was going to be run-down because Mexicans moved here?"

Whittier, founded by Quakers in 1887, was a quiet town in its early years. There were no liquor stores, let alone bars, said Hubert Perry, 94, a lifelong Whittier resident and Quaker whose father helped Nixon get elected to Congress.

"It was years before I knew what a bar was," the former banker said.

Perry has seen three major demographic changes sweep over his city. The first occurred after oil was discovered in the Whittier hills and nearby Santa Fe Springs in the early 1900s.