Mexican Community Reaction : Tainted Cheese Sparks Disbelief, Fear, Anger

To accommodate the American palate, Socorro Duartes does not use any Jalisco cheeses in the food she serves customers at her Mexican restaurant in Santa Ana. But at home, she’ll have nothing else --even following reports that the cheese is linked to 29 deaths in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

“I’m not scared. I just can’t believe it’s that bad. The cheese is so good,” said Duartes, owner of Guillermo’s La Fiesta Mexican Food on Main Street. “Where are they dumping it? I’ll pick it up. I love it.”

Disbelief was one of the reactions Friday to Thursday’s recall of the cheese that is a favorite in the Mexican community. Anger and fear were other reactions.

Nine Months Pregnant

“My husband heard it on the news last night. We decided to not buy it anymore,” said Celia Badillo, who is nine months pregnant and has four other children, ages 2 to 11.

Badillo said she was not overly concerned about the potential harm of the cheese. Just in case, however, she threw out the last two chunks of Jalisco cheese still in her refrigerator.

Magdalena Fernandez and her family don’t expect to be using Jalisco cheese any more.

“We’re afraid of it,” Fernandez said.

Agreed her son, Marthel Aguilar, “I’m not going to buy it. I’m not going to take a chance.”

‘Wouldn’t Buy It Again’

At El Toro Carniceria in Santa Ana, where customers snap up about $900 worth of the cheese a week, Jalisco is the most popular brand, co-owner Juan Bonilla said. But as in other Latin areas, Bonilla and worker Susana Ojeda disagreed on whether they would ever buy the cheese again.

“I wouldn’t buy it again. I have too many kids,” said the father of six.

Ojeda disagreed and said she possibly would buy Jalisco again, because the contamination, “well, it’s an error.”

For employees of the Orange County Health Department, the second day of the recall was a busy one.

Forty staff members met at 7 a.m. Friday and began surveying Latino retail establishments and Mexican restaurants.

By noon, according to Bob Merryman, the county’s environmental health director, 509 establishments had been surveyed. Merryman said 430 were aware of the recall of Jalisco products and 168 actually sold the products. Of the 168, 41 of them still had the items on the shelves for sale or were using the products in cooking.

“Needless to say, that stopped when we made the inspections,” Merryman said.

He said the Health Department staff would work late into the evening, continuing the survey of “from 2,000 to 3,000 establishments.”

Times staff writers Dave Palermo and Nancy Wride contributed to this story.