Glendale Gadfly : Human Relations Panel Chairman--Called Brilliant, Confrontational--Faces Ouster

Ray Reyes’ recent actions as chairman of the Glendale Human Relations Council were denounced by the Glendale city manager as “shameful” and lambasted by a rival within the civil rights organization as radical “Glendale-bashing.”

But Reyes says he is used to such criticism and does not seem particularly worried about a campaign to remove him next week as head of the non-governmental council. More important, he explains, is that people continue to pay attention to his assertion that racial discrimination is tightly woven into Glendale society.

“People seem to lose sight of the fact that, in terms of social relations, there has been a history of negative racial practices in Glendale. And we pretend that this isn’t part of the history of this city,” said Reyes, who is director of a counseling office for low-income and minority students at Glendale Community College.

Violence Halted Forum

He maintains that direct confrontation is the most effective way to fight bias. That, he said, was why he insisted that the council sponsor a debate with a white supremacist group last month, despite calls for the debate’s cancellation. Before it could begin, that forum disintegrated into violence among radical and racist groups.

That event led to even sharper criticism of Reyes and calls for his removal. However, he scoffs at suggestions that he and the council apologize for what happened.

“What are we going to apologize for?” he asked during an interview this week. “We can’t be responsible because somebody wants to beat up on somebody else. We cannot control people. When someone is determined to shout and scream, they’re going to do it. We immediately adjourned the meeting, and that was the responsible thing to do.”

Reyes, 46, said he has been active in civil rights since handing out his first political leaflet supporting the Cesar Chavez grape boycott in the early 1960s. But his style of activism has turned off some council members, prompting a nominating committee to pull together a slate of candidates for next week’s scheduled elections that does not include Reyes or his supporters.

Reyes may be nominated by his supporters, but he says he expects to lose the chairmanship of the council. “I don’t get flustered by these things,” said Reyes, a stocky man with dark hair and a neatly-trimmed goatee. “We’re the ones who do the work anyway. So it doesn’t matter if they go through this little symbolic routine, which they will.”

Ken Carlson, a steering committee member of the council and a fellow organizer of the debate, described Reyes as an excellent leader. “He listens, he’s sophisticated in his understanding of politics, he articulates very well, he delegates responsibility and is organized,” Carlson said.

Scott McCreary, a past president of the council and a leader in movement to replace Reyes agreed only in part with that description. “He’s extremely bright and articulate--the guy’s brilliant,” McCreary said of Reyes. “But that kind of leadership--the confrontative type of style, Glendale-bashing, harping over affirmative action--reflects on a different modus operandi. The bylaws read that this is a group that is supposed to bring people together, not polarize them to a greater degree.” Reyes’ rhetoric turned people off, causing attendance at council meetings to dwindle, McCreary claimed. “I stopped going because I go to church on Sunday to get preached to,” he said.

McCreary and others say the council must apologize to the community in order to restore credibility they say was lost after the failed forum. However, Reyes responds that city officials should apologize for what he claims is the fostering of a social climate that attracted the League of Pace Amendment Advocates to move to Glendale earlier this year. The Pace group wants all people not of Western European background to be deported from the United States. Its spokesman was to debate Carlson at the aborted June 25 forum at the Glendale Central Library.

Uses Police as Example

As an example of what he said is institutional racism, Reyes cited the case of Glendale police officer Ricardo L. Jauregui, a Latino who allegedly was passed up for promotions in favor of less-qualified Anglo officers. Last October, a federal judge ordered Jauregui promoted to the rank of sergeant with back pay. But the promotion has been blocked as Glendale officials appeal the decision.

“He won his case and they refuse to give him the position. And then they think they’re not contributing to racism? That’s incredible,” Reyes said. “...Is it any wonder that a group like Pace sets up here?”

Reyes also questions why so few blacks live in Glendale. According to the 1980 census, less than 1% of the city’s 150,000 residents is black.

The Glendale Human Relations Council was revived last November because of issues arising from the Jauregui case and in response to racist graffiti at a Brand Boulevard deli owned by a black woman. The organization originally came together in 1963, but disbanded in 1980 as the civil rights movement lost momentum.

Reyes became involved with the council in February, and soon afterward, he said, accepted a request by McCreary that he serve as interim chairman after the then-chairwoman became ill.

Sought Attention for City

Reyes decided that a debate with the Pace group would be a way to attract attention to Glendale. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the County Human Relations Commission urged that the event be canceled because, officials said, it would give unmerited publicity to a small racist group.

Publicity there was. Along with a swarm of television and print reporters, about 150 people showed up, including members of a neo-Nazi group, the Ku Klux Klan, the Jewish Defense League and a leftist student organization. A brawl left at least one man bloodied and another jailed. Reyes then canceled the event before it could begin. By then, however, the action was captured on television cameras and reporters’ note pads--and Reyes said his mission was accomplished.

“It was a maneuver,” he conceded. “You need to have a drawing card and the drawing card was Pace. It got the media there.”

The day after the brawl, Glendale City Manager James M. Rez issued a strongly worded press release blasting the event. “The meeting at the library was an affront to every law-abiding and concerned citizen in this community, and there is no place in this community for the kind of hate organizations that were brought together by those who orchestrated last night’s forum,” Rez wrote.

Lose Meeting Site

Several days later, Rez canceled an appointment with Reyes in which the two were to review results of the city’s 15-year-old affirmative action policy. And, this week, the city refused to allow the council to meet at the library, where the group usually held its sessions.

Nevertheless, Reyes said, he plans to issue a critique of the affirmative action policy. And, the council is looking for a new meeting spot.

Reyes was born and raised in an impoverished section of Los Angeles’ Chinatown. His father was a warehouse worker for a paper company, his mother a garment factory worker. He credits them and his teachers with instilling in him pride and confidence that racism could not erase.

John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez and Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata influenced his political philosophy, which he describes as “beyond liberal.”

Started Chicano Program

Reyes earned a bachelor’s degree in history from California State University, Los Angeles in 1963. He then taught social studies at his alma mater, Cathedral High School in Los Angeles, helped begin the first Chicano studies course at Los Angeles Trade Tech College, and taught English as a second language at Roosevelt Adult Education School in Boyle Heights.

In 1971, Reyes became the director of a counseling program for minority students at Ventura Community College. He also was president of the Assn. of Mexican American Educators in Ventura and has been active in other groups of Latino educators.

In 1972, he earned a master’s degree in education from California Lutheran College. Three years later, he accepted his current job as head of the Glendale Community College Extended Opportunity Program and Services (EOPS) “I’ve had very good experiences with him,” said Dr. John A. Davitt, president of Glendale Community College. “He is an exceedingly effective administrator of the EOPS program . . . over the past several years we have repeatedly received increased EOPS funding, and I think much of that is attributable to him and the leadership he gives to the staff.”

While at GCC, Reyes helped launch an ethnic studies program within the social science division of the college. He is now chief negotiator of the faculty union.

“He’s outspoken about many issues that are of concern and I think this is good,” Davitt said.

Reyes, who is married and has children, shies away from discussion of his personal life.

“What I discovered was my activism forced my family into a role that they may not have wanted to be in . . . and, while I hope that they would believe what I believe, I feel they should have a choice,” he explained.

Now a resident of what he describes as an “affluent San Gabriel Valley suburb,” Reyes said it is vital that he never forget his roots.

“A number of people made sacrifices so I could indeed attain this professional standing. . . . I have an obligation to see that the doors remain open and to also see if I can open them wider. And that’s why I think I exist on this earth.”