Celebrating for a Cause : Santiago Club Promotes Latino Cultural, Economic and Educational Prospects in County Communities

Five hundred people were expected, but more than 2,000 showed up. They held candles and walked through a grimy Santa Ana neighborhood where the sheen of poverty and tough workaday lives was lessened by the glow of candlelight and the festive air of the holidays.

The walk was Las Posadas, the traditional re-enacting of Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay to await the birth of Jesus Christ. The walkers through the Logan neighborhood, north of the Amtrak station, included nearby residents and anyone who wanted a closer look at Latino culture. At the end of the procession came the fun: mariachis, folk dances and food.

The inaugural Las Posadas festival last month was sponsored by the Santiago Club, a group of almost 100 men and women organized in 1984 “to promote the cultural, economic and educational prospects” of county Latinos, according to group chairman Rodolfo (Rudy) Montejano.

Montejano, 50--a native of Santa Ana with a degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law and a business law practice in Santa Ana--said the club raises and donates money for varied activities, ranging from paying for a student’s trip to Washington for an internship to pledging $8,000 to pay the fees of families applying to become U.S. citizens under the amnesty program.

The Santiago Club has also helped buy uniforms for some student athletes and has worked with schools with large Latino populations to make students aware of the many community and 4-year colleges in the area.

Hector Godinez, a club founder who is postmaster of the Santa Ana field division of the Postal Service, said club members also hope to act as role models for Latinos in the county.

Last year the club broadened its activities, donating the $500 award for the best slogan in a Santa Ana voter registration campaign and helping pay for the city’s decoration of a float entered in the annual Tournament of Roses parade.

The club has an operating budget of more than $150,000 a year, Montejano said, charging a $500 initiation fee and $300 annual dues. It raises other funds by staging a 3-day Cinco de Mayo festival and a 3-day festival to commemorate Mexican independence day in September, both in Centennial Park.

Montejano said the two fiestas are “the largest events of their kind in Southern California,” with 50,000 or more people attending, dwarfing the turnout for similar gatherings in Los Angeles.

“It’s really a cultural event, primarily for the low-income Hispanics,” he said. “It’s open to everyone, obviously, but it’s primarily . . . a chance for (poor Latinos) to bring the family” and have a good time.

For $5 per adult, fiesta-goers get carnival rides and free food, plus a chance to buy snacks from booths selling such specialties as tacos and menudo.

The club also raises money by sponsoring a Sunday swap meet known as El Mercado at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana.

Montejano said the swap meet not only provides money for his organization but more importantly provides “a commercial outlet for customers who otherwise would not be able to afford some of these items,” which include clothing, toys and various kinds of food.

Although the contributions to the Tournament of Roses float and to a Santa Ana city celebration mark a widening of the original scope of the club, Montejano said, its members are “still concentrating on Hispanic organizations and activities.”

The most recent activity was Las Posadas. Montejano said the Santiago Club brought a musical group of college students from Guadalajara to the event and distributed 2,500 tamales, 4,000 pan dulces (sweet bread), 3,000 of the thin, deep-fried, bread covered with sugar known as bunuelos , and 500 pinatas stuffed with candy, cookies and toys.

“You could just see the enjoyment on the children’s faces,” Montejano said.

Father Jeff Thies, a Roman Catholic priest who is associate pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Santa Ana, said Las Posadas “was terrific . . . a major event in terms of the community.”

Thies’ church is also a beneficiary of the Santiago Club, which last year contributed a $1,000 cash prize for a raffle as part of St. Joseph’s annual fiesta, an event that helps raise money to operate the church and its programs.

Montejano said the club’s members, who include non-Latinos, are largely business people and professionals. He said they include attorneys, engineers, restaurant owners, an architect and insurance executives.

One member is Luis Mendoz, born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, a veteran of 18 years as a U.S. merchant sailor, and for the last 5 years a resident of Santa Ana.

Mendoz said he sees the club as a way to “get some money and give it back to the community.”

Mendoz said the organization receives several hundred requests for financial assistance each year and tries to assist those who are “really going to help the community.”