District Feedback : Residents Savor Chance to Pick a Latino Supervisor

With only 10 weeks to go before the historic election that could place a Latino on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the first time this century, residents of the sprawling new 1st District seemed to be reveling in the chance to choose from what is shaping up as a strong slate of Latino candidates.

Many said it was too early to judge how they felt about the race, while others worried that a battle among prominent Latinos for the seat being vacated by county Supervisor Pete Schabarum could tear the community apart.

By Tuesday, the field of declared candidates for the Jan. 22 special election grew to include Democratic Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, Republican Sarah Flores, Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) and Gonzalo Molina, a school teacher and perennial candidate who is no relation to the councilwoman. State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) was also said to be considering running.

Few residents had heard that a political rift had already opened among some prominent Latino leaders. On Monday, U.S. Reps. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles) and Esteban E. Torres, (D-La Puente) announced their support of Molina, while Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre said he disagreed with the closed-door process that led to her selection. Alatorre, who had considered running, announced Tuesday that he would not.

People in the bustling district of 1.78 million residents were far less interested in the behind-scenes political maneuverings than in the range of possibilities suddenly at hand. One message came back repeatedly: Latino representation on the Board of Supervisors, a bastion of inner-circle Anglo politicians for generations, is long overdue.

“(A Latino supervisor) can see the needs of the poor because they have seen these problems first hand,” said Josie Ganivet, personnel manager at El Piojito, a giant discount store popular with Central American immigrants near MacArthur Park on the far western edge of the new district. “It is a very good day for the Latino people, whoever the winner.”

Some young Latinos, in particular, seemed to welcome a chance to alter the makeup of the powerful county board. At Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Derek Shearer, director of the Public Policy Department, said Latino students were talking and writing about a federal judge’s order to hold an election for the district. The name on the lips of many politically aware Occidental students, he said, is Molina’s.

“Can one person make a difference? This person will have a great opportunity to do so, and my more informed students certainly recognize this,” Shearer said. “But this (college-age) generation also views just one seat as tokenism, and they know a far larger board is needed to really represent Los Angeles County.”

Whoever the candidates are, they will have a lot of hoofing to do in the 25-mile-long, widely diverse district. From west to east, the district changes from a tableau of Latino families crammed into tiny apartments along 7th Street near Union Avenue to the affluent northern edge of unincorporated Rowland Heights, where hawks soar over five-bedroom view homes.

The district was created on paper by demographics expert Leo Estrada, a UCLA professor and a leading researcher into the well-documented population explosion among Latinos in the United States. The district Estrada drew up is 71% Latino and 12% Anglo.

Along predominantly Spanish-speaking Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, many residents indicated that word of the Jan. 22 election had not reached the core of the huge new district.

But Celia Tinajero, 63, owner of a business selling grave markers and monuments, seemed well-informed of the court-ordered redrawing of the district and the ensuing political maneuvering.

“Why are there so many running for the same office? . . . I like this lady, what’s her name, who worked for Schabarum,” Tinajero said.

When told that Flores is a Republican, however, Tinajero abruptly changed her mind even though the race is officially nonpartisan.

“Oh well, forget her then. Definitely not a Republican. They’re not for the poor people, not even for little businesses like myselfd. . . . Gloria Molina is fine. She’s been the most pro us, the most pro her people.”

At Rio Hondo College in Whittier, Phillip Garcia, 20-year-old editor of the school newspaper “El Paisano,” expressed mixed feelings about the race.

“It sounds pretty bogus to me, it doesn’t sound fair,” Garcia said of the closed-door meeting at which Molina was backed by Roybal and Esteban Torres. “But it’s hard to say. If you want to promote Latino leaders, they should get together and talk. But just because they’re Latinos doesn’t mean they should do anything unethical.”

Several Anglo residents on the western edge of the district in Silverlake and Echo Park said they were supportive of a slate of Latino candidates.

At Millie’s, a diner on Sunset Boulevard frequented by the area’s Bohemian-style population of artists, writers and musicians, the restaurant owner, who gave her name only as Magenta, said Silverlake is ready for a politician who will challenge the status quo.

Most of her customers voted for Democrat Dianne Feinstein for governor, she said, and she hopes the area will go heavily Democratic for the supervisorial race.

“This will help the Latino community first of all,” Magenta said, “but if a woman is elected I hope it will help women too--that’s what I’m the most concerned about. . . . I’d like to be one of the first to stop that old-boy network, because we’ve had an old-boy network in Southern California since before I was born.”