SANTA ANA : Latina Mentors Keep Tabs on ‘Sisters’

Minerva Bonilla and her friends at Saddleback High School have recently acquired their own personal confidant: Theresa Najero, a part-time Cal State Fullerton student they turn to when classes get tough, boyfriends cause problems or parents don’t seem to understand.

Najero is even teaching Bonilla, 16, to drive.

Under the Hermanitas (“little sisters”) program of the county chapter of the Mexican American Women’s National Assn., Najero has befriended six Latina girls at Saddleback.

“I tell them to call me, even if it’s in the middle of the night,” Najero said. “They’ve got my work number and my home number.”

Sometimes they call her in an emergency, such as when the parents of one girl misunderstood a note from school and, thinking that she was doing poorly, thought it would be better for her to drop out and get a job.

But Najero, who wants to be a high school principal, intervened and persuaded the parents to keep their child in school.

Other times, the girls must ponder the future. Najero helps out on that too.

“When we have finals, we get together in a study group and help each other out,” said Bonilla, adding that she and many of her friends have decided to go to college and become doctors.

They talk about the possibility of choosing the same college and continuing their study groups there.

There are about 50 girls in the Hermanitas program. Other participants are from Saddleback, Mountain View, Santa Ana and Valley high schools. They are at different points in their lives but still need the role models the program provides, said Eva Lombardo, a MAWNA member.

The group sponsors job conferences and other meetings, such as the Latina youth conference held Wednesday at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana.

“We want to turn these girls around, and the message we give them is that education is a way out,” said Lombardo, who has headed the program since it began in March. “The main emphasis is we’re giving hope to the girls. We have seen some girls actually turn around.”