Latinos Search Far, Wide for Bilingual Help in High Desert : Social services: Immigrants make the grueling 120-mile round trip to San Fernando Valley agencies for counseling, poverty aid and health care.

There is no barrio in the high desert, no longtime Latino neighborhood to offer a recent influx of Latin American immigrants the solace of language and culture.

Social workers say the Antelope Valley’s growing low-income population of immigrant laborers and farm workers does not yet have bilingual community agencies to serve its needs. Immigrants are making the grueling 120-mile round trip to the barrios of the San Fernando Valley, where nonprofit organizations with established reputations provide immigration counseling, advice on job disputes, poverty aid, health care and other services.

“I’m not surprised they go down there for bilingual help,” said Natalie Ambrose, director of the United Way chapter in Palmdale. “There’s not a lot of places anybody can go for help up here.”

In the past year, an increasing number of Spanish-speaking clients have sought food, clothes and shelter

at South Antelope Valley Emergency Services, a Palmdale charity that serves the poor but does not offer Spanish-language services. Director June Hawkers attributes the phenomenon to an increase both in population and awareness.

But Hawkers and others do not know where to refer clients looking for counseling and other Spanish-language services in Palmdale and Lancaster.

“I’m stumped,” Hawkers said. “It’s a real problem.”

An economic downturn has compounded the problem, eliminating low-paying labor opportunities in construction and other sectors that accompanied a recent housing boom, according to social workers and others. Hawkers said more immigrant families are finding it harder to survive, particularly in semi-rural parts of Littlerock, where many of the day laborers who wait for work at the dusty intersection of 82nd Street East and Pearblossom Highway live in harsh conditions.

But these newcomers, especially if they are undocumented, are often unaware or fearful of social aid agencies that do not have a distinct Latino identity. And they are also suspicious of Spanish-language businesses that have set up shop in the Antelope Valley, some of which purport to help immigrants but actually prey on them, according to people who work with the community.

The rapid Latino population growth has been dispersed throughout the high desert, preventing thus far the emergence of a true community with a network of leaders and support services. That makes a tough way of life even tougher, social workers said.

The available statistics reflect a population surge and experts say the actual numbers may be even larger. Los Angeles County statistics show the percentage of Latinos in the rapidly growing area has itself increased, from below 8% of the total population in 1980 to at least 13% in 1990.

The Lancaster Elementary School District is 15% Latino and the Palmdale district is 21% Latino, Ambrose said.

The effect of the population growth has been particularly dramatic in the small school systems serving the eastern valley communities of Littlerock and Lake Los Angeles, where agricultural jobs have attracted migrant workers. Latino students make up 29% of the Eastside School District, 28% of the Keppel School District and 21% of the Wilsona School District, Ambrose said.

Getting from these isolated communities to the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster 15 miles to the west can be difficult for someone who does not have a car. The trek down the steep mountain route of the Antelope Valley Freeway to the San Fernando Valley is even more difficult, social workers say.

“I know that for them it is a struggle,” said Felix Cantu, who teaches English as a second language in a Palmdale program sponsored by Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a North Hollywood-based community group. “Some people don’t have rides. Some people pay someone else to give them a ride.”

Nonetheless, counselors at Hermandad Mexicana, Santa Rosa Catholic Church in San Fernando and other San Fernando Valley agencies see numerous clients from Palmdale, Lancaster and Littlerock, and even from the Kern County towns of California City, Mojave and Rosamond.

Soledad Alatorre, an administrator at Hermandad Mexicana, said the clients often are originally from rural areas of Mexico and Central America and have minimal education. They seek a range of services: counseling on immigration questions, translation of official documents, help in filling out forms in both English and Spanish.

Some report unpleasant experiences with for-profit immigration services and other businesses that have sprung up in Lancaster and Palmdale in pursuit of the Latino market, she said.

“They say there are people who exploit them, who take their money,” Alatorre said.

Harold Medina of the Antelope Valley United Way said: “You have people coming up here putting up a shingle. The question is, who do you trust?”

Faced with such uncertainty, immigrants travel to receive help from bilingual counseling services, health clinics and charities with established reputations in longtime Latino communities.

Another factor draws clients from outlying areas, according to Phyllis Nadler of North Valley Counseling Center in San Fernando. Some once lived in city barrios and moved to the Antelope Valley because they heard it was more affordable and safer, she said. But their ties to churches, community groups and family in their old neighborhoods endure.

“They still have their roots here,” said Theresa Vinson of the Santa Rosa Catholic Church. “When they have problems, this is where they come.”

Several groups in the Antelope Valley believe many needs are going unmet and are attempting to set up more accessible alternatives. St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale organized amnesty classes last year and operates food pantries in Palmdale and Littlerock.

“We are trying to keep up with the need,” said church member Rebecca Fraire, who is also a United Way board member. “We weren’t prepared for it.”

Cantu has also set up a satellite office of Hermandad Mexicana in Lancaster, where he volunteers his services as a counselor. He says the lack of services was dramatized for him when he learned that one man was paying an acquaintance $20 to give him rides to Cantu’s office from Littlerock.

“Right now the economy is really slow,” Cantu said. “I get people asking where they can find work. . . . There are people who need for somebody to translate with an employer and find out why they didn’t get paid. They really need a place to go where someone understands them, a place to go for their grievances.”

Services will develop with time, social workers said. But they said the emerging Latino community needs to develop leaders and a means of spreading the word about the services.

“People don’t know where to go,” Medina said. “People don’t know who to call. Part of it is lack of services. Part of it is a lack of communication.”