Latinos Aim to Expand Their Core of Leaders : Politics: The project is seen as a way to empower the county’s growing ethnic community by placing professionals on community boards.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside. But inside the small office a few blocks north of Santa Ana’s government complex, the staff is beginning to talk about the untapped potential of Latinos in Orange County and of the lack of economic and political empowerment.

The staffers, members of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, are sowing the seeds for what they hope will be a new crop of Latino leaders in the county. Through its Leadership and Development Program, MALDEF will groom Latino mid-career professionals for appointments to private and public boards and commissions. The long-term goal is to prepare them for higher positions on corporate boards or elective offices.

“We are looking to have an immediate impact,” John Palacio, Orange County program director, said recently of the project scheduled to begin in April and train about 130 people in the first year.

“I think it will be readily acceptable simply because the establishment is asking for Hispanics to help them in working and resolving issues in the community,” Palacio said. “If we are part of the process, we can also be part of the solution.”

The Orange County program, planned to run three to five years, is seen by some local Latino civic leaders as an opportunity to help guide their growing ethnic community that is changing the face of Orange County.

New census figures are expected to show that Latinos make up almost 18% of the county’s population, contrasted with 14.8% just 10 years ago. In the past five years, the number of Latinos in Orange County schools has increased from 22% of the total student population to 31%.

“As the community gets larger, we have to develop and prepare future leaders to get into a position of leadership,” said Palacio, a 10-year Orange County resident who worked previously as a management consultant in Santa Ana.

But as MALDEF moves into affluent and conservative Orange County, local observers said, it must do so cautiously, establishing a program that fits into the mainstream without posing a threat to the established power structure.

“We welcome it,” said Al Amezcua, president-elect of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, pointing to the need to nurture Latino leaders within the business community. “But keep in mind that Orange County is a different animal and Orange County has specific needs and probably very different from the (San Francisco) Bay Area or Texas.”

Conversely, civic leaders said, the establishment should seize the opportunity to forge coalitions with representatives of what is the fastest-growing ethnic population in the country.

Based in Los Angeles, MALDEF has earned a national reputation for its legal challenges in the areas of employment, education, immigration and voting rights.

The group’s federal court challenge of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors district lines led to the recent creation of a district that will ensure the election of a Latino representative. In Orange County, MALDEF officials said they will be watching the redistricting process to make sure Latinos are not left without fair representation at the local level.

The nonpartisan leadership development program, begun 10 years ago, has operated in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco and other cities and has trained 1,300 people. Officials said that about half the graduates have gone on to serve in appointive or elective offices.

One Los Angeles County program alumna, South Pasadena Mayor Evelyn Fierro, said there is often a “fear of the unknown” in the Anglo community, but they will learn that Latinos can also serve the general population.

“A leader is a leader, and if they are truly leaders of all people, then they are going to rise to the top,” Fierro said. “MALDEF is just trying to help Latinos find themselves and do something.”

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez, a Republican who is the county’s highest-ranking Latino elected official, said program officials and local civic leaders seek a “mutual understanding” as they explore the needs and goals of the Latino community.

“It will require a better understanding. The demographics of the county are changing, and as the demographics change, so do the needs and requirements for service of the Hispanic community,” he said.

Unless new Latino leaders are developed, future policy decisions will not serve the Latino community, said David Bautista, head of the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA.

“Policy gets made on the assumption that Latinos are just like blacks, and the policy becomes counterproductive,” he said.

Although unfamiliar with the MALDEF program, a local Republican Party official said minority leadership programs, in general, help identify good people for candidate recruitment.

“In order for a society to grow, you need new leadership brought in,” Republican Party spokesman Dennis Catron said, adding that the ethnic communities tend to be conservative and in line with Republican philosophies.

But Paul Garza, former executive director of the Orange County Democratic Party, predicted that the political establishment will feel intimidated by the presence of an activist group like MALDEF, while the business community will see the “potential to develop a very positive relationship.”

Cognizant that Orange County requires a different approach, the program will cater to the community’s needs, said Lydia Camarillo, the program’s national director.

Orange County “has a world trade center. How is that conducive to the Latino community? How is the undocumented person received in that area and what is their economic status and survival? How will the redistricting issue affect that community?” Camarillo said.

Unlike the Latino leadership program sponsored by United Way, officials for both organizations said there will not be a duplication of effort because the MALDEF program will be faster-paced and more advanced.

The seven-month training program will range from personal development to the rules of etiquette associated with private board membership versus a public commission, Palacio said.

But the underlying theme will be an analysis of power.

Fierro said that before entering the program in 1984, she had already received a law degree and was skeptical she could learn much more.

Instead, she said she was astounded at what she learned about the community, the corporate world and the politics involved in getting appointments to boards and commissions.

“Politics is really at the core of any power,” she said.

Camarillo said individuals who go through the program either reaffirm their commitment to the Latino community or pledge to get involved.

The result, Camarillo said, will “ensure that we do in fact play a major role in deciding our destiny, rather than other folks doing that for us.”