An Insider Steps Down : Public service: Bob Borrego retires. He was a respected peacemaker who kept watch on Santa Paula’s ‘have-nots.’

Growing up in Santa Paula during the Depression, Bob Borrego remembers his teacher handing Latino schoolchildren stubs of crayons, worn hand-me-downs from the Anglo-only elementary school nearby.

He remembers a teacher solving fraction problems incorrectly on the blackboard until she was corrected by a courageous classmate.

His memories include the delight of seeing a double-feature at the town’s movie house--a treat spoiled as he grew to understand why Latino children had to sit in one corner of the theater, leaving the best seats for Anglos.

“As I grew older, I developed strong feelings about the injustices,” Borrego said. “I was a very angry young man, angry at the establishment, angry at my inability to make changes.”

Out of that frustration evolved a lifelong commitment to social change so his children did not suffer the same indignities.

Over the years, his path led him to become the first Latino elected to the school board of the Santa Paula Elementary School District in 1970. Within a few years, he became the first Latino to serve as a top aide to a Ventura County supervisor and later the first Latino to serve as an administrative assistant to a state senator.

Last week, at age 64, Borrego retired from nearly 20 years as a government insider. During his career he held key positions of influence in the offices of state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), his predecessor, former Sen. Omer Rains (D-Ventura), and County Supervisor John K. Flynn.

“Bob has been a big influence in the community,” Santa Paula Councilman Alfonso Urias said. “We have a continuous battle between the haves and the have-nots, and most of the have-nots are of Mexican heritage. Bob has always been there.”

Borrego has spent the last two decades shedding the activist image of his early years to become a point-man for the Latino community in the midst of government--an ally working from within the system.

“He has been a role model as someone who is in government looking to create change,” said Rodney Fernandez, executive director of Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., which builds low-cost housing. “He was always there when a voice was needed.”

By all accounts, Borrego mastered the delicate balance of representing his employer and keeping his eye on the prize for the Latino community. Much of his success, his closest friends and colleagues say, came out of his quiet, yet persistent manner.

Some say he has a gift for soothing tensions and persuading opponents to back down.

“He may be soft-spoken, but he has a commanding physical presence,” said Rains, now an attorney and lobbyist in Sacramento. “I recall several occasions where there would be hostility in the room and Bob, through his soft yet commanding way, would defuse the situation.”

Beverly O’Gorman said she grew to rely on Borrego’s quiet strength when they were colleagues in Hart’s Ventura office for eight years.

“We get people who come into the office threatening to blow us up,” O’Gorman said. “Bob was so grounded he would bring a sense of calmness to any situation,” O’Gorman said. “He would present himself as an authority figure and ease them out of the office. I cannot remember when it didn’t work.”

Hart said he has developed a deep affection and respect for Borrego in the past eight years. “It is easy to underestimate Bob because he is so quiet,” Hart said. “He’s very savvy politically.”

If Borrego has a gift, it was put to the test repeatedly in the early 1970s when young Latinos, who believed the police were harassing them, erupted in riots in Santa Paula.

At one point, an angry crowd assembled at a local school, with a few weapons, planning to strike out at the police. The Santa Paula Police Department, meanwhile, had called in reinforcements from neighboring police agencies for a showdown.

Borrego and other Latino leaders in town asked the police to hold off a day so they could disperse the mob of teen-agers and avoid disaster. The plan worked, and shortly after the riots, the Santa Paula police began a push to hire Latino officers.

“Bob was one of the cooler heads in the Hispanic community who were trying to maintain order,” said Santa Paula Police Chief Walter Adair, a street officer at the time. “He’s a fine man.”

Borrego grew up in a family of migrant farm workers, helping in the orchards after school and during summer vacations, sometimes migrating from camp to camp. After he dropped out of the 10th grade, Borrego was a farm worker for a time before he joined the Teamsters Union to drive trucks and then supervise loading docks. In 1973, Flynn hired him as his administrative assistant, and two years later he went to work for the state Senate.

Despite his personal success, Borrego has never lost touch with his roots, his friends say.

“He’s been a lifelong champion of causes for the farm workers,” said George Castaneda, a former Santa Paula school board member and owner of Gil’s Food Market in Santa Paula.

From his position in government, Borrego is credited with garnering support for housing projects and other needs of farm worker families.

On several occasions, his deep convictions helped political leaders take a stand against mistreatment of workers.

In 1974, for example, Flynn remembers marching in La Colonia to show his support for strawberry pickers being organized by Cesar Chavez. Farm workers at the time believed they were being harassed by growers and sheriff’s deputies who had jailed a number of women and used low-flying helicopters to intimidate workers in the fields.

The growers in Flynn’s district were incensed that their county supervisor supported farm workers and demanded a meeting. Flynn faced the growers with Borrego at his side. “It was very comforting to have someone like Bob Borrego there with me,” Flynn said. “His quiet strength helped me make it through a very strained situation.”

Borrego’s daughter, Diana Martinez of Sacramento, has encouraged her father to write his memoirs and chronicle the history of farm workers in Santa Paula.

“For me and others in my generation, it is a real eye-opener to hear what our parents went through,” said Martinez, 41, a marriage and family counselor.

Borrego said he will try to comply with his daughter’s wishes. He also plans to remain on the Santa Paula Planning Commission and on the board of directors to the city’s Boys and Girls Club.

Last November, Borrego ran for the Santa Paula City Council and lost by 223 votes. He and another Latino candidate were edged by a slate of three Anglo candidates.

“A lot of people were shocked that he didn’t make it,” said Al Escoto, former mayor of Santa Paula. “Everybody thought he was going to be the top vote-getter.”

Borrego said he plans to run again in the next council election. In the meantime, he said he feels his activist self stirring, ready to join a good Latino cause.

“I feel like an emancipated slave,” Borrego told his supporters at an emotional retirement party last week. “I’m going to go out there and raise hell.”