COSTA MESA : Public Invited to Ethnicity Dialogues

About 200 people have signed up so far for next week’s “Living Room Dialogues,” discussions that aim to ease tensions between people of different cultures and religious backgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Among those participating will be Mayor Mary Hornbuckle, City Manager Allan L. Roeder and Roy Alvarado, founder of the citizens’ group, Latinos Costa Mesa, who was recently appointed to the city’s Human Relations Committee.

“The theme of the dialogues is celebrating our diversity. We’re trying to generate good, positive feelings in a forum where people feel comfortable enough to bring up problems,” said Eleanor Humphrey, also a member of the city Human Relations Committee and an organizer of the talks.

The dialogues, which take place in the homes of volunteers, are being revived after a two-year hiatus. In 1988, the talks were started amid growing animosity between ethnic groups--mostly whites and Latinos--in Costa Mesa, Humphrey said.

Back then, members of the City Council passed several ordinances that many people in the community saw as anti-Latino because they were aimed at trying to eliminate the city’s resources for illegal immigrants. Those ordinances included one forbidding day workers’ soliciting work in certain areas of the city, a law that was legally challenged and subsequently invalidated by a judge.

Because these ordinances were being adopted, Humphrey said, some residents thought that they had official permission to openly display their animosity toward people of different cultures.

“You could be a Hispanic who has lived here with your family for 60 years, but you would be considered an alien,” she said. “It didn’t matter.”

The Human Relations Committee has also scheduled more dialogues in May and June. The last time the sessions were held, some of the groups continued to meet on their own for several months after the initial talks, and people are being encouraged to do the same this time, Humphrey said.

The dialogues will begin Wednesday at 7 p.m. and continue Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m., 1 and 7 p.m. Several groups will be meeting during those times, and anyone who wishes to join can call Humphrey at (714) 642-2730, Laura Collier at (714) 650-5149 or the city manager’s office at (714) 754-5329.