Latino Leader Candidates Warned to Shed Prejudice

As Latinos assume new roles of authority in the community, they must shed their own prejudices against women, the disabled and gays, an ethnic studies professor Tuesday told members of a new Latino leadership program.

Richard Santillan, a professor at Cal State Pomona, said that while Latinos can easily identify discrimination, they forget that they also have biases against other groups.

“Because of the society that I grew up in,” Santillan told the group, “I, too, have been contaminated with prejudice and discrimination.”

Santillan spoke at a reception marking the start of a new leadership program in Orange County sponsored by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He also told members of the program’s first class that 1990 Census figures showing dramatic increases in the Latino population are meaningless unless the community becomes active and forces changes in public policy.

MALDEF’s nonpartisan program, similar to leadership training previously offered throughout the United States, is designed to teach mid-career professionals how to improve their clout on private and public boards and commissions. The long-term goal is to groom Latinos for higher positions on corporate boards or in elective offices.

The opening of the Orange County office comes at a time when census figures show that one out of every four county residents is Latino. Over half of the net increase in the state’s population between 1980 and 1990 was Latino.

Aware that its move into conservative Orange County could be met with suspicion by members of the county’s business and political establishment, MALDEF leaders formed a 23-member advisory panel headed by Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez.

John Palacio, who will direct the Orange County program, said the credentials of the first two dozen class members show the depth of untapped leadership potential in the Latino community.

“Maybe 80% of them are people out of the woodwork,” Palacio said. “These are people who are fairly unknown, who wish to participate in making Orange County the kind of community we all want to live in.”

More than one-third of the class, Palacio added, is made up of people who immigrated to this country, with most of the others being “first-generation” Americans.

Program participant Ruben A. Smith came to the United States from Mexico at the age of 4 and grew up in Huntington Beach. His background includes a law degree from Yale University and administrative jobs in the White House, the Los Angeles mayor’s office and with the state Democratic Party. He now practices law with a Newport Beach firm.

“Of the top 20 law firms in Orange County, there are no Hispanic partners. That’s my immediate goal,” Smith, 33, said.

Another participant, 54-year-old telephone company supervisor Viola Myre, reflected on the changes in what was once an Anglo-dominated community.

“I remember being 17 years old, and I had been to a two-year college, and I could not get a job in downtown Santa Ana because I was Mexican,” the Orange County native said. “Now, I can’t get a job on 4th Street because my Spanish is not good enough to do business. That shows the cultural difference in Orange County and how it has changed.”

Also attending the leadership classes will be Jose Vargas, 55, who recalled being arrested and deported to Mexico a dozen times before obtaining legal residency. After working as a garbage truck driver, Vargas went to college and became a U.S. citizen before joining the Stanton Police Department.

Today, Vargas is the Hispanic affairs officer for the Santa Ana Police Department.