Nosotros’ Brave Front Hides a Schism : Media: Power struggles have divided the Latino advocacy organization, whose Golden Eagle Awards ceremony will air Monday night on KTTV.

The Latino media advocacy organization Nosotros takes its name from the Spanish word for us . But these days a more fitting name might be “us vs. them.”

The Nosotros that the public will see Monday night in a taped presentation of its annual Golden Eagle Awards on KTTV Channel 11 appears united. But behind the scenes an internal war is raging that many in the Latino community worry has all but ruined the 20-year-old organization’s effectiveness.

Founded in 1970 by actor Ricardo Montalban with the goal of improving the image of Latinos in the entertainment industry, Nosotros has in the past few years been beset by power struggles and accusations of financial mismanagement that have resulted in an Internal Revenue Service audit, a dozen lawsuits and an investigation by the California attorney general’s office.

Though the IRS audit and the attorney general’s investigation have vindicated the current board of Nosotros, having found no wrongdoing on its part, the findings have done little to mitigate the bucketloads of bad blood between former and current members.

An example:

Former president Jerry Velasco claims that he showed up at a Nosotros meeting earlier this year and was informed by an armed guard that he was “persona non grata” and ordered to leave. When he resisted, Velasco said, the guard put his hand on his belt as if preparing to pull out a gun.

“It’s just so dirty,” Velasco said. “They intimidate you. They keep expenditures from the membership, then they consider it a disruption if you ask questions.”

Nosotros’ current president, Marc Allen Trujillo, acknowledged that there is a security guard present at meetings but said that is due to the group’s meeting location in Hollywood, the site of several automobile thefts. He said that the guard who argued with Velasco was not armed and was reaching for a flashlight.

Trujillo, a singer, actor and composer who has been president of the organization since 1989, has his own list of affronts. He said that in the past week, a mysterious fire was set in a trash bin outside Nosotros’ theater and that the organization’s secretary filed a police report alleging that she was harassed by two members of the opposing camp. In a written statement, Nosotros said it is “pursuing legal action” on these matters.

“We have to wake up and behave like intelligent people at some point,” Trujillo said. “Where’s the pride? Where’s the dignity? Where’s the honor?”

Indeed, many outside the organization have echoed the same sentiments as they watched the feud being conducted very publicly in the Spanish-language press with disgruntled members circulating nasty letters and hurling accusations back and forth.

“When they have fights, they’re so public with them,” said the head of a Latino advocacy organization who requested anonymity. “They send copies of poison-pen letters to everybody. They sue each other and freeze the corporate bank accounts and so forth. They’ve lost a lot of respect. You can’t wash all your dirty linen publicly. Pretty soon it looks like all they’re doing is fighting and not doing much for the community.”

“I don’t think that people see Nosotros--within the industry and also the general public--as being in the forefront of the necessary changes that should be there,” said Raul Ruiz, professor of Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge. “I think that many people see Nosotros as a self-serving organization, that people get into it to promote their individual and personal interests. I think unfortunately what has happened lately leaves it open to ridicule, regardless of which side you support.”

Though the Nosotros board and Golden Eagle producer Frank Nanoia have been cleared of allegations of financial wrongdoing, the suspicion that money is being mismanaged continues to plague a contingent of disgruntled former members--several of them past presidents, such as Richard Yniguez and Velasco--who hope to bring back Montalban as head of the group in an effort to restore some of Nosotros’ lost luster.

The current administration, in turn, has accused former presidents of financial mismanagement during their tenures.

Since the early 1980s, there have been 12 lawsuits and counter-suits involving former presidents and members--most involving disputes over the Golden Eagle Awards, control of the organization or financial mismanagement, said Nosotros attorney David Dantes. Eleven of those suits have been settled, he said.

“Everybody sued everybody,” Dantes said. “Most of them ended up being settled without any money changing hands. Basically, they all boil down to litigation over control of the organization. They were ridiculous. They were a waste of time, money and energy.”

Montalban, who has managed to stay relatively removed from the current volley of accusations being sent back and forth, announced last month that he would seek the presidency of the organization he co-founded. Trujillo said Friday that he intends to seek re-election. No one else has entered the race yet; the election is not until November.

“I want to bring about unity without pointing a finger,” Montalban said in a recent interview. “Every organization has growing pains, but this has become more than that. This has become a rift. If it looks like everyone inside is fighting, then how can the outside take us seriously?”

Many on the inside and outside of the organization look hopefully on Montalban’s bid for leadership, pointing to it as the group’s best chance for regaining respect in the community.

“In my opinion, Ricardo is the only person who can pull it all back together,” said actor Esai Morales.

Montalban’s bid for the presidency represents an about-face for the veteran actor, who cut off ties with the group last year after he was defamed in a rambling, anonymous “poison-pen letter,” a diatribe that accused key Nosotros members of opportunism and detailed their alleged sexual habits.

But now Montalban wants to put the animosity behind him. If elected, Montalban said, he would like to set up a corporate advisory board to help the organization function more professionally and ensure that all accounting procedures be conducted “in a pristine manner.”

Montalban’s bid could also help the organization’s cache within the entertainment industry. Calls to a couple dozen well-known Latino actors turned up none who is currently an active member of Nosotros.

“I’m not aware of anybody whose work I know and respect being involved in that organization,” said Morales, a former Nosotros member. “I know that we deserve a better representation and a much more sophisticated image.”

If Montalban is not elected, a contingent of well-known Latino actors is considering starting its own organization.

“Ricardo (Montalban) and Esai Morales and Eddie Olmos and a lot of us are discussing it,” Yniguez said. “The professionals in the industry realize they have no voice. . . . The only way to do that is to create an organization that speaks for us, speaks for us loudly. And Nosotros does not speak for us. It speaks for its constituency, which is nonprofessionals.”

Some of Nosotros’ stated accomplishments, as published in the Golden Eagle Awards program, include the establishment of the Latino Writers Group, conducting drama and theater arts classes for actors, a commercial workshop and an accent reduction class. The group recently unveiled a mural at its Hollywood headquarters by artist Ignacio Gomez that chronicles “Great Hispanics in Hollywood,” and it held the West Coast premiere of “Simpson Street,” a play written by Latino playwright Edwardoc Gallardo and directed by Nosotros president Trujillo.

The group’s biggest yearly event and its largest moneymaker is the Golden Eagle Awards, now syndicated in more than 70 markets nationwide. Not surprisingly, with all the feuding, attendance has dropped at the ceremonies.

This year’s event, held June 14, was hosted by Lorenzo Lamas and Ana Alicia and its theme was “The Best Is Yet to Come.” A coterie of feuding former members tried to persuade people not to attend or perform at the ceremony.

In the past few years the awards have come under fire for honoring such non-Latino performers as Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Robert Redford, Morgan Fairchild, Casey Kasem and Pia Zadora.

“The Golden Eagles are awarded to Latinos who have achieved accomplishments in the crossover market, and also they are awarded to people who have helped to aid Latinos and enhance their image,” explained Nanoia, the awards show’s producer.

Yniguez countered that award winners were chosen to draw an audience. “These are people who look at the Golden Eagle Awards as more of a commercial venture than a cultural view of who we are,” he said.

Trujillo doesn’t think a change of leadership is the answer to Nosotros’ problems.

“I think the solution is within the application of our goals and principles,” he said Friday. “I think we have to apply all of our energies in a positive direction, not in a destructive direction. . . . All the problems, the accusations, they hurt us all. I think we have to apply our enegeries to getting down to work. This other stuff is so petty. It makes us look so bad, and there are no winners.”