<i> Hombres Latinos </i> Tackles <i> Macho</i> Image : Culture: It’s more than the men’s movement, Latino style. Building on their special heritage, group battles community’s negative view of males.

They sipped hot coffee, burned sage in an abalone shell and prayed for the health of their families as the autumn night air slipped in through an opening in the garage where they gathered.

One of the men lifted the shell in the direction of each of the six group members, covering them with smoke. The purpose of the ritual: to acknowledge the directions of the compass--east, west, north and south--and to purify the spirit.

One group member, a youth counselor from Hacienda Heights, said a prayer for those who could not attend.

“Thank the Creator. Thank our families for sacrificing and allowing us to be here tonight and pray for our brothers who cannot be here.

“El Oso”--called the bear because of his size--”sends his regards and abrazos (embraces),” he continued. “Roberto is still struggling. You may want to call him,” he tells the group.

The men gathered in this quiet, residential Whittier neighborhood came from different parts of Los Angeles County and from different walks of life. Among them: a social worker, a photographer, a student, a musician/alcohol-drug counselor and a factory worker.

They are members of Hombres Latinos, a 5-year-old group in California and Texas, formed out of concern over what they say is the negative view of men in the Latino community.

“As soon as a group of Latino males get together, they think there’s going to be trouble,” says group member Jerry Tello, the youth counselor. “And they ask, ‘Can’t we get together without beating up people?’ All they think we are going to do is fight, drink and talk about women.”

But don’t associate them with today’s highly visible--and largely Anglo--men’s movement in which members bang on drums or “get in touch” with their emotions.

“Once you mention Robert Bly in the same breath as us, people think they have us figured out,” Tello says of the author of “Iron John”--considered the guide of the modern men’s movement.

“We are coming together as Latinos,” Tello says. “Our history is different. We always get compared to what the norm is. White people are always the norm. We have our own essence. We are, in and of ourselves, OK without being compared.”

“The compadrazco system”--where men get together to listen to music, talk, burn incense--”has been around for years. . . . We are not here saying, ‘pobrecito mi, let me identify with my dad.’ ”

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Hombres Latinos claims about 150 members in Los Angeles, Northern California and San Antonio. They are trying to increase their numbers, but their efforts have been thwarted, they say, because there is no national network for them to get the word out.

This movement is different, they say, because their concerns are different.

“The stories about us being machos in the negative way, about us being womanizers, concern us because that is what our young boys are hearing about what it means to be a Latino male,” Tello says. “Unless they are taught otherwise, then that is what they are going to think they should be.”

But what also sets them apart is that their movement--built around the notion of meeting in a circle--goes back centuries.

Earlier meetings came in the form of seasonal ceremonies and year-round sweats, where the intent was to celebrate a harvest, the coming of age of a member of the community or to purify the spirit.

Such sweats and collectives continue in places as far apart as Highland Park and rural Mexico and Guatemala, Tello says.

“If you look back at our ancestors, there were circles,” Tello says. “There were times such as El Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), where the men and boys would get together to lead the ceremonies,” he says.

“These ancient traditions are filtering down,” Tello says, and are being used today “for discussion and guidance” in group sessions.

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This particular night the men talk about old and new love relationships and their children. “We felt it was necessary that we, men, take a more active role in raising our children,” Tello says. “We also have men who are in a lot of pain and needed to get together in a positive way.”

One of the men confided that he had previously abused his wife, but after attending Hombres Latinos meetings, he has learned to better control his anger.

At the meetings there are no agendas, no hard and fast expectations. Often the men, who range in age from early 20s to mid-50s, just shoot the breeze, exchange ideas and abrazos, or embraces.

Hombres Latinos subscribes to the seven tenets of El Hombre Noble (The Noble Man), a guide they’ve written for themselves. In addition, they aspire to be macho, which, by their definition, is: “He who is dignified, a protector, responsible, nurturing, spiritual, faithful, respectful, friendly, caring, sensitive, trustful and he who provides.”

This night about a third of the regulars meet in the garage because the host is baby-sitting his daughters--ages 6 and 8--while his wife is at work. Throughout the meeting he goes to the house to check on them.

“The purpose is not to just come together (this) night,” Tello says. “It’s really rebalancing the extended family system--the re-integration of the positive Latino male.”

He adds: “We have a responsibility to our families and our children.”

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Finally, the meeting closes just as it began, with a prayer:

To the creator and the families--the men, brothers, raza, music, the world, children of the elders, a real carino ( love ) for the mujeres ( women ) and abrazos for them -- the other side of our duality.