Testimony / ONE PERSON’S STORY ABOUT THE GOOD LIFE IN EAST L.A. : Why Does the Media ‘Ignore the Positive?’

Juana Beatrice Gutierrez, a founder of Mothers of East L.A. and president of its Santa Isabel chapter, is 60 years old and has lived in East Los Angeles for 38 years. She came from a rural area in Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1956 and soon married Ricardo Gutierrez, who was then serving in the U.S. Marines. He now works in a local water conservation project. Eight of her nine children--five girls and four boys--were born in Lincoln Hospital in Boyle Heights and the oldest was born in Corona at the Naval Hospital. She has eight grandchildren.

If the media and less enlightened people are to be believed, you would not be able to walk on the streets of East L.A. without being shot. But my community is a good place to live because we have a lot of good people here.

Why does the media emphasize only the negative and ignore the positive? Why don’t we hear about our children who become professionals and return to the community? Why don’t we hear about parents, especially fathers, who are doing a good job?

All my kids went to grammar school and high school in the area, then on to the university. The oldest group went to Loyola Marymount and East L.A College and another went to art school. The older son, Gabriel, is going to get his doctorate next year in Chicano studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and another is in his third year of engineering there.

Veronica went to Princeton and then Boalt Hall law school at UC Berkeley and is working at a law firm. Martin went to Princeton also; he majored in political science. Many of my children’s friends from this neighborhood are professionals now.

We have gangs in East L.A., but where I live we started a Neighborhood Watch program and we don’t have gangs in our neighborhood. My children were never involved in gangs, thank God. The media says that East L.A. and South-Central are gang neighborhoods. We do have gangs, but we also have a lot of good kids, a lot of good parents and families here. When something happens in East L.A., everybody makes a big thing of this. But when you live here, you see the truth.

It’s harder now than when my kids grew up. A lot of the parents both work all day, so the kids are by themselves. When the parents are there, they are tired and they don’t listen to their kids when they want to talk about their problems. That’s when the kids go outside and look for company. These are good kids but some will end up on the streets, some will get scared and get involved in gangs. My kids talk to these kids a lot. Martin and Gabriel talk to these kids in the barrio. Veronica is on the board of a group that provides special education to former dropouts. Martin got a big group of gang members and took them camping to try to convince them to try something different and to get them to go back to school.

During the summer we used to have a program for kids to clean the streets, clean graffiti, but last year there were only 20 kids involved because the city didn’t have the money to pay these kids. No jobs, no programs--this is the main problem.

One of the problems with the gangs is that these kids don’t have any youth programs. The governor doesn’t direct money for our youth. For instance, we have the YMCA here and the kids don’t have the money to join. What are they going to do? Then these kids destroy the streets and playgrounds and parks and just make problems. Because they don’t have things to do like in the (San Fernando) Valley or in Malibu. Look at how resources are allocated. It’s not fair.

Look at the education system here. There’s no cafeteria at the local school; they have lunch outside in the yard. At Hollenbeck Junior High, it’s terrible inside the rooms. Then look at the schools in the Valley and Malibu, it’s totally different. I think the money should be used for all in the state, not only the rich people.

All my boys went to Cathedral High School. When my kids played football with the schools over there in the Valley and Malibu, I saw this difference. All these schools have real nice cafeterias, nice restrooms. You don’t see this in East L.A.

The problem right now is the economy. When my kids were in high school they all worked part time and were able to get scholarships. There are no jobs in the community, the fathers don’t have jobs, the kids don’t have anything to do. What I expect from the new President is a better life for poor people.

The only reason my kids made it was because they got jobs part-time after school. My oldest sons worked at the gas station here at Whittier and Soto. My girls worked at the hospital at First Street and at a print shop. Right now there are no jobs. There are too many people living in one small area.

When you pass the freeways there’s a lot of families, with little children, living under the bridges. Not only immigrants; I spoke to a man a few months ago and asked him, “Why are you living under the bridge, aren’t you a veteran?” He said it was because he only got $100 dollars a month. He can’t pay rent, he doesn’t have enough for food. He comes knocking on the door and asking me for food, this man who’s been to Vietnam. I’m really sorry for these people because they fought for this country and now have nothing.