Delicate Envoy of Birth Control : As couples search for satisfactory forms of contraception, some ‘rediscover’ a traditional method; others are introduced to birth control by an unconventional messenger.

On a bookcase in Sylvia Murillo’s sitting room, opposite a framed portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is a shopping bag full of birth control devices.

She is proud that she has them to give away. All her neighbors in East Los Angeles know that she is a promotora --a Planned Parenthood-trained outreach worker--and although some might say to her face that her work is ungodly, many of her neighbors come to her for free condoms, vaginal inserts, foam and advice.

“Now I’m very popular,” Murillo says in Spanish, laughing. “They know I have contraceptives.”

As a promotora , she receives $25 every time she hosts a Tupperware-like party during which she explains birth control, AIDS, the concept of self-esteem and passes out contraceptives. She does not hesitate to stop people on the street or to knock on strangers’ doors to ask them to come to her meetings.

Murillo, 33 and the mother of five, is one of 32 Spanish-speaking women from East L.A. recruited by Planned Parenthood for Promotoras Comunitarias , a program that began in Mexico six years ago but is relatively new to the United States. Each promotora takes a six-week course on sexuality that includes information on values and traditions, self-esteem and AIDS. The two-year, $250,000 program in East L.A., now in its second year, has been funded through the James Irvine Foundation and the California Community Foundation.

Although the Catholic Church preaches chastity and/or natural family planning, Planned Parenthood leaders believe that the need for accurate contraceptive information is crucial in East L.A.

Statistics indicate that Latinos face disproportionately higher rates of poverty, teen-age pregnancy, infant mortality and HIV infection. Thirty-eight percent of children born with AIDS are Latino, according to Planned Parenthood. In Los Angeles County, the Latino population is experiencing a boom and is expected to reach 3.8 million, or 39%, by the year 2000.

Professional educators could come into the community and teach birth control. “But it’s different when Sylvia does it,” says program coordinator Melinda Cordero. “This is somebody they trust, somebody like them. They can see why reproductive health care is important, as women, wives, mothers, everything.”

Murillo lives in a chilly walk-up not far from the downtown high-rises. Most of her neighbors are, like herself, immigrants from Mexico. Many are Catholic and poor, and, as Murillo learned as a promotora, put birth control low on the shopping list when money is short. Abortion is unthinkable for most.

Some women have relied on the time-honored and cheapest method of birth control--withdrawal; they refer to it as “Mi esposo me cuida”--”My husband takes care of me.”

But now many need to take care of themselves, as much to protect against AIDS as pregnancy, Cordero says: “The women are frustrated. They want to know more. They know about pregnancy, but they don’t know AIDS could come to them.”

Cordero found less resistance to the idea of contraception among the women than she expected. “They feel like it’s such a burden, having to worry about being pregnant or not,” she says.

“These aren’t feminists, just women who are tired of it.”

Murillo says that by and large, most Catholic women have little problem ignoring church teachings about birth control.

Polls confirm the majority of Catholics support birth control. In a nationwide Gallup poll of 802 Catholics conducted in May, 87% agreed with the statement: “The Church should permit couples to make their own decisions about birth control.” In addition, Latino activists worldwide have protested the Church’s position.

Like almost all Catholic priests, Father Joseph Pena of the East L.A. parish church St. Alphonse is morally opposed to artificial birth control and refers couples to the local Catholic hospital for classes in natural family planning. Personally, he says, he likes large families. More important than a family’s income is their “dignity.”

Contraceptives, Pena says, are not the answer to AIDS: “The only answer is no.” Regardless of whether that is a realistic approach, he says the Church must give that type of moral guidance and then let people “make their own decision.” If they choose contraception, he says with a shrug, “that’s between them and their God.”

Contraception is a delicate subject among her neighbors, and Murillo says she needs to be subtle and to talk to each woman like a friend. “You can’t go around saying, ‘Hey, I have these contraceptives in my house,’ ” she says. When she invites people to her parties, she doesn’t take her shopping bag. In fact, she might not even mention birth control until the end of the meeting.

And when she does, some of the women tell her the subject is dirty or nasty.

Even so, they will come to her house; if they are too embarrassed to make requests out loud, they will write what they want on a piece of paper. They might also ask if it’s true what they’ve heard: Will AIDS make your nails fall out? Make your feet swollen and purple? Can you get it from saliva?

If a woman says her husband complains that condoms are too thick, Murillo says: “Here, take this. It’s thinner and it’s lubricated.”

When Rosa Juarez, 43, heard that her friend Murillo was hosting a party with a video on birth control, she said she was “interested immediately.” Not so much for herself, she says, as to protect her children.

Too many young girls become pregnant in her neighborhood, Juarez says, and she wanted to know more about AIDS after hearing public service announcements on a Spanish-language television station. She says she was amazed to learn how vulnerable women are to AIDS.

Juarez believes that under-age children are too young to have sex, “but they still go out and do it.” She says if her sons ask, she will tell that them they need to protect themselves with condoms.

Juarez also brought her daughter-in-law to the party. The young woman had asked her what condoms were for after receiving them in the hospital where she gave birth. “She probably doesn’t want any more children, but will accept as many as God gives her,” says Juarez, adding that she tries to explain how hard it will be to raise a large family when her son earns minimum wage as a merchandising clerk.

Although the Church objects to artificial birth control, Murillo says men are an even greater obstacle, mainly because they want children, don’t want their women to be independent or don’t like condoms. Women will often defer to the wishes of their men, she says.

Often when Murillo knocks on a door, the woman inside will say: “Just a minute, let me ask my husband if it’s OK.” Occasionally, the meetings are held at the home of a woman whose husband is away so he won’t know about it.

Murillo believes that the most important information she has to offer women is not how to use contraceptives, but how to “love and value themselves.”

She tells her neighbors: “It’s not disobeying a man. It’s having respect for yourself.”

Planned Parenthood has also recruited a promotor , a man who hosts similar gatherings for men either in factories or at Murillo’s home.

“From what I’ve seen in his evaluations, the reaction is very positive,” Cordero says.

Murillo says her husband has come around to accepting her new line of work. “What bothers him is that I’m out in the dark, walking by myself and carrying this heavy bag,” she says. Murillo has no car and often takes more than one bus to reach her scheduled meetings. Sometimes she is late getting home because the women talk for hours.

Murillo considers a meeting successful if someone has learned anything: the correct words for their genitals, for instance, or some useful fact--such as sperm can live five to seven days or that jumping up and down after having sex will not prevent conception.

Even if a woman doesn’t use the condom Murillo gives her, it may find its way to someone who needs it more--a man sleeping with a prostitute, for instance. Maybe, Murillo says with pride, she will have saved a life.

Murillo is becoming well known as a promotora and has appeared on a local Spanish-language talk-radio show.

People called to ask her such questions such as: At what age should children be given condoms? Her reply: 12.

She says her children are proud of her and that her oldest daughter, 16, wants to become a promotora , too.

No matter what some may say, Murillo does not believe that she is doing anything wrong: “If I can help somebody, why shouldn’t I?”

* Part 3 Friday in Business: Makers of the newest birth control methods are increasingly advertising directly to consumers.