Stepping Down So Others Can Step Up : Agencies: Madeline Janis is resigning as executive director of the Central American Refugee Center so a Latino can take the helm.

In a sign that the local Central-American community is coming of age, the Anglo woman who heads one of the city’s oldest and most powerful legal aid and social service agencies for Central Americans is stepping aside so a Latino can take the helm.

Madeline Janis, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center since 1989, helped build CARECEN into a nationally prominent advocate of rights for immigrants from war-torn El Salvador. Janis and others say her departure indicates the growing confidence of a Central-American community eager to take charge of its political destiny.

“We are grateful for all Madeline and others have done for us,” said Angela Castillo, chairwoman of CARECEN’s board and executive director from 1988 to 1989. “But we have to break the cycle of gratitude with dependence. We need to show our own community that we can do it for ourselves. If we truly believe in the empowerment of the community, that means we have to promote members of our community to leadership and key positions.”

Janis and Castillo said a Central-American director would be able to more strongly identify with the experiences and needs of the community.

“Even though I have such a feeling of identity with the Salvadoran community . . . I’m not Salvadoran. I’m not Central American,” Janis said. “I’m a little sad that I’m not going to be director--the person who is most involved in . . . policy development and strategic planning. But I’m also really excited about the transition because we have a lot of people who are doing great work and several people on the staff who are strong candidates.”

Janis said she volunteered to leave her post but still plans to serve on CARECEN’s board of directors.

Oscar Andrade, executive director of El Rescate, a social services organization based in Pico-Union, said a Central-American director will be better able to envision the programs and services that the community needs.

“It is an important transition,” Andrade said. “By having a Central American as a director, you give a message that it is possible for the new immigrant community to have one of their own in the driver’s seat.”

Under Janis’ leadership, the center’s annual budget grew from $300,000 to more than $2 million. The center’s staff, which included nine North Americans and two Latinos in 1989, has grown to 42, with 36 Latinos.

CARECEN found in a January, 1992, survey that more than 90% of the 14,000 people who had applied for temporary protected status because of political turmoil in El Salvador said they planned to stay in the United States even though the war has ended in their native country.

Janis said the results of that survey influenced her decision to resign because it was apparent many Central Americans would stay here and it is important to develop leadership from within the community.

“People were really interested and concerned about peace in their country, but they didn’t want to go back,” Janis said. “Or at least they didn’t want to go back now. So we began this process of analysis, of building a community and economic development and promoting Central-American leadership within the organization.”

Founded in 1983 with a $2,000 budget and a focus on legal aid for undocumented immigrants, CARECEN has evolved into an extensive social services agency with offices in five cities. Castillo, who is Nicaraguan, has been the organization’s only Central-American director. She resigned from the post after a year due to illness.

Janis began working with CARECEN in 1982 as a volunteer while in law school at UCLA. After graduating in 1987 and working for a corporate law firm, she started the agency’s legal clinic.

“In the early ‘80s, there was much more of a focus on Central America, on stopping the brutality and stopping the war,” Janis said. “But in the late ‘80s, CARECEN and other organizations started to get involved in local issues--such as street vending, day laborers, police abuse--organizing around City Council issues and the development of a consciousness about a community here.”

If there were any doubts about CARECEN’s new direction as a representative of a permanent Central-American immigrant community, the spring riots put them to rest.

Councilman Mike Hernandez installed an emergency office in Pico-Union, and CARECEN distributed food and clothing, and referred residents to emergency shelters, medical clinics and relief agencies.

Added recognition came in June when Carlos Vaquerano, CARECEN’s community affairs director, was appointed to the board of Rebuild L.A.

“We responded to the needs of the community,” said Roberto Lovato, CARECEN’s administrator. “The distribution of resources in response to the upheaval was a political thing, and it excluded the new immigrants in Pico-Union. People said, ‘Hey, we don’t have to pay attention to Pico-Union because it’s a new immigrant community.’ ”

Hernandez praised Janis’ work and said her decision to step down reflects the quality of her leadership.

Although CARECEN has launched a national search to replace Janis, several agency officials said Vaquerano and Lovato are prime candidates for the $32,000-a-year position. Carlos Ardon, the organization’s associate director and widely favored to replace Janis, said he would not apply for the position.