A New Direction : CARECEN Must Evolve to Meet Immigrants’ Changing Needs, Director Says

Roberto Lovato, the new executive director of the Central American Refugee Center, straddles the boundary between two worlds.

Lovato was born in the United States, grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District and is an honors graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in rhetoric.

But he is inextricably tied to El Salvador. His parents are Salvadoran immigrants who came to the United States in the 1950s to escape government repression and economic hardship. Lovato, 29, has made trips to El Salvador almost annually.

He said his dual identity will assist him in helping Central Americans make their way in a new land.

“I see it as a strength,” Lovato said. “My bilingual experience, my bicultural experience--it all helps me. I have such a respect and admiration for my own people and that has reinforced my own sense of identity.”

Lovato, the agency’s administrative director for the past three years, was selected last month to head CARECEN, founded in 1983 to aid Salvadoran refugees fleeing the 12-year civil war that killed more than 70,000 civilians.

During the 1980s, the agency focused on drawing attention to human rights abuses in El Salvador and providing free legal help for Central American immigrants seeking legal asylum in the United States. Although the war has ended, many of the 400,000 Salvadorans who came to Los Angeles regard the city as their permanent home. And Lovato said CARECEN’s mission must evolve to meet the changing needs of the community.

Lovato said the agency’s new direction may include changing its name and its logo of a refugee woman holding a baby.

“It is very possible that our logo will change to reflect the switch in the community from being here on a emergency basis, on a temporary basis, to being here on a more stable, permanent basis,” Lovato said.

“The community doesn’t need CARECEN to decide if they are going to stay or not. It has already decided that. And CARECEN is just catching up. Most people in the community don’t like being called refugees anymore.”

Lovato is replacing Madeline Janis, who resigned the $32,000-a-year job in January so a Central American could take the helm. Janis, an Anglo who headed CARECEN for three years, praised Lovato’s organizational and fiscal management skills during a time when the center’s annual budget grew from $500,000 to $2 million.

“He’s got a lot of strengths,” said Janis, who is still involved with CARECEN. “He is articulate, organized and has a good sense of the community.”

Lovato said his priorities are lobbying for an extension of the 1991 law that allows Salvadoran refugees to live and work in the United States, and fighting anti-immigrant sentiments in California.

To prevent the deportation of Salvadorans when the Deferred Enforced Departure Act expires June 30, CARECEN is working with the grass-roots Salvadoran Assn., and has mounted a letter-writing campaign to federal legislators and the Clinton Administration.

Yolanda Chavez, chief of staff for Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Bell Gardens), said the congresswoman supports extending the act. “It is probably going to happen, and its going to happen soon,” Chavez said. “That’s the indication we’re getting from the Administration.”

Although the extension of the act would be a victory for CARECEN and other immigrant rights organizations, they must still contend with anti-immigrant sentiments, Lovato said.

“Immigrants, especially Central Americans, have been made the scapegoats for the city and state’s economic problems,” Lovato said. “The reality is that the cause of our economic problems are much more sophisticated than pointing the finger at the immigrant community.”

Lovato has also started building bridges with other neighborhoods and ethnic groups, forming partnerships with economic development and social services agencies in the African-American and Asian-American communities.

“We’ve had a hard time reaching immigrants in the area,” said Anthony Scott, executive director of the Dunbar Economic Development Corp. in South-Central, which has formed a partnership with CARECEN. “We formed the coalition so that we could break down the barriers that focus on our differences and show what makes us more alike.”

In the week after Lovato became executive director of CARECEN, he was visited by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and representatives from Gov. Pete Wilson’s office.

While acknowledging the need to be the point man for the organization, Lovato is quick to shrug off the attention.

“I don’t want to get caught up in the spotlight,” Lovato said. “That’s not the kind of leader I want to be.”

Instead, Lovato said he wants to be known as a Salvadoran-American fighting for social justice in the United States.

“I have been called a beaner, a spic, I’ve been jumped because of the color of my skin, I’ve been basically arrested for driving in the wrong neighborhood in the wrong kind of car,” Lovato said.

“On my trips to El Salvador I saw levels of poverty we’ve never seen here. But I also saw the plus side of being Salvadoran, the cultural warmth and love and commitment to community. I saw the sparkle that sense of hope, that will to struggle.”

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