COLUMN ONE : Few Votes, No Voice, No Clout : In one Santa Ana neighborhood, Latinos form a silent majority. Residents, many of them immigrants, don’t--or can’t--go to the polls. They show problems Latinos face in building a political base.

Rebecca M. Gomez remembers things getting worse in her neighborhood when she started high school. Garbage began to pile up. The sound of gunfire seemed more common. And the streets where she used to play became a marketplace for drugs.

Eventually, the changes left her cynical because nobody seemed to care enough to do anything about them. Certainly not the city. Government was more often an obstacle than a solution.

So Gomez, a 24-year-old mother, saw no reason to vote. To her, it wouldn’t make any difference anyway.

“In my neighborhood, everyone was poor,” she said. “But they know one thing--the rich win out every time. So what’s the use?”

That neighborhood is Precinct 68302, where the pressures of life may go a long way toward explaining why Latino political power in many parts of California falls short of the influence suggested by the rapidly growing population.

It is a place where life is hard. Crime makes the streets scary and poverty makes food and shelter an everyday concern.

“From what I have seen, there is no sense of future,” said Andy Saavedra, a layman with St. Joseph’s Catholic Church who has counseled many families in the precinct. “They just want to get by for the month.”

Almost 9,400 people live in the precinct, a six-by-six-block square in Santa Ana, half a mile south of City Hall. Nearly all the residents are Latino.

In the 1992 presidential election, fewer than 700 residents were registered to vote and barely 300 made it to the polls.

That is the lowest voter participation of about 150 precincts in the 69th Assembly District, which itself has fewer registered voters than almost any other in the state.

“My God, if only that many vote, then I can understand why this area is suffering,” said Refugio Antonio Lopez, 40, a construction worker who moved to the precinct from Mexico. “I always heard that in the United States the elections are very fair. However, if no one is voting, then their voice is not going to be heard.”

Few issues promise to change California government more than the evolving Latino vote. A record 1.1 million Latinos voted in California in the 1992 presidential election, up 36% from 1988. But the potential for the future is contained in those who did not vote. Latinos account for about a quarter of California’s population, but just 10% of those who reached the polls last year.

In many ways, Precinct 68302 is a microcosm of the social and cultural factors that researchers cite in explaining why Latinos’ political clout does not reflect their numbers. Studies, such as one by the Southwest Voter Research Institute, which monitors Latino voting nationwide, say barriers include the ethnic group’s relative youth, citizenship status, poverty and lack of education.

But residents say there is no single reason that most of their neighbors do not vote. Gomez and others are frustrated by the apparent futility of trying to influence what she believes is an insensitive government. On the other hand, Santa Ana Councilman Miguel Pulido says new immigrants find that it is too early in the assimilation process to seek a political voice. Some residents also say the government is more likely to be feared than embraced.

“There is a lot of fear and a lot of mistrust,” said Norm Canchola, a city neighborhood improvement officer. “It’s going to take time.”

Residents say much of their contact with government is negative. They cite experiences with immigration officers, housing code officials or the police, who have a reputation for cracking down on the neighborhood but not responding rapidly to emergency calls.

Such problems as crime, poor housing, overcrowded schools, trash and graffiti also seem to go unchecked, they say, leaving an impression among many residents that nobody cares about their neighborhood and among some that they are not welcome here.

For all these reasons, Precinct 68302 is almost politically invisible. Compounding the situation in the 69th Assembly District, whites represent less than one-quarter of the population--the smallest concentration of whites in any legislative seat outside Los Angeles. Yet whites account for more than 70% of the district’s voters.

Politics is so lopsided in Santa Ana that campaign strategists privately say candidates are warned not to champion Latino causes because that might alienate the area’s conservative white voters.

Even though the area was targeted by the state Supreme Court when it redrew political boundaries in 1991 to enhance Latino influence, the precinct’s representation in Sacramento and Washington differs little from some of Orange County’s most solidly white, conservative strongholds.

Veteran Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), an outspoken conservative, represents a district that is less than half white. So does conservative state Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove). The Assembly seat held by Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove), a career military officer who has won three terms on a law-and-order platform, is more than two-thirds Latino. In Santa Ana, whose population is also two-thirds Latino, five of the seven members--all elected at-large--are white Republicans.

“I think Santa Ana is probably one of the most politically complicated cities in the country,” said Mayor Daniel H. Young, a Republican real estate developer. “The potential exists every day in everything you say to say something the wrong way and people say: ‘Aha, I now see the prejudice that I thought might always be there.’ ”

Hurtt, a wealthy businessman and freshman state senator, said he sees political activity in the Latino community improving, but believes that it still is hampered by cultural barriers.

“They (Latinos) are not interested in running for office,” Hurtt said. “The Hispanic culture is very hesitant to get involved in the mainstream; they don’t like to be in a position of having to supervise. When you get to the second- or third-generation Hispanics, you get over that.”

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The ranch-style homes in the precinct date back to the 1950s, when Santa Ana underwent a housing boom sparked by construction of the Golden State Freeway, the opening of Disneyland and the image of Orange County as a modern bedroom community.

The homes reflected the latest trends: attached garages, built-in appliances, carpets and fences. As the original owners died, many of the homes were left to their children who lived elsewhere and who created a large community of rental properties.

Today, 68302 is a troubled neighborhood. Broken-down cars are parked where lawns used to grow. Doors and windows are barricaded with metal grates. Two chickens peck the ground in front of one house. On a weekday afternoon, a man in a white T-shirt offers drugs to a motorist by making a spooning motion toward his nose.

At the same time, dozens of homes are kept in charming and tidy condition, creating a strange patchwork on some blocks. An abandoned house with cracked stucco walls and boarded-up windows sits next to one with a bright peach paint job, a manicured lawn and a colorful, blooming garden.

The precinct is one of the poorest and most dangerous sections of Orange County. It is also a place where the struggles of everyday life sap all the energy most residents can muster.

“In sociological terms, they refer to it as a crisis lifestyle,” said Saavedra, the church layman. “The first crisis is getting the rent paid, the next may be if you buy food, the next is if you can fix the car. If the car is broken down, you don’t have food.”

City officials and social workers who have tried to organize neighborhood associations have found little success, partly because of the distrust of authority.

About two dozen parents did show up recently at the first meeting of the Pio Pico Neighborhood Assn. For the organizers, just having the meeting was a major success because it took a lot of courage for people to attend.

Many were not citizens and they knew they would be seeing uniformed police officers. All were afraid that the group’s effort to target the drug dealers and gangs that roam their apartment buildings could trigger retribution.

But the one thing more powerful than fear was their love for their children.

So they sat in the undersized chairs of an elementary school classroom--mechanics with grease under their nails, day laborers in dusty construction boots and mothers in flowery dresses--clutching Spanish-language instructions they were to take home.

They listened as police, teachers, social workers and some of their landlords asked them to summon more courage--to report the crimes they witness, to approach their neighbors for support and to trust a city government they say has so often let them down.

For many at the meeting, it was the first time they had directly sought help from city officials.

Community leaders say many residents do not yet see the connection between solving problems and stepping into a polling booth.

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The precinct’s demographics describe a neighborhood whose residents seem to be left out of the American dream:

* A survey by city officials found that more than 80% of the families served by the precinct’s Pio Pico Elementary School live below the federal poverty line. In a majority of homes, both parents work for less than the minimum wage. Most have only three years of schooling in their native countries, and a majority do not speak English.

In a report about conditions at the school, Pio Pico officials said: “Our attendance area is made up of two streets . . . which contain overcrowded, run-down, drug- and gang-infested apartments.”

* Officials estimate more than half the Latinos in the precinct are ineligible to vote because they are not citizens, although many are being naturalized.

The Texas-based Southwest Voter Research Institute estimates 45% of California’s voting-age Latinos are not citizens. Locally, activist John Palacio said studies have found up to 64% of Santa Ana’s Latinos are not citizens.

In order to comply with the National Voting Rights Act, which was intended to maximize minority participation in politics, the state Supreme Court said it did not consider citizenship status when it drew the most recent boundaries.

* Most residents are newcomers. The census found that about two-thirds have moved to the precinct since 1985. City officials describe the area as “a port of entry neighborhood for many recently arrived families primarily from Mexico and El Salvador.”

Many residents are frequently on the move. Some travel between the precinct and Mexico or other parts of California, staying with friends or family in Santa Ana.

Local estimates and census data indicate that about 10% of the population is temporarily employed each year as migrant workers who leave Santa Ana to work the harvest season in the San Joaquin Valley. Nearly 7% of the students at Pio Pico are taught on schedules designed to accommodate harvest times.

In the census, many of the precinct’s adults gave their occupations as mechanics, heavy machinery operators or factory laborers. It also indicated that more than 26% of residents are unemployed.

* In Precinct 68302, cinder-block walls are spray-painted with gang graffiti and almost anytime--day or night--drug dealers are on the streets. Police officials declined to compare the neighborhood’s safety to other parts of the city. But they said more than 140 major crimes have been reported in the area this year, making it one of the city’s most dangerous zones.

The impression that community residents have of the police is mixed. “Some people say, ‘Yeah, they’re OK,’ ” said 18-year-old Jaime Guillen, who grew up in the precinct and recently worked on a city-sponsored survey of residents’ concerns. “They just don’t respond to calls. And when they do come, they come with attitudes.”

The complaint about slow police response is widespread. Many residents said that unless a shootout is under way they have to wait up to two hours for officers to arrive.

The police attending the Pio Pico meeting did not dispute the complaint. Instead, they encouraged patience and explained that a slow response usually means there are higher priorities elsewhere.

“We do send somebody out to every call,” one officer said. “(But) the police are not the answer to your problems. You are the answer. . . . The police can’t always do what you want.”

To many in the precinct, however, the slow response signals a lack of concern about their problems.

“I think they have a sense that government happens to them and they don’t have much to say about that,” said Msgr. Jaime Soto, vicar of the Orange diocese. “But that’s changing. I can’t say in a great way or in a small way, but I do see signs of people wanting to become more engaged.”

But, like Rebecca Gomez, who recently moved elsewhere in Santa Ana because she no longer felt safe, many residents said they are discouraged. They believe that voting either would not make any difference or that the deck would be stacked against them if they did.

George Dominguez, 20, a criminal justice major at Rancho Santiago Community College, has lived in the precinct 16 years. He wants to move because it has deteriorated so much, but he likes Santa Ana.

“I don’t think people in this neighborhood care much; that’s why nobody votes,” he said. “It’s like they all feel--and me too--that because we are Mexican, nobody will pay attention to what we want anyway.”

Next year, Precinct 68302 is expected to be part of several hotly contested campaigns because Assemblyman Umberg and Rep. Dornan have indicated that they may not seek reelection.

Three Latino candidates have already announced plans to run for Umberg’s seat. Even though the district is about 67% Latino, campaign officials say all three face uphill battles.

This political reality has forced some soul-searching among Orange County Latino leaders. Several met recently in try to persuade two candidates to withdraw and unite behind one.

“Right now, in the Latino community, we are powerful,” said Santa Ana Councilman Ted Moreno, one of the three Assembly hopefuls. “But we’re not that powerful that we can win with more than one candidate in there.”

Times staff writers Mark Landsbaum and David Avila contributed to this story.

Portrait of a Precinct

Precinct 68302 is a clear example of poor voter participation by Latinos in Santa Ana. The precinct’s population is almost entirely Latino, but just 12 out of every 100 people of voting age are registered and just five of every 100 went to the polls in the last presidential race.

Voter participation, 1992

Total voting age population: 5,940

Latino: 5,626

Non-Latino: 314

Total registered: 687

Latino: 475 (8% of Latino voting age population)

Non-Latino: 212

Total voted: 312

Latino: 208 (4% of Latino voting age population)

Non-Latino: 104

Tale of the Demographics

Data from U.S. Census tract 749.02, which substantially overlaps precinct 68302, shows many of the characteristics associated with non-voters. Residents of the precinct are much younger, less affluent and less educated than the county as a whole.

Census tract Orange County Median age 22.8 31.4 Median household income $26,848 $45,922

Education (25 years and older):

Census tract Orange County Less than 9th grade 67% 9% 9th-12th grade (no diploma) 17 10 High school graduate 9 20 Some college (no degree) 4 24 College degree* 3 37

Employment (16 and older):

Census tract Orange County Manufacturing 33% 22% Retail 17 16 Construction 14 7 Agriculture, forest, fish 12 2 Business and repair service 7 6 Professional and related 6 19 Other 11 28 Moved to home after 1988 66 59

* Includes associate degree

Sources: 1990 Census, 1992 voter registration and election data; Researched by MARK LANDSBAUM / Los Angeles Times