No More Business as Usual for Korean, Latino Merchants : Relations: In downtown Santa Ana, tensions between the two ethnicities have eased in the commercial realm as community leaders and trade groups work to get Koreans more involved in civic affairs.

Shining from the wall of John S. Kim’s cluttered Santa Ana office are snapshots of more than two dozen grinning Latino boys and girls: grateful Pio Pico Elementary School students whose uniforms were purchased by Kim and a group of other Korean businessmen.

A few miles away from Kim’s auto parts store, a group of downtown Korean merchants who deal in everything from sneakers to electronics recently inspired similar gratitude when they pooled their money and donated two bicycles to a graffiti-removal drive.

The gifts are just one sign that the growing Korean business community is eager to participate in the heavily Latino city’s civic affairs, both for the good of the community and the simple sake of good business.

In recent weeks, Korean business leaders have been stepping up efforts to pull the city’s increasing number of their fellow merchants into the mainstream fold, and the city’s business associations are campaigning heavily alongside them.

Overtures include the first-ever Korean-language newsletter published two weeks ago by the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce’s Korean Business Committee, and heavy lobbying by Downtown Santa Ana Business Assn. Vice President Teresa Saldivar to recruit Korean members for at least two of the three board seats opening Wednesday.

As the number of Korean businesses in Santa Ana has grown to an estimated 600, business leaders say these nascent gestures are key to preventing the simmering hostilities between Latino and Korean merchants that flared during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

While tension did not turn to violence in Santa Ana, Latino merchants’ complaints that their Korean counterparts were aloof or not participating in community projects sparked a resentment that is only now healing.

“We are from a country where business is strictly business,” said Dr. Joong Park, a Santa Ana physician and the chairman of the chamber’s Korean committee. “Here we are learning about business as a connection with the community.

“We owe something to this community, whether it’s cultural or educational. But in our country, most community problems are handled by government. It will take some time to learn these new concepts.”

Clearly, some are already learning, and they are finding their community involvement rewarding.

The chamber’s Korean committee--made up of about 30 members--donated the school uniforms to a first- and third-grade class at Pio Pico Elementary School last Christmas, and this year plans to sponsor Korean Tae Kwon Do classes for troubled youths as an alternative to gangs.

The new newsletter--called the Korean Business Update and spearheaded by Park and Kim--has already spurred five people to join the chamber, Kim said.

Kim compiled a list of 230 Santa Ana Korean businesses, and the chamber mailed each a copy of the Korean Business Update.

Being plugged in to an association with political clout can help resolve day-to-day problems of security, business licenses or trash hauling, Park said.

“They were not aware that we can accomplish more through the chamber, because the chamber is an established power,” Park said of non-members. “They tried to just handle it on their own.”

Now, the Korean business committee contacts police, fire officials and other government officials when a member has a problem. The group has also brought in speakers from the Employment Development Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

But Park said he tries to emphasize the more intangible benefits when making his sales pitch.

“When we comfort or support someone who is less fortunate than we are, we can benefit from that,” Park said. “We as Koreans, we lack that in some ways. . . . If people who want to join are looking purely for monetary or security benefits, I don’t think they will find it. The reason why we have to join is more on moral grounds . . . because of city pride.”

Kwang Yon Cho, who owns Top Video and the strip mall it occupies on West 1st Street, is one of the new members. After receiving the Korean Business Update, he attended a Feb. 24 seminar on dealing with the recession, and was sold on the notion of working more closely with other merchants.

Cho, who ran a Compton gas station for a decade before opening his Santa Ana business four years ago, said he has never had problems with security or business licenses that the chamber could have helped him with. He is joining because it makes good sense to be connected to the community.

“It’s better for business,” Cho said.

Saldivar, vice president of the Downtown Santa Ana Business Assn., concurs.

For several years, she has knocked on doors downtown to encourage Korean merchants to get involved with the association’s Mother’s Day events and gift certificate drives.

In 1992, her frustration peaked.

“I had very poor support from Korean merchants, and I was very vocal about it,” said Saldivar, a jeweler who has served on the board for a decade.

“I would ask them to purchase a $10 gift certificate, and they would say, ‘I don’t understand you.’ I felt they were taking the customers’ money, but they weren’t willing to spend $10 on a gift certificate. . . . The tension at that point was very high, not just with me but with other Hispanic merchants.”

She voiced her concerns in the Korean press last year, opening a welcome dialogue with Korean business leaders. They told her about the language constraints many merchants face. And so, for the first time, Saldivar distributed her group’s merchants’ poll in Korean, as well as Spanish and English.

The business climate has improved markedly and tensions are down, she said. Whereas two years ago many of her customers complained of curt treatment at nearby Korean-owned stores, now their comments are more positive, Saldivar said.

Jhon Cho, owner of the La Bonita Boutique, said he is eager to work with her group and last year gave away a dress for the Mother’s Day raffle.

But Cho, like many of the downtown’s Korean merchants, said his business is family-run and he has little time for committee meetings. He lives in Fullerton and has owned his boutique for 3 1/2 years. He said he and his wife have their hands full with their two children, ages 7 and 10, and their small store, stocked with pastel dresses and open seven days a week.

He is resisting Saldivar’s efforts to lure him into the downtown association as a board member. “Teresa comes in and says, ‘Come to the meeting!’ But I’m here by myself. I don’t have time to go,” Cho said.

Down the street, the city’s Fiesta Marketplace, a collective of merchants, has seen a sharp increase in the number of Korean business people. At Fiesta Bargain, a swap-meet-style space, 13 of the 19 merchants are Korean, manager Jose Romo said.

Merchant Teresa Sun Woo has worked hard to involve more of the merchants in downtown business affairs, and while many still do not attend meetings, they share their concerns with Romo, who attends the meeting as an emissary.

“There are a lot of Korean business people here in Santa Ana, and we’re targeting the same customers,” Romo said. “I think it’s better if we do it as a group rather than everybody doing it on their own.

“In the past year, the Korean business people here want to know what is going on. Before, they would just close the door,” Romo said.

Last year, the merchants pitched in their money for the two bicycles. But some still shy away from full participation, he said.

“It’s going to take a little longer, but not too long. We’ll see a change this year,” Romo said.

Park agreed. “We have to stimulate the people,” he said. “Now we are beginning.”