1,000 Turn Out to Rally Against Proposition 187 : Politics: A Latino leader hopes the protest in Pacoima can help overcome ‘a sense of defeat.’ A voter registration drive begins.

A thousand opponents of Proposition 187 paraded down the main street of this heavily Latino community in the Valley’s first mass rally against the state initiative that would cut public services to illegal immigrants.

The rally was staged by a new coalition of churches and Latino leaders who said they formed to counter the anti-immigrant message being promoted by the measure’s backers, including Gov. Pete Wilson. One said passage of the proposition would “kill the American dream.”

Organizers said they were trying to counteract a sense of defeatism about the measure, which polls show is heavily favored.

“We can’t just sit back and let the polls and news articles lull us into a sense of defeat,” said Bert Corona, executive director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a North Hollywood immigrant assistance organization.

Proposition 187, dubbed the Save Our State initiative by its proponents, seeks to discourage illegal immigration by denying publicly funded benefits to those who cannot prove legal status.

It would bar illegal immigrants from enrollment in all public schools and colleges, deny them non-emergency health care, cut off a host of other state-funded and locally funded programs and require law enforcement agencies to turn in suspected illegal immigrants for deportation.

Opponents contend that the measure would cripple the state’s economy by cutting off millions of dollars in federal assistance and that it would inhumanely deprive hundreds of thousands of children of their hope for a better future.

Corona said that the priests of several Catholic parishes in the Valley proposed the anti-187 campaign and that the coalition now includes about 12 churches and eight community organizations.

Corona said Saturday’s rally, which took the form of a community parade, was the launch of a voter registration drive that will take volunteers to supermarkets, swap meets, churches and door to door over the next two weeks.

As the march got under way, several hundred people carrying signs, pushing baby strollers and chanting “Wilson No, Raza Si,” followed the Pacoima Elementary School drum corps down Van Nuys Boulevard.

Festive onlookers joined the procession that included a mariachi band, costumed Mexican Indian dancers and a child folkloric group as it made its way a mile and a half from the Boys & Girls Club of Pacoima to Mary Immaculate Catholic Church.

Several priests and community businessmen marched at the head of the line along with the 76-year-old Corona.

Blending with the usual Saturday morning throng of marriage entourages in the church parking lot, the crowd chanted slogans in Spanish and cheered half a dozen speakers who exhorted them from atop a truck bed podium.

Among the speakers, Northeast Valley Councilman Richard Alarcon, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, called Proposition 187 “paranoia.”

Referring to recent studies concluding that illegal immigrants absorb more in public services than they pay in taxes, Alarcon said, “The studies are against us, but history is on our side.

“Pete Wilson and supporters of 187 want to live in the past when they put Mexicans in their place and the blacks lived in one part of the city,” Alarcon said.

In the finale, Corona led a chant and then delivered a fiery speech in Spanish.

“We won’t allow this proposition to pass because to do so would be to kill the American dream,” he declared. “If 187 passes, this would not be a free country for all.”

* A SEPARATE PATH: Despite leadership opposition, grass-roots liberals and Latinos support Prop. 187. A1