Despite Prop. 187, There Is Plenty of Latino Pride

Since I wrote about the kitchen debates over Proposition 187 with Mom, with my brother calling her a hypocrite for supporting the measure, I’ve been catching grief from a lot of you. You obviously think I’m an ingrate son.

“How dare you and your brother to name your mother a hypocrite in public print,” a lady from Upland wrote. “Whatever happened to . . . Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother?”

“You are fortunate to have a wise mother,” another wrote from the Westside. “Too bad you and your brother don’t have the ‘years’ experiences that she has had. Remember she was there when--she is here now!! Appreciate and learn from her wisdom.”

And this from L.A.: “Your mother is not a hypocrite. You can be proud of her. You, on the other hand, appear to wear that mantle quite comfortably.”

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One mother eyed me very suspiciously the other day as I was walking to the federal courthouse for the hearing before U.S. District Judge Matthew Byrne Jr. on the constitutionality of Proposition 187. I thought I was going to get yet another lecture about momhood but the lady from Monterey Park, who recognized me from one of my TV “appearances,” was in too much of a hurry.

Katherine Andrade, a 69-year-old retired nurse, said she was headed for Byrne’s courtroom because her daughter, regional counsel Vibiana Andrade of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was part of the legal team challenging the measure. She wanted to be present to watch the beginning of the historic court battle over 187’s constitutionality, but she had another reason.

She had never seen her daughter in action in a courtroom.

“I don’t want to embarrass her,” she said. “I just want her to do her thing. But this is very important so I want to be there.”

We arrived at the courtroom about 10 minutes before the hearing for a temporary restraining order was to begin, but there were no more seats in the spectator section. The courtroom was jammed with onlookers. Several dozen lawyers and out-of-town reporters begged for entry but the blue-coated security men said no.

Andrade couldn’t get in either.

“But I’m the mother of one of the lawyers in there,” she pleaded.

“Too bad--no,” the blue coat replied.

Eventually, court officials found 16 more seats--in the courtroom’s empty jury box. The out-of-town reporters got in. I waved my press pass and was allowed in.

But Andrade, the proud mother, didn’t make it.

She waited patiently outside for more than two hours while the hearing went forward. She said she thought about why she was there.

“I love being Mexican,” she told me later. “I love the food, I love the culture, I love the dress, I love the language . . . but I see an ugly America. It makes me feel bad because we can be wonderful people. Proposition 187 isn’t right.”

She said she grew up in a small mining town in Arizona, where her family has lived for several generations. The mean-spirited nature of the pro-Proposition 187 forces reminded her of the small-town prejudice she experienced back there.

She remembered being wrongly accused as a third-grader of stealing a classmate’s Mickey Mouse watch. “How can you do that to a kid?” she still wanted to know.

Finally, she did get into the courtroom for the dramatic moment when Byrne issued a TRO, blocking enforcement of most of the proposition’s provisions. “Common sense was being exercised by the judge,” she said.

To anyone within the sound of her voice, she announced, “And congratulations to my brilliant, wonderful daughter!”

I was still chuckling about meeting Vibiana Andrade’s mother when I opened the newspaper the next morning to read about the judge’s order. As I glanced through the paper, a familiar face--captured in a photograph on Page 2 of The Times’ front section--leaped out at me.

It seemed Ron Prince, who headed the pro-187 campaign, was talking to reporters after court when an elderly woman challenged him. The brief but heated exchange was captured by photographers.

The anti-187 woman who went after Prince was Mrs. Andrade.

“Yes!” the daughter exclaimed later. “Yes! I’m so proud of her.”

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Mrs. Andrade did have a final word for me: “I want to talk to your mother about 187. She’s wrong.”

Well, Mom doesn’t think so. But I’ll argue the point with her, as I always do, when our family gets together for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s the least this grateful and proud son can do.

More George Ramos

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