A Latino Family’s Can-Do Spirit Pays Off in Dividends

There’s been a lot to celebrate in Jesus Guerrero’s Winnetka home recently.

This past week, Guerrero, 53, became a citizen, and his wife, Lenore, 51, was graduated from Cal State Northridge during the college’s 26th graduation ceremony for Latinos.

Their son, Carlos, 27, an instructor in Chicano studies at CSUN, has been accepted by the master’s program at Claremont College.

Their daughter, Lourdes, 22, a graduate of UC Berkeley, has completed her master’s degree at the Franciscan School of Theology in the Bay Area and will shortly begin her duties as a pastor’s assistant in Northern California.

For Lenore Guerrero, it is not enough that her family has written a new American success story, she also wants to help other Latinas on the road to upward mobility.

It’s a route that seems to come easy to her, but there have been some bumps along the way.

Jesus and Lenore Guerrero came to Southern California almost 30 years ago from Juarez, Mexico. He went to school to get a license to work as a dry cleaner in the Tarzana establishment where he still is employed.

The couple rented an apartment in Tarzana. Carlos was born at a West Valley hospital two years later. His earliest memories are of a feisty woman who brought up her children to succeed.

He says that in spite of some initial language problems and cultural biases, his mother never lost sight of her hopes for her children. In most ways, she was a typical middle-class mom.

“It was hard for her to understand that some Anglos equated being Mexican with being dirty. Our landlady in Tarzana used to come by our place once a week to see if it was clean and that nothing was broken,” Carlos says.

When the Guerreros moved to the Los Feliz area to accommodate their growing family, Lenore remembers taking Carlos to his first day at nursery school. The person enrolling him asked his mother if she were the maid.

Even though the Guerreros were still struggling with the language when Carlos entered elementary school, Lenore became an enthusiastic volunteer at the predominantly Anglo school. Jesus was elected president of the PTA.

“I didn’t think what we were doing was unusual. I had come from a middle-class background and had taught school in Juarez before coming here,” Lenore Guerrero says. “We were just doing what parents are supposed to do.”

Once the children were grown, she began working full time. When they went to college, she enrolled as well.

After getting some units at Los Angeles City College and Cal State Los Angeles, she transferred to CSUN with specific goals.

“I wanted to be able to help other Latinas, new to the area, with acclimation. I was accepted into the School of Humanities and created my own course of study that included the units I needed to graduate,” she says.

She was working full time, carrying a full academic load and being a wife and mother. “The kids called me Wonder Mom and Super Woman. It wasn’t true. I struggled with some classes the same way they did. I never thought I’d get out of statistics, and I’d rather give birth than write another English composition,” she says, laughing.

She is quick to point out that all the academic achievement would not have been possible if it hadn’t been for Jesus Guerrero’s funding the schooling by working for 30 years at steam-ironing machines.

Now that she’s completed her undergraduate work, she is looking forward to getting her master’s degree at either Mount St. Mary’s College or Loyola University. She’ll be doing that while becoming a resource in the community.

“I hope to work with Latinas new to the country who may be struggling with the language and unfamiliar with certain customs,” she says.

She adds that because of cultural and language differences, many Latina mothers are embarrassed to go to school and talk to their children’s teachers. This, she says, contributes to the difficulties Latino parents have in encouraging their youngsters to finish school, go to college and get ahead.

“Because you don’t speak the language well does not mean you are not intelligent. It doesn’t mean you don’t care about the welfare of your children,” says Guerrero. “I want to help to make that point.”

She says that she has been in contact with Catholic churches in the Valley to see about setting up support groups. “Because most Latina women have strong ties to the church,” she says, “it makes sense to start there.”

She knows firsthand how hard it is to get acclimated and to feel comfortable in new surroundings. She knows it’s hard sometimes to keep kids on track and in school.

“We have a saying around our house, that I want to pass along,” she says. “When things get tough, you have to remember Si se puede!,” says Guerrero.

That means, Yes, you can!

How One Woman Looked for a Mate--and Found Religion

Vicki Juditz, Pennsylvania-born and descended from German Lutheran stock, is a convert to Judaism.

The North Hollywood woman admits to beginning the process for spurious reasons. “I was hell-bent on finding a husband,” she says.

“I’d gone to New York City after graduation from Bucknell University, determined to become an actress. When I met a particular musician who was Jewish, I was determined to marry him,” she says with a smile.

“I thought I would learn all the stuff about his religion, and it would bring us closer together. No problem. I took some classes and, to my surprise, Judaism really sparked something in me,” Juditz says.

So, as it worked out, the musician didn’t last, but the Judaism did.

Her parents back in Pennsylvania did not understand and were not pleased with her interest in conversion.

“They weren’t that religious. They just didn’t understand why I would want to do such a thing,” Juditz says.

“What had initially interested me about the Jewish religion is its emphasis on personal responsibility. A trip to visit relatives in Germany underscored that,” she says.

“No one in the German branch of my family was a member of the Nazi Party, but they all seemed to have such a complacent attitude about what had been going on around them during World War II,” she says.

“The prevailing attitude seemed to have been what the Nazis did to Jews was not their business,” says Juditz. “I couldn’t understand that.”

After moving to Los Angeles and becoming engaged to Alan Kirshenbaum, a comedy writer for the TV show “Coach,” she began taking classes at the University of Judaism.

“By then, I knew this was an important step for me,” she says.

After a course of study, she was accepted into her chosen religion. She also married Kirshenbaum, the man of her choice.

Now, she travels around giving a one-woman show about her conversion, spiced with comedic touches. Her next appearance will be at 2 p.m. June 11 at the Valley Storefront in North Hollywood, operated by the Jewish Family Services. It is, she says, open to the public.

She has been appearing before mostly Jewish groups, but she hopes to broaden her audience.

“I do not give a how-to course on conversion. I talk about the concept of personal and community responsibility. That is not just a Jewish concept. It belongs to us all,” she says.

Overheard:

“Just because I watch The Trial does not mean I am a couch potato. I prefer to think of it as taking a class in DNA and genotyping.”

Encino woman whose friends have despaired of ever getting her out for lunch again.