Discrimination Against Latinos--How Bad Is It?

I can usually anticipate when the readers are going to be angry about something I’ve written. Say something in defense of illegal immigrants and the howls come in quicker than the O.J. Simpson verdicts.

When I wrote last year that Proposition 187 was a racist measure that voters should reject, I expected that at least one caller would tell me to go home--meaning Mexico. When I told her I was already home--meaning my native L.A.--she hung up.

Over time, I’ve been prepared to be called a Johnny-come-lately on the subject of crime when I criticized street gang punks for the recent murder of the 3-year-old girl in Cypress Park. One caller misunderstood and lumped me with the punks I criticized, referring to me as a “graduate” of “Pancho Villa Elementary School.”

So imagine my surprise at the unexpected calls, faxes and letters that came in after last week’s column in which I said Latinos were being ignored in the post-O.J. talk about race relations in L.A.

Shock of shocks, the readers agreed with me.

Rodrigo Garcia’s fax from Monterey Park echoed the sentiment of many: “You are right . . . that we are invisible but the media partly is to blame. We may have strong opinions; we may even be involved in advocacy but the media doesn’t care or doesn’t want to print our efforts, our opinions. They don’t want to see us. The quieter we are, the better they like it.”

But just as I was getting used to being patted on the back, I got blindsided by the blistering reaction to one observation I innocently inserted into the column that I gave no second thought to.

And I got it from both sides too. Jeepers.

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I was explaining--matter-of-factly, I thought--why African Americans, and not Latinos, are seen as the leaders in the civil rights struggle in this country. Believing that the East Coast powers-that-be reinforce the notion by largely overlooking other minorities, I wrote that “Latinos have been secondary players in civil rights and race. African Americans were the vocal oppressed who developed the leaders and the strategies to overcome slavery and segregation.

“Latinos suffered segregation to a lesser degree, like Mexican-only days at public swimming pools the days before they were drained and refilled.”

“Are you serious?” said Mario Zamora of Huntington Park. “I’m 80 years old and I have never been discriminated against in my whole life and I have been all over Southern California.”

I listened politely to Rosanna Marquez of Lake View Terrace, who said that if any discrimination occurred against Mexicans, particularly in the years after World War II, it was inadvertent.

“We were heroes because Latinos also fought for this country,” the 75-year-old reader told me. “We could buy a home where we wanted to; we could swim where we wanted to.”

When I persisted in disagreement, she cut me off: “Young man, you weren’t there. So you don’t know.”

But according to others, I understated the historical record of discrimination against Latinos.

“What do you mean ‘suffered segregation to a lesser degree?’ ” Allan Clayton of the L.A. County Chicano Employees Assn. demanded. “Latinos have suffered a great deal. Just ask [former California Supreme Court Justice] Cruz Reynoso who has litigated many cases of discrimination. Latinos couldn’t buy homes [in parts of L.A. County] because of discrimination.”

A transplant from El Paso, Tex., contractor John Aguirre said he could understand my “ignorance” on the subject. “You Californians think you know everything, but Mexicans here have it easy,” he said. “In Texas, now, there’s where you really have discrimination. If a Mexican even thought about doing something, like buying a home in a good part of town, he’d get his real quick. They’re still reliving the Alamo in Texas.”

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For the record, in L.A., in Culver City, in Lakewood and elsewhere, Latinos were discriminated against. It happened at the ballpark, at the swimming pools and, to some degree, in the schools. In some instances, Latinos couldn’t buy homes in certain neighborhoods because they weren’t wanted there--not necessarily by written restrictive covenants but by being subtly steered elsewhere.

So essentially, everyone who called me was right: It happened to them, therefore it must have happened to every Mexican American the same way.

And we know that isn’t the case.

So go ahead and get angry, if you feel you should.

On second thought, hold it in for a while. Wait until I write about a proposal now afloat to stage a Latino march next year on Washington, D.C., similar to today’s “Million Man March.” It’s a great idea that should have been done years ago. Personal anecdotes aside, we’d better agree first on what we’re angry about.