Choosing Citizenship Gave Him a Choice

About 480,000 of those of us registered to vote in Orange County failed to make it to the polls Nov. 5. If I ever consider skipping out on a chance to vote, I hope I’ll think back to Sammy Montoya, and his swim across the river.

On Nov. 5, the 32-year-old Santa Ana restaurateur voted in his first election. To even begin to understand what that meant to him, you have to take a look at his past.

Montoya was one of 10 children raised on a tiny hardscrabble farm in Zacatecas, Mexico, just north of Guadalajara. There wasn’t much to live on but pride: The farm had belonged to his father’s father, and his father before that.

It was mostly cows and chickens and a few bean or corn fields. It produced little income. There was no electricity or running water. Just keeping the family fed was the week’s goal. Montoya left school in the third grade to become a needed hand at home.

At 15, Montoya was determined to leave home for the United States, as three brothers did before him. With every dime that could be saved, Montoya’s family paid a “coyote” who was leading a group of illegal immigrants across the border.

Montoya took a train from Guadalajara part of the way. Then it was four days on foot. His group reached the Colorado River at dusk.

“When I saw the river, I couldn’t believe how wide it was,” he told me. “I wanted to turn back; I didn’t think I could swim across it.” He’d already been told about those who drowned in the attempt.

But he did make it, with a few clothes in a garbage bag over his shoulder. He made his way to Laguna Beach, where two brothers lived. He spoke no English and had no schooling, but Laguna Beach was paradise compared to the farm.

Montoya got a job as a dishwasher at the White House restaurant. Its owner, George Catsouras, became his mentor.

“My first paycheck was for $80; it looked like a million to me,” he said. “It was beyond anything I could earn in Mexico.”

His brothers made sure he also went back to school. Montoya learned English and eventually graduated from Laguna Hills High School.

In 1986, he managed to get his green card through the federal amnesty program. Catsouras helped pay for the lawyer he needed. Montoya remained at the White House until two years ago; he’d risen through the ranks to become dining room manager.

By then he’d saved enough to have a go at his own business. With the help of friends, he bought the La Chiquita on East Washington Avenue. He plans to buy out his backers in five years. It’s beyond anything he dreamed as a 15-year-old.

“When I crossed that river, my only thought was that I had to make it, to send money home to help my parents,” he said. “After I went to work, I started to dream that maybe someday I’d have my own house. And then that I might have my own business.”

Montoya and his wife, Maria, have two children. The next generation of Montoyas, he told me, will be the first to have the chance to go to college.

As part of his dream, Montoya also wanted to become a U.S. citizen, the same as his children.

“People who have not had to struggle, sometimes they don’t really appreciate what a great country this is,” he said. “I wanted to be able to vote, I wanted to feel like I belonged, that this was my country.”

Montoya earned his citizenship in July. At the ceremony in Los Angeles, he said, “It was so beautiful, I started to cry. It touches the heart to know I am now an American.”

Come See Us More Often: Loretta Sanchez’s defeat of Robert K. Dornan for the 46th Congressional District seat certainly brought national media attention to Orange County. Newsweek wrote a nice story about the race, but I took issue with one of its statements: That the Sanchez victory “is compelling evidence that Orange County, long dominated by white Republicans, is beginning to look like much of the rest of Southern California, culturally and ethnically diverse.”

Beginning to? Apparently Newsweek hasn’t been visiting us much in recent years. We were culturally and ethnically diverse when I moved here 17 years ago. But it is true that Sanchez breaks down many barriers--the first woman, the first Latino in Congress from here. Maybe that will help change some of the national stereotyping we face.

Speaking of the Hill: The historic Newland House on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach will get a make-over on Friday. Not a renovation, just the annual “Holiday on the Hill” Christmas decorating. Organizer Beth Kennedy tells me that all but one of the upstairs rooms have been assigned to private organizations for decorating.

In the past, there was one central decorating theme, she said, “but this year each group is going to do its own thing. But I’m sure it will be beautiful.”

Wrap-Up: Nine of the 10 Montoya children live in the U.S. now. None of them have forgotten their original purpose, to send money back to the farm in Zacatecas.

“My mother, she could live here; she enjoys the U.S.,” Montoya said. “But my father, his heart will always be with the farm.”

I asked Montoya what his thoughts are when he hears about someone getting killed trying to cross the border. He responded:

“Sometimes when I hear someone criticizing ‘illegal aliens,’ I think, ‘You don’t know the background, why it is that people will risk their lives to cross that river.’ People just want a chance at opportunity. And that’s what America offers--opportunity.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com