A Positive Immigrant Portrait

By GEORGE RAMOS

March 27, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The most detailed study of the growing Salvadoran and Guatemalan populations in Los Angeles County paints a portrait of a hard-working but poor community, one that aspires to learn English and relies less often than other groups on public assistance.

The study, released Wednesday, shows that most of these workers are mired in low-paying jobs in the service industry, working as laborers, janitors and maids with little education and not much chance of getting better-paying positions.

Other findings and recommendations in the study suggest that these two communities, numbering about 380,000 in Los Angeles County, will try to assimilate into U.S. society by applying for U.S. citizenship as other Latinos, especially Mexicans, have done.

According to some Central American activists, the study by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute and the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Funds is long overdue. They say it confirms their long-held notion that Salvadorans and Guatemalans are a growing force that has distinct needs.

Central American neighborhoods, such as the vibrant Pico-Union district west of downtown Los Angeles, are evidence of their growing influence.

“I think the report is a big adios to the notion in the 1980s that Salvadorans and Guatemalans were nothing but refugees,” said Central American activist Roberto Lovato.

“This is a big hello to Salvadorans and Guatemalans as new permanent members of the diverse familia of Los Angeles.”

Mexicans and U.S.-born citizens of Mexican descent have been the dominant groups among Latinos in Los Angeles since the turn of the century. However, beginning in the 1970s, the civil unrest in El Salvador and Guatemala prompted huge waves of immigration to the United States. In the 1980s, 87,000 Guatemalans came to the U.S., more than double the numbers that came in the 1960s and ‘70s.

In the ‘80s, more than 213,000 Salvadorans came to the U.S.

By 1990, according to census data, 250,000 Salvadorans resided in Los Angeles County, along with 127,000 Guatemalans.

One in six of them is U.S.-born and a citizen. Among those born in Central America, many are legal U.S. residents and increasing numbers are becoming American citizens.

Still others have achieved temporary legal status, typically through pending applications for political asylum. Many of those asylum applicants could face future deportation since the civil wars in their homelands have ended. Yet other Central Americans here remain illegal immigrants.

Because of the heavy influx, Los Angeles has the largest concentrations of Salvadorans and Guatemalans in the world outside Central America.

The study’s results show that workers in these two communities are part of this area’s economic engine.

According to one part of the study, nearly 65% of Guatemalans and nearly 64% of Salvadorans in this area--those over 16 years of age--have jobs. Those figures are higher than percentages for other segments of Los Angeles’ population--60% for other Latinos, 63% for whites and 54% for African Americans.

Using census figures for 1989, the report says the median salary income for Salvadorans and Guatemalans was $5,000 to $9,999. This level was well below that of any other population studied, particularly blacks ($15,000 to $19,999) and whites ($20,000 to $24,999).

Salvadorans and Guatemalans on an average had more workers (three) in a household than other Latinos, whites and African Americans.

Among those receiving public assistance, the study showed that 3.1% of Guatemalans and 2.8% of Salvadorans got aid, compared to 4.9% for other Latinos, 4% for whites and 12.6% for blacks.

The study’s second part, which includes survey results taken of leaders in these two communities, illustrates the strides local Salvadorans and Guatemalans have made to adjust to life in Los Angeles.

For example, 89 community groups, ranging from social action organizations to those focusing on a person’s hometown in Central America, have sprung up in these communities.

According to Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, the groups serve several functions, such as promoting the opportunity to become U.S. citizens by offering English and U.S. history classes.

“They are rich resources for these people,” Pachon said.

According to the study, increasingly more Salvadorans and Guatemalans are learning English as part of the process of becoming U.S. citizens. Salvadorans who naturalized in 1993, for example, waited an average of nine years before applying--a period much shorter than for other Latino groups. The latter groups, without the proficiency in English, had to wait an average of 14 years before becoming citizens.

Salvadoran and Guatemalan leaders locally differ in what they think their communities need.

Salvadoran leaders surveyed by the study want more educational opportunities, including English-language classes, and they decry perceptions that many of them are gang members.

Those concerns sound remarkably similar to those made by Mexican immigrants living in Los Angeles in the 1930s and ‘50s, Pachon said. On the other hand, reflecting the fact that many of the Guatemalans living in Los Angeles are recent arrivals, Guatemalan leaders said the lack of English skills, health insurance and culturally sensitive medical services vex their community.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Two Communities

A new study on the Salvadoran and Guatemalan communities in Los Angeles County provides one of the most detailed profiles ever assembled.

* Birthplaces of Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Others Who Live in L.A. County

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Guatemalan Salvadoran Other Latino White Black United States 17% 16% 50% 87% 96% Abroad 83% 84% 50% 13% 4%

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Employment Among People 16 or Older:

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Guatemalan Salvadoran Other Latino White Black Working 65% 64% 61% 63% 54%

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Those receiving public assistance age 15 or older: