Birth of a Martyr

Salvador Hernandez, a 38-year-old gardener, was returning from Sacramento an optimistic man. The native of the Mexican state of Zacatecas had just spent two days lobbying legislators in favor of a bill that would overturn the Los Angeles city ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

As he headed south on Interstate 5, the green flag of the Assn. of Latin American Gardeners of Los Angeles flapped proudly from his pickup. But Hernandez never made it back to his Inglewood home. His truck blew a tire and spun out of control south of Fresno.

The gardeners following Hernandez in the caravan of 50 trucks found the father of five dying, the green flag lying on the ground nearby.

Today, hundreds of gardeners will gather in Hawthorne to bury Hernandez, a founding member of the association, formed to fight a leaf blower ban that gardeners viewed as an attack on their livelihoods.

As so often happens when tragedy strikes a political struggle, the gardeners have made Hernandez a martyr.

“He was a hero,” said Jaime Aleman, one of about 100 gardeners and their families who gathered Tuesday night at an Olvera Street vigil honoring Hernandez.

The gardeners milled around a portrait of a smiling Hernandez that stood at the center of an altar of flowers and votive candles adorned by images of Catholic saints.

Adrian Alvarez, president of the association, spoke angrily about those who supported the leaf blower ban. He all but accused them of responsibility for Hernandez’s death, underscoring the volatility of the debate between those who see the ban as an attack on undue noise and those who decry it as an elitist act that makes the life of largely Latino immigrant gardeners even harder.

“Salvador died in the line of duty, in a cause that he believed in,” said Alvarez. “If it weren’t for the Los Angeles ordinance, he wouldn’t have had any business being in Sacramento.

“If [the City Council] had been more democratic, less discriminatory and less paternalistic, if they had shown some political courage, Salvador . . . would be alive.”

Before last year’s passage of the leaf blower law, and again in recent months, gardeners have held hunger strikes, marched around City Hall with rakes and brooms, and staged a barefoot march through the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

Their tactics hark back to the farm workers movement led by Cesar Chavez, who rallied his troops around ideas of personal sacrifice. Now the gardeners believe that fate has presented them with a battle cry.

Today’s burial will culminate a week of mourning for Hernandez, who died Aug. 6. Beginning the night of his death, the association organized candlelight vigils on Olvera Street for five consecutive nights, followed by a wake Wednesday at a Hawthorne church.

“We felt the need to remember him and to remind people that his death should not be in vain, but instead to secure the rights of gardeners,” Alvarez said.

Friends said Hernandez worked with his brother, father and other relatives in his own small business. They owned two trucks, cutting lawns, weeding and trimming shrubbery for customers in Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills and other Westside neighborhoods.

Ciro Castro, who is from the same town in Zacatecas, knew Hernandez in Mexico and here in California. “The way you see him in that picture, smiling, that’s the way he was always,” Castro said.

Hernandez, friends said, was one of the many gardeners who showed up at City Hall when the council first proposed an ordinance outlawing the leaf blowers. The earlier version of the law contained harsh punishments for violators: a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. (The punishments were later scaled back).

With the help of two former UCLA students who were related to some of the gardeners, Hernandez and his many colleagues organized the workers into a potent, media-savvy group.

At one association meeting, Hernandez stood up and said in Spanish: “When I’m working and people complain about the leaf blower being loud, I get very angry. I almost get violent.” From then on, he was known as “El Violento,” an ironic nickname that stuck because Hernandez was, in fact, so easygoing.

Eventually, the gardeners took their fight to Sacramento, where state Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles) proposed Senate Bill 14 to prohibit local governments from outlawing the leaf blowers.

Bill Mabie, Polanco’s chief aide, said Hernandez and other gardeners were instrumental in winning approval from several committees for the bill, which now faces a vote before the full Assembly. They often attended committee meetings dressed in identical green shirts.

“He was fighting for his livelihood,” Mabie said of Hernandez. “It’s really just a terrible tragedy. . . . These gardeners are walking the halls of the Capitol and attending committee meetings. They’re doing things that most Californians don’t do.”

On Aug. 5, Hernandez made his final trip to Sacramento in a caravan whose journey proceeded slowly because so many of the gardeners had old trucks that faltered during the 400-mile drive.

The caravan returned to Los Angeles on Aug. 6. Just outside the town of Coalinga, Hernandez’s left rear tire suddenly split apart, the California Highway Patrol said. Driving alone, he slammed on his brakes and then veered into the center median, where his pickup flipped and rolled, said CHP spokeswoman Jennifer Willet.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I felt horrible, as if somebody in my family had died,” said gardener Castro, who had been in the caravan.

Hernandez is survived by his wife and children ages 7 to 17. Through a spokesman, members of the family declined comment. The gardeners association has established the Salvador Hernandez Lira Fund at Glendale Federal Bank (account number 1277043459) to assist members of his family.