A president impeached. Bombs falling on Iraq. Amid the tumult, the season’s joys are still to be found.

Roberto Diaz pulled up in his aging silver Chevy. He had just over an hour to eat with his family and watch the world go haywire on TV. His shift in Montebello, where he helps manufacture machine parts, had ended at 3:30 p.m. and he only had till 5 to get to his youngest daughter’s school here, where he works as a janitor.

As he does every afternoon, he sat at the dinner table in his small family room and sighed at the 4 o’clock news. He finished his chicken and pinto beans to the explosive green images from Iraq. While his daughter Martha translated, he worried that gas prices would climb, and maybe his 17-year-old son, Tony, would have to go to war.

But what really annoyed him, what still causes him to really grumble and moan, are those high and mighty Republicans.

The Diaz family believes Bill Clinton is a great leader, and a flawed man. They are devoted Catholics who dislike what he did with Monica Lewinsky. But they feel the Republicans transformed his personal problems into a political mire that now hobbles the entire nation.

“I think Clinton has a lot of charisma,” says Roberto’s wife, Antonia. “With all this going on, he stands strong. He doesn’t back down. Es una persona muy grande.”

*

The Diaz family is busy during the holidays. Roberto, who is working overtime at his day job on top of everything else, spent last weekend putting up the Christmas lights, and this weekend he has to fix a fence and the car. Martha, 24, and Antonia have to shop for food and gifts, mail the last Christmas cards and decorate the house while Rocio, 13, and Tony finish finals at school.

But at dinner, they stop at the old television set next to the manger scene, and watch each day’s developments. All this turmoil in the news hasn’t hampered their Christmas season, but it has been a constant, nagging presence.

“When are they going to give it up already?” Martha asks about the House Judiciary Committee. “It’s worse than O.J.”

Roberto and Antonia have enough on their minds--getting their children through private school and keeping the family afloat--without worrying about events in Washington and Iraq. Martha, who just graduated from UC Irvine, is looking for a job in a laboratory that will put her biology degree to use. Tony is thinking about going to a private college in Wisconsin.

The only event on television adding any real stress to their lives has been the situation in Iraq. “You never know what China and Russia will do,” says Roberto. “Tony has to register in a couple months.”

But aside from that concern, the news reports spark nothing more than heated dinner conversation. Even young Rocio wields an opinion, though she might not understand the details of the Starr report. “I think that when he was going to be president,” she says, “he didn’t sign a paper saying he would say step by step what he was doing with his own life.”

Antonia chides Martha for reading the lurid Starr report on the Internet, while Martha occasionally reins in opinions her father develops listening to talk radio at work.

“I think the Republicans probably gave [Lewinsky] money to do this,” he says. “It’s logical.”

“Oh, come on, Dad!” says Martha.

“I think she really fell in love with him,” Antonia chimes in.

*

Roberto and Antonia grew up in Mexico where politicians often are seen as criminals--bilking the people more than representing them. “They are trash, and they really abuse their power,” Antonia says.

In Clinton, the Diazes see a man to whom they can relate, and who seems to guard the interests of the working classes while Republicans speak for the rich.

This month, Tony joined crowds of supporters to greet Hillary Clinton during her visit to the Breed Street Shul in their neighborhood. Martha met Al Gore on a visit to UCI, and a Christmas card from the Gore family sits on the Diazes’ piano next to the three wise men.

The way the Diazes see it, government is about the people. What is going on in Washington now is a cloistered debate having nothing to do with representing constituents.

The real pariah for the Diaz family, the one they can’t wait to see leave, is Gov. Pete Wilson. His policies have affected them a lot more as citizens than have Bill Clinton’s trysts.

“He attacked the Latino community and cut education,” Antonia says. Martha started at UCI on a full ride. But due to Wilson’s education cuts, her grants dropped by 50%, and to graduate, she was forced to work three jobs--as a tutor, baby sitter and movie theater cashier. Moreover, she says, many of her friends lost hope of going to professional school due to Proposition 209, which Wilson supported.

“In California they still need minority physicians,” Antonia says. “It discouraged a lot of people--people who would have been good for the community.”

The Diaz family hopes above all else that this impeachment will bury the Republicans.

They will continue their holidays with the TV pundits droning in the background.

But the most crucial debate will be whether to have roast beef or ham for Christmas Eve dinner.