To Singer, Helping Ill Boy Takes Center Stage

If calamity strikes, you want the people at the Saticoy School on your side.

Just ask Rafael and Susana Magana.

Ever since their 9-year-old son Ulises was stricken with leukemia last year, Saticoy parents, teachers, and students have been working overtime to help out.

There was the bake sale, of course, because all good works begin with a bake sale.

Then there was the penny drive by Ulises’ fellow fourth-graders, and the fund-raiser at SpacePlay, and the rummage sale, and the tri-tip barbecue, and the rock-band gig, and the uncounted acts of kindness.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation gave Ulises, who’s something of a science whiz, a laptop computer.

An anonymous student donated $200 he’d received in birthday money.

When Rafael and Susana had to stay night after night in Los Angeles for their son’s treatments, their 6-year-old daughter Barbara was taken in by a teacher, Dale Lanning-Espitia.

“At the school we were just in tears every day,” she said. “It was phenomenal what people were doing.”

Of course, they were doing only what the Maganas would have done.

Ulises’ mom had never turned down a teacher’s request for help in the classroom. Even after the benefit barbecue for her son, Susana insisted on staying behind to help clean up.

“They were always giving, always providing,” said Lanning-Espitia. “They’re only taking now because they have to.”

But for all the good will at Saticoy, nobody at the school could have planned this weekend’s benefit concert. Nobody realized that a renowned mariachi singer who had performed for Latin American presidents had read about Ulises and was touched by the fund-raising efforts for him. Nor did they know that she lived just down the road.

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Now I had never heard of Alicia Juarez, but that only reflects my ignorance of Mexican music.

The Maganas, who came to the U.S. from Mexico five years ago, knew her from her music--she had put out 21 albums--and her nine movies. On top of that, she had been married to Jose Alfredo Jimenez, a beloved, larger-than-life musician who was indisputably one of Mexico’s greatest mariachi singers and composers.

Alicia Juarez started out in Oxnard, and that’s where she has wound up.

Each year she gives a memorial concert in honor of Jose Alfredo, who died on Nov. 23, 1973. Usually it’s in Miami, Chicago, Mexico City, places where tens of thousands of Latinos hold Jose Alfredo in the same awe that many Americans reserve for, say, Elvis Presley. This year, the concert will be Sunday at Oxnard High School. Five dollars from each $25 ticket will go to the Maganas. (For reservations, call 487-2445.)

“They’re going through so much right now,” Juarez said. “I can’t even imagine something like that.”

Then again, Juarez acknowledged she couldn’t have imagined her own success.

She was a 16-year-old beauty queen in Oxnard when Jose Alfredo passed through on his annual coastal tour. One of his dancers had broken her foot and he needed to rustle up another act in a hurry. That’s when someone told him about this good-looking girl who sings.

“It was shocking to me,” she said. “My idea of stardom was maybe to someday sing in the Oxnard Theater.”

Shortly after graduating from Oxnard High School, she cut her first record in Mexico and married Jose Alfredo. After his death at 47, her career skyrocketed, with appearances at concerts, mariachi festivals, and clubs throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

About five years ago, though, she came back to Oxnard. Her career wasn’t what it had been. She had family there, and two young kids to raise, and wanted a break after 26 years in Mexico City’s fast lane.

Now she’s a crisis counselor for a Ventura agency that helps battered women. She also hosts a talk show on KUNX, a local Spanish-language station.

“I’ve had a lot of success--a lot more than I ever dreamed,” she said. “Now it’s time to give back.”

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For their part, the Maganas are grateful beyond words.

The multitude of fund-raising efforts has produced more than $8,000. That allows Susana, who ordinarily sells cookware, to tend to Ulises at the UCLA Medical Center all day, every day.

Rafael, a videographer who taught mass communications in Mexico, looks after Ulises’ sister in Ventura and makes frequent trips to see his wife and son. Appearing on Alicia Juarez’s talk show, he has made it his mission to educate the Hispanic community about leukemia and the need for bone-marrow donors.

It’s not an ideal situation. Ulises will be in the hospital for months. His immune system is predictably fragile, and he’s feverish; whether his body will accept the marrow transplanted from his sister won’t be known for another couple of weeks. Until then, he must remain isolated from his friends and most of his family--protection against the random germ.

But his pals at school are cheering him on, and his parents are awed by their support.

“We are really, really thankful for everyone at the school,” Rafael said. “We appreciate all the help--not just because of the money, but because they’re showing they care about Ulie, and that’s great.”

Steve Chawkins can be reached at 653-7561 or by e-mail at steve.chawkins@latimes.com.