Rep. Sanchez Should Dazzle at Convention

Teresa Saldivar is reluctant to admit she wasn’t paying much attention this week to her party’s convention in Philadelphia. The jeweler has been too busy designing ways to make the opposition look glamorous later this month.

Tere is a registered Republican, all right. Has been for about 15 years, ever since she opened her jewelry store in downtown Santa Ana, her hometown. She voted for Ronald Reagan, just like her whole family. And she went with George Bush in 1988.

This year, though, Tere is devoted to Rep. Loretta Sanchez, heroine of the new Latino electorate. Party affiliation aside, Tere wants to make sure Sanchez dazzles in her public appearances during the Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles.

And nothing says political power like platinum.

Sanchez will be draped in the pure, precious “metal of the moment,” thanks to Tere’s ties to Platinum Guild International USA of Newport Beach. The trade group will loan the Garden Grove-based congresswoman an assortment of platinum accessories--necklaces, earrings, brooches and bracelets to go with three designer outfits being tailored by St. John Knits, the Irvine dressmaker.

Tere will help Sanchez pull it all together for every occasion: her speech at the convention, which opens Aug. 14, her television interviews and her naughty night out at the Playboy Mansion, site of a controversial fund-raiser for Hispanic Unity USA, her political action committee.

For sheer sensation, Platinum Loretta is bound to outshine the drab, button-down California lawmaker trotted out to give a prime-time speech in Spanish on the closing night of the Republican get-together.

Does Tere feel like a traitor for providing aid and comfort--not to mention pizazz--to the Democrats?

Not even a twinge.

Like many active Latinos, Tere is not entirely driven by partisan ideology. She weighs issues and candidates on their merit.

She’s against abortion, but she also opposed the Gulf War. She’s no fan of affirmative action, but she resents cuts in health care for immigrants and the poor. She rebukes Clinton for his sex scandal, but thanks him for keeping her business humming in a good economy.

Community Before Party

When Tere first came out in support of Sanchez, some local Republicans called her a flake. She laughed it off. Because her first loyalty is to her community.

She puts politicians to a populist litmus test. If they’re good for the community, they’re fine with her. If not, a few words in Spanish won’t woo her. Nor tasting tacos on 4th Street a few blocks from her store, as Republican hopeful George W. Bush did the day before Cinco de Mayo.

“No, they’re going to have to come up with something a little stronger than just appearances,” Tere told me this week.

So far, she hasn’t made up her mind about the latest Bush to run for president. You know. The uncle of that handsome kid who’s half-Mexican, George P. Bush, poster boy for ethnic pandering.

George Prescott was one of “the little brown ones,” as his grandfather, the former president, once infamously put it. Now, he’s the handsome, grown-up son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the new presidential candidate.

A person can get lost in this thicket of Bushes. That’s why George P. is so useful. He’s so distinctive with his dark hair, olive skin and good Spanish. Women swoon over the young man picked as one of People magazine’s 100 most eligible bachelors. He’s a perfect pitchman to sell a kinder, gentler GOP to the Latino community, as he has in Spanish television ads.

Just one problem. Latinos are like elephants. They have good memories.

To many, GOP doesn’t stand for Grand Old Party. It stands for Get Out Permanently.

That was the anti-immigrant message conveyed by Proposition 187, the initiative spearheaded by nastier, rougher Republicans led by then-California Gov. Pete Wilson. Latinos of all political stripes still are stinging over that one.

“It turned all of us off,” Tere said.

It turned off Maria Elena Avila, another Republican businesswoman who’s active in the Orange County Latino community. She’s co-owner of Avila’s El Ranchito, the chain of restaurants founded by her father in Huntington Park that eventually expanded to Orange County.

Maria Elena says she balked when fellow Latino Republicans invited her to breakfast with Jeb Bush during a recent visit. Not even his son’s pretty face could assuage her concerns about how Republicans hurt Latino students with their opposition to affirmative action in education.

She eventually decided to attend, to raise the hard issues.

“How could I support you if you’re making it difficult for our sons and daughters to go to school?” asked Maria Elena, who actively promotes the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund, a privately funded scholarship program for Latino students.

Not all Latino Republicans are vacillating, of course. Recently, I’ve run into several pro-Bush people who are excited about their candidate. And polls show the Republican standard-bearer is

making inroads with Latinos nationwide.

Recent surveys show Bush doing better than Bob Dole, who won 21% of the Latino vote in 1996. Yet, he’s not as strong as Ronald Reagan, who captured 37% of Latino votes in 1984.

Sam Romero was one of those Reagan voters, just like Tere, his fellow 4th Street merchant. But unlike the jeweler, Sam’s a Democrat.

Sam’s also an ex--Marine. Very proud to be an American. But very tough when it comes to defending the Latino community.

For Latinos, says Sam, Prop. 187 was like the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They won’t easily forget the infamy.

So when Bush’s nephew stopped at his religious store during a visit to downtown Santa Ana a month ago, Sam had a message ready.

“Look,” he recalls saying, “your uncle seems like a nice guy. But if he wants to win here, he’s got to reverse the damage that Pete Wilson did. He’s got to come out strong against that. I mean strong, not just tiptoe around it.”

Recently, I read some pundit’s suggestion that the emergence of more Latino Republicans is healthy because Democrats won’t take the Latino vote for granted. But it’s the other way around.

It’s Democrats like Loretta Sanchez who taught the Republicans how to value the Latino voter. She did it the old-fashioned way, by winning a tough election. She ousted an entrenched Republican named Bob Dornan who had so written off Latino voters, he thought he could win by trashing them.

So when you see Sanchez decked out in platinum during the convention next week, think of people like Teresa Saldivar.

They don’t fall for fool’s gold.

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Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com