As Ethnic Liaisons, Census Sleuths Digging Deep

Something kept drawing Nampet Panichpant to Trabuco Road in Irvine. At first, she thought it was the golf range.

She parked, got out of her van and asked the manager if she could leave U.S. Census posters and literature for customers to peruse. Panichpant knew that Korean American golfers frequented the range after work, and she figured it was a good place to target.

As one of 44 “community partnership specialists” working for the U.S. Census Bureau in Southern California, Panichpant pinpoints places in south Orange County, like the Northwood Golf Center, where the 2000 census can reach people who were not counted in 1990. In Orange County, more than 50,000 people--mostly minorities--were missed, the Census Bureau says. Undercounting costs the county millions of federal dollars that are distributed, according to population, for such things as children’s health care, education, road construction, parks and libraries.

“When I saw the range, I thought with the number of Asians who like to play golf, I should stop and give it a try,” Panichpant said. “But something just kept making me drive up and down the road here, and that’s when I came upon the tree cutters. This was paradise here.”

Paradise for a census worker in search of the undercounted, that is. When Panichpant spotted the tree-cutting business staffed mainly by Latinos next to the golf range, she hopped out of her van again. And next door to that was A.G. Kawamura’s farm, where 400 Latino migrant farmers work and live. She’d found another perfect place for her pitch.

“Here, in the heart of Tech Coast, were these fields,” said a beaming Panichpant. “I was going after the harder-to-reach, undercounted people, and here was a perfect example of where the census needs to be. It’s the converging of the new and the old, from one side of the social scale to the other, right here in Irvine.”

To reach groups that were not counted in 1990, the Census Bureau has created the partnership program, hoping to form alliances with business owners, community activists and civic leaders who could spread the word about the significance of an accurate count. In California, census officials said, the bureau is spending $70.6 million on the program.

The program’s field specialists, most of them professionals from a variety of fields who can speak several languages, are dispatched to communities where they put their cultural expertise to federal use. Panichpant, a former journalist in Southeast Asia and a former county manager for immigration and refugee health programs, speaks four languages and lets her instincts drive her from locale to locale, whether it’s a Thai restaurant frequented by UC Irvine students or a tree-cutting business in the middle of suburbia.

“Block by block and tract by tract, there is a method to where I go,” she said.

In 1990, 60% of those missed by the census were Latinos like Jose Fonseca, 38, a Mexican migrant worker who had no idea that his being counted meant more federal dollars for his city, his state and future generations. Fonseca has lived in Santa Ana since 1980 and has never filled out a census questionnaire. He does not even know why.

“I don’t really understand what that’s about,” he said as he finished his shift at the farm one evening last week.

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To ensure that history does not repeat itself, Fonseca’s employer agreed to put up Panichpant’s posters and distribute notices in the workers’ paychecks.

“This is very important for our people and our workers,” said Luis Bermudez, the farm’s controller. “Most of our people don’t understand what this is about. They think it’s just another piece of junk in the mail.”

Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the census has been taken every 10 years since 1790. Census population figures are used to reapportion the House of Representatives, redistrict state legislatures and distribute federal funds for a variety of uses.

Officials estimate that more than 800,000 Californians were missed in the 1990 census, with Latinos being the largest group among them. In Santa Ana, for example, an estimated 10,295 Latinos were missed; in Anaheim, officials estimate 4,622 Latinos were not counted.

This year, questionnaires will be available in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog to make sure most residents can understand the purpose of an accurate count. But Orange County’s four census specialists will continue to promote the census in all ethnic communities for the next few months.

“I think the partnership program has been a godsend,” said Raymond Lopez, manager for the Garden Grove census office. “It’s an outreach program that gets involved with other outreach programs and uses people who specialize in particular communities.”

Nhi Ho is a specialist based in Garden Grove who used to serve as the outreach coordinator for the county’s registrar of voters office. He has developed a weekly cable television program for Westminster and Garden Grove in which he discusses the various ways the census can benefit a community.

Juana Gamez is a former county assistant social worker who was so disappointed when she read that 5% of Latinos nationwide were missed in the 1990 census that she decided she needed to help correct that.

“I knew it had to be because they were not informed or things were not explained to them,” Gamez said. “I’m a very grass-roots kind of person, and I felt that I could make some kind of a difference. If it leads to an increased response rate, then I’ll feel really good.”

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Gamez’s territory is Fullerton, Placentia and parts of Anaheim. In her casual dress and soft-spoken way, she concentrates on Mexican American barrios. Gamez migrated from Mexico at age 7 and wants future Mexican American generations to get the most from Uncle Sam.

On the streets of Old Town Placentia, known as Plazita de Placentia by those who live there, Gamez is all smiles. On Bradford Avenue and neighboring streets, there are nothing but Latino markets, restaurants and shops. She plans to hit all of the owners with the same request: “Are you willing to help me make sure everyone is counted?”

At La Imperial Market, Gamez is received by 22-year-old cashier Rodolfo Flores. Flores, who has worked at the store for five years, tells her he is pretty certain his boss would be willing to display posters and fliers to help the community.

“This is really like being a salesman,” Gamez said of her successful pitch. “If you take the time to explain it and you’re not pushy, you usually get what you want. I think my 30 units of psychology in college have really helped me in this job.”

Across the street at Tlaquepaque restaurant, owner Elvira Davis is well-informed about the census. She likes the commercials she has seen on Spanish-language television and knows there is something she can do to help Gamez.

“Please, leave me your materials,” Davis said. “When my daughter gets here, we will clean the windows and make space for your posters. I’m going to put them up so that our people will get motivated to do their part.”