‘It’s Just a Different World Now’

Tom Jackson’s been mayor of Huntington Park 12 times in the last five decades. He’s watched the city change from a genteel suburb of middle-class whites to a gritty community of blue-collar immigrants.

Today, almost all his old friends are gone. His neighbors don’t speak English. And his mother-in-law can’t find sauerkraut in local Latino markets to make her Hungarian stuffed cabbage when she comes to visit.

Jackson and his wife are among the few remaining white residents in one of the most Mexicanized cities in Southern California. So it was a little like watching Lt. Col. Custer make his last stand when Mayor Jackson started rambling at a City Council meeting last month about too many Mexicans overrunning the Little Bighorn.

The topic was a state bill that would make it easier for undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses while they straighten out their status. Jackson, a native North Carolinian, didn’t like the idea of government giving undocumented newcomers a smoother ride.

“We have to come to the realization that the entire country of Mexico cannot come to California, and if we make it tough for them to come here, they won’t come,” he said. “They have their country and we have our country, and we cannot constantly be doing something to make their life easier.”

A hard line, but a little late in a city that’s already 92% Latino.

Jackson’s remarks sparked an outcry from some colleagues and community leaders. A year away from retirement, the former florist found himself fending off charges of racism.

For fellow council member Rosario Marin, a native of Mexico City, the issue was personal.

“The essence of government is to improve the quality of life of the people it serves, not to make it more difficult,” fumed Marin. “He’s talking about them, which is us, which is me and my parents and my brothers.”

The controversy died down after Jackson resigned the ceremonial mayorship although he remains on the council. But the issue reverberates wherever immigrants are displacing the dominant culture. The clash in Huntington Park only shows us that people don’t easily let go of their lifestyles, or their attitudes.

After lunch, I drove to Jackson’s simple home of 37 years on a plain but peaceful street. His wife opened the door a crack, anxious to talk.

Peering out through a screen door, she defended her husband against these “ridiculous” accusations. All he said was that we can’t let all the Mexicans come here.

“What the hell’s racist about that?” she asked, the crack in the door growing wider with her outrage. “God knows they’d probably all come here if they could. . . . Then who the hell would be in Mexico? Just the crooked government.”

Mrs. Jackson, who has lived in town all her life, says she’s got nothing against Mexicans. It’s just the way they come here and expect to have things like home. The stores, the language, even the churches. Why, at her own Catholic parish they demanded more Spanish-speaking priests.

“One thing after another,” she said. “I’m all for people wanting a better life. But if they want everything like it is in Mexico, why . . . are they coming here?”

Later in a telephone interview, Tom Jackson admitted the changes still bother him too. He used to be an isolationist, as he put it. Now he’s come to accept the world as it is.

Back when he came to town in the 1950s, couples would window shop on Pacific Boulevard, now the heart of the Latino commercial district. Downtown had everything in those days, from nice clothing stores to “every car dealer known to man.”

“All of that began to degenerate because the Caucasian who had more money left the community and was replaced by the Hispanic,” he said. “It’s just a different world now.”

Jackson doesn’t like what immigration has done to his town. The shops now have roll-down gates, the schools are overcrowded, there’s no place anymore to get a decent dinner. And, he says, “I, as an individual, was deprived of my original way of life.”

No, he doesn’t like it. But he’s learned to live with it.

“You have to force yourself to accept change,” he says, “or you have a hard time just living a regular life.”

That counts for something, doesn’t it? At least he didn’t join the white flight that has created ethnic ghettos in other cities like Santa Ana and Westminster.

“I could leave at any minute, but I don’t,” said Jackson who owns a weekend home in Menifee, in Riverside County, where he plans to retire next year. “You either accept it or you run off and hide. I accepted it. I’m still here.”

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