Latino Foothold in South O.C.

Avelino Garcia, a.k.a. the Cactus King, never drew large crowds until recently. Then again, until four years ago, he never had a venue.

That’s when El Nopal Mercado opened in San Juan Capistrano and he got his gig peeling needles off succulent nopal cactus paddles that are sold at the busy market. Now, everyone stops to say hello.

Garcia has become a landmark in a new Latino community that stands out on recently released census maps in South County, where every other census tract lives up to the area’s reputation as predominantly white.

Census tract 423.12 is South County’s first majority Latino census tract. It cuts through Interstate 5 from Junipero Serra Road to San Juan Creek Road and extends east, roughly between San Juan Creek and Ortega Highway.

It is here, near the city’s downtown, where Garcia ceremoniously trims the needles wearing a wide-brimmed white sombrero. Mexican immigrant customers use the remaining green cactus paddles--known as nopal or nopales--to make traditional dishes.

“Everyone comes to watch; he’s the Cactus King,” says customer Luis Ayala Gonzalez, who often chats with Garcia. “Nowadays, we customers feel like we are among family.”

In Santa Ana and Los Angeles, stores like El Nopal Mercado are common, selling Mexican food, prepaid phone cards and money transfers to Mexico. In San Juan Capistrano, El Nopal Mercado is still new enough that folks don’t take it for granted.

They still remember when there were no stores like El Nopal because the Latino community is so new. From 1990 to 2000, this census tract lost 24% of its white population while the Latino population grew 88.4%. The tract’s Latino population now is estimated at a minimum of 5,376, or about 65% of the total.

Of the city’s 33,826 residents, there are at least 10,238 Latinos, an increase of 84.9% since 1990.

Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, said some are people seeking refuge from overcrowding in the county’s northern cities.

“There is a sprinkling of Latinos there out of necessity,” he said. “There is no other place with any affordable housing. Some people just want to leave the cities. Poor Santa Ana, it’s bursting at the seams. This is the overflow.”

Jobs Plentiful, Homes Tranquil

Felipe Higadera Gomez moved from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, then to San Juan Capistrano, where he saw unmet demand for Mexican products. Four years ago, he opened El Nopal Mercado and quickly stocked his tiny store with 147 kinds of Mexican herbs, spices and chiles, which hang in bags on the walls. He also stocked ice cream from his native Michoacan state in the freezer (the company has a plant in Los Angeles), and he carries tripe and shrimp. He also sells prepaid cards for phoning Mexico and offers a service to send money to Mexico.

“What people see is that there are tons of jobs here,” Higadera Gomez said. “No one doesn’t have a job. It’s also a place where you can raise your children in peace.”

Many people are moving to fast-developing South County to make a dollar or two more per hour over minimum wage, he said. Opportunity abounds for gardeners, construction workers, nannies, maids and those who will take other “hard jobs that no one else will do,” said his brother Raul Higadera Gomez.

The brother and mother-in-law, Maria Godinez, operate the cash register, which is constantly ringing.

Oscar Sandoval, 33, has just dropped by to get Mexican ice pops and watch Garcia, the Cactus King, peel nopal for a few minutes. Sandoval came to San Juan Capistrano seven years ago from Anaheim, where he couldn’t make more than minimum wage. Now he earns $10 an hour as a hospital custodian.

“At first, I didn’t like it here because there weren’t enough Latinos. Now, I love it. My pay is better, the air is cleaner and the atmosphere is good for children. It’s tranquil,” he said.

Estela Gonzalez stopped at the store recently to post a sign advertising an available room in the three-bedroom condominium she rents for $1,200 monthly. She wants $400 for the room. Her husband works 12 hours a day at two restaurants as a cook. But they can barely pay the rent, even with a boarder.

Dan McFarland, development services manager for the city of San Juan Capistrano, said complaints about overcrowding and garage apartments have risen in recent years. The condominiums were built in the 1970s, and many are rented by absentee landlords, he said.

“It’s not really a problem neighborhood like a big city would have. It’s just lifestyle and overcrowding,” he said. “There are a lot more people there than there used to be.”

The total population of the tract rose by about 2,300 to 8,415, but only 110 units were added since 1990, McFarland added.

Gated Communities’ Demand for Service

Latinos are not newcomers to a city best known for Mission San Juan Capistrano, built in 1776 as part of the Spanish missionary effort to convert American Indians and others to the Roman Catholic faith.

In the 1800s, an increasing population led to the building of numerous adobe homes for indigenous people and families begun by Spanish soldiers and indigenous women. After the region became part of the United States, white ranchers and farmers settled here and raised their families.

In the last 20 years, rolling hills and ranchland have given way to gated communities, which sparked a demand for service employees, said Gil Jones, owner of Jones Family Mini-Farm and a San Juan Capistrano resident for 20 years.

Jones sees the new Latinos coming south as a plus. “They have stimulated our economy, they definitely have,” he said. “They don’t go out of town to buy things.”

Moreover, many are willing to do hard farm work others won’t do, he said. If there is resentment in town, it comes “from people who don’t know where their bread is buttered,” Jones said.

Councilman David M. Swerdlin says the city’s newcomers are a part of the many cultures that make up San Juan’s history.

“We have always had a Hispanic influence. It has always been a melting pot, and the city has been richer for it,” he said. “Whether it develops into a new chapter for the city remains to be seen.”

The surge in Latinos has changed some institutions. Local schools are seeing more limited-English-proficient children, and Catholic Charities has set up a center to help immigrants meet a variety of needs.

At the mission, about eight years ago, when Msgr. Paul Martin offered Spanish Mass, “there were about 12 people,” said Eva Mohler, who heads the church’s Hispanic ministry. “Now there’s so many people, they can’t fit in the church.”

About 1,000 people attend Mass on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The church now has 6,000 families registered. Among them, the number of Spanish-language parishioners has grown so much that Mohler lost count. She estimates that more than 30% are Latino.

Two years ago, the church hired Father Ramon Cisneros to celebrate Mass. A youth group has grown substantially since Cisneros arrived, Mohler said.

Garcia came from his native Sahuayo, Michoacan, around 1945. He picked crops and worked in nurseries and as a gardener. If he wanted nopal, “we’d have to go to Mexico and bring it back. There wasn’t any nopal around.”

The Latino population grew slowly until the last decade. Now, Garcia said, “San Juan [is starting to look] more like a little town in Mexico. It’s still peaceful here, but now we have some paisanos to keep us company.”