O.C. Salvadorans Await Quake News

Though she tries every few hours, Juana Paz Serrano can’t get through to her 80-year-old father, who lives in San Salvador.

His phone has been dead since the massive earthquake hit El Salvador on Saturday. All his daughter can think about is how her father suffers from heart trouble.

“I’m so worried,” the Costa Mesa woman said Sunday. “There’s nothing to be done. We can only call and wait.”

For many Salvadorans across Orange County, Sunday was spent glued to the television and the telephone, trying desperately to get news of loved ones after a 7.6 magnitude quake rocked the country.

The quake was felt throughout Central America and as far north as Mexico. President Francisco Flores announced that he had asked Colombia to donate 3,000 coffins.

Local aid workers began relief efforts, but stressed the need to avoid the mistakes made after Hurricane Mitch, which hit Central America in 1998. Thousands of donated items never made it to those in need.

Many of the 600,000 Salvadorans in California have begun to think about relief efforts.

Paz Serrano’s husband, Alejandro, for example, said he must somehow find a way to earn tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild his mother’s home.

The house in which he grew up in the town of Usulutan was destroyed in the quake; his mother, sisters, nieces and nephews were in the yard when the earth moved and were not hurt.

“They saw the house shaking terribly, but nobody got hurt,” said Alejandro Paz Serrano. But now, the family is homeless.

By Sunday afternoon, many families were still unable to communicate with loved ones because telephone lines were down or overloaded.

Others got through but received devastating news.

Carlos Alberto Cea choked back tears as he talked about the loss of his two youngest children when a hillside collapsed on their home in Santa Tecla.

Cea recalled his last phone conversation with his son, Carlos Alberto, 16, and his daughter, Yance, 13. He called after New Year’s. “I was telling my son to open a savings account, because when I was 16, I suffered a lot. I didn’t have any money, and I didn’t want him to suffer,” Cea said.

Like many, Cea’s shock over his loss quickly turned to a sense of helplessness as he confronted immigration restrictions prohibiting him from returning to El Salvador for burials.

Cea, who is in the process of requesting amnesty under the Nicaraguan and Central American Adjustment Act, said he had applied to bring both of his children to the United States. Now, he might not be able to attend their funerals because his papers are still being processed.

According to Meredith Brown, a lawyer for the nonprofit Assn. of Salvadorans of Los Angeles, immigrants requesting residency who do not get permission from the INS to leave the country could be barred from returning to the United States for up to 10 years.

An emergency waiver could take more than a week to process, Brown said. Cea and others are worried that as the death toll climbs, the threat of disease will force their families to bury relatives before they can return.

Local aid and immigration organizations have sprung into action, locating family members, assisting with immigration requests and coordinating relief efforts.

Twelve-year-old Yajaira Aragon was one of nearly 40 volunteers from the association in downtown Los Angeles holding signs Sunday asking drivers to help the earthquake victims. Aragon, who was born in the United States, said she was proud to help her mother’s country. “Many people have stopped and given money. It’s nice, you know, to see people just acting from their hearts.”

At the Central American Resource Center, director Angela Sanbrano stressed that monetary donations are most appreciated. “During Mitch, people donated all sorts of items that we couldn’t use, like one shoe, or canned food” with expired dates, she said. “It was as if people were cleaning out their closets. We couldn’t send much of it, and it’s so expensive. For the cost of shipping all that food, we could have bought fresher items in the country,” she said.

Carmen de Mendoza, assistant at the Salvadoran Consulate in Los Angeles, agreed. She said people can help most by giving money, which can then be used to buy blankets and medicine.

But for many, the losses are irreplaceable.

On Sunday, Cea spoke with regret about the nine years in which he hadn’t seen his children.

“I always sent money, but I couldn’t go back because of immigration, and it was too expensive,” he said. “Now, I just want to be able to bury my children.”

When Cea last talked with his daughter, she had asked the same question she always asked: “When will I see you again?” He had given the same answer: “Soon.”

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Times staff writer Christine Hanley contributed to this report.

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For information about where to send donations, contact the Assn. of Salvadorans of Los Angeles at (213) 483-1244 or the Central American Resource Center, (213) 385-7800.