Latinos Recover Optimism Lost in ‘90s

Latinos in Los Angeles, who often felt under siege during California’s racially charged ballot initiative wars of the mid-1990s, have generally recovered their optimism, according to a Los Angeles Times poll.

In the most dramatic illustration, Latinos surveyed in Los Angeles were twice as likely as whites--and much more likely than African Americans--to say quality of life has improved in the last five years. L.A.’s emerging Latino majority is also more likely than the white or black populations to assert that the city is headed in the right direction.

And more than half of Latinos surveyed rated public school education as adequate or excellent. By contrast, a majority of whites and seven in 10 blacks said schools were inadequate or very poor. The positive appraisal among Latinos persists even though Latino children, who represent 70% of L.A.’s public school enrollment, often endure the longest bus rides to school and the worst overcrowding.

“It’s the great paradox of Latino education: They are the strongest supporters of public education, but public education is not supporting them equally,” said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at Claremont Graduate University. “Optimism is still alive in the barrios.”

The Times poll, based on the responses of 1,570 residents interviewed between Feb. 24 and March 1, also reflected deep Latino apprehension about crime, police abuse and race relations. But analysts said the most significant change was the level of basic optimism.

Forty-three percent of Latinos said the quality of life in their communities had improved in the past five years. That was a strikingly more confident viewpoint than that of whites (21%) or blacks (34%). It was by far the most positive reply by Latinos since the quality-of-life question was first asked in Los Angeles by The Times Poll in 1989. No more than 26% of Latinos had previously responded affirmatively.

Several analysts attributed the response to sustained economic prosperity and the relatively modest expectations of many low-income immigrants from nations where public education is generally neglected and government services are minimal.

But experts also cited the political turnaround from the mid-1990s, when many Latinos--both immigrants and the native-born--protested that they were being made scapegoats for a sluggish economy and other societal woes.

The turmoil was set in motion in 1994 with Proposition 187, placed on the ballot by citizens who contended that an influx of illegal immigrants was sapping California’s economy. Among other restrictions, the measure would have forced schools and hospitals to turn in suspected illegal immigrants.

Similar emotions festered through subsequent ballot initiatives that targeted affirmative action and bilingual education. The initiatives were often portrayed in the Spanish-language media as anti-Latino.

Those political campaigns helped trigger a profound, and unanticipated, turnaround. Hundreds of thousands of Latino immigrants opted to become U.S. citizens, resulting in the election of dozens of Latino lawmakers and a dramatically altered political landscape. Today, both major parties are wooing Latinos and immigrants in general, spurring a renewed hopefulness among many.

“Now, I feel like we have a future here,” said Miguel Carmona, a San Fernando Valley painting contractor who was one of 519 Latinos interviewed in the poll. “I believe in America. I believe we can do well.”

Carmona, a 35-year-old Mexican immigrant, is a microcosm of the evolving perspective. He said he became a citizen and voted in his first national election in 1996 after becoming distressed by what he called the anti-Latino politics of the mid-1990s. He now exudes confidence and sees a bright future for his 6-year-old daughter, Beverly Guadalupe (named after both Beverly Hills and the patroness of Latin America), a public school first-grader.

“Latinos are no longer being attacked--in fact they are being used as a symbol of American success,” said Sergio Bendixen, a longtime pollster of Latinos, now based in Miami. “People in California don’t realize the extent of what happened there in the ‘90s. It was extraordinary, nothing short of a revolution.”

A solid majority of Latinos, like blacks, called race relations in the city “not so good” or poor. Whites, split on the subject, had a more positive view. Moreover, Latinos were somewhat more skeptical about the Los Angeles Police Department than other groups. This may reflect charges of misconduct in the Rampart Division, which covers a heavily immigrant Latino neighborhood west of downtown. The well-publicized allegations that police routinely violated the rights of young Latinos appeared to have delivered a blow to the LAPD’s image.

Thirty-one percent of Latinos disagreed with the statement that “most Los Angeles police officers are hard-working and honest.” Latinos also joined blacks in solidly backing the imposition of federal monitors to oversee the department.

The poll bared a deep preoccupation with crime--not surprising, experts say, since many Latinos live in neighborhoods where crime is endemic. Overall, 69% of Latinos called crime the most important problem facing the city today, compared with 56% of blacks and 43% of whites.

And while Latinos who are registered to vote were generally favorable to Mayor Richard Riordan, they were more likely than blacks or whites to say their neighborhoods were being “shortchanged” on city services.

Latinos overall were almost equally divided when asked if the growing immigrant population “is a good thing or a bad thing.” Behind this ambivalence, experts say, may lie a harsh economic fact: Latinos, many concentrated at the low end of the income scale, often suffer the most job competition from new immigrants.

The margin of sampling error for the poll was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Views on L.A.

* Over the past five years or so, has the quality of life in your community gotten better or worse or has it stayed about the same?

*--*

All Whites Blacks Latinos Better 32% 21% 34% 43% Worse 23% 29% 19% 19% Same 40% 42% 45% 36% Don’t know 5% 8% 2% 2%

*--*

* How would you describe the state of your personal finances these days?

*--*

All Whites Blacks Latinos Secure 67% 73% 56% 64% Shaky 30% 25% 42% 33% Don’t know 3% 2% 2% 3%

*--*

* Agree or disagree: Most Los Angeles police officers are hard-working

and honest and should not be held responsible for the illegal actions

of a small group of police officers.

*--*

Agree Disagree Don’t know All 74% 21% 5% Whites 84% 12% 4% Blacks 74% 20% 6% Latinos 63% 31% 6%

*--*

* Rate the quality of education provided for children by your public schools.

*--*

All Whites Blacks Latinos Excellent 9% 4% 3% 16% Adequate 29% 24% 17% 37% Inadequate 29% 31% 27% 26% Very poor 21% 23% 44% 14% Don’t know 12% 18% 9% 7%

*--*

* Rate race relations in Los Angeles today.

*--*

Agree Disagree Don’t know All 41% 54% 5% Whites 46% 48% 6% Blacks 34% 63% 3% Latinos 37% 58% 5%

*--*

* Is the growing immigrant population in Los Angeles a good or a bad thing for the city, or does it have no effect either way?

*--*

All Whites Blacks Latinos Good 31% 31% 24% 35% Bad 39% 40% 54% 34% No effect 20% 17% 15% 24% Don’t know 10% 12% 7% 7%

*--*

Note: Among adult city residents.

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Poll contacted 1,570 residents in the city of Los Angeles, including 519 Latinos, by telephone Feb. 24-March 1. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the city of Los Angeles. Random-digit dialing techniques were used so that listed and non-listed numbers could be contacted. The entire sample was weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and region. The margin of sampling error for the entire sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For subgroups the error margin may be somewhat higher. Poll results can also be affected by other factors such as question wording and the order in which questions are presented. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Asians were interviewed as part of the overall sample but there were not enough to break out as a separate subgroup.

Times Poll results are also available at www.latimes.com/timespoll.