Building bridges on Santa Catalina island

From a breezy country club veranda overlooking the rooftops in the seaside resort village of Avalon, Robert Gonzalez waited anxiously Saturday for his name to be called by Mexican officials renewing his passport.

Gonzalez, a 21-year-old construction worker and restaurant waiter who grew up on Santa Catalina Island, estimated he was saving hundreds of dollars by using the service provided by Mexican Consul General Juan Marcos Gutierrez-Gonzalez and 26 staffers who set up shop here for a day.

It took less than an hour to get the passport back. Wearing a rhinestone stud in each earlobe and a pink Dodgers cap turned sideways, Gonzalez studied the photo on the document, smiled and said, “Perfect.”

“If I had to go to the mainland to do this,” he said, “I would have missed a day or two of work and spent a lot of money on a round trip boat ticket and a hotel.”

That kind of talk pleased Gutierrez-Gonzalez, whose goal was to provide basic services to a group of Mexican nationals who had labored here for years in obscurity. That changed about a year ago when a major fire hit the island, unleashing a flood of calls for emergency assistance to his Los Angeles office.

“Until the fire, no one was aware of the size of the immigrant population here,” he said. The number of people seeking the consul general’s services Saturday was lower than anticipated. Mexican officials believe the lighter turnout was linked to a visit Thursday by U.S. immigration agents, who were questioning Latinos in the streets of Avalon. The law enforcement activity, the first of its kind in about eight years, may have scared off potential clients, officials said.

The Mexican government began allowing dual citizenship about 20 years ago. Mexican nationals who cross the border routinely for business or family reasons find a valid passport from both countries advantageous for ease of travel.

Gutierrez-Gonzalez and Avalon Mayor Bob Kennedy seized the opportunity to meet and discuss ways of bridging an ethnic divide here between whites and Latinos, who make up about 80% of Avalon’s workforce and 70% of the students enrolled in local schools.

“Our population was about 50% white and 50% Latino for a long time,” Kennedy said in an interview. “Now, Avalon is close to 70% Latino.”

Of particular concern among some whites is the persistence of Spanish being spoken by Latinos who have lived and worked here for years. Latinos began arriving about three decades ago, finding jobs on the island and then sending for relatives and friends. Many have become citizens or are in the process of becoming citizens, but many say they feel separated from the island’s civic activities and politics. There are no Latinos on the Avalon City Council, and only a few belong to the local Rotary.

A pressing mutual concern in this town of about 3,200 permanent residents, 22 miles off the mainland, is the lack of affordable housing -- a single-unit apartment can rent for $950 a month, a two-bedroom for twice that.

“This was my first meeting with the consul general -- a terrific guy,” Kennedy said. “We’ve got some mutual goals and, I believe, we can make some progress.”

The demographic shift, competition from amusement parks and Indian casinos, and the general economic downturn, which has reduced the number of day visitors to Avalon by 30%, have sparked preliminary discussions about the feasibility of targeting new, bicultural markets.

“We can establish a Hispanic Heritage Week here with tamale fests, as well as a weekend with Jimmy Buffet,” Kennedy said. “We can really make this place pop.”

Gutierrez-Gonzalez agreed. “I can imagine a bicultural event like Cinco de Mayo,” he said.

Then there was Miguel Rodriguez, a computer technician and restaurant manager who spent all day Saturday making last-minute arrangements for his niece’s wedding ceremony in a nearby cafe and helping the consul general’s staff reach as many Mexican citizens as possible.

“Finally, I see signs that people are thinking about issues facing the community as a whole,” said Rodriguez, a Catalina resident of 27 years. “It’s a good start to fill what I call ‘the gap.’ ”

Striding along Avalon’s cozy harbor and admiring the sailing vessels anchored a few yards beyond the waterline, he said, “I’m even thinking about running for a seat on the City Council and joining the Rotary.”

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louis.sahagun@latimes.com