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Sunday, May 7, 2006

New voice joins minuteman caravan
Outspoken O.C. Hispanic turns into key figure in Minuteman effort against illegal immigration.

By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register

CRAWFORD, Texas Lupe Moreno grabs a Diet Pepsi, a large bag of pretzels and a folding chair, slowly moving to sidestep the puddles.

She's under a large white tent, trying to duck the pounding rain and get to the front of the temporary theater that will stage the "Rumble at the Ranch," a protest in President Bush's hometown to decry his immigration programs.

Suddenly, Moreno is rushed by two young men doing a report for a Web broadcast called infowars.com. They gush like groupies, telling Moreno how excited they are to meet her.

They train their high-definition Sony video camera on Moreno and remark about how she cried while telling her story via telephone on their show last week. They tell her that they admire her because she lives in California but has the guts to fight against illegal immigration.

They see what Orange County politicians familiar with the outspoken Republican from Santa Ana always get: the full-on Moreno, unedited.

"People have to say no to these sonsabitches," Moreno says to the camera. "Everybody's terrified. Even the police are terrified. You know what? I say, 'Stop it. Quit being sissy boys.'"

Among the new troubadours-turned-stars of the great American immigration debate is Lupe Moreno, one of the few Hispanics who are openly, virulently, colorfully countering those who are marching for immigrant rights. If Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist is the anti-illegal-immigration movement's Willie Nelson, the all-American outlaw, then Moreno is Julio Iglesias, the Hispanic crooner lauded for pouring out heart and soul.

Moreno, who flew to Waco, Texas, from Orange County, is welcomed as a fresh soldier Saturday by the dozen sleep-deprived people traveling in the Minuteman caravan, which literally braved hail, high water and mechanical hiccups in its trek across Texas on Friday.

After leaving New Mexico, the travelers got caught in severe thunderstorms around Lubbock. Then organizers of a planned Friday night rally in Abilene, the next stop, canceled it because of baseball-sized hail.

That's when the caravan broke apart, some deciding to stay in Lubbock and others driving all night to Crawford.

The Winnebago that Gilchrist and his wife, Sandy, are traveling in has also proved problematic, losing electrical power a few hours after they fixed the water tank. Sandy Gilchrist joked Saturday that they finally ended up at what she called "the Bates Motel," a scary sleepover in Gatesville that typically houses people visiting the nearby state prison.

But the soldiers were reunited by noon Saturday and spirits once dampened were now back to determined.

Gayle Nyberg of Riverside is wearing the same patriot outfit she wore during the Phoenix rally and is ready to go. The woman who goes by the name "MinuteMaMa" had on her Salvation Army-bought uniform of knickers, a ruffled white shirt, felt tricorn hat and a large black purse on her arm.

"Our country is in trouble and we need to wake up America if we have a chance to fix it," Nyberg says. "That's the state we're in. We don't have time to waste."

The Rumble at the Ranch, which is actually at the Tonkawa Falls RV Park four miles from the Bush property, is part tent revival, part political rally.

When the rain finally stops, about 500 people listen and testify – "Vamos a Mexico," offers one woman as an amen – and the rally goes on for more than four hours in the muggy, muddy park. Hand-painted signs are covered in plastic to protect them from the rain. One reads "What next? A guest terrorist plan?", a swipe at Bush's guest-worker proposal.

Sid Sullenger, 45, and his buddy Kim Fromme, 49, are standing under shade trees at the back of the audience. Sullenger, in a yellow rain duster and 10-gallon straw hat with a brass star on the front, says he and Fromme are Minutemen and are doing some of the monthly patrols at the border.

"We watched all these illegals rallying in our streets," says Fromme, adjusting his camouflage-colored cap. "This is the least we can do. I support these people 100 percent."

Sullenger adds, "We seen this invasion day and night."

Yep, Fromme says, "Day and night."

Gilchrist's followers are very loyal, looking to him as the leader and reveling in tales of his years spent in Vietnam as a Marine, and in their own Minutemen war stories.

Cindy Lou of Denton, Texas, says she lost her security guard job when her company moved to Mexico. She joined the Minutemen and was with Gilchrist during the first border patrol in April 2005.

Lou, all Texas twang, is on her third telling of the story of working the front-gate security detail at Miracle Valley Bible College, which was headquarters for the Minutemen during that patrol. Gilchrist was one of the good soldiers, working a night detail, which she can prove because she still has the security logs.

"He'd throw me a bullet-proof vest and say 'Put it on or get inside,'" she says. "I said, 'No, honey, I can't leave my post.' Bless his heart."

Then there was the night a "credible threat" came in and Gilchrist had just brought her a steak and shrimp dinner. He told her to eat it, as it might be her last meal.

"I would follow Jim into hell," Lou says, stopping to swallow the lump in her throat, "with a gallon of gasoline. Proudly."

As the rally's speeches go on, Moreno, 48, is approached by her fans. She signs books, listens to stories and bosses around her younger sister, Angie Morfin Vargas, 47, in Spanish. The sisters are dressed exactly alike and are asked several times to pose by the big Liberty Bell being pulled by a truck that's parked near the portable toilets.

"Thank you. God bless you," Moreno tells all who approach.

She gives one of the keynote speeches, telling the audience of her life as the daughter of a Mexican smuggler, marrying an undocumented Mexican, deciding to speak out against the Hispanic activists. Vargas, whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant, helps Moreno, and they say they have both been vilified by the other side.

"My sister called me one day and said, 'They called me a papier maché Latina.' I said, 'a fake Mexican?'" Moreno recalls. "Who the hell cares? You're an American!"

The crowd loves it, giving Moreno a standing ovation when she begins to cry and says that what she really wants to do is be home baking cookies for her grandchildren.

She finally comes off the stage and Gilchrist grabs her in a bear hug, the crowd still on its feet.

"I love you," Gilchrist says.

"I love you, too," Moreno says.

She sits down on her folding chair, wiping away the tears, and another reporter approaches, hoping to get Moreno for an exclusive interview later. The infowars.com reporter, Kevin Smith of Austin, returns, kneeling down at Moreno's side. He places his arm around her and pats her back.

"I thanked her for personalizing this story for us," Smith says, "for wearing her emotions on her sleeve."