Thread: LA protests underscore frustration of immigrants

LA protests underscore frustration of immigrants

By CHRISTINA HOAG
Associated Press Writer
Published: Saturday, Sep. 11, 2010 - 1:39 am
Last Modified: Saturday, Sep. 11, 2010 - 9:59 am

LOS ANGELES -- The smell of corn roasting on sidewalk grills, the oompah beat of Latin music blasting from mom-and-pop stores, colorful signs touting tongue-twisting names like Atitlan and Quetzaltenango.

This central Los Angeles neighborhood could almost be plucked right out of Guatemala City.

Long ago a well-heeled area of Los Angeles, in more recent decades the Westlake district surrounding MacArthur Park has become a densely packed enclave of Central American immigrants fleeing brutal civil wars and grinding poverty in their home countries.

This week, the bustling community turned into a hotbed of unrest after a police officer shot and killed a Guatemalan day laborer who allegedly lunged at him with a knife. The incident Sunday sparked three days of protests by people who felt that killing Manuel Jaminez, a 37-year-old illegal immigrant, was an unfair and unnecessary use of police force.

The demonstrations surprised officials, who blamed the blowback on outsiders who had come to the area to stir up trouble. A visit to the neighborhood of grimy tenements with curlicued cornices and portals that belie a more elegant past reveals a social tapestry fraying from increasingly hardscrabble living and widespread frustration.

"Life is very hard here," said Ricardo Fernandez, a retired Nicaraguan truck driver. "I tell people not to come, it's not as good as before. But people still come."

The neighborhood has long been a first stop for new arrivals who have made the risky journey to "el Norte." More than two-thirds of residents are foreign-born, almost three-quarters are Hispanic, almost half live in poverty.

Drawn to a neighborhood with flavors of home, about 118,000 residents jam the area's 2.7 square miles, making it one of the most crowded districts in Los Angeles.

Here, they find everything from comfort foods such as tamales and Pollo Campero - Central America's beloved fast-food fried chicken chain - to fake Social Security cards and driver's licenses to cheap lodging in shared bedrooms and living rooms.

But they often find it fails to live up to the starry-eyed stories told by friends and relatives eager to appear big shots with their U.S. success.

Jobs are few and far between, rents are high, and unfamiliar laws are stringently enforced. Crime is also high, with much of it related to the neighborhood's homegrown Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, a gang formed by Salvadoran immigrants in the 1980s that has morphed into one of the most vicious in the nation.

Particularly vulnerable are campesinos, subsistence farmers from the indigenous communities of rural Mexico and Guatemala who often are far less prepared to cope than other immigrants.

Many have only a few years of formal schooling and may barely be able to read and write. Some speak little Spanish, having grown up in isolated areas where native indigenous languages are mainly spoken.

Jaminez was a Quiche, one of Guatemala's largest indigenous groups, and barely spoke Spanish.

"They're the ones I see coming now. They're not poor, they're destitute," said Carolina Sosa, a Guatemalan pastor. "Before it was the lower middle class fleeing the guerrillas. Now, they're coming because they don't have food."

The recession coupled with the backlash against immigrants has toughened life for newcomers.

Apartments are often crowded with several families sharing rent. To eke out a living, many have taken to peddling everything from bootleg DVDs to bacon-wrapped sausages, turning the sidewalks into a chaotic flea market on evenings and weekends.

"There are a lot more people in the street selling," said Andres Morales, a Cuban retiree. "It gets so you can't walk on the sidewalk, but they have nothing else."

In Latin American countries, street peddling is a ubiquitous and time-honored way of getting by when jobs are few and government assistance is scarce. Immigrants have a hard time understanding why it is illegal here and they resent crackdowns by police who give out $250 tickets and sometimes confiscate their goods.

"I'm making an honest living, but the police come and ticket us," complained Jose Venegas, a Mexican ice cream seller who makes $12 to $15 a day. "I have two appointments in court for two tickets. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have the money to pay the fines. I'm going to go to jail."

The stress of trying to make ends meet plus social and emotional isolation leads some to seek refuge in alcohol. Jaminez had been drinking when he allegedly menaced two women and then police officers with a knife.

Residents said public drinking is out of control.

The neighborhood has seen progress. Police have driven gangs out of MacArthur Park and have worked to build trust with the illegal immigrants so they'll report crime, said Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents the area. Street peddlers said that although gangs still extort "taxes," the problem is less serious than it used to be because of stepped-up police presence.

Still, many remain suspicious of law enforcement. On top of the common perception they bring from home countries of corrupt, inept cops, Westlake has had its own prickly police history.

The area was home to the 1990s Rampart scandal, where police officers were accused of planting evidence on suspects among other wrongdoing. A May Day immigrant rights rally in MacArthur Park descended into chaos when police fired rubber bullets and bludgeoned reporters and peaceful demonstrators three years ago.

In the wake of the protests, Reyes plans to start a micro-loan program for fledgling entrepreneurs and work with Guatemalan organizations to educate immigrants about assimilating into U.S. society.

Despite the hardship, most immigrants don't want to go home. Tomas Gomez, Jaminez's brother-in-law, said that although day laborer jobs had dried up considerably and Jaminez pined for his wife and three young sons, he did not want to go back to Guatemala.

Here, at least there was a chance to make a living, Gomez said. Back home, "he didn't have money to eat."

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/11/302121 ... z0zFMFeGmD

What a third world sheet hole. I couldn't even finish reading this knowing a place like this in on American soil. I really feel for the cops who have to set foot in this filth.

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

What a third world sheet hole. I couldn't even finish reading this knowing a place like this in on American soil. I really feel for the cops who have to set foot in this filth.

And yet these places have existed in America for a long time

The problem with this one is that it isn't confined to mainly one state like the Italians in NY at the turn of the century.

This one is spreading and it will eat up America if we let it.

We need a new immigration system that is based in common sense, set numbers per year and guide lines to those coming in, education, skills, etc.

Simply with over 300 million population ma & pa immigrant can no longer come in grab a mule with 40 acres and provide for there family that is gone forever. We need to rethink our position in the world if we wish to maintain our power standing, quality of life, freedom and the middle class.

The continued loss of a manufacturing base, out sourcing, purchasing of foreign made goods in time will eliminate our middle class. A consumer base society with only government workers living a middle class life will at some point create wars within that cannot be stopped. The future is
clear while our elite leaders fail to see or care.

"Life is very hard here," said Ricardo Fernandez, a retired Nicaraguan truck driver. "I tell people not to come, it's not as good as before. But people still come."

Good, this is the exact message we want illegal aliens carrying back to their homelands as they are pushed out of America.

W

Long ago a well-heeled area of Los Angeles, in more recent decades the Westlake district surrounding MacArthur Park has become a densely packed enclave of Central American immigrants fleeing brutal civil wars and grinding poverty in their home countries

How is it they can stand up here and fight but not stand up in their country. Oh right they are a bunch of foul loud mouths who flap all day long about the rights they deserve.They are a bunch of chicken crap.
I bet if you asked 500 of those people men and women if they would join the military to fight for us , you might get 10 that say Heck ya.The others would say Oh no I left my country to come here for a free ride why would i do that.Once they move in you cannot get rid of them.
They take a nice place and turn it into what they are use to.Why they are allowed to take over is beyond me,but then again it's happening right here where I'm at.I Look at the jails and more and more are becoming a Mexican jail. ERR I cannot stand it and I have idea on how to stop it!!

in more recent decades the Westlake district surrounding MacArthur Park has become a densely packed enclave of Central American immigrants fleeing brutal civil wars

Time to stop reading right there, those civil wars were over decades ago!! And most of the illegals that came back then because of the civil wars got amnesty, the NACARA amnesty!!