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Latino group opens 2 chapters

Deadly shootings in Vista spur move
By Elena Gaona
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 22, 2005

In response to the fatal shootings of three young Latinos by sheriff's deputies in Vista this summer, a national Latino civil rights group has started two chapters in North County.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organizations, chartered two new chapters with 24 members in North County. It will install their new officers Monday night at California State University San Marcos.

One is a student chapter and the other is open to the community.

"People want to join LULAC when there's a major incident, an injustice," organizer Gil Flores said. "It was very emotional with the shootings of these Latino kids."

The trio of fatal shootings happened between July 28 and Aug. 1. A community forum held by the Sheriff's Department and city officials Aug. 10 ended with hundreds of Latinos outraged and frustrated, Flores said.

Flores, a former LULAC state director active for 19 years with the group, was called from Orange County to help organize the North County chapters.

He's been back more than eight times in the past few weeks. Other North County communities also are interested in starting chapters, Flores said, including Escondido, Fallbrook, Oceanside and Carlsbad.

Although there is a LULAC chapter in Chula Vista, most activism these days is brewing in North County, Flores said. Issues center on immigration, education and civil rights problems, he said.

For example, during a recent forum about illegal immigration in Carlsbad, Latinos felt shut out of the conversation, Flores maintained.

With 74 LULAC chapters in California, the goal is to have 100 by the end of December. It's time for Latinos to speak up, he said.

"The Latino community has become a target for everything that goes wrong in the country," Flores said, referring mainly to anti-illegal immigration sentiments.

Though the organization is historically Mexican-American, leaders are increasingly reaching out to other immigrants. LULAC needs to get involved in immigration policy because bad policy could lead to racial profiling of all Latinos, Flores said.

LULAC was formed in 1929 to fight the racially motivated lynchings of Mexicans in Texas, said state director Angel Luevano. Since then, the group has kept fighting through court cases, mentoring, scholarships and mediation.

Speaking by telephone from Texas, Luevano was on his way to a meeting of group leaders from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to finalize a plan opposing citizen border-watch groups.

Locally, the goal is to fight for an investigation into how and why sheriff's deputies shot and killed Sergio Garcia-Vasquez, 32; Jorge Ramirez, 26; and Jesus Eduardo Manzo, 23, in the span of five days this summer.

The group is already branching out to deal with other issues, including health care. On Monday, the new chapters will sponsor a town-hall meeting about the Medicare prescription drug benefit program for senior citizens. It will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Vista Townsite Community Partnership building, 642 Vista Village Drive.

Also on Monday, the incoming chapter presidents – university professor Zulmara Cline and student Amilkar Chavez – will be installed at 6:30 p.m. at Cal State San Marcos, Commons building, room 2006.

"It's only the start of many good things," Flores said.