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Local Latino activists to form district of national organization

By: ADRIENNE A. AGUIRRE - Staff Writer

SAN MARCOS ---- In response to the recent deputy-involved shootings in Vista and the formation of the Minuteman border watch group, local Latino activists say they are forming the first North County district of the oldest, largest and most politically influential Latino civil rights organization in the nation.

The League of United Latin American Citizens is to Latinos what the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been to blacks, and it will bring national attention to local issues, said activist and longtime Vista resident John Herrera.

"This is an organization that has access to the White House and all the government agencies, the attorney general," he said. "They have clout and influence."


LULAC formed in 1929 in response to the aftermath of Texas becoming part of the United States, when 77,000 Mexicans became U.S. citizens, officials said. Despite their legal status, Mexicans were discriminated against and were often victims of violence. Those are issues that Latinos are facing today in North County, LULAC officials said Thursday, and those are issues that LULAC has defeated and will continue to defeat.

LULAC has worked for the desegregation of Latinos in schools, employment and housing locally and across the nation, officials said. The organization has helped get voting and jury service rights for Latinos and organized mass voter registration for Latinos.

On Thursday night, about 20 people gathered for the first formational meeting at a private home in San Marcos. Representatives from LULAC's state civil rights commission came from Orange and Los Angeles counties to help its next district get started.

Gilberto Flores, former state director for LULAC, went over the history and accomplishments of the organization.

"The most important element of LULAC is the councils," he told the group. "Because the councils are established in the communities where you live and work."

Attendees included merchants, lawyers, retirees, educators and students. Herrera said the issues of immigrant bashing by groups like the Minutemen and the use of excessive force by deputies affect all Latinos.

"Everyone in the Latino community is a target because of skin color," he said. "You see it happening with immigration and gang sweeps."

The North County group would be the 19th district of LULAC that has more than 120,000 members throughout the nation and Puerto Rico, officials said.

"I think that Latinos need to stand together," said Juan Necochea, an education professor at Cal State San Marcos. "What separates us from the undocumented worker is a piece of paper. That's it."

Members of the group said they plan to visit residents in the Vista Townsite neighborhood were the recent deputy-involved shootings occurred.

"When we got a call about three Mexicanos getting killed in five days, that got our attention," Flores said. "We in LULAC have seen this happen throughout the U.S. and we want to see it stop."

LULAC officials say they see the Minutemen as a vigilante group working against what needs to be done to fight terrorism.

"We view them as a domestic threat," Flores said. "They aren't doing our country any good by creating hate. What we need is unity to fight our common enemy."