Thread: Santa Ana California is gone.

In this article, the quest for diversity means importing different types of Mexicans, other than non-mexicans. Coming to a city near you.......


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... home-local

In Santa Ana, Diversity Has Another Angle
With the city three-fourths Latino, many who aren't from Michoacán -- or even Mexican -- struggle as outsiders.
By Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writer
October 5, 2006


In a city where Latinos make up 76% of the population, what does diversity mean?

The answer: Depends on whom you ask.

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Officials at Santa Ana City Hall are promoting economic diversity in the city's downtown, where most businesses cater to Mexican immigrants.

At the Mexican consulate, the emphasis is on increasing cultural diversity among the city's Mexican immigrants. With about 27% of those immigrants from the state of Michoacán, consular officials have been encouraging those from other Mexican states to highlight their culture at public celebrations in Santa Ana.

And finally, Latino immigrants who aren't from Mexico talk about the city's lack of diversity among its Spanish-speaking population. So many residents are from Mexico that those from other Latin American countries often need to explain, with some frustration, that they are not from Mexico.

In Santa Ana, diversity does not carry the same meaning it does in most of America. The city is already well-represented by "minorities" who make up the majority of the population. Latinos hold four of the seven seats on the City Council.

More than half of city employees are Latinos, and any city employee who has contact with the public is required to speak at least two languages. Spanish is spoken in many Santa Ana businesses as well.

City officials and developers have turned diversity into the new buzzword while working on plans to improve 100 blocks, mostly around downtown. Currently, downtown businesses, including about 15 bridal shops and 20 travel agencies, are oriented to Mexican immigrant families.

The city's redevelopment agency has bought dozens of homes along Santa Ana Boulevard and hired an architectural firm to design a plan that would attract more upscale private enterprise to the area.

At numerous meetings, city residents and the architects brainstormed about how to bring in retailers such as Old Navy, which might attract customers who don't typically shop downtown. This largely untapped market includes workers in nearby county offices and courts.

Jay Trevino, executive director of the city's Planning and Building Agency, said the city's push for diversity downtown wasn't about ethnicity but economics.

"We want diversity in terms of goods and services," Trevino said. "We want to make sure it's a downtown for all people. It's about consumers asking themselves, 'Is there a reason for me to go there? Is there a place for me to eat? To buy things I want to buy?' "

City officials have been careful to emphasize that the plan doesn't seek to eliminate existing business, just broaden the mix.

Yet some say diversification means gentrification.

"The city uses that word, 'diversity,' all the time," said Elsa Gomez, a downtown tax preparer. "When they say it, it means they want to change what's here, and that means relocating people."

In recent years, hundreds of lofts have been built and drawn more affluent residents downtown.

Some merchants wonder whether there will be enough new non-Latino customers to support new stores and restaurants.

Frank Palmer, another tax preparer, said creating districts like San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter had worked in many places, "but there's a lot of doubts whether it can work here."

The Mexican consulate sees increasing diversity but of a different flavor.

Consul Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro has encouraged the formation of groups from parts of Mexico other than Michoacán to promote cultural awareness, friendship and remittances, or sending money back home. After hurricane damage in the state of Sinaloa last month, a Southland event last weekend raised money for victims.

Also last week, at a fair in Centennial Park, it wasn't Michoacános running the show but residents from the tiny southwestern coastal state of Nayarit.

There are about 20,000 natives of the state in Santa Ana, and the event attracted the Nayarit's governor to Santa Ana on Saturday.

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"This festival was so different. It was like Nayarit was here," said Dely Delegado, founder of the Nayarit Assn. in the USA. "We saw our people and our governor. They even had dancers doing the estampa, and you can't find that in another [Mexican] state."

Consul Ortiz said the Nayarit festival "shows that groups from states other than Michoacán are feeling increasingly comfortable here. We have welcomed them with open arms."

Still, many from other Latin American countries feel like outsiders.

Alex Suarez, who recently emigrated from Cuba, is struggling to explain Cuban cuisine to customers of his new catering service.

"People tend to think if it's Latino, it must be Mexican, particularly around here, where everyone is Mexican," Suarez said. "It's their surprise to find there are no jalapeños."

Three years ago, Norah Briceño opened a Venezuelan restaurant, Mil Jugos, in downtown Santa Ana. At the eatery, whose name translates to "a thousand juices," she serves a variety of drinks, plus arepas, thick corn flour patties. It's a dish not known to most Mexicans.

"The idea with the restaurant was to share a little of my culture. To add to the mix here," Briceño said. "Luckily, people tell their friends about my food, but it's a constant task of telling people that it's not Mexican."

Churro vendor Jose Ortiz believes the broader phenomenon of diversity in downtown Santa Ana will come naturally, as children and grandchildren of Mexican immigrants become Americanized.

And to make sure his business doesn't get left behind, Ortiz has started to offer something else besides churros, the sugared bread treat popular in Mexico.

"That's why I'm diversifying with pretzels," he said.


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jennifer.delson@latimes.com

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(INFOBOX BELOW)

Settled in

More than one-fourth of Santa Ana's Latinos are from the Mexican state of Michoacan. City officials are promoting ways to increase diversity.

Santa Ana's Latinos

Percentage of city that is Latino: 76.1% (257,097)

Of Latinos, percentage from Mexico: 86.6% (222,719)

Of Mexicans, percentage from Michoacan: 27% (60,000)

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NOTE: All figures are from the 2000 Census except for the number of Michoacanos, which is an estimate by community leaders.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau. Graphics reporting by Jennifer Delson

Santa Ana's Latinos

Percentage of city that is Latino: 76.1% (257,097)

Of Latinos, percentage from Mexico: 86.6% (222,719)

Of Mexicans, percentage from Michoacan: 27% (60,000)

Where is the percentage for illegal immigrants? It's said that 32 percent of the total number of illegal immigrants in the United States reside in California (that's a lot of illegals). If that is true, why isn't ICE having constant raiding sweeps there? In recent months I've heard about sweeps in a lot of places, but I don't recall hearing about many in California. Why is that? California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona should be having daily illegal immigrant sweeps. What good will it do to clean up the rest of the country if we continue to allow illegal immigrants to thrive in the border states? Those states are the home bases inside the United States and must be cleaned out and secured first - then we can concentrate on the rest of the country - one state at a time if need be.

Nothing in the article mentioned illegal. But what freaked me out is that it mentions states of Mexico just as the US would mention it's states. Just like Santa Ana is a part of Mexico rather than America.

The non-Latinos are barely mentioned, just as if they are an extinct animal or something.

Consul Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro has encouraged the formation of groups from parts of Mexico other than Michoacán to promote cultural awareness, friendship and remittances, or sending money back home. After hurricane damage in the state of Sinaloa last month, a Southland event last weekend raised money for victims.

They have taken over this U.S. city yet they refer to Mexico as home.

This is so depressing.