Hispanics Ventura County

Latino activists who have been waging a high-profile battle to change voting practices in Santa Paula are now setting their sights on neighboring Fillmore, urging repeal of an ordinance declaring English the town's official language. Ramon Rodriguez of the North American Civil Rights Organization sent a letter this week to Mayor Evaristo Barajas and the five-member City Council, asking the city to voluntarily repeal the 1985 ordinance.

Steadily marching toward majority status in Ventura County, Latinos continued a decades-long population surge during the 1990s, a boom reflected in everything from growing political clout to emerging economic muscle for Latino entrepreneurs. Already the county's largest minority group, Latinos now account for about one of every three residents, compared with one in four a decade ago, according to the 2000 census.

A voter registration campaign aimed at increasing the political clout of Latinos is kicking off here today with a push to register 1,500 new residents before the November election. But some say that target, set by a local arm of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, is too modest, especially in a county where nearly a quarter of the voting-age population is Latino.

Despite a strong anti-sprawl movement and increased white flight, Ventura County grew nearly as fast as the rest of California in the 1990s and continued a 30-year transformation from a white farm region to a racially mixed suburban area. According to the 2000 census, the county's population increased 12.6% during the last decade, a pace far slower than its affluent demographic twin, Orange County, but much faster than Los Angeles County's 7.4%.

Troubled by a partnership forged between police officers and immigration agents, Latino advocates today are expected to call on city leaders to abolish a policy that has made the U. S. Border Patrol a key player in Simi Valley's crackdown on gangs. The advocates say they are concerned that the policy, enacted by the Simi Valley City Council more than a year ago, recklessly blurs the line between local law enforcement duties and the federal responsibility to enforce immigration law.

If the barrio Boy Scouts of La Colonia have learned anything in the last nine months, it is the practical meaning of the motto, "Be prepared." Packed into a laundry room that doubles as a beauty parlor at the Colonia Senior Citizens Center, members of Troop 229 were holding their weekly meeting, laying plans for an upcoming camp-out at Lake Casitas.

Despite a strong anti-sprawl movement and increased white flight, Ventura County grew nearly as fast as the rest of California in the 1990s and continued a 30-year transformation from a white farm region to a racially mixed suburban area. According to the 2000 census, the county's population increased 12.6% during the last decade, a pace far slower than its affluent demographic twin, Orange County, but much faster than Los Angeles County's 7.4%.

To smooth the sometimes-strained relations between deputies and Camarillo's Latino community, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department has launched a drive to enroll needy children in after-school sports. Deputies stationed in Camarillo have arranged with the city's youth soccer league to reduce its fees to allow more than 100 children from low-income families to play soccer this fall. Even at a discount, fees for the children will total $2,000. But the Ventura County Sheriff's Deputies Assn.

Carmen Gallardo cringed as she described how she and her husband could not afford the luxury of a quality car safety seat for their son, Carlos, after moving to Port Hueneme from Mexico two years ago. The 22-year-old jobless mother, who is pregnant with her second child due any day, was forced to purchase an archaic car seat which Carlos, now 4, quickly outgrew. Gallardo's husband, Joel, could not afford the average $70 to $80 price tag for a more advanced, safer car seat.

For the past year, the U.S. Department of Justice has been quietly investigating this city's electoral history after receiving a complaint that the system of at-large elections keeps Latinos off the City Council. Nobody knows exactly what the government will do. But if it decides that minorities have been denied power in a city in which two-thirds of the 27,000 residents are Latino, it could sue to carve the 4.5 square miles into separate political districts.

At Rio Mesa High north of Oxnard, the barrio kids from La Colonia huddle during the lunch hour on the handball courts near the gymnasium, a tightknit group of neighborhood friends burdened by stereotype as much as reputation. The same is true for the Cabrillo Village boys at Buena High in Ventura, who position themselves along a cinder-block wall outside the administration building. They stand apart, these barrio youngsters, from the white kids on campus, apart even from other Latinos.

A voter registration campaign aimed at increasing the political clout of Latinos is kicking off here today with a push to register 1,500 new residents before the November election. But some say that target, set by a local arm of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, is too modest, especially in a county where nearly a quarter of the voting-age population is Latino.

It's the same these days wherever Amada Irma Perez goes. At teacher seminars and book fairs, people line up to ask her to sign copies of her newly published children's book and heap praise on its bilingual story of a Mexican American girl who more than anything wants a room of her own.

After a two-year investigation, the federal government on Thursday sued this Ventura County city, alleging that its at-large voting system has perpetuated racial discrimination by preventing Latino candidates from being elected to the City Council.

Unless schools target Latino students aggressively, stop justifying their failures and help them to succeed, Ventura County educators fear that a growing number of these students could be in danger of falling behind their peers or dropping out of school. Already, the challenges are daunting. Educators are scrambling to find ways to motivate Latino students in the face of low test scores, high dropout rates, and language and socioeconomic barriers that have historically plagued many of them.

Call it the Latino Century, because it will be just that in one important way. It's a simple matter of numbers. Thirty years ago, when Ventura County was still a predominantly white farming region, Latinos made up less than a quarter of the population. Today, one in three residents is Latino.

After a two-year investigation, the federal government on Thursday sued this Ventura County city, alleging that its at-large voting system has perpetuated racial discrimination by preventing Latino candidates from being elected to the City Council.

Latino health workers Monday blasted a campaign by Miller Brewing Co. to recruit Spanish-speaking models to boost beer sales in markets, restaurants and liquor stores throughout Ventura County. After advertising in a local Spanish-language newspaper, the Milwaukee-based brewer held auditions Monday in Ventura for women 21 and older interested in earning money promoting Miller products. "Models earn $21 an hour," the advertisement read in Spanish.

Latino activists who have been waging a high-profile battle to change voting practices in Santa Paula are now setting their sights on neighboring Fillmore, urging repeal of an ordinance declaring English the town's official language. Ramon Rodriguez of the North American Civil Rights Organization sent a letter this week to Mayor Evaristo Barajas and the five-member City Council, asking the city to voluntarily repeal the 1985 ordinance.

Latino activists who have been waging a high-profile battle to change voting practices in Santa Paula are now setting their sights on neighboring Fillmore, which 14 years ago became the first city in America to declare English its official language. Ramon Rodriguez of the North American Civil Rights Organization says the city needs to change the way it views its majority Latino population. Some City Council members say they agree it's time to dump the divisive ordinance.