Latinos Unidos de Napa marches, sues for causes
By CARLOS VILLATORO Register Staff Writer | Posted: Monday, February 1, 2010 12:00 am
It’s a muggy day in early January at Carl’s Jr. on Imola Avenue and members of Latinos Unidos de Napa Valley are planning their next move. Since the group formed in 2000, it has been highly active in nearly every issue impacting the Latino community in the valley, everything from immigration reform to affordable housing.
Latinos Unidos members gathered at the burger spot to plan an immigration-reform march scheduled for May 1. In between sips of coffee, tasks were issued to the seven members who attended. Latinos Unidos president Hector Olvera said the group will march in favor of what he considered immigration reform that would deal fairly with the estimated 11 million or more undocumented residents in the U.S.
“We aren’t a political group, what we want is human rights,” Olvera said. “It was always about giving information to Latinos about community issues, work and education.”
It’s not the first time that the group has organized an immigration march in Napa. In 2006 when a controversial federal bill — H.R. 4437 — was being considered that would have made it a felony to be in country illegally, and would erect a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, Latinos Unidos took to the streets by the thousands to protest against the bill.
Since then, the group has organized several marches in the valley and has come to be well known for it within the valley’s Hispanic community. But aside from the marches, the group has done much more. For example in 2007, Latinos Unidos gathered 5,000 signatures in support of immigration reform and delivered them to the offices of Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena.
In 2008, Olvera and Latinos Unidos sponsored the city’s first-ever Mexican Independence Day celebration in downtown Napa. The event was a success and set the stage for a 2009 Mexican Independence Day celebration held at Veterans Memorial Park.
Olvera said that the group is also in the process of establishing a scholarship fund for local students and is attempting become a nonprofit agency.
Roots of Unidos
Napa resident Marcos Garcia remembers the time before he and his companions adopted the name Latinos Unidos.
“I remember during (Proposition) 187, we began organizing,” Garcia said, recalling events in 1994. “I remember during those times we were in collaboration with people like (American Canyon Mayor) Leon Garcia. That time 500 of us took to the streets of downtown Napa.”
Proposition 187, known as the Save Our State Initiative, was a bill that prohibited illegal immigrants from using social services and health care and denied them public education in California. The bill was eventually ruled unconstitutional in federal court and was not appealed.
The proposition set the stage for future initiatives such as H.R. 4437, and inadvertently spurred massive immigration reform marches.
“The important thing for us about the marches is to call attention to the people, to motivate them,” Garcia said. “The town gives us no other option for us to accomplish what we want for the community. We believe it’s one of our principal ways of demonstrating.”
In 2000, Hector Olvera and Marcos Garcia along with others formed Latinos Unidos as a vehicle for political activism. The group is made up of people from all walks of life with different backgrounds, jobs and income levels.
New Technology High School teacher Alma Cortez-Lara has been a member of the group since 2007.
“I first participated in the 2008 march, and that one we didn’t really have a big turnout,” Cortez-Lara said.
Since then Cortez-Lara, who is the niece of Latinos Unidos President Hector Olvera, has involved herself deeply in the cause. On Saturday, Cortez-Lara served as secretary for the group as they made plans, and was assigned the task of inviting politicos such as Rep. Mike Thompson to join the May 1 march.
“This year it’s a little more pressure on us because everyone in the United States is organizing a May march,” she said. “We kind of wanted to have a united message. We are trying to figure out what the people are doing so it’s important to have that same message.”
Cortez-Lara, a Spanish teacher at New Tech, said she does not talk with her students about the issues she dives into as a member of Latinos Unidos. She said that being a member of the group provides her a way to be involved in the community.
“I don’t consider myself a community activist,” she said. “I consider myself someone that cares about my community and some people see what we do and think of it as a political card. It’s not. It’s part of building a community. I want to make sure that every single person whether they have documents or not has an equal voice. We are trying to advocate for people who have been residents, documented or not, of this community for a long time.”
Housing issues
Through the years the group’s membership numbers have fluctuated, but its scope has steadily increased.
Latinos Unidos is currently suing Napa County, charging the county has not done enough to provide affordable housing for the thousands of people who must commute to work in the valley.
“We have had talks with farmworkers and people who make low wages, they need low-income housing,” Olvera said. “We have noticed that there is a lack of housing in Napa. Many of those persons live in Clearlake.”
Olvera said that many of the workers are Latinos and so the group hired Santa-Rosa-based attorney David Grabill to argue the matter in court.
“We are moving forward, we are also exploring different avenues,” Grabill said. “It’s hard for people who have to drive long distances into the county to work because they can’t afford the housing prices in the county and the county and the cities as well have not done an adequate job of providing housing for low income levels of people in Napa.”
Grabill said that many areas exist between Napa and American Canyon that can support affordable housing units. But at the same time, he said that the issue was complex as far as where the homes would be built and who would build them. He said he hopes to resolve the matter with the county quickly.
