Times of Crisis

Nobody could have known of the crisis awaiting the Latino community in the early 1990’s, and how far their reactions to the crisis would affect them in the future. After the Los Angeles riots in 1992, which had erupted when white police officers on trail for police brutality against Rodney King had been declared not guilty, Latino immigrants were victimized and took the blame for the riots and were punished with proposition 187 that would deny them any federal aid of any kind. Proposition 187 lead non-Hispanic whites to believe they were living in a state over flowing with Latino immigrants who were to blame for over crowed schools and hospitals, unemployment, water shortage, clogged freeways, over consuming of county-funding, along with many other issues. The proposition was a scapegoat targeting Latino immigrants as one of the top three issues in the polls along with gang crimes and unemployment, prop 187 set the scene for Latinos to make their own mark in history.

In the reelection campaign of Governor Pete Wilson, he brought attention to Latino immigrants convincing the majority of California that Latinos were definitely the problem. Glenn Spencer paved the way for Governor Pete Wilson’s reelection campaign when he and his group put together a state initiative and gathered the 40,000 required signatures blaming undocumented Latino immigrants for every one of California issues and denying public service in health or education to anyone who appeared to be illegal. Children could be expelled from school and pregnant women could go medically uncared for. The daunting commercial of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s campaign which stated “And they keep coming! Two thousand each night” damaged the imagine of Latinos, as if they were an infectious disease taking over the nation two thousand of them at a time. “A Los Angeles Times reporter was interviewing an older, non-Hispanic white resident of Orange County about the state’s strict tobacco laws. Complaining about its unfairness to smokers, she suddenly launched into an accusation about what was really bothering her: “Everyone in the country voted for proposition 187… the law against the Mexicans… and they still have those kids in schools (David E. Hayes-Bautista, La Nueva California Latinos in the Golden State, pg. 134).” Fears of Latino voters had been confirmed, the concerns were not with Latino immigrants but with Latinos in general. They were not just blaming some of Latinos, they were blaming all of them.

In 1994-1995 TV ads sending out warnings of millions flooding the state but for the first time in nearly 150 years the state was losing population, in 1991 the Department of Finance announced more non-Hispanic whites are moving out of California than moving in. People complained about schools being over crowed because of Latino immigrants, but only six out of every hundred Latino children were undocumented immigrants. Los Angeles school district enrollment was actually 2.7 percent lower than it had been in 1969, when it peaked at 650,324. Schools were over crowed in result of Los Angeles Unified School District’s decision to close schools in the 1970’s. Around 12,000 Latinos were leaving each year, but by the late 1990’s Latinos were still moving into the state at an annual average of 89,401, less than half the number of the peak of 1982-1986. In 1992 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors estimated the numbers of Latino immigrants and other immigrants as well as the cost of county funded services for them. “To summarize the report estimated that for every dollar in county-funded services provided to an undocumented person, that person paid $4.56 in taxes. Accusation to the contrary, undocumented immigrants were not costing more than they paid in taxes; rather they paid far more in taxes than they used in county-funded services (David E. Hayes-Bautista, La Nueva California Latinos in the Golden State, pg. 133).” After being discriminated against U.S. born and immigrant Latinos came together to support each other and had the highest voting rate against proposition 187. “U.S. born Latinos did not shrink from immigrant Latinos, by and large, but joined with them to defend the Latino presence in the state from outside attacks. In doing so, together, both U.S. born and immigrant Latinos have created a new political power based and are beginning to capture statewide offices (David E. Hayes-Bautista, La Nueva California Latinos in the Golden State, pg. 146, 147).” “Our image is changing. We’re not by the cactus anymore with our sombrero on… we’re college students, we’re senators, we’re congresspeople. We’re people who are moving up (David E. Hayes-Bautista, La Nueva California Latinos in the Golden State, pg. 146).”