Lake Tahoe's Latino community faces hope, fear and wariness

KINGS BEACH - On a sunny day in late April, Fortino Diaz is polishing his red Chevrolet. The burly construction worker, an 11-year resident of Kings Beach, lives in a big house with a large group of friends he met in Mazatlan, Mexico. And he is all smiles when talking about Tahoe as a home for Latinos.

Diaz, who works in the Squaw Valley area, has a solid grasp of English and said he enjoys the Tahoe lifestyle, though he doesn't ski or snowboard. Instead, he likes shopping, enjoying the scenery, taking the occasional trip to Reno and playing baseball with friends.

"Everything is pretty good," Diaz said. "All the people up here are nice; they're friendly."

Diaz said he hasn't seen any racism in the area, either.

"Not at all, nothing like that," Diaz said.

Some have estimated Tahoe's Latino population at 30 percent. California's population is 36.6 percent Hispanic and Nevada is 25.9 percent Hispanic, according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center. And despite Diaz's view, the community does face a number of challenges, including language barriers, gang influences, and immigration concerns.

But some groups, like HOPE at Lake Tahoe Community College, are hoping to focus on successes.

Facing challenges as Latinos

The walls of the Lake Tahoe Community College classroom are littered with fliers from schools, programs and events. HOPE - which takes its name from a Spanish acronym meaning "proud Hispanics preparing themselves for excellence" - puts on community events and raises funds, adviser Arturo Rangel said, in order to help the community.

"Usually, Latinos are associated with negative things," said Rangel, who studied at LTCC 10 years ago.

The group's April meeting is focused, as the seven adolescent Latinos are working to make a better life for themselves and their community.

"We came across to break the stereotypes. You have a bright future if you want it," said Maya Garcia, one of the students.

With concerns about illegal immigration, Latinos can get grouped together and stereotyped, said Kings Beach resident Mariela Ramirez. This has created a sense of fear in the community, she said - a fear that is causing some to consider going back to Mexico or other countries.

"These people are very scared, a lot of fear," Ramirez said in Spanish.

On the South Shore, HOPE's goal is to combat some of that region-wide fear.

"This community's come a long way to addressing (issues) for the Latino community. Definitely it's a work in progress," said Luis Chavez. "I think it's cool for us to be part of that."

Racism can be present in Tahoe, but Garcia said she and other Latinos at the college continue to try to show the good sides of what the Latino community can do.

"We try to persuade people to see through our points of view, but we can't change what they think," she said.

Tahoe's problem, Rangel said, is that it does not want to address its issues. People are too afraid that talking about problems will affect tourism, he said, so they stay quiet in the face of controversial issues like racism.

"Tahoe has a very unique way of being. I see our town as displaying the same characteristics of a dysfunctional family," Rangel said. "It doesn't do us any good if we hide it. We're just kidding ourselves if we do that."

Job concerns exist for all groups, including Latinos. Diaz, the construction worker in Kings Beach, does know a few other immigrants who've seen work dry up recently.

"A lot of people, they're going back to Mexico as far as I know," he said. "The construction is slow too, but some people will still make it."

A professor's view:

'It's very difficult'

In the 1970s, Emma Sepulveda got her green card and came to Reno from Chile. She worked at a Mexican restaurant, making $1 per hour and receiving what she said was terrible treatment.

Now a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, Sepulveda serves as the director of the university's Latino Research Center and deals with Latino issues in Northern Nevada.

Sepulveda said the treatment of immigrants in the area involves plenty of misperceptions and stereotypes that are damaging.

"It's very difficult. You come to a country that has already defined you before you've defined yourself," Sepulveda said.

But Latinos are still becoming a force in the area, she said, thanks to their involvement in business, commerce and politics. She compared them to Irish immigrants earlier in the United States' history, when Irish were maligned.

"Today in every casino they celebrate Saint Patrick's Day and everybody wants to be Irish," Sepulveda said. "(Eventually) I think they're going to accept us more."

Compared to when she arrived, Latinos face a harder road now because of confusion about their motives, Sepulveda said.

"The challenges are somehow worse. I think it's because the demographic has changed so rapidly," she said.

Each shore's

unique challenges

Because Tahoe's North Shore has no incorporated cities or towns, the organizational structures to support families and children are all independent, said Isabelle Wilson, executive director of the North Lake Tahoe Boys and Girls Club in Kings Beach. But that means in order to support the community, service organizations must work with community foundations in order to form a unique structure, Wilson said.

"Collaboration is more essential to get your services done, especially in these economic times," she said.

The children that the Boys and Girls Club supports, Wilson said, end up finding ways to succeed and, at 18, find themselves prepared for fruitful lives. But the cultures some families bring in - with traditions that sometimes aren't supportive of women going to college, for example - can become a challenge for these students even when they've found academic success, she said.

"The question becomes, when the youth takes those opportunities and attempts to move their family in a forward direction and the family's not familiar with the opportunities available," Wilson said. "Families have a greater challenge."

On the South Shore, the City of South Lake Tahoe has a five-member Latino Affairs Commission meant to help deal with issues affecting the Latino community.

"The Latino community will come to us sometimes rather than the police department. They feel a little safer," commission member Ernie Claudio said.

Back the college, the students laugh during their meeting and look forward to their next events. And Garcia talks of how positive Latinos can be if given the chance.

"How can change be a negative thing? That's basically our major concern of the community," she said. "We're going to make our best efforts."