| 2002 News & Magazine
Articles
Lack
Of Trust Cited in Tropicana Deal Latino. Merchants
Say San Jose City Officials and Their Community Lack
a Good Working Relationship, Which Led to Problems
in Renewal Talks.
Published:
Tuesday, July 2, 2002 Edition: Morning Final Section:
Local Page: 1B
Source: BY EDWIN GARCIA, Mercury News
When
San Jose's redevelopment agency stepped out of its
downtown comfort zone and entered the East Side with
a plan to renew the dilapidated Tropicana Shopping
Center, officials boldly predicted approval within
weeks.
Instead,
it took the agency eight months: an eight-month course
in Latino culture and community. What the agency addressed
as typical politics turned into a cultural minefield
when the shopping center's Latino merchants and their
supporters, particularly immigrants, deemed the agency
untrustworthy. The mistrust was fueled not so much
by the issue at hand as by previous encounters with
city bureaucracy.
Simply
put, the merchants lacked confianza in the agency.
The Spanish word translates as ''trust'' but signifies
a deeper cultural value that is closely associated
with loyalty.
Whether
the agency can earn Latinos' confianza after its clash
with the Tropicana merchants could help determine
the agency's success as it begins to extend its powerful
reach into the city's ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
''This
was a wake-up call for a lot of Latinos in the community,
especially businesses, and for the redevelopment agency,''
said Marin Arreola, president of the Hispanic Chamber
of Commerce of Silicon Valley, which the agency hired
to help both sides communicate.
Roots
of conflict
In many ways the Tropicana debacle, in which some
merchants still believe the agency's real aim is to
oust Latino stores, offers a glimpse at the cultural
traits that can lead to the miscommunication, failed
expectations and confusion that many politicians and
institutions face when dealing with Latinos, and vice
versa.
Confianza
is one of the most important values for Latinos, particularly
those of Mexican descent. Its deep roots go back to
the Spanish conquest, ethnology experts say.
In
Mexico and Central America, many Latinos don't trust
authority figures, namely politicians and police,
who often are seen as corrupt, but they have overwhelming
confianza in other institutions, such as schools and
churches.
It
is not much different in San Jose and other cities
with histories of Latino migration. The San Jose Police
Department, for example, is still trying to shed a
perception from the 1960s that white officers for
no apparent reason battered and locked up Mexican-Americans.
The
state's Republican Party has all but given up recruiting
Latino voters alienated by the party's support for
Proposition 187, which was intended to curtail public
benefits to illegal immigrants.
The
bottom line: If an institution loses the trust of
Latinos, for whatever reason, good luck trying to
gain it back.
By
the same token, Latinos are known to be incredibly
loyal consumers and employees and voters. ''Relationships
of confianza are those that are characterized by ongoing
reciprocity, obligation and loyalty that persist beyond
those times when those relationships are convenient
to the current needs of the parties involved,'' said
Laura Montgomery, a professor of cultural anthropology
at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.
Whites,
she said, generally will try to minimize obligations
to others after a service has been paid for, or a
request granted. Many Latinos, on the other hand,
will try to do the opposite, transferring their social
or business networks into friendships.
One
merchant's story
At the Tropicana, the experience of a single merchant,
Jose Mendoza, who started his business in the 1970s
after immigrating from Mexico, helped influence dozens
of other shopkeepers to oppose the city's plan.
On
a recent afternoon, Mendoza, 65, pulled a pile of
documents from the safe in his San Jose Men's Wear
shop and recounted the times he says his business
was wronged by city government, starting in the mid-1980s,
when light rail moved into downtown.
Street
parking was eliminated on South First Street, and
businesses suffered; some stores, like his, were Latino-owned.
Angered
at the apparent lack of help from city officials,
Mendoza moved to the Tropicana center in 1987. ''Downtown
they forced me out; they kicked everybody out on purpose,
oh, sure,'' Mendoza said, squarely charging that the
city is now doing the same.
Redevelopment
director Susan Shick disagrees with his conclusion
about the city's intentions for the Tropicana in its
$50 million renewal project. ''That doesn't make sense,''
she said, adding that merchants are being offered
incentives such as guaranteed space and frozen rents.
In
1997, merchants and Tropicana's property owners worked
with the agency to upgrade their center, but the agency
pulled the plug because improvements were happening
too slowly.
Then
the agency expressed interest in taking control of
the center's redevelopment. Last year merchants were
given information about relocation assistance, which
they hadn't solicited. That only made them more suspicious
of the agency's intentions.
When
the agency's top officials noticed that relations
were strained, staffers dealing with merchants were
reassigned. Both sides were finally talking, and concessions
emerged. But the new attitude sent an unintended message
to some merchants.
Verenice
Villalobos, a native of Mexico who sells cellular
phones from behind a glass counter, thought that the
improved communication meant the agency was preparing
to step out of the center.
''In
my country you don't have the right to speak, but
here you do. At least we presume they are listening
to us,'' she said.
Villalobos
also believed merchants would receive the support
of Mayor Ron Gonzales because four years ago she knocked
on doors for him on behalf of a labor union and urged
Latino residents to vote, saying, ''He's one of us.''
Cultural
experts say Villalobos' expectations were not at all
unusual.
'Difficult'
issue
Shick is proud of the way her staffers dealt with
the merchants after the agency changed course. ''My
perception is that everyone listened very carefully
to them, and major changes were made,'' Shick said.
''It's a difficult sociological issue,'' she added.
''I don't know whether there are facts in front of
anyone to reach conclusions. That would probably involve
a long, complicated process.''
Experts
who study cultural diversity say the lessons from
the Tropicana experience are a critical first step
in bridging the gaps that can lead to misunderstandings.
''The
most important thing is to be aware that people out
there might not be coded and programmed the way you
are,'' said Isabel Valdes, a Palo Alto
marketing consultant who helps Fortune 500 corporations
reach out to Latino consumers.
''Once
you know that, when you have that moment of inspiration,
you begin to have what I call the acculturation process;
you see both sides.''
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