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HOMETOWN
TOUR: Felipe Cabral, left, president of the
Federation of Zacatecas Clubs of Southern
California, Efrain Jimenez, the group’s executive
projects director, and Sergio Araiza and Juan
Garcia, city officials in Fresnillo, stand outside
a Fresnillo church being renovated by the hometown
clubs.
TERESA
PUENTE |
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PHOTOS |
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| Monday, November 1, 2004
The Morning Read: A future back
home
A Cypress man helps create
jobs in Mexico so residents don't have to leave for the
U.S.
By TERESA PUENTE
Special to The Register
FRESNILLO, Zacatecas – Felipe Cabral gazes out on what used
to be the field where he played baseball in this central
Mexican town.
Back then, there were no paved roads, no green fields and
no future for young men like him. So he left home to seek that
future.
The 46-year-old Cypress resident returned home recently and
discovered a manicured park and recreation center in place of
the old lot. And paved streets and modern pedestrian bridges.
Fresnillo, where Cabral lived from age 11 to 18, has
changed. But some things have not. Young men and women from
his hometown still leave home to seek a better life in the
United States.
Cabral wants to stop that. He wants the next generation of
young men and women to have jobs at home.
The president of the Federation of Zacatecas Clubs of
Southern California has stumped for the last year to promote a
new program to create those jobs. On this recent day, Cabral,
in a blue blazer and khakis, and Fresnillo Mayor Rodolfo
Monreal, in blue jeans and cowboy boots, stride past pine
trees, iron lampposts and a stone fountain. They stop at the
recreation center, where violinists and an accordion player
belt out the March of Zacatecas.
Before an audience of 100, Cabral speaks passionately about
emigration. He says it can't be stopped with new laws,
additional security or radar systems at the border.
"What's going to stop it are sources of employment in the
communities," he says.
Cabral doesn't want others to have to leave behind loved
ones, to be left with a lifelong longing for home.
He doesn't want them to feel the sting of discrimination as
a new immigrant who doesn't speak English.
Clubs of Mexican immigrants in the United States have
invested millions of dollars in projects to build schools,
sewer systems and streets in their hometowns. They have
beautified and rebuilt their communities, but that's not
enough, they say.
Cabral's visit to Fresnillo follows a two-day meeting in
the state capital of Zacatecas to plan a binational conference
in December. That's when they will finish their plan to create
jobs in their hometowns.
They are launching the program with the help of the
Rockefeller Foundation, which gave the federation a two-year
grant of $200,000. With these funds, they have installed a
program coordinator in Zacatecas, and in April opened the
first office in Mexico by a U.S. federation of immigrants.
The two-story yellow building sits in the hills outside the
city among houses painted in pastels. Office director Irineo
Saldivar will shepherd the new program as well.
"I am the eyes and the ears of the migrants," Saldivar
says.
Cabral and federation leaders met with the new governor of
Zacatecas, Amalia Garcia Medina, who pledged to help. She
agreed to give priority to 20 stalled projects, allowing the
groups to build wells and bridges and pave streets.
"She is eager to work with us," Cabral said.
As Cabral tours a church in Fresnillo that the clubs are
refurbishing, he admires the neoclassic structure off
Fresnillo's main plaza. New marble floors and pews sparkle.
But the altar needs a new cross, the shrines to the saints
need glass cases, and the organ needs tuning.
A Chicago hometown club has funded most of the work. The
federation has bankrolled more than 2,000 building and
social-service projects in the last 10 years.
This trip is a symbolic homecoming for Cabral, who was born
in Valparaiso, a small town two hours south of Fresnillo.
There were eight children in the family. After their father
died, they moved to Fresnillo to be closer to
grandparents.
Cabral worked part-time in a pharmacy to help his family.
He also studied at a technical trade school. After graduation,
he applied for jobs at the phone and electric companies, but
was rejected.
"My diploma wasn't worth anything. It was about having
influence, and I didn't know anybody to give me a
recommendation," Cabral recalled.
Finding no jobs at home, he followed his sister to Orange
County.
He got a job in a factory and for five years glued glass
pieces on lamp fixtures. But Cabral wanted more. He was tired
of factory shifts that started in the dark. He wanted a career
where he could use his intellect and social skills.
He befriended a Los Angeles real estate broker, Mike
Mendez, who encouraged him to study for his real estate
license. Cabral crammed for the exams.
"I didn't really speak English, but I passed the exam
anyway," Cabral says.
Cabral worked for 10 years with Mendez and learned the
ropes. In 1992, he opened his own real estate agency in
Hawaiian Gardens. He works with his wife, Alma, and their two
teenage children, who answer phones.
It's a success story for a man who came to the United
States in 1977 with nothing, and became a U.S. citizen in
1996. Today, he helps other Latinos reach their dream of
owning a home.
In Valparaiso, Cabral raised funds to build a playground
and a school to train young baseball players.
Cabral's two-year term with the hometown federation is
unpaid, and lately he has had little time to give to his real
estate business. He is digging into his savings so he can
devote time to the federation.
By the end of theyear, Cabral will have visited Zacatecas
10 times. On this trip, he is asked what federation leaders
stand to gain personally from their efforts.
"No one thing," Cabral says. He only hopes that the new
projects will generate jobs and improve the quality of life
for people in Zacatecas.
Migrating to the United States should be a choice, not a
necessity, he says.
"They shouldn't have to leave their communities."
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