Activist Wins Far-Reaching Respect for Alcohol War

SAN FERNANDO — Xavier Flores grew up in the projects of La Colonia, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Oxnard.

The violence and substance abuse that infested his barrio motivated him at a young age to become politically active. At 13, he wrote letters to the local paper opposing police brutality in his neighborhood. At 19, he helped organize a drug- and alcohol-abuse prevention program for kids at the California Youth Authority.

“I was also very active in the Chicano social movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Flores, now 46 and sporting a goatee and long gray hair in a ponytail.

The activism has become his life’s work, gaining him and his organization admirers and detractors statewide.

Most recently, Pueblo y Salud, the nonprofit social service agency that he founded in 1992, spearheaded legislation that will put restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising in the cities of Los Angeles and San Fernando beginning Oct. 1.

The anti-alcohol campaign--a prime concern for Pueblo y Salud--has gained momentum in recent weeks with the release of a federal study showing a disproportionately high level of alcohol abuse among Latino men.

“We already knew what we were seeing and what the community was dealing with without having to rely on research,” said Flores, a Mexican American.

His mission to improve social conditions in the heavily Latino communities of the northeast San Fernando Valley can only be accomplished by reducing alcohol consumption in those mostly working-class areas, he said.

Since creating Pueblo y Salud, which is Spanish for community and health, Flores has led a variety of campaigns to restrict alcohol sales and advertising throughout the northeast Valley.

In the last seven years, for instance, the number of liquor licenses has been reduced from 75 to 53 in San Fernando and from 95 to 75 in Pacoima, largely due to pressure from Pueblo y Salud, according to area officials.

In addition, billboards and other outdoor alcohol advertisements have been reduced by 50% in the combined areas of Pacoima, Sylmar, San Fernando and Sun Valley, Flores said.

In 1993, Pueblo y Salud led the campaign that resulted in San Fernando’s adoption of a strict liquor-license law requiring that establishments serving alcohol be at least 600 feet away from each other and from any place children might gather.

The ordinance has had a substantial effect on liquor-selling businesses in the 2.5-square-mile city of 24,000.

Pueblo y Salud has “done a service in terms of controlling the amount of outlets in the city,” said San Fernando Planning Director Howard Miura. “Not to say that’s good or bad, but it’s under control.”

The group’s latest triumph was getting Los Angeles and San Fernando to approve ordinances that prohibit outdoor alcohol and tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of residential areas, schools, parks, playgrounds or anywhere children might gather.

Los Angeles’ law was adopted in September, and San Fernando’s is expected to receive final approval at the May 3 City Council meeting. Both ordinances would take effect Oct. 1.

“Pueblo y Salud is definitely the type of organization needed in San Fernando,” said Councilwoman Cindy Montanez, a native of the city. “They’re a very strong advocacy group, and I hope they continue to do what they’re doing.”

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The work of Flores’ organization also has gained it a statewide reputation. Officials at the California Hispanic Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, a Sacramento-based advocacy group, say Pueblo y Salud has accomplished what few small, nonprofit organizations have in a short time.

“What Xavier has done is remarkable,” said Jim Hernandez, executive director of the Hispanic Commission. “Here’s this tiny organization with little public funding and it has remarkable support from the community and politicians.”

This year, Pueblo y Salud received $250,000 from Los Angeles County, barely enough to pay rent for its small San Fernando office, modest salaries for the six-member staff and fund its aggressive lobbying efforts.

Those efforts include canvassing neighborhoods with anti-substance-abuse messages, targeting schools with presentations that illustrate the risks of excessive alcohol consumption in Latino communities, and pressuring politicians to restrict alcohol and tobacco advertising and sales.

The organization also conducts surveys and gathers national and local data on the effect of drugs and alcohol among Latino youths and adults.

Pueblo y Salud’s key to success is community involvement, said Flores, who has a bachelor’s degree in social science with an emphasis in Chicano studies from Cal State Northridge.

With the backing of as many as 200 residents, the organization has appeared at several San Fernando City Council meetings in its effort to get approval of the recent advertising ordinance.

Pueblo y Salud also lobbied the council earlier this month to revoke the liquor license of La Mexicana Market, a mom-and-pop grocery store in an area that was rezoned as residential in 1989. The store had been allowed to continue selling liquor in the neighborhood because it was there prior to the rezoning. But when the market closed for an extended period, the city approved reinstating its business license but revoked its liquor license, largely at the insistence of Pueblo y Salud.

“I don’t know any other organization in the area that is that involved in issues regarding alcohol availability,” said Al Jeffries, executive director of the Valley chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. “Xavier is a very dedicated man, and I have great admiration for him.”

Not everyone does, however. Some San Fernando officials say the strict liquor license laws have cost the city money.

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Joe Sandoval, president of the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce, estimates that the city has lost at least a dozen new businesses--mostly chain restaurants--since the liquor license law was enacted in 1993.

“For a city this small, that’s huge,” Sandoval said. “But here you have a group that’s able to amass people and come up with a very polished presentation. It works with councils because they see numbers.”

Hector Martinez, a family spokesman for the longtime owner of La Mexicana Market, said losing the liquor license forced the store to close recently. He wouldn’t reveal what percentage of the store’s revenues are derived from liquor sales, however.

“It’s a classic example of what can go wrong with such extreme measures,” said Martinez, the son-in-law of store owner Fernando Garcia. “Even if you eliminate every liquor store in San Fernando, the true alcoholic can literally go a couple of blocks down and get alcohol.”

Flores and his staff chuckle at such comments. He said the last thing a crime-infested, low-income Latino neighborhood needs is another liquor outlet.

“There’s no way in hell they’re going to convince me an alcohol license is needed in that community and that it’s not a detriment.”